Fender Starcaster (the modern player series reissue)

Does it look like this?

 

Not a reissue.
The Modern Player Starcaster bass was the first time it was ever a Fender catalog product you could buy
Prior to that there were only two or three prototypes back when they made the Starcaster guitar.

 

Beautiful basses.
A friend plays one and I know he did some re-wiring.
I'm honestly not sure whether it was to improve a muddy tone but I'll find out.

He does play in a vintage rockabilly band so it's quite possible he likes the muddy sound!

 

Don't change out the pickups just yet.
Some Ibanez Artcore users simply changed the pots in their similar basses & it fixed their mud problems.
See if you can figure out what the value of the existing pots is.

Just for reference, this is a Artcore:

 

I'd switch them all out for 500k Ohm pots & possibly change the capacitor as well, depending on what value is in there.

 

I gig my Starcaster and haven't found too much issue with mud. I usually eq my amp settings at 1 or 2 o'clock for everything and set both tone knobs at 7 and I get pretty good honk out of her or switch to neck pup for mud or rear for some twang. I really like the sounds she makes, but I don't use pedals or such, so there could be a difference.

 

I've been curious about the Starcaster, but have never found one out in the wild for me to try before I buy. My main concern is a lot people have mentioned that it's fairly heavy. I would have hoped that a semi-hollow wouldn't have that issue. Otherwise, everything else looks great on paper!

 

If you want to check their weights,,, go to SW's page for the bass:

Fender Starcaster Bass - Black

hit the "Notify Me when it's in stock" button.
SW posts the weights of the items in stock.

 

Yeah, I had looked it up on SW before, but I didn't see anything about the weight. And even if I knew, I'd like to get a feel for where the weight is distributed when holding it upright. But hopefully I'll get to try one out someday!

 

I've been playing the Starcaster bass for a few months now. At least a dozen gigs under my belt with it. I don't find it heavy but it is bulky (no belly or forearm cut might not appeal to some). I wouldn't call it muddy so much as "round and wooly" if that makes sense. I prefer the middle pickup position (both bridge and neck pickups engaged). If it want it more "grindy", I just run the bridge. But I guess it depends on the type of music you're playing.

It's not the perfect bass, but it's pretty damned cool looking and cool sounding, to me....

It hangs fairly balanced for me. Maybe a tiny little bit of neck dive.

 

I tried a few, and yeah they are heavy. Plus a bolt on neck on a semi acoustic just doesn’t feel right to me. Have you looked at the Jack Casady? 34” scale, set neck and about 8lbs.

 

I've glanced at the Casady online, but have also never seen that one in stores. I suppose I never really looked at it much because I prefer the versatility of two pickups, but I'm just now reading about the Vari-gain toggle, which sounds interesting. I might need to broaden my search.

 

I haven’t worked on a hollow body like these before but have seen guys on YouTube working on them, and it looks to be a severe pain in the ass to literally fish the electronics in and out of the things. Have you tried stainless or other bright oriented strings yet?.

 

Yeah, these types of instruments are one of the reasons why I couldn't be a stringed instrument repair dude.