Glad I found this. That Allen Wrench part is what I’m dealing with. Just ordered more this morning. This guitar was probably just all factory seconds slapped together. I upgraded everything on mine and it’s just not working together, mostly due to not being able to adjust the truss rod. Sharpest frets I’ve ever seen. Seriously a great guitar to learn guitar repair lol great video
Adam, thanks for watching! I think you may be right. This particular guitar had a rough life, and may have been a factory Frankenstein of sorts. The trussrod nut on this guitar was almost rounded out, I was luck to get it out of the hole and slip a new nut in there. Sounds like you're enjoying the guitar repair/mod adventure. I see you have a First Act project on your channel. I'be been tempted to grab a couple of those myself, just to see what's under the hood and what can be done. Good luck with your projects, have fun and take care!
@@theNextProject thanks! The First Act doesn’t do much to hide the plywood body. I’m about to reglue both necks because they have some separation between the fretboard and neck. I’ll be explaining the process in my next video. Either I’ll get them in top shape or or they’ll make great learners for the kids. Hope you’re doing well!
I must say, I've stayed away from this particular model year. I used the 05 year. They were the best one's. Some had solid bodies and some had particle which was actually really good for what I used it for(humbucker)... I had one triple flame maple that I flooded with danish oil and brought the shatoyance out. I've had 5 of them. They each had a different neck shape all together. One baseball bat that was center cut but cut wet and I even filed a knot off. It was hard as a rock though and almost torified feeling. The hollowbody lol was the flame one. The unique one was a maple neck with a maple fretboard, two piece. They were all full thickness but the hollow one's. I traded the flame one and a ibanez gio that had a reverse headstock and a fender case for a Schecter corsair mint condition with a 200 dollar case. I traded that for my epiphone emperor joe pass and ca,e up finally. Gave the last starcaster to my friend. You're right, there was just something not right about the scale length. But they were too nice to pass up for the feeling of learning on something I don't feel bad if I damaged and gave me the confidence that I needed to move up to a real fender. The real one's have many things people don't realize, stability in the design of most ot their stuff. No guessing, lol.
Very interesting, and WOW you've run through a lot of them. This "starcaster" is such a strange thing coming from Fender, or allowed by Fender. They had a couple different headstock shapes, with the strat-ish body. I guess they were after the beginner market. Glad you were able to trade-up on those that you had.
@@theNextProject , yeah they did but they didn't want to dampen the name so they did do some good thing's. The arrowhead one's are way better than the painted one's. Heard of a few painted arrowhead one's. I'm glad too but I don't touch the Joe Pass. I'm too skinny now to hold it. I put a piece of leather and sheep's wool between me and my bullet 1. Only comfortable one is the stratocaster. Beginner market for sure but I made them very professional feeling.
Just found your videos as I have recently gotten one of these at Guitar Center to learn to play on. Fortunately, I am still a long way from being good enough to even be considered terrible so it seems okay to me. Probably because I don't know what I don't know. But I have already purchased a second, new guitar which I have sent to a local shop to have set up correctly (I've read that's a good thing to do) so I can see if there's a huge difference between a new better (but still inexpensive) guitar and this thing to my untrained hands. Assuming the answer is yes, I am going to use this as my learning to set up and mod a guitar guitar. Fortunately I do possess some woodworking skills so this process that you are following seems super fun even though I have no idea how the guitar itself works yet! Can't wait for the final episode to see how it turns out! Thank you so much for presenting the worst case scenario! Very interesting.
Hey Not Really Matt, thanks for watching and congratulations on your purchases and musical adventure! I'm not much of a guitarist either, I think I probably peaked before I even began, but that doesn't stop me. I like your plan of having the Starcaster to tinker with, and have another guitar to use in comparison. Hopefully both guitars will be good and you'll only have strange bar-chord fingering to struggle with. It's all good! As you may find when watching these videos, I sometimes just jump in and don't have a great plan, other times I have a plan and leave it at the door. Things tend to change as a project rolls out - that's life. I'm wrapping up episode 8 right now, hope to post it first thing in the morning - I hope. Let me know how your two guitars match up as you get into the swing of it all. I'm always glad to hear of others projects and hobbies. Be safe and take care!
NFaMuSone, thanks for watching! I greatly appreciate your comment as well. To be honest, there are many days I don't know what I'm doing. I tend to make my best guess, and wing the rest. I've had a LOT of practice "winging it", so even when things don't go as I hope, I may have a rabbit in my hat to help save the day. Smoke and mirror help too. Thanks again for watching and hangin' with the projects. Take care!
I have a Tele neck that i've been thinking of doing this to. (the re-radius, hopefully not the binding) Thanks, this gave me a load of great tips and ideas.
Thanks for watching! If your neck is in good shape, doing a re-radius should be very easy. Adjust the truss rod for a flat fingerboard and set your bit to the top of the board, gradually shaving it to your niew radius. This board clearly has/had issues. But it greatly benefited from the extreme cuts. Whew, one step closer. Good luck with your project!
Neiko, thanks for watching! This should be a fun project and full of new challenges, some good some not so enjoyable. The radius fixture is a great project too. If you're interested, I've got a video about it with a pdf download link of some plans. Good luck and take care!
LOL, you're too kind. Made me little, and thanks for watching! Seems whenever I touch a project, something unravels and becomes a mess of new projects. I have a gift. Hope you are doing well, take care!
Just got one at Goodwill to do some mods for my brother. Mine has serial starting CXS08, so 2008-ish from AXL factory in China, the same that often made the "SE" Squiers found in starter packs. Interestingly, your neck has a skunk stripe, while mine has a maple cap. The lore does indeed say that they borrowed parts from other lines made in the same building. I wound up on your video curious about side dots, which on mine are slightly protruding! I'd suspect neck shrinkage from dry storage, but the frets are pretty much perfect, not even showing signs of after-market tooling. Unfortunately, I got this guitar without it having strings on it, and it winds up the neck has a bit of back-bow from being stored that way with the truss rod still under tension! And being a single action truss, I'm going to have to remediate with what I have available: strings tensioned up +4 semitones, a little bit of heat, and a lot of patience. 😅 Anyway, looking forward to this series! I love this kind of content. Unfortunately, mine
Mark, thanks for watching! Cool you found one on Goodwill too, and that you found a way to track the serial number, I never got that far. I can believe that some of these factories borrow, or Frankenstein guitars together. Makes sense, as far as mass production goes. Glad you found this video series, as you're probably noticing, this project has run off the tracks, but just kept going anyway. It was a fun and challenging project, and a lot of things were done that weren't necessary. However, that's just the way I work. I guess I look for trouble, if it's not there, I create it, lol. Good luck with your neck re-direct, sounds like an interesting challenge and I want to hear more about the process and how it goes in the end. Hope you enjoy the rest of this series. Good luck with your project and keep me posted! Take care!
Mine would have hit the fireplace !! Or else i would have plugged the 2 fret markers and re-drilled them (cause i am lazy). Your solution is the best a will probably look fantastic. Great work as usual !
Sal, thanks for watching! The fireplace was definitely on the list, lucky for this project - I like a challenge. Strangely, I seem to cause all the challenges I face, hmm. Things are coming together on the neck, but the body is coming apart ... stay tuned! Be safe, and take care!
Well,that was fun! We found one(Aug 10 2008 model) in a pawn shop with the black painted CBS-style headstock and a full size body that's the same thickness as our Clapton Strat. Routed for 3 humbuckers. The frets are smooth,level and not a single sharp edge,either. Quality control was ridiculously good 8/10/2008. Thanks again for giving us the idea to be on the lookout for one! Cheers
Stingy, thanks for watching and glad to hear you found a good one! I'll probably looking for more of these guitar too, a great platform for...the unknown custom. Enjoy your custom Starcaster!
Thanks Laura, I'm sure it will be pretty fancy when complete. Still hatching a plan, rummaging through ideas, balancing the budget... maybe is will be something in a deep red, maybe. Thanks for watching, take care!
Holy crapola, man!!😂😂😂 I am stoked for a new project of yours. This Starcaster (which the name irritates me, given Fender used the Starcaster name for semi-hollow body guitars of the ‘70s and now) is a whole lot of fun. The bridge being not on the right place is an adventure I look forward to seeing. What kind of pickups you thinking about?
Hey Tim, thanks for watching! Agreed, fender did a weird thing calling this a Starcaster, and there appear to be a couple editions of this economy strat-version. I don't understand what they were thinking. Basically made a First-Act Fender Strat, and wasted a product name on it. But I guess fender is t alone. Auto manufacturers throw historical product names on anything with wheels at times. Strange. I know Squire has a Statcaster line that is the old hollow body inspire guitar, good price point on them. I have a couple ideas for pickups, I amy wind a set, or a nice set I found on Amazon. Could go either way. I'm still figuring out what I'll do on this guitar, I guess it will be a surprise for all of us. Hope all is well, take care!
Thanks for watching, and congrats on you new git! Hope you got a better example than I started with, which wouldn't take much. If you can find any ideas that work for your project, take'm and make'm better. Just remember to have fun and enjoy the project. Be safe and take care!
@@theNextProject Thanks for the reply. It's a funny story. I thought the ad said Stratocaster for 50$ You never know, right. Turned out to be Starcaster. So now I had two choices act like I knew that or look like a fool. I went with the first choice. Haha! I got the one with the arrow headstock. I found out those have a full body and decent necks. A good starting point. I just retired, so I will get into fixing and upgrading guitars now. Love the pace of your videos, some guys are too slow, and some are too fast. Yours are goldy locks. Cheers.
MrDan, thanks for watching and glad you enjoying the projects. We will both be surprised how this one turns out, as I have no plan, just letting the project guide me along - I think. Take care!
Hueffel, thanks for watching! It does need some attention for sure. Should be a fun project and will likely be a bit better off once complete. We still have a long way to go, and need a plan of some sort. Fun and interesting to just wing it. Be safe and take care!
I found myself in the same position once when I wanted to change the radius on a cheap neck... those side dots made an appearance on the top. I didn't think to bind it though, great idea!
Hey Chris, thanks for watching! It happens. if these dots would have all been inline with each other, I would have been safe... but 2 had to be different. The surgery went pretty well, new skills developed. Take care!
I got given one of these not that long ago, looks like the one you are working on tbh. And my first thought was "I wonder if its worth modding?" So I went looking. lol
Thanks for watching! I've heard some really good things about these Starcasters, and some not so great... From what I gather, this "strat" was either part of a beginner package (guitar and amp), or a stand along affordable guitar. The guitar I had, came with a host of issues, but it isn't necessarily the template for all of it's siblings. You may have a really good build that will be a great platform for upgrades and mods. I hope that is the case. The guitar I started with, had some big hurdles for me to navigate. All went well in the end. I hope you enjoy the project series. Good luck with your guitar, be safe and take care!
thebeardeddread, thanks for watching! That makes two of us who can't wait...the suspense is killin' me. I'm a bit torn between the reality of dumping time and money into a super low-end guitar...no return on investment. Then another part of me just wants to fix everything. I'm guessing it will look a lot like a strat when I'm done. Wait a minute, it looked a lot like a strat when I started. Ah crap. Hope all is well, take care!
Dimitar, thanks for watching! Glad you are enjoying the projects, I think this one will be fun and I have no idea where it's going yet. Be safe and take care!
I have 3 First Act necks salvaged from Goodwill, I don't need'em but I bet you could use'em, frets look okay, they have truss rods (no tuners, I used those!) I'll send them to you COD, okay??!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Btw... great start on a new project!!
HurdyGurdgyGuy, thanks for watchin! 3 Goodwill First Act necks - Hmm, what could I build...? I have a bunch of tuners for you, and a couple small sawblades for frets. Send me a message!
Cool to stumble across this recent video. It's hard to find anything on this guitar. I ironically picked one of these up a month or so ago @ a flea market for $20 in pretty decent condition. It's in desperate need of a setup and wont hold tune for $hit so I actually decided to do a little mod project.
JimmiChanga, thanks for watching! Sounds like you got a get deal. This guitar looked great, but had serious tuning issues too. Intonation was waaay out, tuners were pretty poor. A lot of mod happening. Stay tuned.
@the Next Project I actually ordered all the parts yesterday. Throwing about $240 at it. Couple Amazon parts like locking tuners, roller string trees, bigger blocked trem bridge (probably just end up screwing it down tight to hardtail it) single humbucker pick guard, GT tusq nut and a Fishman modern ceramic. I may have went a little over kill but wanted a cheap little yet very capable stripped down rock/punk rock machine
The neck definitely feels cheap but comfortable at the same time. I like the beefy C shape it has. Already sanded all the gloss off the back to give it a satin feel, conditioned the fretboard and polished the frets, just gotta wait for the parts to roll in. Still probably going to dress the frets a little but on the ends and roll the fb edges.
Karl, thanks for watching! That radius jig works really well and I typically use it on a fretboard that is not glued to a neck, but with a simple adjustment, I can run it over a complete neck like this. Here is a video link and also a PDF link in that video to some plans. czcams.com/video/ECCnOaCShnc/video.html www.dropbox.com/s/focvdbrrbxl79of/FingerboardRadiusFixture.pdf?dl=0 You can also purchase this kind of routing jig ready to go from a few different sources. Here's one option from Noceti Custom Guitars, it's a 3d printed version: czcams.com/video/k8oZMDov1pY/video.html www.etsy.com/shop/NocetiCustomGuitars I haven't used his jig, but it looks pretty good and should be ready to put into action. My plans require some some work... Hope this helps, take care!
I'm glad I've been leery of that brand.,I do love the squier Indonesia strats...I just mean I would never pay more than 100 dollars for one...thanks man
wjewell63, thanks for watching! This guitar came from Goodwill, $75 plus 1 penny shipping - I couldn't pass it up. I figured it was a good starting point for a mod project, should be fun. Hard to know who Fender had making these "f"ender knock-off Strats, and I have a hard time believing that it helps their brand name, but so it is. I've already got a bunch of new "better" parts that cost more than the guitar probably did when it was new, LOL. I love a challenge. Take care!
Xavier, good to hear from you and thanks for watching! I hope the maple side binding idea will work, I should know very soon when I get back to the bench. At this point, I don't plan to add a strip across the back of the neck. The wood past the 21st fret looks good and I'm hoping the end-grain of the fingerboard and the new maple binding will all blend together nicely. We will see. Hope all is well, take care!
Achim, good to hear from you and thanks for watching! I plan to gently easy the fingerboard edges, and a new fingerboard could still happen. We have to wait and see if the binding idea works...or not. Good to have a backup plan. Hope all is well, take care my friend!
So, how much is this guitar new? I'm still baffled how much work is to do making a major brand guitar a good guitar. When i buy a 350€ Harley Benton i'm aware to add some work and hardware to make it perfect to my expectations. But for 350€ i get stainless frets, a Wilkinson Trem, roasted maple neck, Alnico PUs, locking tuners and a bone nut. So there is little money to spend. I think PRS is one of the only brands wich you normaly get a guitar wich is without major flaws and constant quality out of the box. And that not only the top price line. I'm very curious what magic you will do this time. Best wishes from Bavaria Germany 🇩🇪.
Elrondo, good to hear from you and thanks for watching! How much was this guitar new? Great question. First, I don't know exactly when this guitar was made. Some brief searching gave a vague clue, but it could be from 2006- 2015, or some other time, idk. Apparently, this was an entry-level/student instrument licensed by Fender (cheap birthday gift/christmas present type product), that was sold in as "kit" which included a small (cheap) amp. From what I've read, these could be found at local department stores, Target, Best Buy, Costco... I have to compare this type of instrument to current day "First Act" type items, but I could be wrong. Pricing information is again vague, some notes I've found lead me to believe the "kit" was in the mid $100 US range. I purchased this guitar (no amp) from Goodwill for $75US, and it was shipped to my door for 1 penny. I couldn't pass up a patient to operate on for that price. I have new tuners, a new Wilkenson/Gotoh trem bridge purchased for it, and will either be winding pickups or finding an affordable yet better set for it. That's about all of a plan I have for this guitar at the moment, but every time I work on it, the plan evolves a bit. We will both be surprised by where this goes, it will still be a Strat, but a better version of itself. How is the weather in Bavaria? Nice I hope. Be safe and take care!
@@theNextProject Thank you for your response! Always a pleasure :) Better don't ask for the weather. It's getting weirder every year. Today we had sunshine for half of the day, after weeks of moisture and rain. I know the water is badly needed due the dry summers of the last years but it's time for a little bit of sunshine. I almost finished my last guitar project. I upgraded a Gretsch to 6120 specs. Not such sophisticated wookwork like you do, just new TV Jones pickups, bone nut, locking tuners, different bridge and a setup. Overhauling the Bigsby with a Duane Eddy Arm and a very fancy pickguard is left to do.
Carl, thanks for watching! I had black plastic binding cross my mind. A main reason I didn't go in that direction was the width of binding that I'd need, and I wondered if having that much black on either side of the neck would make the neck look narrow. Then I thought about multi-ply binding...my eye started to twitch. I went default mode and found the maple, hope it all works out. Stay tuned, more mischief coming soon!
That had to be a custom shop 😂 I think you’ll have a good guitar once you’re finished. Do you know which “custom shop” made it? From the looks of things…. Early Chinese.
Hey Mike, good to hear you and thanks for watching! This really is a custom shop gem, probably out of south-omaha or the ancient orient, some place exotic I'm sure. Hoping it will turn out good, probably not much of the original guitar will remain in the end. Hope all is well, take care!
Looks like they tried to find a price point below squier....oof. Yeah, I read "Starcaster" and thought "that's not a Starcaster?" You said about hiding the fret ends behind the binding - wouldn't you need to deepen the fret slots a bit given you'd lost some material off the fingerboard? Or is there still sufficient to ge the tang in? You're not going to be able to use a saw now...
Thanks for watching! They did try to get in the bottom line entry level instrument group. As I work on this thing, I question if it's made of "B" stock parts. Some strange things going on. Take care!
With the intonation as far out as it is and the neck pocket not matching the neck what's the likelihood the neck is a replacement? Starcasters are quite a different body and headstock shape so looks like you have a real curio there! excited to see what you do with it
Thanks for watching! This is an interesting beast. I don't know what the deal is. As for the neck, it has what appears to be another set of screw holes, almost perfectly aligned, almost. A replacement, or a "B" stock assembly line model, lol, idk. Oh well, time to fix what I can and hope for the best. Hope all is well for you, take care!
I had one of these a while back. Mine had a really narrow nut width, I wonder if your method of adding wood to the sides could be used to increase the nut width as well?
Kev, thanks for watching! I'll have to measure the nut width, it felt "standard" but that can go a little fat, or narrow. As for adding width to the neck/nut, that's an interesting question. I don't plan to alter the nut width, but I will attempt to straighten the length of the neck sides as I reshape the back and new maple binding areas. Back to your question, I think a person could add width to a neck. Probably would need to add taller side maple "binding" strips to better allow the back radius to more gracefully blend in, but YES, I think that could work in theory. Hmm, interesting. Be safe, and take care!
Anything could happen, and tomorrow is a new day. I may have some unwanted surgery to perform on that guitar... Ah the suspense! Thanks for watching, stay tuned!
Hey, thanks for watching! Not sure I'm following you, and I'm not talking smack, but rather attempting to convey (with this decade old used instrument), is that it has/had a number of issues as received. It looked pretty good, but was unplayable, no matter the cost or price point. I try to give an honest observation of whatever I'm working on, no matter the price. If it's good, I'll say so, if there are issues, I'll point them out. I recently worked on a Jackson that had a $2k sticker price, it had issues too, no smack talk just things that needed to abe addressed. I try to be fair. This video series then goes on to show that I tinker and attempt to correct minor and major issues. While this is/was a price-point guitar build for all times of the year(s). Strangely, fender has used/misused the "Starcaster" name a number of times, this is only one example. They have made a bass and an acoustic Starcaster, not to mention the actual Starcaster line which has since been relaunched. It was a fun project, and the guitar is now playable.
yea, why is it 50% of all fender strats no matter the origin of manufacture need the bridge moved back 1/8th inch? totally insane considering you can maybe a bridge and inch longer and have 1.5" of travel for the saddles, move it back a half inch and never have an intonation issue, yet 50% need the bridge moved back, more than 1/8th, more like 1/4" ... nuts as bad as gibsons 19 degree headstock and weak arse heastock due to removing so much material for the truss rod adjust, if they were smart they would go with a heel side adjust and then they can leave that area along, give it a 6 degree slant and use offset tuners... then place the tuiners so the strings remain straight, no side to side break angle, that fixes your tuning issues? why do they not deal with these things? I guess cuz people keep buying them no? such easy fixes but they wont do it..
Dean, thanks for watching! I've heard of other strats with intonation issues, but I don't know how common it is. When I was trying to tune this guitar up, and realized how quickly up the neck it was going out of tune, I guessed it would need a lot of adjustment. Yep, needed more than it had room for. Each brand could easily launch a new line of products that address and correct "common" issues. They'd have to keep the original line as well to keep purists happy, issues and all. Hope all is well, take care!
Glad I found this. That Allen Wrench part is what I’m dealing with. Just ordered more this morning. This guitar was probably just all factory seconds slapped together. I upgraded everything on mine and it’s just not working together, mostly due to not being able to adjust the truss rod. Sharpest frets I’ve ever seen. Seriously a great guitar to learn guitar repair lol great video
Adam, thanks for watching!
I think you may be right. This particular guitar had a rough life, and may have been a factory Frankenstein of sorts.
The trussrod nut on this guitar was almost rounded out, I was luck to get it out of the hole and slip a new nut in there.
Sounds like you're enjoying the guitar repair/mod adventure. I see you have a First Act project on your channel. I'be been tempted to grab a couple of those myself, just to see what's under the hood and what can be done.
Good luck with your projects, have fun and take care!
@@theNextProject thanks! The First Act doesn’t do much to hide the plywood body. I’m about to reglue both necks because they have some separation between the fretboard and neck. I’ll be explaining the process in my next video. Either I’ll get them in top shape or or they’ll make great learners for the kids. Hope you’re doing well!
I must say, I've stayed away from this particular model year. I used the 05 year. They were the best one's. Some had solid bodies and some had particle which was actually really good for what I used it for(humbucker)... I had one triple flame maple that I flooded with danish oil and brought the shatoyance out. I've had 5 of them. They each had a different neck shape all together. One baseball bat that was center cut but cut wet and I even filed a knot off. It was hard as a rock though and almost torified feeling. The hollowbody lol was the flame one. The unique one was a maple neck with a maple fretboard, two piece. They were all full thickness but the hollow one's. I traded the flame one and a ibanez gio that had a reverse headstock and a fender case for a Schecter corsair mint condition with a 200 dollar case. I traded that for my epiphone emperor joe pass and ca,e up finally. Gave the last starcaster to my friend. You're right, there was just something not right about the scale length. But they were too nice to pass up for the feeling of learning on something I don't feel bad if I damaged and gave me the confidence that I needed to move up to a real fender. The real one's have many things people don't realize, stability in the design of most ot their stuff. No guessing, lol.
Very interesting, and WOW you've run through a lot of them.
This "starcaster" is such a strange thing coming from Fender, or allowed by Fender.
They had a couple different headstock shapes, with the strat-ish body.
I guess they were after the beginner market.
Glad you were able to trade-up on those that you had.
@@theNextProject , yeah they did but they didn't want to dampen the name so they did do some good thing's. The arrowhead one's are way better than the painted one's. Heard of a few painted arrowhead one's. I'm glad too but I don't touch the Joe Pass. I'm too skinny now to hold it. I put a piece of leather and sheep's wool between me and my bullet 1. Only comfortable one is the stratocaster. Beginner market for sure but I made them very professional feeling.
Just found your videos as I have recently gotten one of these at Guitar Center to learn to play on. Fortunately, I am still a long way from being good enough to even be considered terrible so it seems okay to me. Probably because I don't know what I don't know. But I have already purchased a second, new guitar which I have sent to a local shop to have set up correctly (I've read that's a good thing to do) so I can see if there's a huge difference between a new better (but still inexpensive) guitar and this thing to my untrained hands. Assuming the answer is yes, I am going to use this as my learning to set up and mod a guitar guitar. Fortunately I do possess some woodworking skills so this process that you are following seems super fun even though I have no idea how the guitar itself works yet! Can't wait for the final episode to see how it turns out! Thank you so much for presenting the worst case scenario! Very interesting.
Hey Not Really Matt, thanks for watching and congratulations on your purchases and musical adventure!
I'm not much of a guitarist either, I think I probably peaked before I even began, but that doesn't stop me.
I like your plan of having the Starcaster to tinker with, and have another guitar to use in comparison. Hopefully both guitars will be good and you'll only have strange bar-chord fingering to struggle with. It's all good!
As you may find when watching these videos, I sometimes just jump in and don't have a great plan, other times I have a plan and leave it at the door. Things tend to change as a project rolls out - that's life.
I'm wrapping up episode 8 right now, hope to post it first thing in the morning - I hope.
Let me know how your two guitars match up as you get into the swing of it all.
I'm always glad to hear of others projects and hobbies.
Be safe and take care!
I know nothing about anything you're doing but I love to see it!
NFaMuSone, thanks for watching!
I greatly appreciate your comment as well.
To be honest, there are many days I don't know what I'm doing.
I tend to make my best guess, and wing the rest. I've had a LOT of practice "winging it", so even when things don't go as I hope, I may have a rabbit in my hat to help save the day.
Smoke and mirror help too.
Thanks again for watching and hangin' with the projects.
Take care!
I have a Tele neck that i've been thinking of doing this to. (the re-radius, hopefully not the binding) Thanks, this gave me a load of great tips and ideas.
Thanks for watching!
If your neck is in good shape, doing a re-radius should be very easy. Adjust the truss rod for a flat fingerboard and set your bit to the top of the board, gradually shaving it to your niew radius.
This board clearly has/had issues. But it greatly benefited from the extreme cuts. Whew, one step closer.
Good luck with your project!
New project! Cool. That jig is a great tool.
Looking foreward to the next part.
Neiko, thanks for watching!
This should be a fun project and full of new challenges, some good some not so enjoyable.
The radius fixture is a great project too. If you're interested, I've got a video about it with a pdf download link of some plans.
Good luck and take care!
Mate! You are a loony and i love you for it 😅 i like that you take the hard route, best way to learn. keep up the great work,Cheers!
LOL, you're too kind.
Made me little, and thanks for watching!
Seems whenever I touch a project, something unravels and becomes a mess of new projects. I have a gift.
Hope you are doing well, take care!
Just got one at Goodwill to do some mods for my brother. Mine has serial starting CXS08, so 2008-ish from AXL factory in China, the same that often made the "SE" Squiers found in starter packs.
Interestingly, your neck has a skunk stripe, while mine has a maple cap. The lore does indeed say that they borrowed parts from other lines made in the same building.
I wound up on your video curious about side dots, which on mine are slightly protruding! I'd suspect neck shrinkage from dry storage, but the frets are pretty much perfect, not even showing signs of after-market tooling.
Unfortunately, I got this guitar without it having strings on it, and it winds up the neck has a bit of back-bow from being stored that way with the truss rod still under tension! And being a single action truss, I'm going to have to remediate with what I have available: strings tensioned up +4 semitones, a little bit of heat, and a lot of patience. 😅
Anyway, looking forward to this series! I love this kind of content.
Unfortunately, mine
Mark, thanks for watching!
Cool you found one on Goodwill too, and that you found a way to track the serial number, I never got that far.
I can believe that some of these factories borrow, or Frankenstein guitars together. Makes sense, as far as mass production goes.
Glad you found this video series, as you're probably noticing, this project has run off the tracks, but just kept going anyway. It was a fun and challenging project, and a lot of things were done that weren't necessary. However, that's just the way I work. I guess I look for trouble, if it's not there, I create it, lol.
Good luck with your neck re-direct, sounds like an interesting challenge and I want to hear more about the process and how it goes in the end.
Hope you enjoy the rest of this series.
Good luck with your project and keep me posted!
Take care!
Mine would have hit the fireplace !! Or else i would have plugged the 2 fret markers and re-drilled them (cause i am lazy). Your solution is the best a will probably look fantastic. Great work as usual !
Sal, thanks for watching!
The fireplace was definitely on the list, lucky for this project - I like a challenge.
Strangely, I seem to cause all the challenges I face, hmm.
Things are coming together on the neck, but the body is coming apart ... stay tuned!
Be safe, and take care!
Well,that was fun! We found one(Aug 10 2008 model) in a pawn shop with the black painted CBS-style headstock and a full size body that's the same thickness as our Clapton Strat. Routed for 3 humbuckers. The frets are smooth,level and not a single sharp edge,either. Quality control was ridiculously good 8/10/2008. Thanks again for giving us the idea to be on the lookout for one! Cheers
Stingy, thanks for watching and glad to hear you found a good one!
I'll probably looking for more of these guitar too, a great platform for...the unknown custom.
Enjoy your custom Starcaster!
Looking better already! I have no doubt that you will have it in pristine condition upon completion!
Thanks Laura, I'm sure it will be pretty fancy when complete.
Still hatching a plan, rummaging through ideas, balancing the budget...
maybe is will be something in a deep red, maybe.
Thanks for watching, take care!
so cool, a new guitar modding/sanding challenge :p
take care !
LOL, it's what I do!
Holy crapola, man!!😂😂😂
I am stoked for a new project of yours. This Starcaster (which the name irritates me, given Fender used the Starcaster name for semi-hollow body guitars of the ‘70s and now) is a whole lot of fun.
The bridge being not on the right place is an adventure I look forward to seeing.
What kind of pickups you thinking about?
Hey Tim, thanks for watching!
Agreed, fender did a weird thing calling this a Starcaster, and there appear to be a couple editions of this economy strat-version. I don't understand what they were thinking.
Basically made a First-Act Fender Strat, and wasted a product name on it. But I guess fender is t alone. Auto manufacturers throw historical product names on anything with wheels at times. Strange.
I know Squire has a Statcaster line that is the old hollow body inspire guitar, good price point on them.
I have a couple ideas for pickups, I amy wind a set, or a nice set I found on Amazon. Could go either way.
I'm still figuring out what I'll do on this guitar, I guess it will be a surprise for all of us.
Hope all is well, take care!
Just bought a Starcaster today, Yay! I'll just follow along and possibly copy your work I hope you don't mind. Haha. Great video. thanks
Thanks for watching, and congrats on you new git!
Hope you got a better example than I started with, which wouldn't take much.
If you can find any ideas that work for your project, take'm and make'm better. Just remember to have fun and enjoy the project.
Be safe and take care!
@@theNextProject Thanks for the reply. It's a funny story. I thought the ad said Stratocaster for 50$ You never know, right. Turned out to be Starcaster. So now I had two choices act like I knew that or look like a fool. I went with the first choice. Haha!
I got the one with the arrow headstock. I found out those have a full body and decent necks. A good starting point. I just retired, so I will get into fixing and upgrading guitars now. Love the pace of your videos, some guys are too slow, and some are too fast. Yours are goldy locks. Cheers.
Glad to see another project on the go ... can't wait to see where this goes 😊
MrDan, thanks for watching and glad you enjoying the projects.
We will both be surprised how this one turns out, as I have no plan, just letting the project guide me along - I think.
Take care!
So glad you’re posting more…love your videos
ABB, thanks for watching and glad to hear you're enjoying the videos.
I'll keep going until they the lights off.
Hope all is well, take care!
Great work, great video, thanks.
Ovash, thanks for watching.
Be safe and take care!
Wow, this guitar needs a lot of Your craftsmanship.
Hueffel, thanks for watching!
It does need some attention for sure. Should be a fun project and will likely be a bit better off once complete.
We still have a long way to go, and need a plan of some sort.
Fun and interesting to just wing it.
Be safe and take care!
I found myself in the same position once when I wanted to change the radius on a cheap neck... those side dots made an appearance on the top. I didn't think to bind it though, great idea!
Hey Chris, thanks for watching!
It happens.
if these dots would have all been inline with each other, I would have been safe... but 2 had to be different.
The surgery went pretty well, new skills developed.
Take care!
I got given one of these not that long ago, looks like the one you are working on tbh. And my first thought was "I wonder if its worth modding?" So I went looking. lol
Thanks for watching!
I've heard some really good things about these Starcasters, and some not so great...
From what I gather, this "strat" was either part of a beginner package (guitar and amp), or a stand along affordable guitar.
The guitar I had, came with a host of issues, but it isn't necessarily the template for all of it's siblings. You may have a really good build that will be a great platform for upgrades and mods. I hope that is the case.
The guitar I started with, had some big hurdles for me to navigate. All went well in the end.
I hope you enjoy the project series.
Good luck with your guitar, be safe and take care!
Can't wait to see where you take this one!
thebeardeddread, thanks for watching!
That makes two of us who can't wait...the suspense is killin' me.
I'm a bit torn between the reality of dumping time and money into a super low-end guitar...no return on investment.
Then another part of me just wants to fix everything.
I'm guessing it will look a lot like a strat when I'm done. Wait a minute, it looked a lot like a strat when I started.
Ah crap.
Hope all is well, take care!
Great. Another mod. Can't wait. Love your mid projects.
Dimitar, thanks for watching!
Glad you are enjoying the projects, I think this one will be fun and I have no idea where it's going yet.
Be safe and take care!
always pleased to see you back.
Hey Steve, thanks for watching, and much appreciated!
Hope all is well for you, take care!
I have 3 First Act necks salvaged from Goodwill, I don't need'em but I bet you could use'em, frets look okay, they have truss rods (no tuners, I used those!)
I'll send them to you COD, okay??!!
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Btw... great start on a new project!!
HurdyGurdgyGuy, thanks for watchin!
3 Goodwill First Act necks - Hmm, what could I build...?
I have a bunch of tuners for you, and a couple small sawblades for frets.
Send me a message!
Cool to stumble across this recent video. It's hard to find anything on this guitar. I ironically picked one of these up a month or so ago @ a flea market for $20 in pretty decent condition. It's in desperate need of a setup and wont hold tune for $hit so I actually decided to do a little mod project.
JimmiChanga, thanks for watching!
Sounds like you got a get deal. This guitar looked great, but had serious tuning issues too. Intonation was waaay out, tuners were pretty poor.
A lot of mod happening.
Stay tuned.
@the Next Project I actually ordered all the parts yesterday. Throwing about $240 at it. Couple Amazon parts like locking tuners, roller string trees, bigger blocked trem bridge (probably just end up screwing it down tight to hardtail it) single humbucker pick guard, GT tusq nut and a Fishman modern ceramic. I may have went a little over kill but wanted a cheap little yet very capable stripped down rock/punk rock machine
The neck definitely feels cheap but comfortable at the same time. I like the beefy C shape it has. Already sanded all the gloss off the back to give it a satin feel, conditioned the fretboard and polished the frets, just gotta wait for the parts to roll in. Still probably going to dress the frets a little but on the ends and roll the fb edges.
@@thejimmichanga2913 sounds like it will be a great build when done! A one-of-a-kind custom = cool.
very cool little radiusing jig. great work.
Karl, thanks for watching!
That radius jig works really well and I typically use it on a fretboard that is not glued to a neck, but with a simple adjustment, I can run it over a complete neck like this.
Here is a video link and also a PDF link in that video to some plans.
czcams.com/video/ECCnOaCShnc/video.html
www.dropbox.com/s/focvdbrrbxl79of/FingerboardRadiusFixture.pdf?dl=0
You can also purchase this kind of routing jig ready to go from a few different sources.
Here's one option from Noceti Custom Guitars, it's a 3d printed version:
czcams.com/video/k8oZMDov1pY/video.html
www.etsy.com/shop/NocetiCustomGuitars
I haven't used his jig, but it looks pretty good and should be ready to put into action. My plans require some some work...
Hope this helps, take care!
I got one almost like brand new ... but with the pointy headstock (made 1 year). They are Strats, but made more cheaply...
Doug, that is for watching.
Enjoy your Fender, I'm having a good time with mine.
Take care!
I'm glad I've been leery of that brand.,I do love the squier Indonesia strats...I just mean I would never pay more than 100 dollars for one...thanks man
wjewell63, thanks for watching!
This guitar came from Goodwill, $75 plus 1 penny shipping - I couldn't pass it up. I figured it was a good starting point for a mod project, should be fun.
Hard to know who Fender had making these "f"ender knock-off Strats, and I have a hard time believing that it helps their brand name, but so it is.
I've already got a bunch of new "better" parts that cost more than the guitar probably did when it was new, LOL.
I love a challenge.
Take care!
@@theNextProject I'm the same...just got a 65 dollar Indio tele which is now a dual humbucker..the neck is on another one...rock on my friend,,👍
Neat project 👍
Claes, thanks for watching!
I hope it will be fun, and it appears there will be a few surprises along the way, just for flavor.
Take care!
Really nice idea for the side dots. Will you add the maple binding on the bottom of the neck, near the last fret?
Xavier, good to hear from you and thanks for watching!
I hope the maple side binding idea will work, I should know very soon when I get back to the bench. At this point, I don't plan to add a strip across the back of the neck. The wood past the 21st fret looks good and I'm hoping the end-grain of the fingerboard and the new maple binding will all blend together nicely. We will see.
Hope all is well, take care!
@@theNextProject Thank you for the answer! It will sure work. Looking forward to it. 😊
Cool new project.
Will you make rolled edges to the fingerboard?
I really thought you'd put on a completely new fingerboard.
Achim, good to hear from you and thanks for watching!
I plan to gently easy the fingerboard edges, and a new fingerboard could still happen. We have to wait and see if the binding idea works...or not.
Good to have a backup plan.
Hope all is well, take care my friend!
So, how much is this guitar new?
I'm still baffled how much work is to do making a major brand guitar a good guitar.
When i buy a 350€ Harley Benton i'm aware to add some work and hardware to make it perfect to my expectations. But for 350€ i get stainless frets, a Wilkinson Trem, roasted maple neck, Alnico PUs, locking tuners and a bone nut. So there is little money to spend.
I think PRS is one of the only brands wich you normaly get a guitar wich is without major flaws and constant quality out of the box. And that not only the top price line.
I'm very curious what magic you will do this time.
Best wishes from Bavaria Germany 🇩🇪.
Elrondo, good to hear from you and thanks for watching!
How much was this guitar new? Great question.
First, I don't know exactly when this guitar was made. Some brief searching gave a vague clue, but it could be from 2006- 2015, or some other time, idk.
Apparently, this was an entry-level/student instrument licensed by Fender (cheap birthday gift/christmas present type product), that was sold in as "kit" which included a small (cheap) amp.
From what I've read, these could be found at local department stores, Target, Best Buy, Costco...
I have to compare this type of instrument to current day "First Act" type items, but I could be wrong.
Pricing information is again vague, some notes I've found lead me to believe the "kit" was in the mid $100 US range.
I purchased this guitar (no amp) from Goodwill for $75US, and it was shipped to my door for 1 penny. I couldn't pass up a patient to operate on for that price.
I have new tuners, a new Wilkenson/Gotoh trem bridge purchased for it, and will either be winding pickups or finding an affordable yet better set for it.
That's about all of a plan I have for this guitar at the moment, but every time I work on it, the plan evolves a bit.
We will both be surprised by where this goes, it will still be a Strat, but a better version of itself.
How is the weather in Bavaria? Nice I hope.
Be safe and take care!
@@theNextProject
Thank you for your response!
Always a pleasure :)
Better don't ask for the weather.
It's getting weirder every year.
Today we had sunshine for half of the day, after weeks of moisture and rain. I know the water is badly needed due the dry summers of the last years but it's time for a little bit of sunshine.
I almost finished my last guitar project. I upgraded a Gretsch to 6120 specs. Not such sophisticated wookwork like you do, just new TV Jones pickups, bone nut, locking tuners, different bridge and a setup.
Overhauling the Bigsby with a Duane Eddy Arm and a very fancy pickguard is left to do.
@@TheElrondo sounds like good upgrades to the Gretsch. Hope the sun comes out again soon.
Take care my friend!
Or black binding? could look cool and custom.
Carl, thanks for watching!
I had black plastic binding cross my mind. A main reason I didn't go in that direction was the width of binding that I'd need, and I wondered if having that much black on either side of the neck would make the neck look narrow. Then I thought about multi-ply binding...my eye started to twitch.
I went default mode and found the maple, hope it all works out.
Stay tuned, more mischief coming soon!
That had to be a custom shop 😂 I think you’ll have a good guitar once you’re finished. Do you know which “custom shop” made it? From the looks of things…. Early Chinese.
Hey Mike, good to hear you and thanks for watching!
This really is a custom shop gem, probably out of south-omaha or the ancient orient, some place exotic I'm sure.
Hoping it will turn out good, probably not much of the original guitar will remain in the end.
Hope all is well, take care!
Looks like they tried to find a price point below squier....oof. Yeah, I read "Starcaster" and thought "that's not a Starcaster?"
You said about hiding the fret ends behind the binding - wouldn't you need to deepen the fret slots a bit given you'd lost some material off the fingerboard? Or is there still sufficient to ge the tang in? You're not going to be able to use a saw now...
Thanks for watching!
They did try to get in the bottom line entry level instrument group. As I work on this thing, I question if it's made of "B" stock parts. Some strange things going on.
Take care!
With the intonation as far out as it is and the neck pocket not matching the neck what's the likelihood the neck is a replacement? Starcasters are quite a different body and headstock shape so looks like you have a real curio there! excited to see what you do with it
Thanks for watching!
This is an interesting beast. I don't know what the deal is. As for the neck, it has what appears to be another set of screw holes, almost perfectly aligned, almost. A replacement, or a "B" stock assembly line model, lol, idk.
Oh well, time to fix what I can and hope for the best.
Hope all is well for you, take care!
@@theNextProject I'm sure whatever happens, you'll end up with a guitar that looks great and plays well. Have fun!
I had one of these a while back. Mine had a really narrow nut width, I wonder if your method of adding wood to the sides could be used to increase the nut width as well?
Kev, thanks for watching!
I'll have to measure the nut width, it felt "standard" but that can go a little fat, or narrow.
As for adding width to the neck/nut, that's an interesting question. I don't plan to alter the nut width, but I will attempt to straighten the length of the neck sides as I reshape the back and new maple binding areas.
Back to your question, I think a person could add width to a neck. Probably would need to add taller side maple "binding" strips to better allow the back radius to more gracefully blend in, but YES, I think that could work in theory. Hmm, interesting.
Be safe, and take care!
How about a Fender with Binding?
Anything could happen, and tomorrow is a new day. I may have some unwanted surgery to perform on that guitar... Ah the suspense!
Thanks for watching, stay tuned!
I feel like it's fish in a barrel to talk smack on a guitar built to a price-point just in time for xmas.
Hey, thanks for watching!
Not sure I'm following you, and I'm not talking smack, but rather attempting to convey (with this decade old used instrument), is that it has/had a number of issues as received. It looked pretty good, but was unplayable, no matter the cost or price point.
I try to give an honest observation of whatever I'm working on, no matter the price. If it's good, I'll say so, if there are issues, I'll point them out. I recently worked on a Jackson that had a $2k sticker price, it had issues too, no smack talk just things that needed to abe addressed. I try to be fair.
This video series then goes on to show that I tinker and attempt to correct minor and major issues.
While this is/was a price-point guitar build for all times of the year(s).
Strangely, fender has used/misused the "Starcaster" name a number of times, this is only one example. They have made a bass and an acoustic Starcaster, not to mention the actual Starcaster line which has since been relaunched.
It was a fun project, and the guitar is now playable.
yea, why is it 50% of all fender strats no matter the origin of manufacture need the bridge moved back 1/8th inch? totally insane considering you can maybe a bridge and inch longer and have 1.5" of travel for the saddles, move it back a half inch and never have an intonation issue, yet 50% need the bridge moved back, more than 1/8th, more like 1/4" ... nuts as bad as gibsons 19 degree headstock and weak arse heastock due to removing so much material for the truss rod adjust, if they were smart they would go with a heel side adjust and then they can leave that area along, give it a 6 degree slant and use offset tuners... then place the tuiners so the strings remain straight, no side to side break angle, that fixes your tuning issues?
why do they not deal with these things? I guess cuz people keep buying them no? such easy fixes but they wont do it..
Dean, thanks for watching!
I've heard of other strats with intonation issues, but I don't know how common it is.
When I was trying to tune this guitar up, and realized how quickly up the neck it was going out of tune, I guessed it would need a lot of adjustment. Yep, needed more than it had room for.
Each brand could easily launch a new line of products that address and correct "common" issues. They'd have to keep the original line as well to keep purists happy, issues and all.
Hope all is well, take care!
😂
: )