seanc wrote:I am having a crisis trying to decide on what direction to go.. On one hand I am thinking starfire w/ DS. On the other and for the same price or less..I could go with a hand made 32" scale 6 string with hand made Lane Poor pick ups..
That sounds really nice, who made it? Lane Poor pickups are very cool and Lane used to be in charge of remagnetizing Jerry's pickups way way way back in the day. He was part of the greater Alembic family. I got to visit the factory a couple of times. Sadly, I had sent my pickups in for re-evaluation of some noise issues when he went out of business.
I have to say, that right now I think I have a great setup with my red starfire. The combination of the Alembic style hardware with the Series pickups and the ACG dual filters really nails the '72 tone and far beyond. I'm looking forward to installing the Series II electronics, but still need to round up some parts. I love Dark Star pickups, but the Alembics are in an another world completely. It just nails that vibe and it becomes obvious how much touch can influence the tone. I'm going to have to mix some stuff from this past weekend and post it. I got an Earth Drive last week and with just a slight bit of drive, it gives me the Dual Showman slight overdrive sound perfectly for the 68-71 sound. Of course, it can be driven harder for some great over the top sounds.
I guess I don't really have any definitive advice to you, though. This has been a journey for a specific tone that I started when I started playing back in 1974 and these things are very personal.