I loaned some money off the folks & bought...

DGNR8 · Post by **DGNR8** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 4:54 pm

OF TEH COURSE I would steal the neck for a Starcaster project and put on a diffy one.

othomas2 · Post by **othomas2** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 5:07 pm

Is the Starcaster 24.75 " though ??

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 5:37 pm

I love this guitar. Someone posted it up on here a while back. Terrific looking.

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 9:30 pm

I saw this in the flesh and had a feel if not a play. Is incredibly well-made and the NOS vintage Italian-drek (I think?) trem is cool. But even for a Hagstrom player there seemed to be a few too many switches and toggles.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 9:56 pm

i think it looks amazing, i could see myself playing that. wouldn't need all the built in gubbins though, just a simple pickup selector would do me fine.

Ty · Post by Ty » Fri Jul 31, 2009 9:58 pm

What in the world do all the switches do?
Like is it part Jaguar rhythm circuit, with mustang phase switches and a rotary pickup selector?

theworkoffire · Post by **theworkoffire** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 10:41 pm

I'd probably better answer this - not sure Owen has the foggiest - in the process of drawing him a map.

I'd been looking too long at a Vox Phantom Custom when I designed it; that and about six other guitars. I was thinking of it like a late '60s parlour guitar, part Vox, part Marauder, Mustang, Jag, JM. The japanese 60's trem and the contour on the back end came from an Aria Diamond.

I tend to play a lot just zoned out on the sofa late at night, and my wife is allergic to pedal boards. The rotary is a 4-position pickup selector with series in the 4th position. There's a push-pull LPB boost on the volume pot, push-pull tone pot bypass. Phase above the bridge, Jag style high pass filter on the neck pickup. The other two switches are a Fuzz Face (roller underneath for gain control) then an EA tremolo - rollers under the strings for depth and speed. Yeah, it's excessive, but less so than the Voxes that inspired it in some ways.

And for the record, I tried to sell it for Â£100 less without all the on-board wankery but there were no takers...

Really sad to see it go, but like O said I kept the shinier of the two trems I have - not out of spite, but because I'll be making another pretty soon. Desperately want to see some video of it in action - never got round to recording it myself.

othomas2 · Post by **othomas2** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 10:59 pm

Thanks ....

As far as I'm concerned I can choose not to use the switches that I don't wanna use rather than making them redundant, but have there if I feel I ever need them... you never know !! I just got to familiarise myself with it now.... I remembered everything you told me except the rotary and pickups selector switches. i.e. most of them...

Ty · Post by Ty » Sat Aug 01, 2009 12:00 am

wow, that's insane, in a good way, if I were you Owen, I would be afraid to take the pick guard off.

suede · Post by **suede** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 12:14 am

pics don't work for me

. The curiosity is killing me...

mellowlogic · Post by **mellowlogic** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 12:17 am

That's crazy man. Sounds like a fun guitar to mess around with but I think i'd forget how to use all that stuff

theworkoffire · Post by **theworkoffire** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 10:35 am

silly_rabbit_band wrote:wow, that's insane, in a good way, if I were you Owen, I would be afraid to take the pick guard off.

Yeah, avoid that. This was it with the lipsticks and a meathead:

Fuzz circuit now looks like this:

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 12:07 pm

I am still insanely jealous of this purchase, and in awe of your build theworkoffire; as a matter of interest, why did you replace the Meathead with a fuzzface?

Post by **Mike** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 12:10 pm

FuzzFaces sound better than Meatheads in my opinion.

That is BRILLIANT work on all the electronics side, I had no idea it had all that fun under the hood. Kudos! Very clean indeed.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 12:41 pm

Mike wrote:That is BRILLIANT work on all the electronics side, I had no idea it had all that fun under the hood. Kudos! Very clean indeed.

+1.

Which brings us to this....

DO AN YOUTUBE DEMO OWEN!!

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 12:56 pm

Whoah.

This guitar keeps getting awesomer. Is the paint bullet proof or anything?

theworkoffire · Post by **theworkoffire** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 12:58 pm

benecol wrote:I am still insanely jealous of this purchase, and in awe of your build theworkoffire; as a matter of interest, why did you replace the Meathead with a fuzzface?

What Mike said: the meathead just wasn't doing anything with the lipsticks I had in at the time. Maybe with stronger pickups it would have sounded better, and I can't verify the schematic I used (off freestompboxes), but it definitely needed changing. I put a Bazz Fuss in there after that, which was ok on full but not too clever with the gain or the guitar's volume down low. I like the kind of open, hollow tone of a fuzz face with a low volume going into it, so I started with a SiliFace schematic from somewhere and swapped things around on breadboard 'til it sounded how I wanted it. Ended up with 2N2222 trannies in the end, I think, can't remember anything else.

It's wired as if it were a normal pedal chain: Guitar vol--->LPB--->Fuzz--->Tremolo. The fuzz is at unity gain with the fuzz on minimum, so you can barely tell it's on, then it cranks right up. Likewise with the tremolo - with speed and depth on minimum there's no volume difference.

Thanks for all the compliments y'all. When I get round to doing another I'll post some documentation.

Post by **Mike** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 1:01 pm

theworkoffire wrote:
benecol wrote:I am still insanely jealous of this purchase, and in awe of your build theworkoffire; as a matter of interest, why did you replace the Meathead with a fuzzface?
What Mike said: the meathead just wasn't doing anything with the lipsticks I had in at the time. Maybe with stronger pickups it would have sounded better, and I can't verify the schematic I used (off freestompboxes), but it definitely needed changing.

I built one for a guy here (dub), it's a cool circuit but is incredibly picky about transistors and caps. it's actually a really broad platform but it takes so much tweaking it's untrue. The fuzzface I've generally found is a lot more plug and play (and play and play and play). This is probably the most ambitious and smart completed project I have ever seen.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 1:20 pm

Agreed, it's beautiful.

sonicmansuperb · Post by **sonicmansuperb** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 2:56 pm

How much does it cost you to build these things?