A new and different Guild Starfire

This just in:
Starfire1.jpg

I know nothing about it.
The price is nice.
And I like Starfires.
 
I have a major Jonesing for this Guild. The ONLY thing stopping me is the fact that is a Fender product.
I bought one of the last pre-fender Guild acoustics with a life-time warranty. A year later it started to have some issues. When I contacted Fender I got the spiel about the warranty not being honored because "they" didn't issue it. Their way to help was a free estimate if I paid freight both ways. I have had other issues with Fender since then and have not spent a nickel in their direction in at least 5 years. So I have some serious reservations- but man this is exactly what I'm looking for.

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Just for comparison's sake. I may have under-scaled the original Bisonic NS Starfire on the bottom just a hair, but it looks like the new one will be a short-scale bass as well. I'm guessing Chinese with a generic P-bass pickup under fancy chrome mounting rings... Could be cool if they can hit that $500-550 price point. I'll wait til they start popping up used, but am definitely intrigued; especially if it takes standard-size P-bass replacement pickups.

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FMIC (Fender) no longer owns Guild. They are now owned by Cordoba Music Group - The classical guitar company. Some of their acoustic guitars are made in Oxnard California as well.
That went well below my radar- I had kind of gone away from guitars and focused on bass for some time. This is great news, much appreciated!!
 
They sent out an email with this, a couple acoustic baritone guitars, etc. Coming soon. Looked like smart ideas. They didn’t say much except it’s to be cheaper than the bisonic Starfire. (The MSRPs on their web site are much higher than street prices).

Starfire I Bass in Cherry Red | Guild Guitars

Will be interesting, the pickup, looks a cross between P and bisonic. Although I think the neckhugger pickup position with the bisonic on the Starfire II is the bomb.
 
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Is this a joke? Photoshop? I honestly can't believe Guild would ruin one of their most iconic instruments like that.

It may say "Starfire" on the label but that's not a Starfire. That's a hollowbody with a P-bass pickup. To me it looks cheap and it won't sound like a Starfire, not even close, so what's the point? Apart from the obvious answer of course: money!

I like the chrome frames they've installed around the P-bass pickup and I LOVE P-basses but the Bisonic is such a HUGE part of the Starfire sound that a bass without Bisonics simply isn't a Starfire to me.

I've always felt that the Guild brand had some kind of credibility, even with all the changes in ownership over the years. That kinda went down the drain now.

YYMV of course. I'm sure it's a nice bass for the money. The currently manufactured Starfires are amazing instruments, made in Korea and exceptionally good for the price (even though they're not exactly cheap). If these P-bass hollowbodies have the same build quality they will be amazing value. But compared to a real Starfire that just screams CHEAP to me. It makes me think of those cheap in-house brand hollowbodies from stores like Gear4Music.