1. I rendered out this original video with the audio set to a low quality by mistake, so I fixed it and reuploaded it. 2. The nut is bone, thanks to a viewer who pointed that out! 3. Thanks for the super kind words everyone! I appreciate the support. I’ll have some more videos out this summer!
I know this is an old post, BUT.. If the stock PU's sound muddy to you, you can pull the pickups and remove the screws that don't show on the top/the ones with the screw heads on the bottom. You dont loose much output and get more string definition and brightness. I like to just take out the 3 bass string screws and lower the treble ones on the bottom.
You should ask Mike Rutherford about his sub $200 Squier Bullet. Yes, his tech put locking tuners on it, and because of lighting on tour, noiseless pickups with electronics, but he would have done that with an American Fender too. You don't have to spend $400 to get a great, gig-able Squier. Nor do you have to buy anything from Mojotone. That's just personal preference.
My main guitar is a $300 Squier Jazzmaster that has upgraded pickups and some other parts upgraded. I love it personally more than any other of my guitars
Hey Zac. Just stumbled across your channel (thanks algorithms!) I bought this guitar about a month ago. So far, loving everything about it. I agree, the neck feels amazing. This thing loves beside my amps and gets 75% of my attention lately. I was very impressed by the stock pickups. I might see if I can replace them with a set of the Fender wide range CuNiFe pickups, but there's no rush... I'll wait for a used set. I was interested to hear about the wiring harness replacement. That I will look into asap. Great, thoughtful review. Really appreciated it. Cheers. You have a new subscriber. Ps. Xotic SP rules.
I’ve got a fair collection of guitars including a 335…. But this guitar grabbed me and I love grabbing it ! Setup and a few trick items like better tuners and electronics really make it proud to play
This guitar sounds “chunky” in a lot of demos - not a diss, just a lot of folks rocking out with this guitar! How would it sound on jazz and country? A more “classic” clean semihollow sound on these or nah?
I think it sounds great for jazz. Nice and fat, but with some clarity. It sounded a bit muddy with the stock pots though, so might be worth picking up a used one that has a wiring harness upgrade. It pretty much sounds like an ES-335, not terribly different
@@realSeanMcMahon well, it’s no telecaster that’s for sure! But I think with the right eq tweaks to your amp you can get it twangy, but it’s more standard humbucker sounding
I know its been a while but was wondering if you kept this guitar. Have you seen the fender kingfish signature humbuckers? Intersted if they would be a good fit but cant find any info anywhere about putting them in a starcaster.
I still have the guitar (sold it to a friend, missed it, got it back). Those Kingfish humbuckers are standard HB sized, whereas this guitar has larger Wide Range HB mounts. You could probably find some pickup rings that would adapt them, but it would look kinda funny. The Affinity Starcaster could have them though!
I just won some nice pickups and wiring harness from Lambertones and ordered this guitar to drop it all into. This video helped me make my decision. Super excited! Would love to see a follow up to this after you change the pickups out.
I like the delay slapback tech, ala The Edge or like buckethead's big sur moon, or paul gilbert echo song. I need to write more stuff where i augment the shapes during that. It's a fun tek, but getting drummers to play perfectly on tempo is not easy lol
Please do more videos if you ever change the pickups. I've been wondering that if you put in Seymour Duncan p rails it would really be awesome. What do you think?
For sure!! My buddy had one in his strat and I thought it was great, but I think I’m going to go in a different direction if I swap the pickups. Probably more towards the vintage WHRB side of things
@@uselesseater9686 Don’t think the p-rail will fit. This is routed for wide range hb’s. Large than the p-rail. I can recommend mojotone wide range pups. Extremely versatile with a 50’s wiring harness. Good luck.
thanks for the review, saw the prior vid, since I'm new to electric (acoustic player) I'm prob going to learn to mod strats and teles as my friend who modded his ES, said it nuts to do work on easier guitars first . . . but he gave me a tip and said "surgical tubing" .
Totally! I’m not so good at metal but I think it would work great for that. There’s also a more metal oriented starcaster called the contemporary starcaster
Well if you watched the video you’d see that the bridge pickup wasn’t working when I got the guitar. Hence the whole rewiring operation. Plus I like to mod guitars. So do a lot of people. As for the complaints with the guitar, I’m just trying to point out things that potential buyers might want to watch out for. Don’t take it as an attack on you if you own or want to own this guitar. I just want to help people get the most of their instrument
1. I rendered out this original video with the audio set to a low quality by mistake, so I fixed it and reuploaded it.
2. The nut is bone, thanks to a viewer who pointed that out!
3. Thanks for the super kind words everyone! I appreciate the support. I’ll have some more videos out this summer!
That opening jam is great, I’ve been looking to pull the trigger on one of these for a while now and your vids have been a great resource
Thank you so much!! Glad I could help!
I know this is an old post, BUT.. If the stock PU's sound muddy to you, you can pull the pickups and remove the screws that don't show on the top/the ones with the screw heads on the bottom. You dont loose much output and get more string definition and brightness. I like to just take out the 3 bass string screws and lower the treble ones on the bottom.
That’s a good tip!
You should ask Mike Rutherford about his sub $200 Squier Bullet. Yes, his tech put locking tuners on it, and because of lighting on tour, noiseless pickups with electronics, but he would have done that with an American Fender too. You don't have to spend $400 to get a great, gig-able Squier. Nor do you have to buy anything from Mojotone. That's just personal preference.
My main guitar is a $300 Squier Jazzmaster that has upgraded pickups and some other parts upgraded. I love it personally more than any other of my guitars
Hey Zac. Just stumbled across your channel (thanks algorithms!) I bought this guitar about a month ago. So far, loving everything about it. I agree, the neck feels amazing. This thing loves beside my amps and gets 75% of my attention lately.
I was very impressed by the stock pickups. I might see if I can replace them with a set of the Fender wide range CuNiFe pickups, but there's no rush... I'll wait for a used set. I was interested to hear about the wiring harness replacement. That I will look into asap.
Great, thoughtful review. Really appreciated it. Cheers. You have a new subscriber.
Ps. Xotic SP rules.
Thank you!
Intro was great dude, well done. Thinking about buying one of these…have a few ES’s, but these always spoke to me
Thank you!!
I’ve got a fair collection of guitars including a 335…. But this guitar grabbed me and I love grabbing it !
Setup and a few trick items like better tuners and electronics really make it proud to play
This guitar has been growing on me! Is it possible to put Filtertrons in it?
You would need a custom adapter, the pickups are larger than regular Gibson humbuckers, and filtertrons are smaller than Gibson humbuckers
You say it’s still too dark; you should try 1 Meg pots. Other people who’ve modded Starcasters swear by switching to 1 Meg pots.
True, but the old starcasters had brighter pickups
Great content. Thanks for making this video it's helpful. I now have the same in the same finish.
This guitar sounds “chunky” in a lot of demos - not a diss, just a lot of folks rocking out with this guitar! How would it sound on jazz and country? A more “classic” clean semihollow sound on these or nah?
I think it sounds great for jazz. Nice and fat, but with some clarity. It sounded a bit muddy with the stock pots though, so might be worth picking up a used one that has a wiring harness upgrade. It pretty much sounds like an ES-335, not terribly different
@@ZachariahConnor thanks for the response! How about the bridge pickup - twangy enough for country chicken pickin?
@@realSeanMcMahon well, it’s no telecaster that’s for sure! But I think with the right eq tweaks to your amp you can get it twangy, but it’s more standard humbucker sounding
I know its been a while but was wondering if you kept this guitar. Have you seen the fender kingfish signature humbuckers? Intersted if they would be a good fit but cant find any info anywhere about putting them in a starcaster.
I still have the guitar (sold it to a friend, missed it, got it back). Those Kingfish humbuckers are standard HB sized, whereas this guitar has larger Wide Range HB mounts. You could probably find some pickup rings that would adapt them, but it would look kinda funny. The Affinity Starcaster could have them though!
@@ZachariahConnor appreciate the response on a 3yr old video. 👍🏻
I just won some nice pickups and wiring harness from Lambertones and ordered this guitar to drop it all into. This video helped me make my decision. Super excited!
Would love to see a follow up to this after you change the pickups out.
That’s great! Glad I could help! Which pickups are they? I didn’t know Lambertones made pickups that are this size
@@ZachariahConnor THEY DON’T. Haha-but Kurtis Lamberton recommended an adapter that would allow them to fit. We’ll see how it goes. I got cremas, btw.
@@scottutter8262 oh great!! Glad you both figured that out! Cremas rule, my friend has one in his strat
@@scottutter8262 what adapter?
Just bought one in sunburst.
I like the delay slapback tech, ala The Edge or like buckethead's big sur moon, or paul gilbert echo song.
I need to write more stuff where i augment the shapes during that.
It's a fun tek, but getting drummers to play perfectly on tempo is not easy lol
Gotta get that metronome goin
Squire will take you higher 👆 🔥
Pog vid from ur favorite recitation group
Thanks Landon!
Holy shit the slide on the intro man - I’m only like a minute in so far but this makes me want to pick up my starcaster and slide and try that out
Thank you!!
Oh man this is ridiculously good. Seriously ridiculously good. Awesome playing. Guitar looks great too. Is that a stock finish?
Thank you!! Yep! The natural finish. I regrettably sold their guitar to my friend lol
Put some Super 58s in there
The Chinese Super 58s are great pickups, but they are not better than stock on this guitar.
Please do more videos if you ever change the pickups. I've been wondering that if you put in Seymour Duncan p rails it would really be awesome. What do you think?
For sure!! My buddy had one in his strat and I thought it was great, but I think I’m going to go in a different direction if I swap the pickups. Probably more towards the vintage WHRB side of things
@@ZachariahConnor Well, to each his own. I want versatility, so it's going to be the P rails for my walnut Starcaster. Cheers🤙🍻
@@uselesseater9686
Don’t think the p-rail will fit. This is routed for wide range hb’s. Large than the p-rail. I can recommend mojotone wide range pups. Extremely versatile with a 50’s wiring harness. Good luck.
Great job! go on
Killer vid bro.👍🤯
Thank you!! 🙏 More to come soon
thanks for the review, saw the prior vid, since I'm new to electric (acoustic player) I'm prob going to learn to mod strats and teles as my friend who modded his ES, said it nuts to do work on easier guitars first . . . but he gave me a tip and said "surgical tubing" .
Yep!! I used thread because I got the wrong tubing
2:22 god bless you brother, I subbed
🙏
1:01 There is something I can't *fully define* about the shape of that headstock, but I'll *revolve* around the idea until it's *valid* .
It's a shoe ;)
I always thought of a wave or a shark's head.
It looks like duck
I like to think it resembles a medieval axe. More in keeping with the genre.
What model and year is the beautiful red Fender bass in the back?
Fender MIJ Jaguar Bass, I’m not sure on the year but my guess is 2001-2003
Update video on the Starcaster is on live on my channel!
Killer tune. You ain't afraid of no reverb! LOL.
Thank you!! I LOVE reverb hahah
Dude to call this a mediocre guitar...really..you be serious.. ??
I believe I said for the money it’s excellent. Just lots of frustrating things like the bridge pickup not working on arrival due to poor wiring
Can I play metal on this?
Totally! I’m not so good at metal but I think it would work great for that. There’s also a more metal oriented starcaster called the contemporary starcaster
You can play shitty music on any guitar. Knock yourself out.
No, really.
@@Great-Documentaries You're really telling me to knock myself out over my music taste. You must be old and sad.
Dude you don't need to anything to this quitar...you and people like you are never satisfied with anything...geez
Well if you watched the video you’d see that the bridge pickup wasn’t working when I got the guitar.
Hence the whole rewiring operation. Plus I like to mod guitars. So do a lot of people.
As for the complaints with the guitar, I’m just trying to point out things that potential buyers might want to watch out for. Don’t take it as an attack on you if you own or want to own this guitar. I just want to help people get the most of their instrument