Starfire Bass Sighting!

[bassmanpatsfan18]

Hey guys,

So you've probably heard of the bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen. He's played with Beck, Nine Inch Nails and M83 and is now producing a ton of great records. Anyway, he has his own forum over on talkbass.com and he just mentioned in a post that he wrapped up the production of Neon Trees' new album "Picture Show" not too long ago. I stumbled across this video of them performing a new song form that album on the Ellen show and lo and behold, the bassist is playing a Starfire! It looks to be a mid-late 60's bass with one Mickey Mouse pickup. I wonder if he bought the one that was on sale on TalkBass several months ago...Justin has a Starfire or two, so maybe he recommended them to this guy.

Here's the clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELiwLhploxo

 

[hansmoust]

It looks to be a mid-late 60's bass with one Mickey Mouse pickup.

Hello bassmanpatsfan18,

That's the small Hagstrom pickup Guild used during a short period; the Mickey Mouse pickup was even smaller!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore.nl

 

[bassmanpatsfan18]

It looks to be a mid-late 60's bass with one Mickey Mouse pickup.

Hello bassmanpatsfan18,

That's the small Hagstrom pickup Guild used during a short period; the Mickey Mouse pickup was even smaller!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore.nl

Cool, thanks for the clarification, Hans!

 

[idealassets]

This song has a hard driving beat to it. I'm surprised that the vintage Guild bass was his choice for this song, since I relate this bass to music with a more melodic side to it.

 

[fronobulax]

JMJ has posted here.

He sold a reissue Starfire with Dark Stars on eBay that may have set some kind of record for the number of times a listing was recycled as part of a fraud. (To be clear, it was not JMJ who perpetrated the fraud but scam artists who copied his listing).

Until very recently I did not make a distinction between the Mickey Mouse and the small Hagstrom pickups so anyone who got it wrong can blame me and search for my mea culpa posts.

I didn't see any clash in style between the clip and a vintage Starfire bass but that probably has something to do with Jack Casady's Starfire driving the train. Regardless of sound, I thought the vintage cherry bass was consistent with the visual image of Neon Trees. Of course, I will admit choosing to play the Starfire at least once for no other reason than it was red :wink: