Newbie with anodd story....

Aloha folks,
New to this forum but a regular at RickResource. I have a story with an odd, serandipitous twist.
Last summer, I got the bee in my bonnet for a Starfire Bass. After loosing many an auction, my
fevered search lead me to a '96 Maple in Raliegh NC. After convincing the seller that shipping to
my locale(at my cost of course) would be a win-win for the both of us; the bass arrived.
It certainly is the "wherehaveyoubeenallmylife?!?" bass.
Now here is where the strange karma kicks in. As I travel to and from Seattle every month for
business and music, I thought that I should get another Starfire to keep there rather than set what
the airlines would do to my treasure. If you saw the splinters that Continental made of my White Falcon,
you would understand.
Any way, so again, I loose many an auction. Yet this time, my search lead me to a dealer in Seattle!
Not only did he have a 96, and not only was it Maple, but it also had Dark Stars as well.
So, Come to Papa says I!
But the strangest thing is, when I checked the serial numbers, the two basses turned out to be one number apart
from each other.....
Needless to say, I can not break them up, so the search begins again for the Starfire to be my "Mainland" bass....
I would be happy to post a pic of the twins, but I think I would need some direction on how to upload....
Look forward to many more posts

Also- I am not the greatest speller, so plis axcuse anee tipogratical erris.....

Hey, I fiddurd it out....

wow. nice ones! not to mention a groovalicious story. now you need a vintage one :wink:

Nice Basses!!

I have an old one, but a friend has a '90's blond maple SF II bass and it is absolutely a wonderful instrument.

Congrats! What kind of strings are you using? I use Thomastik Jazz 32 flats. You ought to check 'em out.
Low tension, good sound.

And welcome aboard.

So they were like twins, separated at birth! :lol: Very beautiful basses! Thanks for posting the pics and welcome.

Twins. Separated at birth. Do they play the same or do we have more data for the "nature vs. nurtire debate"? That picture definitely qualifies as guitar p0rn.

Welcome. Glad to have you here.

As noted here Ihad a little project where I was tracking serial numbers. I was amused to find another bass within 7 or so of mine. I was amused to find that the green SF IIs had very close serial numbers and I was surprised when an eBay bass turned up about a year later at a dealer. Alas, I was not worried about prices when collecting my data.

welcome to ltg.
but I must remind you of the board rules:
by no means it is allowed to own twin starfirebasses.
by no means it is allowed to tease innocent board members with such pronographic pictures.



you have to send one of them immediatle to me. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Hi COTF,

Great story! Synchronicity at work, eh? Beautiful basses both.
Thanks for sharing and welcome to LTG.

jp :wink:

Thanks all for the warm welcome. Yes it is syncronicity at work.
I was quite stunned. It was odd. I lost an auction on Christmas eve.
So I started searching and the one in Seattle of all places turnes up.
Not only that, but the dealer answered his phone on Christmas day....

As for strings, the TI's are wonderfully rich and warm, but for my taste,
I went for something brighter. I use D'Addario Chromes.I'm not fully
settled on them yet, so I'm open to try others. Might try Pyramids; any one
here know if the short scale set will fit? (I am a stickler for no windings on the string post!)
That, and I can not use strings with out silk ends....with one exception: The old Maxima Rickenbacker strings.

On the subject of a vintage Starfire. One will come, but for now, I'm looking for another re-ish to keep in Seattle.
A DeArmond might fit the bill as well....

Cheers,
chefo

on the shortscale pyramids the silk will run over the nut a little, but you can take a razor and cut some of it off (that's what jack and phil used to do)

Well, if they did it, it must be OK! LOL!
I'll give the Pyramids a go then...
Thanks

Luck is on your side and im glad this wonderful thing happened to you. I was a day late talking to cascade guitars i think it was on your beautiful maple reissue and i got to admit i was jealous as hell i missed it until i saw your story and i must say that is how fate wanted it and man those are some special guilds for you and you only for now. Awesome story, play em well, enjoy.....ahhhh i'm still a little jealous, as they are SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! Take good care of your princesses.. Bear

chefothefuture said:

Well, if they did it, it must be OK! LOL!
I'll give the Pyramids a go then...
Thanks

Click to expand...

I've got Pyramids on my '65 Hofner Club which is a 30" scale. The Starfire is 30.75" if I'm not mistaken. They should be just fine.

jp said:

chefothefuture said:

Well, if they did it, it must be OK! LOL!
I'll give the Pyramids a go then...
Thanks

Click to expand...

I've got Pyramids on my '65 Hofner Club which is a 30" scale. The Starfire is 30.75" if I'm not mistaken. They should be just fine.

Click to expand...

good point jp. i haven't personally had them on my starfire, but i read from an interview (can't remember which one) that this is what phil and jack would do when they put pyramids on their starfires. wow, the last part of that sentence sounded pretty epic, eh?
sorry if i was mistaken. maybe the interview was about pyramids on alembics?
regardless, if they fit; then groovy! if not; then do the jack and phil thing

jp said:

The Starfire is 30.75" if I'm not mistaken. They should be just fine.

Click to expand...

Depends upon what you measure. I can't recall that I've seen anything other than 30.5" in official Guild literature. I've been told that the correct way to measure scale length is to measure from the nut to the 12th fret and multiply by two. That gives me 30.5 on my basses but even with that there are judgement calls since both the nut and the fret have some width to them. I've seen nut to bridge get as high as 31 depending upon the saddles and some people try and measure from the string ball end to the nut or the winding post.

That is why I saved the packing from my string sets - so I would know what works for me. However that also proves that the last time I changed strings was 1978.

fronobulax said:

However that also proves that the last time I changed strings was 1978.

Click to expand...

as long as they're flats, i say the older the better :lol:

smokin-bear said:

Luck is on your side and im glad this wonderful thing happened to you. I was a day late talking to cascade guitars i think it was on your beautiful maple reissue and i got to admit i was jealous as hell i missed it until i saw your story and i must say that is how fate wanted it and man those are some special guilds for you and you only for now. Awesome story, play em well, enjoy.....ahhhh i'm still a little jealous, as they are SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! Take good care of your princesses.. Bear

Click to expand...

Thanks for the well wishes. Matt did tell me that there were several people who had called while we were completing the deal.
It is fate to be sure. Yet, GAS is in full swing as I still am after a bass to have in Seattle... LOL!
There was a nice Dearmond on the bay, but it was black... made me pause a bit too long so elswhere it went.
Ahh, maybe I'll leave my '69 Rick there...

Now to try some Pyramids.....

toodles,
Chefo

fronobulax said:

jp said:

The Starfire is 30.75" if I'm not mistaken. They should be just fine.

Click to expand...

Depends upon what you measure. I can't recall that I've seen anything other than 30.5" in official Guild literature. I've been told that the correct way to measure scale length is to measure from the nut to the 12th fret and multiply by two. That gives me 30.5 on my basses but even with that there are judgement calls since both the nut and the fret have some width to them. I've seen nut to bridge get as high as 31 depending upon the saddles and some people try and measure from the string ball end to the nut or the winding post.

That is why I saved the packing from my string sets - so I would know what works for me. However that also proves that the last time I changed strings was 1978.

Click to expand...

You're probably right frono. I'm going strictly from memory. BTW, (veer warning ) speaking of never changing bass strings, have you guys ever tried the "boiling strings" trick?

jp said:

BTW, (veer warning ) speaking of never changing bass strings, have you guys ever tried the "boiling strings" trick?

Click to expand...

Heard about it. May have tried it once in the 70's but don't recall that it worked.

mellowgerman said:

good point jp. i haven't personally had them on my starfire, but i read from an interview (can't remember which one) that this is what phil and jack would do when they put pyramids on their starfires. wow, the last part of that sentence sounded pretty epic, eh?
sorry if i was mistaken. maybe the interview was about pyramids on alembics?
regardless, if they fit; then groovy! if not; then do the jack and phil thing

Click to expand...

The story that I have seen is that they used Pyramids on their Alembicized Guilds, but that Pyramid strings have since changed, so that now they are much higher tension. Apparently TI Jazz Flats are supposed to be close to the original Pyramids. I find TIs to be too floppy for my taste, so I have LaBella flats on my Starfire, and they work great.

Oh, and to the original poster, amazing story! Congrats!