Grateful Dead Music Forum

Check this out! Freinds of our have had this for a long time, haven't played it in a while. Very good condition. They brought it over to have me freshen it up for them- clean it up, new strings, check or replace the tuners, de-scratch the pots. It's a 1967 Starfire II. Jerry's was a III (same guitar with a Bigsby), I'm sure a few years earlier.

It's a pure hollowbody- no center block. I'm guessing you can get some great feedback with it. This and a little bag of crystal meth will get you real close to that first album sound....

I've got a '67 Starfire III with the Bigsby and yeah, it feeds back like a mutha. I remember asking a friends father who started seeing the dead in '67 how they performed Feedback and he said "completely hollow instruments give very precise control over feedback." and he was right. It's a bit larger than the Languedoc's Trey plays but the same idea holds. You have to really hug the instrument at stage volume to keep it in check but as soon as you let it go the feedback comes pouring out. Between that and the DeArmond style pickups these have a very unique sound. They can be a little fragile compared to a solid guitar but if you're going for a certain kind of authentic Bay Area psychedelia it's a great choice.

TI4-1009 wrote: This and a little bag of crystal meth will get you real close to that first album sound....

Perfect!