This is very, very cool – a 1974 Guild Starfire Bass II blonde in great original condition.
This instrument is in great condition with just a little natural lacquer checking. As is the case for many Guild instruments of the early 1970’s, the neck is relatively thin and very comfortable. Appropriate for the time, it is strung with flat wound strings. It plays very well and sounds great, though you’re not likely to be doing a lot of slapping and popping with this style of instrument. The tone is full, smooth, fat, and spreadably thick.
The Guild Starfire Bass II was popular with a number of high-profile bass players in the late 1960’s, notably Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane and Phil Lesh of the Greatful Dead. Interestingly, Alembic got into the business of building basses after customizing Casady’s and Lesh’s Guild instruments.
You’ve probably heard a Guild Starfire Bass II or a Guild bass pickup, if you have heard any of the earlier Allman Brothers recordings with Berry Oakley. Eventually, Oakley moved the pickups from the Guild to a Fender bass.
Like the Starfire IV guitar, which this structurally resembles (the Starfire II guitars don’t have the center block) the Starfire II Bass was available in either maple or mahogany laminate bodies and a 3-piece mahogany/maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard. The center block is mahogany with a maple layer at the back.
The hardware is original, with tulip-buttoned open gear tuners and a top-mount bridge using rosewood saddles. Two Guild humbucking pickups are wired in Guild’s master volume configuration, so there are independent volume and tone controls, a pickup selector, and a master volume. Plus, the Starfire Bass is wired with a mini-toggle tone switch. Earlier Guild Starfire basses used large single-coil pickups and bridges from Hagstrom, but by the time this instrument was built Guild had introduced their own humbuckers.
Serial Number: 100906, built during the later part of 1974 at the Guild plant in Westerly, Rhode Island.
Pricing: $3,199.99 Canadian with non-original, rectangular handbuilt hardshell case.
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