squier Starcaster(semi hollow)

[ROBERT(OG)]

I think my first interaction with a Starcaster was a legit vintage fender at the chicago music exchange sometime around 2003(?) before seeing one there I don't think I had ever seen one besides maybe a picture that I glazed passed and didn't pay attention to.
and then when I went to ALBQ the first time I got to actually hold and play one, really get a feel for how it felt. so when squier came out with a version I was pretty quick to jump on a maple neck sunburst version.
I have really gravitated away from humbuckers completely these days, and pretty much everything has to have a wiggle stick. if it doesn't then get the f*ck on.
I added one of those guyker units since I still despise Bigsby, and for a while it seemed like it was "ok" and then it just sorta "got loose" and never went back to the way it was. no matter how I set it up, tighted this, added that. took this away, loosened that, the damn thing just sort of "lost" its "machining" in a way. I even tried a roller bridge to alleviate some tension, that just brought up an entire world of new issues. so I threw the had tail back on slightly defeated. I do like the way it feels, and overall the "acoustic" capabilities are just about perfect for couch sitting and transcribing a song to someone. I am about half tempted to route the damn thing out. stick a Jaguar system in it and call it a day. (yes, I understand the amount of work it would take to accomplish this, and its just silly)
am I alone in thinking that guyker stuff isn't all that great? and I'm almost definitely going to put some p-90s in it that I have from GFS(is 15 years NOS?)

[paul_]

Guyker stuff is cheap Chinese-made parts, I'm pretty sure. How long did the trem last before wearing out?

[Ankhanu]

Great to know on the Guyker; I've been considering a similar unit for my Firebird, but a more expensive Duesenburg Les Trem II, then saw the Guykers and was having the will this do?? thoughts.

I've messed around with Squier Starcasters in hops, and they've largely felt pretty good, and yeah, sound good unplugged. I haven't played one through amp, but one of my friends who's classically an LP guy got one, and plays it with bands occasionally, and I've found it sounds good at a gig at least.

[ROBERT(OG)]

The first guyker item I got was a roller bridge for like.... 20-30 bucks maybe, and it was good enough for 20-30 dollars. I swear the unit was like 50-60 when I bought it. and I suppose I never quite got it. It would act like it was going to be alright, and like magic the next day I was at square one again. fighting with essentially the same idea of a bigsby, simple right? Im not sure what you would call it, but there is a "cross bar" sort of deal where the arm is attached and it won't stay "taught" since the arm itself is fairly heavy. it pulls too much for the little set screw to do much good. like, maybe if the arm was a lighter aluminium instead of the same material as the rest of the bridge.
by the time I said screw it, and took the unit off I noticed something... strange about the roller bridge from them as well. THE MIDDLE WAS SAGGING! and I'm positive it wasn't;t out of the box since I double checked the top radius and made sure the bottom/side was square. I wasn't using super stupid heavy strings. or a weird tuning or anything crazy. just the same set of 11-54 tuned an detuned to pitch a dozen times or so over a period of time.
I was REALLY hoping that they had figured out a system that was more effective than a bigsby at a fraction of the price. I did try to swap the spring to see if that would give me better range.
one thing that kept happening was the top that held the spring would "kick" out. there is always the possibility that I over tightened that top swivel arm causing it to want to "kick" out everytime I grabbed the bar. I still think the design might work if it were machined a bit differently. but I'm sure if it was done "correctly" of effectively it would carry a pretty hefty price tag.

[Ankhanu]

Oof, yeah, I've definitely seen cheap Tune-o-Matic type bridges made of cheap materials (or perhaps improperly cooled while molding, affecting the crystal structure?) sag after being under tension for a while (an old blog from 2011 I just found detailing a "fix" http://sfguitarworks.com/tune-o-matic-shenanigans/)

The Duesenburg Les Trem IIis a similar design to the Guyker, and seems to be well reviewed... it's cheaper than a Bidgsby, but not much cheaper. I was also considering a B5 and Vibramate, as I have no desire to add screw holes to the Firebird

Came across this vid while looking into the Duesenburg of someone putting one on their Firebird, is *seems* decent -

[sunshiner]

Haven't read the whole thread yet, but Deusenberg knocknoff by Guyker is garbage. I didn't buy it personally but I've read a lot of bad reviews.

Duesenberg itself doesn't actually make anything. The trems that they use and sell are made by Goldo and just branded Duesenberg.

http://www.goeldo.de/en/

Goldo trems are considered to be high quality. They claim to make them in Germany but I highly doubt it. I think they make them in China but use higher quality control than some sweat shops. Some of the "budget" brands like Sire have Goldo trems stock on some of their guitars

[Ankhanu]

Good intel.

[ROBERT(OG)]

that is super good to know.
do you have suggestion perhaps of something they make like the guyker unit? Im forever turned off by bigsby, and guyker hasn't shown much promise thus far.
I did contact a fella I know who does all sorts of metal work stuff (he was a union pipe fitter or some shit for like 20 years) and I did ask him about the possibility of helping me improve a couple of parts, or even come up with something better. he was all about it, except he said I was barking up the wrong tree and needed to find a tooling/tap machinist if I wanted to get anywhere.

[sunshiner]

Sorry for taking so long to answer. I'm a massive procrastinator. I have no personal experience with Duesenberg/Goldo trems but they generally get glowing reviews. I was thinking about building a left handed guitar and was doing some research on decent quality left handed Bigsby esque trems as left handed Bigsby's are rare and quite pricey and I stumbled upon Goldo/Duesenberg trems. They aren't cheap but people seem to like them. It was a couple of years back that I thoight of building the guitar and I didn't do it.

Here's a link to Duesenberg trems at a German music instruments store Thomann. Before Trump they used to send to the US and delivery wasn't crazy expensive afaik but it's probably not a thing nowadays. And the units aren't super cheap either

http://www.thomannmusic.com/duesenberg_tremolos.html


Here's a Sweetwater link to the Duesenber unit. It's quite pricey

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... ges-nickel



I like your idea of routing the body for a jag trem, but isn't the body onStarcasters arched and not flat?

[ROBERT(OG)]

yea, the starcaster is technically an archtop, so I would have to do a bit of countersink finagling.

[sunshiner]

Countersinking it sounds like a great idea.

You mentioned you don't like bigsbys but the cheap aluminum bigsby knockoffs that you can buy on Amazon or AliExpress are said to be good

The ones that look like this

[Dillon]

This thing came loaded with one of those and I can confirm it's pretty good. The only thing I don't like is that the arm sticks up at like a 45 degree angle. I can't remember if that's just how Bigsby-style trems are? Could probably change that with a shorter spring...but the one it comes with is around 1", which seems to be standard. Maybe a different handle?

I've actually had good luck with Guyker parts. The only complaint I've ever had is tuning stability with one of those same tailpieces Robert was talking about. That was (mostly) fixed by---you guessed it---a different spring. The problem is that the spring it comes with doesn't sit in place quite like it should, so if it rotates the arm doesn't return to where it should be. Just read that didn't work for him though. I imagine the Les Trem wouldn't have that problem, but in my case that would've cost me almost as much as the cheap guitar I put it on, so it didn't make sense to me.

[ROBERT(OG)]

I may check out those knockoffs, worst case Ontario(see what I did thar!?) I add it to the pile of stuff I let other folks pick through. There is a Danelectro baritone floating around here in town that has a bigsby style unit that I installed a couple years back and ended up finding a place that specialized in springs, granted it was one of those bullshit boutique style deals where I think the packaging cost as much as the spring, but. it worked great for him.