Re: CTN builds a Star
Ok so I assembled it earlier today.
Assembles up just fine, nothing horrible to get excited about. The strings all clear the back of the bridge. The high E just barely clears it -there's only a 0.010" gap between the string and back of the bridge. All the other strings clear the bridge easily.
Neck angle is not a problem.
Tuners are solid.
Balances perfectly. I put the strap buttons at a) in between the two neck mounting screws on the bass side and b) on the rear top bout, a few inches away from the center of the rhoads-ish V part.
The guitar, acoustically sounds nice and even, perhaps a little bit on the warmer side than I'm used to from these woods, but still good. The whole body and neck resonate like crazy. Sustain is huge.
Few adjustments I'll definitely need to make though:
- The nut slots are a tiny bit high. Might need to take them a touch lower, but not much.
- Saddle slots definitely need work. When I was playing and doing some ludicrous bends, the E and B kept popping out of the saddle notches that were put in by the factory.
- Definitely gotta dress those fret ends. It's very much playable as is, and I honestly didn't even really notice them, but if I don't do it, it'll keep gnawing at me until I get it done. It's just something I wanted to do anyway (and probably should, even if it's just to look nice).
Now the real fun...the "how does it play/feel/sound" part.
Well, as I mentioned earlier, my old band asked me to fill in for a few shows this summer seeing as they're letting go of their current lead guitarist and I agreed. I've been itching to gig again anyway. Today I had my first practice with them, and seeing as I needed to assemble/setup the Star and give it a workout anyway, I thought I'd also give it a bit of a field test so to speak. So I took it with me to practice after the preliminary setup. I was mucking around at home first, through my Jet City and it sounded great, but I can't turn it up very loud at home. At the jamspace, I used my buddy's Engl Thunder 50W head. It's a really clear sounding amp, very tight and unforgiving, so bad technique with beam forth at your face like a freight train. But it's also surprisingly transparent, as far as amps go anyway. There's not a whole lot of tonal colouring between the guitar and the speakers. The Star sounded great.
I am supremely pleased with the pickup choices/electronics values that I picked. The JB's wind in this guitar sounds like a battleaxe with the A8 magnet - it cuts through like a knife but it's got this monstrous heft and oomph behind it without ever flubbing out or sounding harsh. The hot rails in parallel, holy crap I love it so much. Fluid, articulate, a little spanky, but really full sounding. And because of the ceramic mag and parallel wiring, it's really full and even sounding, but clean and clear. No boominess, no excessive warmth. PERFECT for a metal lead sound.
Also, control placement is beyond perfect. I've never been able to switch pickups so easily on any guitar, ever before. When playing metal I don't mess with the volume or tone much. They usually stay all the way up, but the toggle gets a lot more use (switching to the neck pickup for leads/solos etc).
I also jammed out some random blues and funk stuff and dialed it down for some smooth smokey jazz/blues kinda stuff as well, both the amp and the Star handled them both like Champs. I am seriously extremely pleased with how this guitar came together and how it sounds. Couldn't be happier with it.
Now as long as I don't totally screw up the paint job, I think I'll have one of my favourite guitars ever on my hands
(pics to come tomorrow, too lazy to take any now)
Also... holy crap it's so light!!!! Unbelievable. If my fingers didn't die out first, I could probably play a 6 hour gig with this no problem.
