Author Topic: Is Alembic gonna reissue the modified Guild basses? (Read 460 times)

blazer · « **on:** May 18, 2005, 04:05:26 PM »

Okay there's word going round on several Bass player forums that Alembic will be bringing out a reissue of the modified Guild Starfire basses as used by Jack Cassidy (Jefferson airplane, Hot tuna) and Phil Lesh (The greatful dead)

I wanted to be sure if the rumors were either false or true so I'm posting the question on the one forum where it can be told truthfully.

If it's really so I would applaud it, they would be awesome.

pace · « **Reply #1 on:** May 18, 2005, 04:16:08 PM »

I was told that there was the possibility of a limited edition based on sn#1 as well as Phil's Osage Orange.... nothing about the Starfire, though. Susan knows a few of us would love to have our own Godfather....

jetbass79 · « **Reply #2 on:** May 19, 2005, 12:03:14 AM »

My guess would be that Fender Musical Instruments, who owns Guild, would not be happy about this particular endeavor. Since they've graduated from the CBS school of trademark and patent protection they would be unhappy...

glocke · « **Reply #3 on:** May 19, 2005, 01:43:01 AM »

this would be bad...I would want one really, really bad (esp. the osage orange), but probably couldn't afford it....

jseitang · « **Reply #4 on:** May 19, 2005, 08:32:06 AM »

i've always entertained with the idea that when i get more $$$, i would have 2 basses made for me: 1 osage bass and one godfather....

811952 · « **Reply #5 on:** May 19, 2005, 09:00:23 AM »

I really don't need to hear this kind of stuff. I've got 2 kids to put through college in a few years and a house to pay off...
John

jseitang · « **Reply #6 on:** May 19, 2005, 09:24:55 AM »

hey you got priorities... like it or not, its what i want.2 more basses!..kids got to go to college, and house needs to get paid off. do what you need to do.

exploiterplayer · « **Reply #7 on:** May 19, 2005, 10:51:48 AM »

I like the Idea of a limited edition reissue based on serial #1.

Hypothetically, I dont see how Fender could get offended or even begin take legal action against Alembic for buying a huge number of Guild Starfires regardless of the motive to modify and resell them. If anything....Fender should encourage this and give Alembic a special deal on a bulk purchase. This kind of deal would surely seem to benefit both companies and make a lot of bass players happy.

pace · « **Reply #8 on:** May 19, 2005, 12:13:39 PM »

Hypothetically, I dont see Alembic buying any product from Fender/Guild to modify, unless the customer is content with a very limited warranty..... Having a Godfather built from scratch in Santa Rosa would be ideal.

811952 · « **Reply #9 on:** May 19, 2005, 12:26:48 PM »

Jimmy,
I'm just not sure how to go about selling the kids and the house without the wife getting upset, that's all. It's an interesting idea. Fender sells plenty of Gibson and other stuff through Guitar Center. I think the bigger issue would be Alembic doing a big bucks extensive upgrade and accepting the liability for an instrument they didn't build. Otherwise, I think it's an awesome idea. Perhaps the route to pursue would be having Alembic modify an existing instrument you already own, rather than partnering with another manufacturer. Any agreements/liabilities would be kept between the customer and Alembic.
John

bassdr · « **Reply #10 on:** May 19, 2005, 12:33:49 PM »

Sounds like smoke on the water to me. I'm sure Mica or Valentino will respond to this thread. Besides, don't we already have exceptional basses already? Anything more would be like extra icing on the cake Michael

jseitang · « **Reply #11 on:** May 19, 2005, 01:29:42 PM »

no i think in order to do it right, alembic would have to build everythung from strach. that would be the way i would want it to happen. alembic would have full control of the construction.

sfnic · « **Reply #12 on:** May 19, 2005, 01:41:52 PM »

What Jimmy Said.

I'm sure Susan would rather build them from scratch than have to put the Alembic name on a body manufactured by somebody else. And, alas, they're not tooled up to do semi-hollow-body instruments in that format.

That said, I'm sure they'd be delighted to drop Series electronics (or damned near anything else you can imagine) into a Guild bass _you_ happened to own. Just be prepared to wait well over a year for the mod, and to pay substantially more than a full-bells-and-whistles custom Series bass would cost.

But I don't see it as ever being a catalog instrument, even on a very limited run.

Now, replicating #1 would be a bit easier. It's possible they still have the templates, but even if they didn't the crew is brilliant enough to cut new ones, even if they only have photos to work from. Matching the carving will be interesting...

Maybe if we start now, we can convince them to do it as a 40th Anniversary project for 2012. I doubt their current production load would let them cover the necessary R&D and pre-production tooling before then.

Bradley Young · « **Reply #13 on:** May 19, 2005, 05:32:24 PM »

I'm quite certain that if someone ordered a duplicate of #1, Alembic would make it.

You just have to have the funds. The kind that come in aluminum (aluminium) briefcases, and have pretty little bands around the bills.

Brad

jetbass79 · « **Reply #14 on:** May 19, 2005, 06:43:22 PM »

Guild no longer produces the Starfire II Basses so they would all have to be made from scratch, most likely with Fender's blessing since the Starfire shape and peghead are registered trademarks of FMIC. And like I stated before, Fender Musical Instruments CORPORATION has graduated from the CBS school of trademark and patent protection so a license would have to be granted from FMIC at some kind of cost that may make the project impractical. Though it would totally be a cool idea...