Fender Starcaster Chorus letdown

mathiasx · Post by **mathiasx** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 7:32 pm

Just got this in the mail:

It turns on, I get clean signal (which, luckily, the level knob is set to a little more than unity gain, but in the mail it SNAPPED OFF) but there's no modulation of the signal no matter where I turn the knobs. I tried adjusting the internal trimpot to no success.

So much for an $8 pedal from Best Buy. Too cheap to even bother trying to return.

What should I put in its case? I figure $8 isn't so bad for a cheap DPDT stomp switch, jacks, a funky welded case, and pots+knobs. Nasty Silicon + MOSFet Fuzz Face of some sort? Or this attempt at a Harmonic Percolator? Source: http://folkurban.com/Site/GuitarEffects-681.html

Edit: Turns out a friend of mine also ordered one of these, so he should have a working one soon. We have access to a pretty spiffy electronics lab with oscilloscopes and we're electronics nerds. We may compare voltages/signals throughout the circuit to see where it's not working on mine.

Wennnz · Post by **Wennnz** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 8:27 pm

I'd be into hearing that.

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 9:13 pm

Sounds like you might have got a lemon there. I ordered two, one for me and one for Lorez in the UK, and I will report back on if they are successful.

mathiasx · Post by **mathiasx** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 9:45 pm

Wennnz wrote:I'd be into hearing that.

I'll prototype it, at least. Those components are all really common. I should be able to find it all on our parts shelf: http://www.flickr.com/photos/raster/5406151103/
But the Jerkulator probably doesn't need such a big case. I could squeeze it into one of those Hammond 1590A if I can find one cheap.

I'm kind of tempted to take the Starcaster, pull out the knobs/pots and that plastic battery door on the top, and stick a small adhesive breadboard there. Then I'll bring out the in/out jack wires from inside (still wired to the stomp) and use it as kind of a pedal prototyping rig. Thoughts?

plaidbeer · Post by **plaidbeer** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 10:09 pm

Mine's coming in tomorrow and I'll post when I get a chance to try it out.

dezb1 · Post by **dezb1** » Tue Feb 15, 2011 12:13 am

I had the flanger and it was a waste of a battery, bought it from ebay and relisted it the day after I got it...

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Tue Feb 15, 2011 1:00 am

I ordered two on the same day...one came today and other is due in tomorrow...of course. I will send Lorez his first and wait for mine tomorrow. Maybe Best Buy will make a mistake and send me the J Mascis Jazzmaster instead

weed_killer · Post by **weed_killer** » Tue Feb 15, 2011 1:11 am

mathiasx wrote: I'm kind of tempted to take the Starcaster, pull out the knobs/pots and that plastic battery door on the top, and stick a small adhesive breadboard there. Then I'll bring out the in/out jack wires from inside (still wired to the stomp) and use it as kind of a pedal prototyping rig. Thoughts?

That would be a pretty useful tool, IMO, and seeing as it cost you under $10, you've got nothing to lose.

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Tue Feb 15, 2011 7:04 am

It is a chorus pedal.

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Tue Feb 15, 2011 9:23 am

taylornutt wrote:I ordered two on the same day...one came today and other is due in tomorrow...of course. I will send Lorez his first and wait for mine tomorrow. Maybe Best Buy will make a mistake and send me the J Mascis Jazzmaster instead

I don't mind waiting until the 2nd one lands just in case there are any issues.

plaidbeer · Post by **plaidbeer** » Wed Feb 16, 2011 3:08 am

Just tried mine out for the first time and it actually sounds good. No problems with anything, either. It's a steal for $10. I like it a lot more than the Behringer CC300 I had. Still keeping my Ibanez CS-9 because for all I know it could poop out tomorrow.

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Wed Feb 16, 2011 3:46 am

I sent Lorez's pedal via UPS.

Mine didn't come today. And the tracking said this:

Mesquite, TX, United States 02/15/2011 11:00 A.M. Emergency conditions beyond UPS' control.

Not sure what that means but hopefully it's will come tomorrow.

plaidbeer · Post by **plaidbeer** » Wed Feb 16, 2011 4:49 am

The only thing I noticed was that the effect was mildly in the background when I wasn't playing. I've heard similar things from phasers and flangers, too, but that's really the only thing I thing I don't care for.

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Thu Feb 17, 2011 5:57 am

Letdown. What letdown? I put the Starcaster on my pedalboard and did a shootout between it and my EHX Small Clone Chorus. Sounded just at good. In fact, it was quieter when I engaged it versus the ever popping SCC. I am blown away how good it sounds. I wouldn't be surprised if they stole the SCC schematic and added more controls. I cranked both pedals all the way up and they sounded almost the same. What makes the starcaster better is the level knob which is really a blend control so you can adjust how much chorus/dry signal you want. The high and low filter knobs let you adjust how much the chorus affects the high and low frequencies as opposed to the SCC which are set values. SCC still wins on simplicity, but for $8 you would be crazy not to get this.

Ends, I owe you an apology because I didn't think there was anyway this would compete with an EHX pedal. I am not ready to sell the SCC yet, but this could replace it and you would never miss a beat.
Makes we wonder about the other 2 Starcaster pedals.

Now if I could figure how to make my SCC not pop like my Starcaster pedal.

sholkham · Post by **sholkham** » Thu Feb 17, 2011 8:38 pm

I can't look at that pedal without thinking of Weezer

mathiasx · Post by **mathiasx** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 11:23 pm

taylornutt wrote:Letdown. What letdown?

Mine came with a broken knob (UPS's fault) and didn't work at all (possibly just the poor quality of the thing, because it actually lets clean signal through.) Letdown because it didn't work at all

ykyk69 · Post by **ykyk69** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 2:50 am

are you sure the level knob which actually functions as a blend knob isn't at all the way dry signal??? could explain "broken"-ness.

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 2:54 am

ykyk69 wrote:are you sure the level knob which actually functions as a blend knob isn't at all the way dry signal??? could explain "broken"-ness.

I was thinking the same thing. if it's turned left, you won't hear anything but the clean signal.

mathiasx · Post by **mathiasx** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 5:14 pm

I shorted the connection to the other side of the pot, which should be like it is turned full wet signal, (the electricity will favor the path of least resistance) and still got nothing.

The pot shaft snapped off inside the pot, so there's no way to turn it. It's a board-mount pot (the pots are all soldered to a little PCB) that I'd have to replace with a 16mm pot with wires. Haven't tried that yet. I am still waiting to hang out with my friend (who bought one too), to see if his sounds good and warrants trying to fix this one.

Last week I had the pedal on an oscilloscope, and going off the chip datasheets, I wasn't seeing any signal inside the pedal. (this reminds me to build a "signal probe" like BYOC sells.)

Many of the components were bent over and some of the transistors were shorting out on the component next to them. I've corrected the bent transistors and such, but it's possible it is just shorting inside and passing through un-altered signal. I do think the wet/dry blend idea makes sense, though, I just wish it was the case.

Some things I learned from inside the pedal, though: The chips are similar to the MN3027 and MN3102 used in Small Clones, Boss CE-2's, etc. It may be possible to take all the parts from this (enclosure, jacks, switch, chips) and print a CS-2 PCB and reuse those components. I haven't yet heard this pedal though, so I don't know if that is a productive use of my time.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 4:17 pm

Fuck all this nay-saying! I've been trying to work out why I like the look of it and it just hit me now:

FUCKING G1 CONSTRUCTICONS YO! never could buy them in england and I always wanted them!