Burgundy Starfire

RVBASS

RVBASS

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I found this nice burgundy over flamed maple 1971 Starfire bass, it’s in great shape. It’s a nice bass and nice complement to my 1967 mahogany single neck pickup Starfire. I’m going to replace the humbucker with Novak Bisonics. Once JTEX starts shipping to the U.S. again I’ll add Distiller filters too.

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RVBASS said:
I found this nice burgundy over flamed maple 1971 Starfire bass, it’s in great shape. It’s a nice bass and nice complement to my 1967 mahogany single neck pickup Starfire. I’m going to replace the humbucker with Novak Bisonics. Once JTEX starts shipping to the U.S. again I’ll add Distiller filters too.
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I'll, of course, defer to the Mellow One, but perhaps it is good if you have time to first try it without those modern filter gizmos??
 
Thanks for the suggestion, Happy Face. I will certainly do that, but I will install the Novak Bisonic pickups (no coil tap). I prefer the Bisonic sound over the humbucker sound.
 
RVBASS said:
I prefer the Bisonic sound over the humbucker sound.
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You and a whole lot of us.

That said there is one experiment that you could do before making mods "for science".

I have compared several basses to try and figure out what features contribute to the tone I like. Vintage, modern and Novak Bisonics, in solid and hollow bodies and in the neck or "sweet" spot position. One of my guesses is that there is "something" added by a hollow body that is not there with a solid. So it would fill some gaps if you could compare the humbuckers in a Starfire to the same pickups in a JS II (or later M-85-II). For science.
 
fronobulax said:
You and a whole lot of us.

That said there is one experiment that you could do before making mods "for science".

I have compared several basses to try and figure out what features contribute to the tone I like. Vintage, modern and Novak Bisonics, in solid and hollow bodies and in the neck or "sweet" spot position. One of my guesses is that there is "something" added by a hollow body that is not there with a solid. So it would fill some gaps if you could compare the humbuckers in a Starfire to the same pickups in a JS II (or later M-85-II). For science.
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I would be happy to do that, but I don’t own a JS II or M-85-II.
 
congrats and that is one beautiful maple burst beast! Will just add on my M-85-2 (2014 GSR Hollow) the Novaks with the taps were installed in both N and B, and while I agree with you if I did it again the taps are not necassary, but I woild use Novak's Bisonic in the neck and his Dark Star in the bridge. Not to say my bass will sound the same as your SF, as I know there are noticably different, however that is still definitely my advice. I have owned (2) 1967 SF-2 basses w original Bisonics, and a number of other vinttage Starfires/Bisonics, and the Novak neck Bisonic woth Novak bridge Dark Star, in my experience is the way to fly. I actually sold all of those Hoboken SF's and kept the NH M-85-2 w the Novaks
 
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My Novak is in a single PU custom built solid body. The the coil tap is what keeps that bass at the front of the line. My approach to tone is set and forget so that gives me another set of choices. If I had two PUs and was willing to fiddle with mixing them then I'd try mav's suggestion with two different PUs and no coil taps but only if money were an issue.
 
Thanks for the advice Mav and Frono. I already have one Novak Bisonic vintage wind with no coil tap for the bridge on the way. Maybe I will try one with a coil tap for the neck.
 
RV, you likely already know this, but for the sake of the convo here - The nice thing about bridge pickup vs neck pickup in the case of Bisonics, is really just to signify that one is reverse wound reverse polarity, relative to the other, for hum-canceling operation. Which is to say you can put a "bridge" Novak in the neck position and a "neck" Novak in the bridge position and it will not sound different than the opposite arrangement.

Caveat being that vintage-spec Guild Starfire, M85, and JS basses have the same pole spread/spacing in their neck and bridge position pickups. Obviously basses with other specs may require wider spacing for the bridge, then you wouldn't want to swap them around, since the string-to-pole alignment would then be off.

But anyway, just mentioning since you already have a "bridge" Novak coming with the vintage winding, you can order a "neck" pickup with the tap, but then swap them around if you want the tap in the bridge position. It will work perfectly either way.
 
Thanks for that clarification, mellowgerman. I will look into a neck vintage wind with coil tap and put that one in the bridge and the other in the neck and see how they sound, should be nice!
 
Still waiting for the Novak neck Bisonic, should arrive next week I think. Regardless, I played this bass on a gig today and was pleasantly surprised that the guild humbuckers that are currently in it sounded pretty good. I’m still going to put the Novak Bisonics in it though.
 
My Green Starfire is maple/hog and it is the perfect balance of crisp brightness and full bodied warmth. Same for my Gibson maple/hog bass.
 
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