Topic: Starcaster Frankenstein?

Hi

I'm new to the board but like you guys I've been bitten by the electric guitar collection bug.
Now its gotten worse...I'm delving into how electric guitars work or are made....so...

I bought a used Blue Starcaster by Fender and I've made it my project guitar.

I've already changed the pickguard from a mirror pickguard (whose brilliant idea was that?  Its a health hazard waiting to happen) to a white pearloid pickguard.....
and now I'm in the process of changing the pickups (its an HSS configuration)

I've already changed the Humbucker
(Starcaster Humbucker measures 6.5 ohms)
to a Seymour Duncan SH-5 (measuring 14.7 Ohms)

I like the sound of the duncan humbucker but because of the imbalance in sound
I am (and I already managed to acquire the PU) planning to change the
neck Pickup (Starcaster measures 5 ohms) to a Seymour Duncan little 59 1N (10 ohms)

MY questions are

1. Is there anything else you guys recommend?
2. for Mid pickup (Starcaster 5,3 ohms)?
3. for tuners (starcasters are notorious for going out of tune in 30 - 45 minutes)

4. Do I need to change the bridge?  Its still does a good job.

Re: Starcaster Frankenstein?

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.

3 (edited by crossbow 2008-08-24 02:42:17)

Re: Starcaster Frankenstein?

Thank you Thank you for the advice...

Just a little clarification.
The Starcaster already came in with an HSS Configuration according to the original owner.  How will I know if the Tone pot for the humbucker is already mated at 500K?  Will the factory match the 500 k Pots with the humbucker if the original config is HSS?

By the way, its a two tone and one volume control guitar...

I checked guitar fetish but I do not have an idea as to which mid pickup to choose.  do I base my choice on what to match the humbucker Pickup(14.7 ohms) and neck pickup (10 ohms)?


thanks

Re: Starcaster Frankenstein?

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.

Re: Starcaster Frankenstein?

Thank you very much..I will check the contacts.

I will be checking on the auction sites for SD vintage rails for neck/middle.  Meanwhile anyone advice me if I have to change the tuners...Do the tuners have to be changed in order to maintain the tune?

I want to prove some critics wrong when they said that they wont be caught dead gigging with a starcaster.

Re: Starcaster Frankenstein?

DrewDruncan wrote:

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.

Hi Drew Duncan

I noticed that from the middle pup, each string has a corresponding bar from the Pup that has a different level than the other string's corresponding bar.

Sorry for the delay in response, I was working

Re: Starcaster Frankenstein?

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.

8 (edited by crossbow 2008-08-28 20:24:35)

Re: Starcaster Frankenstein?

Thanks DREW...

I question comes to mind while all this is happening.  The height of the poles of magnets are elevated to compensate for 1. the radius of the fretboard and 2. the thickness of the strings.
Will the height somehow get in the way when the guitar strings are strummed esp if the mid PUP has its poles of magnet elevated. 

I am sorry but my background is classical guitar.  Sometimes the guitar note or set of note is played fortissimo.

But do you get what I mean?  Sorry for sounding naive.

thats another reason why I will change the mid pup to prob a hot rail type or a flat pup.

Re: Starcaster Frankenstein?

In some guitars, you can adjust a pickup high enough to contact or almost contact the strings. In most, you can get enough altitude to catch the edge of you pick (esp. on a strat-like model where you often pick a lilttle further forward than other design to prevent touching the bridge, which might impact tuning).

The biggest problem with a too-high single coil however, is often called "wolf tones". This odd howling noise happens when  the magnetic pole pieces are so near the strings that the magnetic field pulls on the string strongly enough to act like a finger touching a high harmonic. Strats are one of the worst offenders for wolf tones.

Humbucker have a bigger, more diffuse magnetic field and so, do not cause wolf tones. They can be close enough that the string makes a 'puk' noise as it touches the pickup during loud passages. Still, they tend to sound sweeter when adjusted lower.

Sorry if I sound like a know-it-all, but consulting on electric guitars, pickups, pedals and especially amps is my job. Don't get me started on resistor values or brands of capacitors smile

Re: Starcaster Frankenstein?

Drew

If you show me how to post pics on this forum, I'll show you whats been done.

11 (edited by crossbow 2008-09-01 14:29:08)

Re: Starcaster Frankenstein?

OK I typed pics and search and found out that we cant post pics but on this forum we can post links to it.  So here goes

This is how it looked like when I bought it
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r89/ … caster.jpg

Close up of original
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r89/ … caster.jpg

after some changes..(pickguard, spring etc)
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r89/ … vented.jpg

plans of pickup changes
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r89/ … ented3.jpg

pickups changes complete
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r89/ … ented6.jpg

Let me know what you think, Drew.  Sorry about the photos but they were taken from my phone cam.

It sounds much thicker and chunkier but it shows great power than before. It also captures the sound more in detail than before, at least to me.   

Next problem although minor with it is its tune.  It cannot maintain the tune for a long time.  Should I change the tuners?

Re: Starcaster Frankenstein?

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.

Re: Starcaster Frankenstein?

Sorry for the delayed reply Drew.

I will look at the GFS and see how it can replace the strat's bridge.

Re: Starcaster Frankenstein?

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.

Re: Starcaster Frankenstein?

DrewDruncan wrote:

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.

Drew is correct, change your machine heads the cheap cast inlines that came with the guitat are probley slipping once you change them do a set up and a neck adjustment and your guitar will hold tune.

Regards,

Bootlegger.
Bootlegger guitars.