Fender Starcaster Chorus letdown

Bill Oakley · Post by **Bill Oakley** » Thu Feb 24, 2011 5:27 pm

endsjustifymeans wrote:any chance of a quick demo on the vibrato effect so I know if it's worth it before I potentially blow up my $10 kit?

Just remove the solder from the one leg of the resistor and lift it out to try it out yourself. If you don't like it, put it back in the hole and solder it. It's a real easy one to just try.

I also have an idea that might smooth out the vibrato. Haven't tried it ever so I'll have to see how it goes when I get a chance. If I have some time, I'll record the vibrato really quick but I'm getting ready to go on vacation this next week so I'm pretty busy right now.

endsjustifymeans · Post by **endsjustifymeans** » Thu Feb 24, 2011 6:09 pm

Sweet, I'll give it a shot. Seems easy enough.

It's amazing what simple mods can do for cheap pedals. I haver a SD tweak fuzz that was crap quiet when I bought it (for $50) and after a quick and easy mod it's now loud as balls and super usable.

jim93 · Post by **jim93** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 3:04 am

I cant seem to get any output when I tried the true bypass

I kind of cheapened out on the 3pdt switch and bought the cheapest switch from ebay.

Bill Oakley · Post by **Bill Oakley** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 3:21 am

Looks like you wired the switch up sideways. See how the length of the lugs in my illustration run horizontal? You wired it up with the length vertical. Won't work that way.

jim93 · Post by **jim93** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 5:02 am

youre right.

damn details

A million thanks. I will report my success.

Bill Oakley · Post by **Bill Oakley** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 5:25 am

Try not to overheat that switch too much fixing it.

jim93 · Post by **jim93** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 6:38 am

I think I might have damaged the switch because I dont get any output when the pedal is off and when the pedal is on I get feedback when I turn it more than a quarter output and less if the tremolo mod is on. I will get a better switch and try to do it without damaging it.

Bill Oakley · Post by **Bill Oakley** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 10:42 pm

Well I just picked up that ugly orange Starcaster Flanger. Very nice sounding but a little metallic. Looks like it's a Boss BF-2 clone. I'm going to do a few mods to it. I'll start another thread once I get some time.

mathiasx · Post by **mathiasx** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:15 pm

I ended up fixing this chorus with a friend. We had to replace one transistor that was bent over so far by the plastic-bodied input/output jacks that it snapped a leg off. That was all that was wrong.

(Oh, and I'd previously used a dremel to cut a slot in the MIX knob so that I can turn up the mix.)

I fussed with the trimpot and the MIX knob until it sounded really wobbly.

Now I'm going to try this Vibrato switch mod on it since I already have a Small Clone! Wish me luck!