Guild Starfire II Bass 1970-Needs Full Restoration-Bad Headstock Break/Repair-For Parts/Repair

This is a massive project. I am fully aware of how far gone this instrument is but the fact is it does still exist and there is enough here to restore this rare bass but it will take a talented person to do so. Edit: Soon after these photos were taken the headstock fell off, just old glue was what was barely holding it on, will update photos soon 2/28/19.

I have studied the serial number that is on the rear of the headstock and also in the F hole of there guitar-I have shown photos of each. The serial number 46712 makes it very early 1970, id assume the first few days of 1970 as serial 46696 was the first serial of 1970, this means I believe this is mainly made of 1969 produced parts and the same vintage of Jack Cassidy and Phil Lesh's Starfire II basses and this is a great bass to build into a replica of their basses due to it being the correct vintage but far enough gone to not destroy a vintage ones value in the process, that said I think a proper restoration to original would be great, these are such rare basses. I know little about Guild basses, this is my first. I am just a huge Jack Cassidy fan. I will try to describe it as best as I can and provide the photos I take to fill in the rest, any really deeper knowledge I will not have as I do not know these instruments well.

The biggest issue is the headstock area, it was broken and then badly repaired it seems. It looks like the repair failed. There is cracking all around, a missing rectangle of wood, old glue and i can see part of the truss rod. The face logo headstock black layer is lifting up around the nut/break area. I have seen pretty terrible Les Paul broken headstocks fixed, it will be some effort but I think it could be done to be invisible by mixing a dark finish as the headstock rear already has and blending it down into the rear neck about to the second fret rear portion. I have provided many photos of this area. I strung the bass with 1 string and saw the headstock flex, it will not support any real string tension as it sits, it needs this addressed. You can see also the first fret has a hole drilled through the fretboard, I believe this was from some amateur repair to the headstock. The body is missing binding on the back of it. The section of binding from the neck heel on the side of the bass under the G string is missing binding to the bottom strap button, essentially 50% of the rear binding is totally gone. On the same side but the front the binding is lifting off the body. What is original and what is not isnt exactly my expertise. From comparing online photos it seems the bridge, bridge pickup, knobs, nut and tuning machines are not original. The bridge pickup is interesting but has no maker info on it. The bridge is brass and looks well done, maybe a Stars Guitars unit? The tuning machines are nice older Schallers. The side input jack plate does not look original. I have not looked at any of the pots. The neck pickup has no information on it, no writing but looks like a original Guild Pickup to me. As I said earlier I installed on string , the jack was crackling , i was pushing switches around and I got some sound out of it, I am not sure if the bridge pickup or the neck pickup was working but some audible noise was working.

While I have pointed out all the negatives at this point there is good. The front body paint and rear body paint is pretty presentable, with some attached original guild parts and the binding fixed it would be a very pretty bass. The frets are all there without grooves, they have gotten lower since new but should work just fine, all dots are there and the rosewood is very pretty and I think the 1 hole drilled should go unnoticed once repaired. While rough it still exists, Chicago Music Exchange sold a late 1971 which isnt as desired for $3000, and a 1968 closer in appearance to this one is priced at $3999 and although this bass is far off from one of those a talented individual could repair the headstock, order a reproduction bridge and bridge pickup and have a very nice rare bass. I only had room for 25 photos, I took more and the weight is 8 pounds 13 ounces.

Due to all the issues this is AS IS but will be fully insured and packed extremely well for shipment.