What's he talking about?

Not sure whether this belongs in eBay or in Misc. or somewhere else, so it ends up here.

In this eBay listing for a nice looking '67 SF I bass, a person asks for the serial number of the SF I and mentions in passing that he has a "1971 SF85MKII 32inch Medium scale". Does anyone know what he might be talking about?

As far as I know in the early '70's if it was a Guild bass, it was a Starfire, M-85 (aka Bluesbird) or a JS (often incorrectly called a JetStar which is a whole different beast). As far as I know Guild did not make a medium scale bass during this time either. Guild did tend to use Roman numerals I and II to distinguish between one and two pickup models. My best guess is he has some kind of Frankenstein. Maybe someone put a Starfire truss rod cover (since those did have the name) on a M-85 II? Scale length could just be a measurement error since the string for the expected 30.5" scale would be about 32" long. Ideas?

I was wondering about the first questioner, who says that the switch is a bass boost. I have always heard them referred to as the "suck switch" and thought that it cut the bass frequencies, like an old Gibson EB-2.

That bass doesn't have any wear around the finger/thumb rests like ours, huh?

hieronymous said:

I was wondering about the first questioner, who says that the switch is a bass boost. I have always heard them referred to as the "suck switch" and thought that it cut the bass frequencies, like an old Gibson EB-2.

That bass doesn't have any wear around the finger/thumb rests like ours, huh?

Click to expand...

First comment/question listed was from me

I call the switch a "bass boost" because that is what it was advertised as being on my '71 JS II and in product literature about the Starfire from the late '60's. So bass boost seems to be the official description.

On my JS II the switch is actually a treble cut in an electrical sense. It is a filter that blocks the treble frequencies. From a sonic standpoint, filtering out the treble makes it sound like it has more bass, compared to the other position.

If "normal" is with the switch towards the top while playing the JS, then flipping the switch sounds like I cut the bass and boost the treble. However, if "normal" is the down position then flipping the switch sounds like I have boosted the bass. Bottom line is whether you are cutting or boosting something depends upon what you are calling "normal".

The first person I heard call it a "suck switch" explained they did so because "it made the tone suck" or "it sucked out all of the tone".

I made the comment because a lot of people try and claim the switch is a coil tap which is what a similar switch on the corresponding guitars did.

It is interesting that there appears to be minimal wear on the rests. I wonder if that was due to playing technique or because it just didn't get played much?