67 Starfire bass with pickguard?

[SFIV1967]

Has a bound headstock?

No. Just the normal shrunk celluloid veneer.

There's no finger rest holes visible, possibly adding to the possible originalilty of the guard to the bass.

The two pickup version didn't have finger rests...

Ralf

 

[fronobulax]

Has a bound headstock?

Probably not. Headstock shrinkage. Description of the bass below confirmed it was the veneer shrinking.

There's no finger rest holes visible, possibly adding to the possible originalilty of the guard to the bass.

Never say never but I have yet to see a Starfire II that left the factory as a Starfire II with thumb or finger rests.

I might suggest the absence of the holes suggests it was not a SF I to SF II conversion.

2 single coils wound opposite hum cancel cancel hum wired in series.

Maybe, but they use the "Anti-Hum" description for a single pickup bass in the 65-66 catalog at https://www.gad.net/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Guild-1965-1966-Catalog.pdf

That catalog has two two basses with the Bisonic. Both are called "Anti-Hum". "functioning on the humbucking principal" occurs in both descriptions. "Equipped with Guild's Anti-Hum Pick-Up adapted especially for bass" occurs in one description. That last statement seems to be less than truthful if it is really about the Hagstrom pickup that Guild purchased.

There are numerous examples where the catalog description of a Guild bass, the picture in the catalog and the actual specs of an instrument made during the period the catalog was thought to apply are in disagreement.

I think it is safe to say that if a humbucking pickup is a two coil pickup with the coils wired out of phase then the Bisonic is not a humbucking pickup.

We know some, but not all, Bisonics had two magnets so it is possibly that is the source of the description. "Anti-Hum". It is highly unlikely, IMO, that the use of "Anti-Hum" in the catalog correlates with an instrument from the time of the catalog having two magnets, instead of one.

"adapted for bass" opens up the possibility that the description actually applied to one of the early non-Bisonic pickups and no one bothered to change the catalog copy when they standardized on the Bisonic.

But in 2021 all three of my basses with Bisonic style pickups pick up more hum than any of my humbucker equipped basses so whatever "Anti-Hum" means it is not especially effective.

 

[Guildedagain]

Probably just sales jargon. The orig "antihums" on the Starfire guitars were humbuckers, but the name might have floated over to the Bisonics, which are single coils, so no way to actually buck hum other than in the 2 pickup scenario with two coils wound opposite each other in the middle position. By itself it wouldn't buck hum and it's rather crazy to make the claim if you don't have the electronics to back it up.

Even stranger is the Bisonic claim to fame is the very wide frequency range of a single coil pickup, in fact one of the widest of any bass pickup tested, which is why it is so well liked. But back then the subtlety was lost on a guitar buying public who wanted quieter guitars. The noise could just be too much, nevermind the radios coming through and microphonic feedback.

As pretty as Guild's vintage catalogs are, the spec info is very generic and often out of sync with current models or just wrong.

I'd be interesting to know how in house the sales brochures were?