EssentialTension

[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1441441575' post='2858864'] [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NS7Gkv4NNA"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NS7Gkv4NNA[/url] [/quote] Ah, yes, Monty Python, The Beatles of comedy.

I recommend the Terem Quartet ... [media]http://youtu.be/msedLtGEgrk[/media]

I forgot to mention that ... 7 The nut may need some attention or even replacing if it's cut very badly. Mine was fine. 8 High frets may need filing down. Again mine were fine.

And ... [url="http://bassvi.org/index.php"]http://bassvi.org/index.php[/url]

[quote name='jazzyvee' timestamp='1441320409' post='2858002'] I have a bass that I use exclusively for reggae and the round wound strings on it are around a year and a half old. That is an unusually long time for me to keep strings on a bass but I wanted to see if I got a warmer more mellow tone over time for the genre with old strings. However, last weekend I played a gig with the bass and whilst the strings were in tune in the open position there were a number of places on the bass, more noticeably 7th fret and below, where the notes sounded very slightly off pitch and as a result I found myself bending the strings to pitch during some of the songs. I checked the tuning during the gig and the open strings stayed in tune all the way through the gig. I've recently got some Elixir's so will most likely put them on the bass and check the intonation before the next gig. But I just wondered if it's normal for older strings to lose their pitch along their length. [/quote] There are two possible solutions. 1 Get newer rounds but play over the fingerboard, with sponge under the strings at the bridge, and then EQ them appropriately. 2 Flats.

[quote name='howdenspur' timestamp='1441407817' post='2858772'] Hi If you don't get an answer here and if you do Facebook, it would be worth checking the Bass VI group there. A lot of knowledge and experienced owners. Rod [/quote] Also, [url="http://offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=71490"]http://offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=71490[/url]

In my experience, you'll need to do (at least some of) the following: 1 New strings - La Bella or Kalium. The 84 E string is never going to work properly for intonation or tone; you need to get into the 90s or even 100s for the E string. ESSENTIAL 2 Get a locking tremolo - the standard Fender Jaguar one fits. NOT ESSENTIAL 3 Replace the bridge - there are other possibilities but my preference is the Staytrem bridge, turning the bridge around helps but not enough , in my view. PROBABLY ESSENTIAL 4 Shim the neck - it took me three goes at shimming before I got the correct bridge height and break angle - the bottom of the bridge needs to stand roughy 1/4 inch above the thimbles and this will not happen without a typical 1950/60s Leo Fender neck shim. For the shim use ordinary business card; there are instructions on how to do it here on BC if you search (as well as on Youtube). ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL. 5 Set the neck relief, action, intonation in the normal way. ESSENTIAL 6 Remember this is a 1960s design (based on a 1950s design) for fast mass production; its engineering precision (pun intended) is not up to modern standards but that doesn't mean that it can't be made to work. ESSENTIAL Here's mine ...

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1441399966' post='2858719'] ... That's a CIA black ops safe-house. ... [/quote] Ah yes, didn't the men from U.N.C.L.E. hide behind a dry cleaning shop?

It's worse than you think ...

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1441383827' post='2858549'] Always good to have an alibi. ([i]I saw you on the grassy knoll[/i] ) [/quote] There weren't no grassy knoll guvnor ... see for yourself ...

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1441383133' post='2858540'] ... Anyway, like most people of my age, I remember exactly what I was doing when Kennedy was assassinated. I was leaning out of a window in the Texas Book Depository with a carbine in my hands. [/quote] Funny that, but I was in the Cooperative record department buying The Beatles new second LP [i]With The Beatles[/i] that was released that day.

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1441354190' post='2858129'] Davey Jones capered about holding a bass when he wasn't playing maracas. Not too sure he was playing it though! [/quote] How can you doubt he was playing it? [media]http://youtu.be/sUzs5dlLrm0[/media]

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1441222098' post='2857115'] ... This video has given me melodica gas ... [/quote] My son's band feature regular interludes of [i]dub pipe[/i] or [i]Jah pipe[/i] (as they like to call it). It is a great and effective but cheap little instrument.

OK thanks for that.

I like the melodica entrance.

It seems, oddly, that McCartney didn't get it even though he was there. Talking about the [url="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=The+Night+That+Changed+America%3A+A+Grammy+Salute+To+The+Beatles"][i]The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute To The Beatles[/i][/url],McCartney said: [quote] "At first when I was asked to do the show, I was wondering if it was the right thing to do. Was it seemly to tribute yourself? But I saw a couple of American guys who said to me, 'You don't understand the impact of that appearance on the show on America.' I didn't realize that." [url="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/28/grammys-beatles-salute_n_4679512.html"]Source[/url][/quote] It appears that being there wasn't enough. This is a USAdian experience and is not merely about age. I was 12 but I wasn't there because I was watching Sunday Night at the London Palladium instead ... and Thank Your Lucky Stars and Ready Steady Go etc.

[media]http://youtu.be/gJxvm5zbeBc[/media]

[quote name='edpirie' timestamp='1439745190' post='2845427'] They have one in Wunjo's at £995 ... [/quote] The [url="http://www.wunjoguitars.com/shop/bass-guitars/guild-starfire-bass-ii"]pics on the Wunjo's site[/url] make it look a much darker mahogany than the others we have seen on Youtube etc. For example... Was it darker or are the pics misleading?

[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1441133278' post='2856363'] Dear Mond, I'm sorry I ever set foot in this thread. Some eagle eyed bassists have noticed that the Dearmond Starfires have a different body shape to the original Guild versions. To counter some perceived gospel, some commentators from [i]back in the day [/i]don't have a nice thing to say about the original Bisonic pickups, including the bassist of minor league US prog legends Happy The Man. In their defense, Fred Hammon covered his website with pictures of Phil Lesh and Jack Casady, yet both modified their Starfires well beyond stock, and Hammon changed some of the key specs. Perhaps the biggest issue with Bisonic pickups is the odd design of the pickup adjusters. There is a French builder that makes accurate Bisonic pickups, minus the weird adjuster mechanism, that look a bit like P90 pickups with four poles instead of six. People would rather have the cumbersome black square pickup like the originals, even if it means paying a heftier price tag purely to offset the development costs of some fairly idiosyncratic and pointless flatwork. [/quote] ... also a factor in the development of the Lakland Chisonic pickup.

.. and furthermore Dearmond is really De Armond.

I wasn't meaning to correct you, merely to clarify. The Dearmonds were/are sometimes refered to as Dearmond By Guild too.

More interest here ... [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/197600-guild-starfire-bass-announced-at-namm"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/197600-guild-starfire-bass-announced-at-namm[/url]

[quote name='Roger2611' timestamp='1440944611' post='2854878'] ... Dearmond Starfire bass .. [/quote] Just to clarify ... the 1990s Dearmond Starfire, like the 1990s reissued Guild Starfire, was fitted with the 1970s style Guild humbuckers (these where sometimes known as Dearmond Gold Tone humbuckers). Many people replaced the Dearmond/Guild humbuckers with Hammon Dark Stars which were a re-engineering of the original 1960s Guild/Hagstrom Bisonic pickups. Both the Dark Stars and the Bisonics are single coils, not humbuckers. The recent Guild reissues have a (different) re-engineered single-coil Bisonic. The point of course is that not all Starfire basses are the same. It's probably the case that most, although not all Starfire users, preferred the Bisonics/Dark Stars to the humbuckers.

[quote name='gareth' timestamp='1441032587' post='2855491'] Short scale = bad sound [/quote] Not in my experience.

I had a Dearmond Starfire with Hammon Dark Star pickups which both played and sounded excellent. Guild have recently reissued the Starfire.