That sound

h60

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Ok, I know it's not a Guild persay, but It feels, looks and sounds very close... Since I picked up my latest DeArmond Starfire I keep getting great comments on it's tone and looks. I've even got a few requests for gigs. the funny thing to me is it's still stock. I have an order in for a set of Dark Stars, and had intended t do a few other mods (ala 60's alembic) but now I'm thinking about leaving it the way it is (besides the Dark Stars). Anyway, I just wanted to post my love for these Guild/ DeArmond beauties. Big Warm Fat Round Love.
 

bassmyf

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h60 said:
Ok, I know it's not a Guild persay, but It feels, looks and sounds very close... Since I picked up my latest DeArmond Starfire I keep getting great comments on it's tone and looks. I've even got a few requests for gigs. the funny thing to me is it's still stock. I have an order in for a set of Dark Stars, and had intended t do a few other mods (ala 60's alembic) but now I'm thinking about leaving it the way it is (besides the Dark Stars). Anyway, I just wanted to post my love for these Guild/ DeArmond beauties. Big Warm Fat Round Love.

Gotta agree with ya h60. Just got mine a few weeks ago and I don`t have my long gone Guild anymore to do a side by side comparison, but with a new set of TI flats, it definetly favorably compares tonealy. Seems a lot heavier than I recall the Guild being though. I also plan on throwing a set of Dark Stars on one of them and leaving the other stock to do a side by side .Then of course, when I can find another suitable "real" Starfire, we`ll really check it out.
Still looking for a set of knobs if anyone has any leads.....
 

bassman10096

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Part of what you might be hearing could be the difference between the DA humbuckers and the Guild post-Bisonic humbuckers. IMHO, the stock DAs blow the doors off the Guild 'buckers. If you go on Fred Hammon's site, the clip comparing stock DA pickups with Dark Stars, the DAs don't sound bad at all - just much lower in output than the Dark Stars.

Also - I agree the DA Starfires are vastly under appreciated. I had one but let it go and wish I hadn't.
 

h60

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can I veer my own thread? Well let's see...

This DeArmond Starfire bass was bought with the intention of doing some Mods. As long as it's cool (and since barely anyone posts here), I'd like to show you the steps I'm taking to try and recreate the Guild Starfires Modded by Alembic back in the 60's.

Warning this my not be for the faint of heart. While it is not a vintage Guild, I will be cutting her open to install various electronics.

Here she is as she arrived at my house a few Months ago:
closeup.jpg
 

h60

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And Now... With Dark Stars Installed:

100_0986.jpg


Full Frontal: (also changed tuning pegs to ultra lites)

100_0979.jpg
 

h60

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In the works:

I have a D-TAR (Duncan Turner acoustic research) Eclipse dual buffer/ blender preamp that Rick Turner harnessed for me. It gives me the ability to use a trim pot in parallel with the pickup to vary the impedance load on each pickup, Master Volume, Active Blend, Passive tone for each channel and an active EQ or effect (any I choose). I got this board directly from D-Tar after having an email discussion with Mr. Turner about Casady's modded Guild. He explained the 60's circuit and then told me the modern equivilant was a discrete buffer operating at +/-9 V. Then he showed me this card. It fit the bill.
Truthfully, I love the sound i've got out of this bass already. I liked it with the DA buckers in it and I love the Dark Stars. I would be fine with it just like this, but I'm committed to my plan.
 

mellowgerman

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well, if you're ever back up in the buffalo area, i hope you'll stop in for a jam sesh and maybe bring your dearmond :wink:
 

h60

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ok, I'm waiting on a travel claim for a work trip to come back and once it does, I'll be ordering my final pieces. The question i pose to you all is this: Do I go full on alembic with variable low pass filters each pick up, or do i just install one for low pass filter and run separate passive tone knobs for each.
 

mellowgerman

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h60 said:
ok, I'm waiting on a travel claim for a work trip to come back and once it does, I'll be ordering my final pieces. The question i pose to you all is this: Do I go full on alembic with variable low pass filters each pick up, or do i just install one for low pass filter and run separate passive tone knobs for each.

I would say if you're goin in the alembic direction, might as well go all the way. but it's your bass (and money) so you must do as you please :wink:
 

fronobulax

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h60 said:
ok, I'm waiting on a travel claim for a work trip to come back and once it does, I'll be ordering my final pieces. The question i pose to you all is this: Do I go full on alembic with variable low pass filters each pick up, or do i just install one for low pass filter and run separate passive tone knobs for each.

I'd say you might as well go Full but remember that this is coming from someone who is too lazy to read the manual to reset all of the digital clocks at home and (on a bad day) prefers the Starfire to the JS because there are only two controls and that is sometimes one more adjustment than I can handle :D
 

h60

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Thanks for the input.

There are a few complications with it all right now. The Turner Circuit is a 18 V (+9/-9 bipolar) circuit, and the EQ's I intend to use can be wired for 9 or 18 volts (non bipolar). I could wire it all up to 2 batteries, but 1 would drain (alot) faster, which would mess with the whole thing. There are a few other options out there, but every time I get an Idea, I fall back on the fact that i love it the way it is. I'd hate to ruin the bass for experimentation, and also hate to waste money on more fancy electronics that I might not use or like.

Truthfully, I'm leaning more towards leaving the bass as it is now.
 

h60

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bassmyf said:
I would just leave it alone, and buy an Alembic to keep it company :)

$ man. If only my meager civil servant salery could afford such a thing.
Maybe an Alembic SF2 some day. I'm gonna wire up the turner circuit shortly and work out the EQ later.
 

hieronymous

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h60 said:
bassmyf said:
I would just leave it alone, and buy an Alembic to keep it company :)

$ man. If only my meager civil servant salery could afford such a thing.
Maybe an Alembic SF2 some day. I'm gonna wire up the turner circuit shortly and work out the EQ later.

The SF-2 is definitely an interesting and musical piece of gear. It is actually more flexible than Series electronics because A) you can run it stereo or mono, B) you can select low-, high-, or bandpass filters, and C) you can use it with any instrument!

Good luck with the mods, I personally think that if you like the way it sounds then maybe you should keep it that way, at least for now...
 

h60

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I was giving up to easy. I'm now waiting on just a few knobs and some pots, but here is my new plan:
One Bart EZQ variable LPF with variable "Q" and a Vol for each pickup plus a master Vol and a Noll Mixpot to blend both the filtered and unfilterd signals. should look like this by Monday (hopefully)

DAGHDHA.jpg
 

h60

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