SOLD - De Armond Dark Starred Starfire with issues

[EssentialTension]

I have a sunburst De Armond Starfire fitted with two Dark Star pickups and a master volume control. The original tuners have been replaced by Fender style Schaller tuners (I do not have the originals). The original De Armond volume and tone control knobs have been replaced with black Gibson style knobs (I have the originals). This is a short scale (30.5 inch) semi-acoustic bass which has a great sound (especially with the Dark Star pickups).

I’m looking to move this bass on to make space for another (and so keep Mrs Tension happy – otherwise I would definitely be keeping it but I much prefer keeping Mrs T) but I’m unclear how saleable it is in its present condition – it has some issues – or whether I would be better off selling the parts separately. So here’s a description of the issues.

1: The bass had been dropped (or taken some other kind of bang) so that the join between the neck and the fingerboard over the first three frets is cracked and has been repaired poorly. The crack is small and thin on the E string side but larger and worse on the G string side. I’ve tried to photograph this without much success but see pic five. Bernie Goodfellow had a look at this problem for me and considered it not worth the cost of repair (about £200+, he thought, to do a full and proper repair). Bernie did replace the nut, tidied up the poor repair, and did a set up. The bass does play without problem and I have gigged it many times. There is no movement in the crack. It is solid.

2: There are two small dinks near the bridge. These are purely cosmetic and don’t affect playability but the lacquer is clearly broken. You can see them in the second and third pics.

3: The volume and tone control knobs appear to have been glued to the pot shafts – I don’t strictly speaking know that they have been glued but I cannot get them off. Unfortunately they are stuck on slightly wonky. Again this does not affect playability but it is somewhat annoying.

So here’s my question: is anyone going to be interested in the bass in this condition or would I do better to part out the pickups, tuners, and bridge? I’d prefer to sell as is because despite the issues it is, in my experience, a good playable bass which I know I am going to miss.

I’m based in Brighton, so if anyone nearby wanted to actually see the bass in the flesh just let me know.

Opinions, questions, and/or offers are welcome.

EDIT: I forgot to say that there is no hard case but I do have a gigbag that fits well but was, in my experience, very difficult to find.

EDIT 2: I also forgot that there is a Dark Star thumbrest made by Jeannie's Pickguards fitted to the neck pickup.

The whole thing:


The body:


The body closer up with dings:


Replaced tuners:


The worst bit (as in focus as I could manage to get it); it's not as bad as it looks but then I have to admit it looks fairly bad:

Edited November 19, 2008 by EssentialTension

[yorks5stringer]

Yep, it looks in bad condition but I'll give you £15 for it as long as you don't tell anyone...... and my serious answer is it all depends on what you want for it.
You've made a full disclosure around its conditon, you say it plays well so price it accordingly and see what the response is.
It is however a buyers market......

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='yorks5stringer' post='330344' date='Nov 16 2008, 11:11 PM']Yep, it looks in bad condition but I'll give you £15 for it as long as you don't tell anyone...... and my serious answer is it all depends on what you want for it.
You've made a full disclosure around its conditon, you say it plays well so price it accordingly and see what the response is.
It is however a buyers market......[/quote]

Thanks for the offer, I'll think about it.

And some buyers are PMing me , and I am trying to work out an appropriate price or prices on the parts.

[EssentialTension]

PMs replied.

Thanks guys.

[steve]

pm sent

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='steve' post='330434' date='Nov 17 2008, 08:42 AM']pm sent [/quote]

And replied.

[EssentialTension]

And more PMs replied.

[Kev]

i reckon you would be better off selling as parts, you'll get plenty of interest for the darkstars i would think, but i doubt those people would pay much more for the whole bass with them

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='BassManKev' post='331758' date='Nov 18 2008, 08:19 PM']i reckon you would be better off selling as parts, you'll get plenty of interest for the darkstars i would think, but i doubt those people would pay much more for the whole bass with them [/quote]

I think you are generally correct and certainly some interest in the Dark Stars but also other parts too.

However sale of the whole thing - my preference - is under negotiation. We'll see.

[spinynorman]

I've had problems removing those witches hat style knobs myself in the past. If they're like the ones I had they're just a very tight fit to the shaft and a bugger to get off. I think I had just enough room to work a pair of scissors under the brim either side of the shaft, with a duster or something under the sharp end and I just levered and wiggled till they shifted. That was on a JapCrap EB3 copy though, on a hollow body I imagine you'd have to be more careful about cracking the wood.

So who's going to make the first crack about tight fits, shafts and wiggling?

Good luck with it, looks like a nice bass, despite the issues.

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='spinynorman' post='331892' date='Nov 18 2008, 10:14 PM']I've had problems removing those witches hat style knobs myself in the past. If they're like the ones I had they're just a very tight fit to the shaft and a bugger to get off. I think I had just enough room to work a pair of scissors under the brim either side of the shaft, with a duster or something under the sharp end and I just levered and wiggled till they shifted. That was on a JapCrap EB3 copy though, on a hollow body I imagine you'd have to be more careful about cracking the wood.[/quote]

Yes, Fred Hammon told me something similar. He said he'd come across the same problem more than once. I still couldn't get them off though.


[quote name='spinynorman' post='331892' date='Nov 18 2008, 10:14 PM']Good luck with it, looks like a nice bass, despite the issues.[/quote]

It is a nice bass, and in my experience plays fine. It's just that the damage and poor repair doesn't make it look like something you'd necessarily want to invest in. Even though the second hand value of the hardware and bits and pieces and gigbag adds up to £230 or so, on my estimates. Brand new Dark Stars are just less than £250 for a RWRP pair shipped and taxed from the US and I believe minimum six weeks wait.

[EssentialTension]

Sold pending the usual guys.

[tayste_2000]

:ph34r: