My old '67 rescue/restoration Starfire has returned to me. Back in 2014 I found this one on guitar center's online used listings for very cheap. It had a horrendous Leo Quan "BadAss" bridge mounted crookedly, Bartolini pickups (which now live in my Hagstrom Swede bass), a hodgepodge of non-functioning electronics, and was in desperate need of a set-up. My buddy Andrew and I split the cost and brought it back to life with parts from both of our stashes. We put a narrow-spaced Hipshot bridge on it, a vintage Bisonic, a Hammon Dark Star, and basic passive electronics (volume, tone, pickup selector). When both Andrew and I moved to different regions of the country, the bass went with him. He has since acquired another vintage Starfire (a '68 I believe, in natural mahogany) which his focus has shifted to. The '68 got the pickups we had originally put in this '67 restoration. So having sat in it's case for a long time, this one has now come back into my stable and received a full utilitarian make-over...
The result, though still in rough cosmetic shape, is a super comfortable and great-sounding player-grade Frankenstein bass.
It now sports a set of Novak BSX custom humbuckers (each consists of two Bisonic coils in a standard humbucker-size housing) and an Alembic filter preamp. Each pickup has it's own 4-position rotary switch, allowing me to select North coil, South coil, both in series, or both in parallel. So lots of tone options on tap! Still awaiting delivery of a new set of knobs, so currently they're a mismatched set from the parts drawer. Sound clips coming eventually, but for now... behold!!