Eastwood Guitars Announces the Jet Star Bass
Eastwood Guitars has a knack for reviving instrument designs of the past. The latest is their newly announced Jet Star Bass, which pays homage to the DeArmond Jet Star from the ’60s. This new iteration will be available as a limited initial run with just 12 basses in each fo its two colors: Sunburst and Dark Cherry.
“The 1960s saw a flurry of experimental designs, but the eccentric stylings of the Jet Star Bass set it way apart from the crowd. Even now, more than half a century later, the design holds up as one of the most unusual (but cool!) production instruments ever made,” Eastwood writes. “Our recreation of this decades-old classic will pay tribute to the originals in great detail, but as usual we’ve made some modern updates to make this a pro quality bass.”
The Jet Star will have a solid basswood body, a set maple neck, and a rosewood fingerboard. Eastwood will fit it with a pair of their RTG Single Coil pickups and a volume/volume/tone control configuration. As with the original, it has a short 30.5-inch scale.
The Eastwood Jet Star Bass is open to pre-orders with a price point of $849.
Eastwood Guitars Jet Star Bass Specs:
| Scale Length: | 30 1/2″ (775mm) |
| Body: | Solid Basswood |
| Neck: | Maple, Set |
| Fingerboard: | Rosewood, Dot Markers |
| Width at the Nut: | 1 1/2″ (38mm) |
| Pickups: | Two Bass EW RTG SC |
| Switching: | N/A |
| Controls: | 2 Volume, 1 Tone |
| Bridge: | Chrome, Fully Adjustable |
| Hardware: | Gotoh Style Nickel/Chrome |
| Average Weight: | 8.5 lbs |
| Color: | Sunburst, Dark Cherry |
The original Jet Star Bass, a single pickup model, was made by Guild in the Hoboken, NJ factory. Peter Tork from The Monkees has been photographed and on video using one. This head stock shape happened in 1966.
Other Guild models that shared this head stock shape in 1966 were the S200 Thunderbird and the S50 Jet Star guitar which also had one single coil pickup in the middle position like the original Jet Star Bass. The Guild Jet Star bass shared the same body shape as the S200 Guild Thunderbird made from 1963 -1966.
DeArmond out of Korea spun off a few Guild reissues.