What a fender shame.

I got my hands on a 76 starcaster this year bit of a mess but what a sound, why fender stopped making this model and never reissued it is a crying shame. The tones you can get out of these guitars is awesome, the old wide range seth lover humbuckers are so unlike a gibson pickup. Yes i know these guitars are going for silly money over the last three years but if you have ever had the chance to play one you would understand why. They sound like no other fender ever made with a nice neck and good sized frets, a lot more edge to them than a 335 which i think they would beat on a head to head.

TTIULWOP!

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Originally Posted by melody

TTIULWOP!

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+1

+2!

The real shame may be that Fender now uses the Starcaster name for those even-cheaper-than-Squier Strat copies you could buy at Best Buy even before Best Buy started selling real music gear.

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Originally Posted by melody

TTIULWOP!

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If you go to my other thread you can see it sticking out from behind one of my telecasters, you know the tele deluxe thats supposed to have slotted tuners. What do these people use for eyes it has the exact same tuners as my 76 starcaster.:laughing:

Here's what they look like:
http://www.gitarspele.lv/wp-content/...tarcaster1.jpg

!!!

Hey, that's a pretty guitar. With wide-range buckers? I'd like to try one. More's the pity the way they're using the Starcaster name today.

I'm not crazy about the metal volume and tone knobs. They remind me too much of a 1980s Peavey.

I like the peghead. What other models have I seen that on?

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Originally Posted by Wilko

Here's what they look like:
http://www.gitarspele.lv/wp-content/...tarcaster1.jpg

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Nice, I could go for a girl like that.:smile: Thanks for posting the picture.

hollow - is my guess why they don't go there any more. I dont understand why they cant make those pick ups even, that would be easy.

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Originally Posted by elicross

I like the peghead. What other models have I seen that on?

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Reminds me of this:

http://www.ibanezregister.com/images...ad%20stock.JPG

Cool looking guitar and too expensive now, bands like radio head and the Killers are using them and they sound perfect to me, love the looks and sound, real dream guitar !! I have owned 2 Coronado's and they looked very good ('66 orange) and played very easy buth the sound was not very good. This is a much better attempt for these kind off guitars.

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Originally Posted by Gold Strat

Cool looking guitar and too expensive now, bands like radio head and the Killers are using them and they sound perfect to me, love the looks and sound, real dream guitar !! I have owned 2 Coronado's and they looked very good ('66 orange) and played very easy buth the sound was not very good. This is a much better attempt for these kind off guitars.

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I had a '67 Coronado in cherry sunburst. Played like a dream and sounded like sh*t acoustically or amplified. :wah:

I know tone is subjective, but my Coronado was just thin sounding with little to no sustain. I kept it for years 'cause my son loved playing it around the house. It did play really nicely.

I've never had the pleasure of a playing Starcaster. Looks pretty interesting. I'll assume one of those knobs is a master volume? That could be a handy feature ala Gretsch.

I think that was the big downfall in the marketplace for Fender's attempts at a hollow body style guitar. Gibson, Guild, and Gretsch pretty much owned that market in the 70s.

I think the Fender's suffered from an identity crisis in that they didn't have a presence in that market segment. You'd think that the corporate geniuses that run these companies would know that guitar players are a very conservative bunch. Anything new, as far as a real departure from standard models, is going to take a while to catch on.

Hell, Gibson dropped the Les Paul in '61 after sales slowed.

More recently, Fender didn't even give their 24 3/4" scale Strat-O-Sonic line but a few years to catch on.

It takes longer than that for most of us to catch on... I had one of the single pup Strat-O-Sonic and it was a sweet guitar, let down only by the pup.

Now they are few and far between, like the Starcaster. Manufacturers need to realize that their new designs are not going to light the world on fire instantly and then make those models in limited numbers for many years until those d*mn*d conservative guitarists catch on.

Just take a look at the Headstock:worm !! Must have been quite a difficult decission when there is that wonderful 70ies Strat Headstock just laying around all over the factory, IMO the Starcaster is very nice with a great looking headstock, it is for sure something different.

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Originally Posted by KYChucky

hollow - is my guess why they don't go there any more. I dont understand why they cant make those pick ups even, that would be easy.

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The guitar was a total dud when it came out. In the mid 70's, people wanted guitars that stayed in their niche. If it was a semi, it better sound like an ES-335.

At the time other Fender iconic guitars were looked at as total turkeys too. If it wasn't a strat or a two-single coil tele, it was a dog....unless you stuck a GIBSON humbucker in the neck poisition of that tele.

The pickups used CuNiFe sintered, threaded magnets as polepieces rather than alnico rods, or slugs loaded with magnets from the bottom. Apparently CuNiFe is hard to come by. And of course, they predate the standardization of pickup sizes, so they have different dimensions, despite being designed by Seth Lover.

If any of you remember Bob Feather, he's now associated with a company that makes/rewinds pickups in this style.

Loved those pickups.
I used to grab those lil metal knobs off the floor at the CBS plant....real tinny and useless. Dented right away.
You can see how they tried to cop some Gibson biz, with this and the Tele Deluxe w/ four knob setup and the larger frets, flatter boards, etc.

Hey, some of us don't know what TOOTLYWOP means....

I don't thing a bolt-on neck was going to compete with the big boys, and that's why the Fender never took off. It was cheaply built.

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Originally Posted by Offshore Angler

I don't thing a bolt-on neck was going to compete with the big boys, and that's why the Fender never took off. It was cheaply built.

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+1 That is for sure, I have played both no comparison.

Bolt ons can't compete? What were Jimi, Stevie and Rory playing! It is true that the liked to play the 335 as well !! :up

Bolt-on neck for a hollowbody was what OSA meant...

The Starcaster was a great guitar, but it never did achieve the iconic status of a 335....

The 335 is just a great guitar. There is nothing wrong with the Starcaster but it isn't a 335. I don't mean to be negative it is just an opinion.

:smile: My brother always told me, and he's probably right on this, that the 335 is the best guitar ever made. I just like Fender too much for the looks and feel and find the 335 too big and heavy for me. For me a Gibson is a real instrument and Fender's are production guitars that sound, play and look very good........ just saying!

GoldStrat - that gold Strat you have in the picture looks fabulous!

I personally like to play all different guitars - in fact, I usually bring a combination of a Fender (strat or tele), hollowbody (currently, one of two Gretsches) and Gibson-style (one of three Les Paul guitars) to any gig, so I can cover a lot of bases...

A 335 is on my wish list - actually, a white 355 like Alex Lifeson's - but they're so dang expensive...so for now it stays on my wish list.

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Originally Posted by Rickenjangle

GoldStrat - that gold Strat you have in the picture looks fabulous!

I personally like to play all different guitars - in fact, I usually bring a combination of a Fender (strat or tele), hollowbody (currently, one of two Gretsches) and Gibson-style (one of three Les Paul guitars) to any gig, so I can cover a lot of bases...

A 335 is on my wish list - actually, a white 355 like Alex Lifeson's - but they're so dang expensive...so for now it stays on my wish list.

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Me Too!!!

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Originally Posted by Rickenjangle

GoldStrat - that gold Strat you have in the picture looks fabulous!

I personally like to play all different guitars - in fact, I usually bring a combination of a Fender (strat or tele), hollowbody (currently, one of two Gretsches) and Gibson-style (one of three Les Paul guitars) to any gig, so I can cover a lot of bases...

A 335 is on my wish list - actually, a white 355 like Alex Lifeson's - but they're so dang expensive...so for now it stays on my wish list.

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Thanks, it's my favorite Strat and I realy like the looks and sound, very different from the usual Strat sound with a lot more output (X-1 in Bridge pos.), it is a 1982 gold on gold very road worn and real relic and nice patina.
I would like a 335 as well, still too expensive and I like the natural ones a lott when they darken with age.
My brother used to have a 2 tone sunburst with tiger stripes great looking and sounding, now he has an Epiphone Casino from the first years from Korea(1992 or so), very good and nice playabillaty bought for approx. 350 USD. it's a steal if You can find them.

I have a 335. Totally different animal than a Starcaster. Not even in the same league. Period.

Did I miss something but there was no mention of Fender re-issuing the Starcaster in this thread? The only issue is that I have to wait until late December to get mine here in the US. England's already got them!

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Originally Posted by DragonFire

Did I miss something but there was no mention of Fender re-issuing the Starcaster in this thread?

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Of course that might happen when you pick up on a 3 year old thread!!!

Yeah, that happens... :speechles

Been there and done it myself...

:welcome: