lungimsam
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- Oct 1, 2011
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How long have you owned the Newark Street Starfire II Bass: 2 years
Year & specific model: 2017Newark Street Starfire II Bass.
Purchased new or used: barely used, in virtually new condition.
Price paid-$800 can you believe it!!!
Build quality - excellent.
Looks - love the transparent green finish
Bass - great fundamental never muddy
Mids - same. Lotsa punch and kick
Highs - as much as you could want
Sustain - fantastic
Playability/comfort - comfortable seated or standing. Lightweight. Neck is slim and short scale comfortable and best access imaginable to high frets.
Dependability - Stays and plays in tune great. Electronics work great and pots roll off/on uniformly and smoothly (both physically and sound-wise). Not noisy at all, for an unshielded bass.
Fingerstyle - comfortable with thumb on fingerboard or on silver pickup frames as thumb rests. They are fantastic for that. By design or accident? In just the right places.
Flatpick - Brings out a lot of lively kick in the mids. Crystal clarity.
Strum - can hear all notes of chords clearly and nicely with pick strums.
Slap/pop: Sounds great! Easy play. No issues. No bridge saddles ejected yet!
Condition - like New
Favorite Strings (one selection only): Dunlop medium scale stainless Flatwounds 40-100
Would you buy another if lost/sold: Indubitably
Overall Assessment: Outstanding.
Most Appreciated Characteristic: The tone. It seems to have a flat to mid pronounced response profile EQ to cut through mix extremely well with strong fundamental. Bisonic EQ profile is this way. Love the Bisonics!!! Stainless Flats or rounds the bass kicks nicely. Uniform tone all over neck. No dead spots. Nice flabby bass tone from neck pup-Jazz bass like tone on bridge pickup. No mud. Great clarity and articulation from both pickups.
Least Appreciated: Wish the bisonic pickups were connected to the silver frames so they don’t separate upon removal. Easily fixed with some Ultra gray Permatex gasket maker high torque 82194 adhesive though. I do this with all my Bisonics so they remove from the bass as one unit with the silver frame surround. This protects the ground weld on the frame too.
Favorite story/memory: Playing at church. It is so wonderful to hear the huge sound in the massive auditorium. Praise the Lord, this bass has worked out so great!
Modifications I have done to this bass (#1,2,3,6 I have done to most of my basses if they needed it).
Note that these mods are all reversable except for #5:
Year & specific model: 2017Newark Street Starfire II Bass.
Purchased new or used: barely used, in virtually new condition.
Price paid-$800 can you believe it!!!
Build quality - excellent.
Looks - love the transparent green finish
Bass - great fundamental never muddy
Mids - same. Lotsa punch and kick
Highs - as much as you could want
Sustain - fantastic
Playability/comfort - comfortable seated or standing. Lightweight. Neck is slim and short scale comfortable and best access imaginable to high frets.
Dependability - Stays and plays in tune great. Electronics work great and pots roll off/on uniformly and smoothly (both physically and sound-wise). Not noisy at all, for an unshielded bass.
Fingerstyle - comfortable with thumb on fingerboard or on silver pickup frames as thumb rests. They are fantastic for that. By design or accident? In just the right places.
Flatpick - Brings out a lot of lively kick in the mids. Crystal clarity.
Strum - can hear all notes of chords clearly and nicely with pick strums.
Slap/pop: Sounds great! Easy play. No issues. No bridge saddles ejected yet!
Condition - like New
Favorite Strings (one selection only): Dunlop medium scale stainless Flatwounds 40-100
Would you buy another if lost/sold: Indubitably
Overall Assessment: Outstanding.
Most Appreciated Characteristic: The tone. It seems to have a flat to mid pronounced response profile EQ to cut through mix extremely well with strong fundamental. Bisonic EQ profile is this way. Love the Bisonics!!! Stainless Flats or rounds the bass kicks nicely. Uniform tone all over neck. No dead spots. Nice flabby bass tone from neck pup-Jazz bass like tone on bridge pickup. No mud. Great clarity and articulation from both pickups.
Least Appreciated: Wish the bisonic pickups were connected to the silver frames so they don’t separate upon removal. Easily fixed with some Ultra gray Permatex gasket maker high torque 82194 adhesive though. I do this with all my Bisonics so they remove from the bass as one unit with the silver frame surround. This protects the ground weld on the frame too.
Favorite story/memory: Playing at church. It is so wonderful to hear the huge sound in the massive auditorium. Praise the Lord, this bass has worked out so great!
Modifications I have done to this bass (#1,2,3,6 I have done to most of my basses if they needed it).
Note that these mods are all reversable except for #5:
- Strap Buttons - Installed Dunlop Dual Design Straploks -nickel.
- I removed the stock nut and filed one of my old Starfire nuts to receive a Zero Glide .058” zero fret.
- Installed Hipshot Ultralight Tuners Mini Clovers - shiny nickel -218g vs. 352g Grovers ( 18mm diameter bushings).
- Replaced orange toggle switch tip with a nickel switch tip.
- Filed wooden saddle E and A string slots at steeper angle to help get better break angle for the strings. I did this and also lowered the tail end of the bridge for a more severe break angle. I was having a problem with the an and e string notes staying in tune below the fifth fret. I thought it may be because the a and e strings had shallow saddle break angle and the string take off point from the saddles was not defined enough and the strings were just shallowly laying over the saddles and were wandering. It worked! Notes play in tune now. D and G strings were always fine so I didn’t file them more.
- Lightly Sanded neck with a Scotch-Brite green pad to make it slicker.
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