Guild made the original STARFIRE BASS I between 1964 and 1975. It was a single pickup, short scale, thinline hollow body with a design similar to the Gibson EB2. The body was maple for sunburst finished instruments and laminated mahogany for solid cherry finish. The top has three-ply binding. The bridge, tailpiece and pickup were all Hagström, The single Hagstrom Bi-Sonic pickup on the Starfire is located centrally. A two pickup version (the Starfire II) was introduced in 1967 and proved more popular than the single pickup model.

According to the Guild 1966 catalog:

"The acoustical advantages of a hollow body guitar in a double cutaway bass with famous Starfire features. Aided by the resonance of its arched top, this guitar propels your group with the tight, strong sound that keeps the other instruments rocking right along.

With a 30.5” scale on its rosewood fingerboard, this bass has a long, slender Starfire neck made of Peruvian mahogany reinforced by an adjustable steel neck rod. Its extra-thin ivoroid-bound body is 16.375" wide, 20.25” long and 2" deep.

Guild's Anti-Hum Pick-Up was especially adapted for this instrument. Functioning on the humbucking principle, it is hypersensitive to the complete range of string vibrations while filtering out all hum and other interference. Other features include separate tone and volume controls, two hand rests, and of course fine quality strings."

Guild (now owned by Fender) reissued a Korean made Guild Starfire bass in 2013.