Search options (Page 3 of 3)

I am not saying that you need to replace the bridge. It might be fine. In fact, if you replace it with another model that fits in the same hole, it will work in the same way and have the same issues. The 2-bolt bridge, like the one on your guitar is generally better than the 6 screw vintage-style trem bridge on many strat-style guitars. Lots of people play them with no problem. I have trouble with them because I use a lot of palm muting and rest my picking hand on the bridge.

So, I am not trying to say to replace the bridge, but you may want to see if it contributes to the tuning problem by blocking it for an hour or so, to see if that helps. If so, there may be a bridge problem, if not, it is probably the tuners.

Tuners could be the problem, or it could be the tremolo bridge. I have to stick with hard-tail guitars because my picking hand always bumps the bridge on a whammy-bar guitar and messes up the tuning.

GFS, Stewmac and others have some good quality locking tuners for not a lot of cash. The Gotoh ones are pretty good I hear.

You could try blocking the bridge, like Clapton, by putting a little block of wood in behind the trem block, so it doesn't move. Friction and spring force will hold it in place. Play it like that for a while to see if it stays in tune better. If not, it is easy to remove. If it does help keep the guitar in tune, you might look into a Trem-Lock - a little gizmo that replaces one of the trem springs and lets you lock the position of the bridge.

That said, try not to only practice scales or that is what you will play when you throw out a solo. Once in a while, try playing a melody on only one (or two) string linearly - up and down the neck.

Start to get familiar with the pattern of whole and half steps in a major or minor scale. That kind of linear playing helps you think of musical lines that sound more like singers or horn players, which our ears tend to like. It makes for lines that are easy to hum along with. A good example of this is the guitar in the Cure song "Just like heaven" - it just descends through the scale more or less but you can whistle it in the shower. You see Pat Metheny do the same kind of linear thing too. This is also a good way to start linking up the scales you know, in the different positions.

It is not unusual for fender style single coil pickups to have pole pieces (the little magnetic slugs beneath each string) that are different heights. The staggered heights compensate for 1. the radius of the fretboard and 2. the thickness of the strings. So, you may had a D and/or G pole piece that sticks up higher than the others. Oddly enough, some years Fender just made them all flat and even, other years they were set to different heights.

Also note that, in this kind of single coil p'up, the pole piece is actually a magnet. In a humbucker, the slugs or screws that act as pole pieces are just regular steel with a flat bar magnet below them, in the body of the pickup.

By changing height, I meant, by adjusting the mounting screws on each side of the pickup, which should raise or lower it overall, by maybe a half inch. You can even adjust one side more than the other to emphasis bass or treble.

I don't know what value pots the factory would use in this guitar, but it should be marked on them somewhere. If not, meter across the 2 outside contacts of the pots to find the value. The middle contact is the wiper.

The middle pickup, in this configuration, is not used very much by itself. It mainly provides the snarky/quacky tones in switch positions 2 and 4, when it is combined with the neck to bridge pickups. So, the factory installed pickup maybe just fine for that use. You may have to adjust the height of the middle pup, while listening to position 2 or 4 to get the right blend. The new pups are much hotter than the old ones, so the middle pup will probably need to be moved closer to the strings.

If if does not blend very well (it probably uses a ceramic magnet), you might try their cool vintage blade pickup or one of the Neovin middle pickups, to better blend with humbuckers (both of these are humbuckers made to look like a single coil unit). Maybe something between 8-10k.

Agreed.
The MM's and JR's had similar construction, but the MM pickups were weak and thin sounding (and not exactly the same size as common after market replacement pickups). The JR's usually had P90 pickups which are nice for blues, roots or DIY rock. They really bark through a cranked tube amp.

While the 70's ear Starcaster was a semi-hollow body Fender that resembled the Gibson 335, since you say this guitar has a HSS pickup configuration, I am guessing that you mean the new Starcaster, which is a budget instrument sold through Best Buy, Target and other big retailers. If so, this guitar is essentially a Stratocaster. That means that there are hundred of parts available to customize it. For others considering this kind of guitar, I recomment they check out some of the excellent entry level guitars offered through Rondo Music. Those Korean-made instruments are an excellent value and offer better build quality for about the same price.

For your Starcaster, I would suggest looking at the Guitar Fetish web site (do a search on GFS pickups). They have some great pickups at about half the price of Duncan or Dimarzio plus bridges, tuners and pickguards at good prices.

With the mods you have already done, the Starcaster should sound less like a Fender (with single coil pickups) and more like a serious rocker. 14.7k is a pretty hot bridge pickup and the 10k humbucking neck pickup is warm too. The little '59 is designer to sound like a Gibson PAF, rather than a single coil.

You might want to check the value of your volume and tone control pots. Single coil pickups traditionally are matched with 250k ohm pots to bleed off a little of the high end. Humbuckers usually are mated to 500k pots to preserve more of the highs. If you decide to change the pots, you might also want to try a nice polyester film capacitor on the tone control, to replace the ceramic one used by the factory. This is one mod that is cheap (less than a buck) but makes a big difference.