Guild Starfire Bass II Flamed Maple

i've been using a short scale , free suspension , SG body bass and a long scale fender precision bass . the starfire is to change from the precision bass and fits perfectly in between the two other basses . the combibation with the ampeg VR4 is stunning . large beautyfully sustained harmonics , without going too freely all out ( like on my short scale ) and a warmer sound then the P bass . also a warmer and much more controlable sound than a Gretsch hollow body bass and less muffled than a hoffner . Besides playing bass i play guitar as well on a gibson ES335 on a vintage superlead 120 marshall on a marshall heritage cabinet . the starfire goes in pair with it like a glove . If u are a fingerpicker,and u like bass chords , this is your bass . As some other folks suggest, u should put some flatwounds on it and it's not very well suited for slapping . But, many options to make interesting sounds, even then .(two BS-1's in stead of one , makes a big difference ) Easy playing and reactive bass . pricey , but there is no price for a bass u can fall in love with , that will give u years of pleasure .

Habe einen Bass zwischen den Welten Akustik-Bass und E-Bass gesucht und gefunden. Bin sehr zufrieden mit diesem Halbakustik-Bass.
Der Sound ist prima - klar und differenziert, die Spielbarkeit ist sehr gut - der Hals ist sehr schmal und die Saitenabstände auch Richtung Steg sehr schmal. Die Verarbeitung ist hervorragend.
Ein Manko ist eine gewisse Kopflastigkeit, die der Retro-Korpusform geschuldet ist. Weiterhin lässt der Bass sich aufgrund der Lage und Höhe des Hals-Pickups nicht gut slappen.
Sonst aber prima ;-)

Bought this to be used in a semiacoustic set - tbh pretty much for the looks, one of my P-basses could probably deliver the sound I wanted in the set… Anyhow, totally satisfied with both sound and playability. Good versatility with the two pickups and tone knobs. After some small adjustments of trussrod and bridge, as well putting on a set of flats, the bass intonates perfectly and it has a comfortable medium low action with virtually no fret buzz. Plays great with both pick, fingerstyle and palm muted thumbplaying. Coming from a Stingray as my main bass I’ve had to tweak my finger technique a bit in order to avoid too much noise from the strings hitting the frets - not a big issue for me.

Also I found it suprisingly easy to adapt to the short scale, and after a few weeks I’m totally comfortable with 30.75” instead of the 34” I’m used to. I even found it a bit awkward to play my old long scale workhorses after a few weeks on the Starfire…

On the downside I find some quality and design issues:

1. One of the volume knobs is not 100% fixed, it’s possible to turn it too much setting the scale 1-10 ”off center”.

2. Tone pots don’t seem to be linear. 0-2 makes pretty much all the difference whereas not much happens between 2-10.

3. The nut is a tad bit off center. Barely visible but you can easily feel it on the E-string side of the neck.

4. The wooden bridgesaddles look beautiful, but I can imagine that hard pickplaying may force the string out of the saddle. I, not beeing a luthier, feel that the groove could have been a little bit deeper.

5. If this is a design or quality issue I don’t know - but the pickups and/or knobs seem to be wired in series in some way - with the switch in midposition (both pickups selected), turning one volume knob to zero mutes the instrument totally. Same goes for tone control - you can’t have max tone on one pickup and tone fullt turned off on the other one, it sounds as if tone is at zero on both knobs. Seems strange to me and it definately limits control of the overall tone.

All in all a BEAUTIFULLY looking and sounding instrument with great versatility and playability, that comes with a sturdy case and a shoulder strap that both seem to be of good quality. However I wish that quality control should have done a more thorough job. I’m not planning to send it back but will correct some of the flaws myself, and live with the rest.