demonhellcat

A guy at work told me he had a Strat he'd sell me for cheap... he swore up and down it was a Fender, not Squire. Well, he finally brought it to me and guess what... it's a Starcaster...worse than a Squire.

Well, I'm currently borrowing it to check it out and see if it's worth salvaging. Ultimately, I'd like to replace everything except the body and bridge. Currently the neck has decent bow making stupid high action in the middle of the neck and worse than that the intonation is screwed up. I tried tightening the truss rod to no avail. Every note played is consistently about 1/4 step off from the relative open note.

My first thoughts are to go ahead and get a new neck (probably Mighty Mite) which should fix the bow issues but would a new neck also fix intonation issues? My guess is yes but this would be my first "project" guitar.

My goal is to make a descent playing strat with the pups and electronics I want for about half the price of a American Standard Strat, but if something as serious as the intonation can't be fixed I don't want even begin the project. So, any of you experienced builders have any advice?

JustRooster

Don't do it. Starcasters are the bottom tier of Strats. Plus, most pre-drilled holes won't fit a lot of third party parts.

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krehzeekid

you don't build something directly equivalent to an american strat without starting with a good foundation.

modding starcasters- you'd probably be better off putting some nails in plywood and tying a string between them...


seriously, don't do it. you can only polish a turd so well, and you'll sink a fair chunk of change and only get a mediocre guitar at best

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Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things...

demonhellcat

Yeah, you guys are probably right.... I just need to save my pennies for what I really want (either and American Strat or Ibanez Fireman). In my head it would be fun to build something myself but if it turns out to be shit I'd be out almost the cost of a MIM Strat...

krehzeekid

one you do a neck, pickups, tuners, pots, switches and other miscellaneous parts, you'd be looking at more than a mim strat. assuming you're going with comparable quality parts

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Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things...

ihartfood

They're shit. I have one. Absolute shit. Plywood bodies. Shitty necks with sharp frets. No me gusta

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My Rig
Like Telecasters?

epiphone14

I dont get what all the hate is about. It was my first guitar way back when and this past year i modded it into a evh Frankenstein and is now my main guitar.

Mephaphil

Man, that would **** me off. What is the point in lying like that?

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JAHellraiser

I think it's more of a case of not knowing what it is. Since it looked like a Fender he probably just thought it was.

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http://cdn.gs.uproxx.com/wp-content...s/2012/05/v.gif

Mephaphil

Sometimes people know and they're just chancers.

A few weeks ago when I got my Thinline, the guy was all like 'yea its in mint MINT condition' I get there its chipped and has some dents in the body etc. He still had to audacity to tell me how well he looks after his guitars. I wasn't bothered and it was cheap and it's meant to be a beater, but still, I hate people like that. I told him that he's lucky I didn't take his lying personally.

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JustRooster

That paint job really made it a better guitar, huh?

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