Noisless Starfire pickup made?

lungimsam

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Mine is noisy. Is there an humbucker version?
I have split-coiled, humbuckered my other basses with fantastic results. Was hoping to do same with my Starfire.
 

fronobulax

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Ummm... What do you mean? The "bisonic" versions are not humbuckers. Rolling off the volume, just a bit, helps with hum in my case. If my memory is correct you could get a pair of DarkStars and install them in a way that reduced hum. Of course finding such a pair will be difficult and expensive. The 70's Starfires had Guild humbuckers. Folks would sometimes swap them for Bisonics although lots of folks here would roll their eyes and ask why? (I'm not a fan of those humbuckers in my JS II and don't expect to like them any more if they were in a Starfire but that's just my opinion.) Curtis Novak might be willing and able to make something for you but prices start at $275 a pickup.

Just in case your noise is not just hum, cleaning and/or replacing the pots has worked for some folks. I seem to recall several people thinking the Newark Street pots left the factory noisy.
 
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Default

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You could swap the leads on one of the pickups in a 2 pup SF bass. That would make it humbucking in the middle position. Outside of that, I got nuttin.
 

mavuser

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Guild bass humbucker or Dearmond bass humbucker would be the obvious choices, but many would prefer the stock pickup you have, over all those.

u might be "picking up" some unwanted frequencies. shut the wifi off on your phone and home computer, see if that makes a difference.

u can also one way or another go for a P-bass pickup, in the bridge position of a SF. check this out-

http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/sh...AKA-sacrilege!)&highlight=starfire+bass+novak

good luck!
 

Happy Face

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Is your concern from live or studio work? Live is always tough (neon beer signs etc) for any single coil, but I happily go to war with a Rick and Guild.

In a studio, it should not be a problem unless there is an issue with your bass? I wonder if there is a simpler solution than a pickup swap.
 

fronobulax

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In a previous location, one or both of the Starfires would sometimes "pick up" the light dimmer in the room, the microwave in the kitchen, the wireless phone in the kitchen, a cell phone within five feet, or so, and - much to my surprise - the washing machine in the basement on the other side of the house. I attribute the latter to an embedded microprocessor that was not as well shielded as it should have been.

All my hum problems, so far, became manageable if I backed the volume off from max.

Curtis Novak does make a split coil "hum cancelled" PU for a Telecaster Bass. I suspect for enough money he could do something similar, based on his BS-DS.

I do not recall any of the same hum problems with a BS-DS in my solid body Betts Bass but that could be because I almost never have the PU at max volume.
 
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mellowgerman

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**Semi-long-winded and embellished trip down memory lane alert**
I have been fortunate enough to own a handful of vintage Guilds with Bisonics and several other basses with pickups inspired by the original Hagstrom design. I first joined the junior rank of Bisonictitions though about ten years ago... I had an Ibanez ASB-140 bass, which was a semi-hollow, single pickup bass and the closest thing to a Starfire I could afford at the time. I was not the biggest fan of the somewhat sterile sounding stock humbucker, so, in accordance with my Casady/Airplane obsession, I had a Hammon Dark Star installed in it. Right off the bat I was slightly disappointed since it did not sound exactly like the bass on Crown of Creation. However, over time, I realized how sensitive the pickup was to the slightest changes, i.e. right-hand position, type of strings, volume/tone controls, etc. My disappointment quickly morphed into excitement and a craving for further exploration into the possibilities of these pickups. All of a sudden I found myself stumbling onto new sounds that were no doubt inspired by and reminiscent of Casady and his Starfire, but chiefly characterized by my own hands and limited amplification options. The pickup taught me quite a bit about how sloppy some of my technique was and enabled me to spear-head the improvement efforts of my bassing. All was relatively well and good for some time. Eventually though, late in the evenings, when all was quiet and the lights were dim, I started noticing my bass and I were not alone. Lurking over my shoulder and breathing down the back of my neck was the ever-loudening ghost of 60-cycle hum and his clattering chains of electro-magnetic interference. Before I knew it, I could no longer play along to my favorite Airplane records without his haunting presence interrupting and sabotaging me at every pluck of the string. I started researching on methods of ousting this monster from my life. I could not afford another Dark Star and the professional installation thereof to bring down the mighty cleansing hammer of a hum-cancelling pair, so I turned to other, more accessible means... namely the giant vat of snake-oil that is the Electro Harmonix "hum-debugger". I was hopeful; could this be the answer? The secret of sonic exorcism I had been looking for? No. After less than an hour of a misled sense of victory, I started to notice that the demon was now simply toying with my heart... he did so by shifting his evil from the space between my notes to the notes themselves! I noticed a strange glitchy, almost digital-sounding, unstable warbly quality to my notes. Perhaps the smoke and mirrors of the Hum-debugger creates enough of an illusion for an overdriven guitar with single coils, but when it came to the lush tones produced by the Bisonic, it did more harm than good. At this point, I simply learned to accept the fact that, if I wanted to wield the sword of a solo('d) Bisonic, the 60-cycle ghost would never leave.
HOWEVER, this is not a sad tale of defeat... as with anything in life, we must accept the good with the bad. Sure you can add another Bisonic to make a hum-cancelling pair, but it when both pickups are engaged, your bass will sound different than it does with a solo('d) Bisonic. Also, there is the possibility of a "dummy coil" (in a sense, a separate, incomplete pickup which also creates the desired hum-cancelling without creating its own signal), but even this will affect the tone of your Bisonic to a certain degree, since it is another complete coil and a whole lot of wire for your signal to travel through.
I think the best solution to this problem, if you truly love the tone of your bass the way it is (aside from the hum) is to just accept its flaws as they are vastly overshadowed by the lush greatness of the Bisonic pickup. That said, it will help to some extent to make sure the pickup cavity is properly shielded with shielding paint or copper shielding tape. This will get rid of some noise, though the 60-cycle single coil hum will remain.
 
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Happy Face

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Great "travelogue" Mellow one. Very Zen there at the end.

Some things must be tolerated.
 

Minnesota Flats

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"I think the best solution to this problem, if you truly love the tone of your bass the way it is (aside from the hum) is to just accept its flaws as they are vastly overshadowed by the lush greatness of the Bisonic pickup."

Here, here!
 

Nuuska

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Hi

Just a little thought that crossed my mind.

A single coil pickup is likely to pick up surrounding radio noise - like 50/60 Hz coming from amps etc.
A humbucking coil can be introduced - it provides same amount of that noise in opposite polarity - thus cancelling it.
Drawback is, that the coil has about identical impedance - thus loading the pickup and worsening the sound.

A possible solution :

Make that humbucking coil i.e. four to ten times the impedance of the pickup - thus no more loading and sound degrading.
Since the "out-of phase-hum" will now be much higher than that from pickup, it has to be lowered.
For that series resistors of quite high value will be used - thus adding the total impedance of parallel humbucking circuit even higher.
As end result the hum will be gone and original sound is still there.

So basically similar system as in some "single-coil humbuckers" - but with separate - larger coil with about 10dB more hum output + 10 dB series pad.

If I was to do this - I would make the coil round to get more area and therefore more voltage and so more series resistance to drop that - all this resulting in higher parallel impedance with the pickup.

Idea is free - just remember me introducing it here.

If this is an old idea - please inform.
 

Happy Face

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So, I wish I understood what you are suggesting.

People ask me how I'll keep myself occupied when I finally retire. Among other things, understanding the whole and complete tube amp topology is one, and as a secret codicil to the Faber College constitution , maybe I can offer informed opinion on pickups as well.

Until then, thanks for your suggestion!

But for the moment.... loud hum from the Bud sign? Turn it off or have your band crank up the volume! Old Time Rock!
 
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