General Music Chat

Bass only here. Depends what you like. I have found that we'll built neck thru basses are super clean and have almost piano like qualities. I find them difficult to dirty when I want to. Bolts on are have a wider range of tones based on using you hands alone to change your sound. However a bolt on will make you work a little harder to sound as pretty as a neck thru

greetings DG... nice to see you poking your nose in around these parts!


Now that they've reissued them, does your bassist play a modded Guild Starfire? or perhaps a Modulus?

Thanks Planetdude !

Main guy plays Alembic


Our main bass Sub plays Modulus

Been thinking of going back to my Strat and Twin combo lately for the early 70's GD sound

Why not go vintage Jerry and go w/ the Guild Starfire??

That would be cool and a reason to bring another guitar home !

win win

great photos....thanks for posting the gear eyecandy. that Alembic is a beaut! is that top walnut or cocobolo?

i forget, did JG play a Starfire II or III back in the day? difference being the Bigsby on the Starfire III. I haven't played one but the Guild reissues ...their Newark Street series has gotten a lot of positive response and favorable reviews. I don't think they reissued the Starfire II but the Starfire III goes for a little over a grand.

I think you need one!

i absolutely love my '66 Starfire II ! hey, between that gtr and my '67 Starfire II bass.....maybe I should be in Grateful Dead band!

thanks, jook! that'd be a Starfire III w that Bigsby.

clearly it's a solid color, but w the B&W photo i can't tell whether that's a black finish or the more common red finish. they also made a few very rare emerald green Starfires.

noteworthy because the solid colors were mahogany bodied and necked, while the 'bursts were mahog necks w maple bodies.

i forget, did JG play a Starfire II or III back in the day? difference being the Bigsby on the Starfire III. I haven't played one but the Guild reissues ...their Newark Street series has gotten a lot of positive response and favorable reviews. I don't think they reissued the Starfire II but the Starfire III goes for a little over a grand.

I think you need one!

i absolutely love my '66 Starfire II ! hey, between that gtr and my '67 Starfire II bass.....maybe I should be in Grateful Dead band!

Dude
Biz is good
Whats left of the GD is touring w/ John Meyer and peps are coming out to see the tributes ... in Philly anyway

Bet you would be a great addition to any Band - DEAD or alive !

Im not sure what Jerry used back in the 60's - bass had a Starfire too I think

Im on a 1972 kick right now though - Jerrys Strat years - amazing what a bolt on neck can sound like I cant really get those tones w my current axe

DG-

As you know, Garcia got heavy into the hi-fi sound early in the game and was probably one of the first pioneers in this field w/ the audiophiles in the Bay area @ the time.

Switching to low output passive PUs is going to work your amp harder and that's where I think the difference in tone comes through. The Twin Reverb is already a very clean amp (I play through one myself). It takes a lot of volume to push it.

Are you using an overdrive in front of the Twin?

Im actually going thru a phase where where im having trouble w my sound
Its hard to get the headroom I need to do it right
It can be quite frustrating
When we have a sound guy I trust that he gets me out there and I fight my way thru on stage; bar gigs .... ooof
I also have a very bright sound .... JBL neck thru Fender style Pre amp ..... been brittle sounding lately

I dont push my rig w anything
Any recommendations ?

BTW- Garcia went to the DiMarzio humbucker into his customs in the 80s. Those are great PUs!! Make that 2 tips. DiMarzio + big cab= dynamite warm clean tone.

got the DiMarzios

You think some of your electronics may have gone South?? Amp burned out a tube??

I have a custom amp and the tubes are still new
Need to crank it more

If you're going for the Garcia sound, I wouldn't push it w/ anything. Garcia was a pretty clean player (@ least all the stuff I've heard from '69-'76). In the late 60s, he was playing through a Twin and a Showman w/ 2 cabinets. That had to be super loud!!

.

^^^^^ cut the speakers out of my Twin and went w this 2x12 w Eminence (?) Commonwealths
Bar Rig
Custom Sarno Pre Amp w MosValve Power amp into a JBL E 120

Bet you would be a great addition to any Band - DEAD or alive !

No, DG....you CANNOT have a kidney. or a loan.

Im not sure what Jerry used back in the 60's - bass had a Starfire too I think

oh yeah....Phil and Jack Casidy (Airplane, Hot Tuna)were using heavily modded GUILD Starfires back then. Alembic found them to really good platforms to work upon. I love mine (it's stock) and it's always fun wearing it nice and low and trying to channel JC, one of all time fave bass players!
[/quote][/quote]

this is Phil's "Big Brown"





and the man with the best eyebrow moves in da biz....JACK!

and the man with the best eyebrow moves in da biz....JACK!

I finally saw Hot Tuna just a few years back ..... kicking myself for not checking them out sooner !

http://www.rukind.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=334&t=18072

Bass for sale