Any experience with Newark St. Starfires?

JohnW63

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If you're like me, and tend to stay on the neck pickup 90% of the time, any volume mismatch may be insignificant. If it plays nice, sounds nice, and is the best deal you can find, then I wouldn't lead you away from the purchase. Oh, my pickup selector switch is the ONE thing on my NS X175 that feels less than great. Not enough to change it. Maybe if I gigged and used it a lot, I would swap it out. But, for me, it's working fine, so I leave it alone.
 

DV-72 NT

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Oh, my pickup selector switch is the ONE thing on my NS X175 that feels less than great. Not enough to change it. Maybe if I gigged and used it a lot, I would swap it out. But, for me, it's working fine, so I leave it alone.
12th fret harmonics buzzed like crazy. I finally realized it was coming from the sloppy switch.
 

johnreardon

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I bought a Starfire III last year and gigged it for the first time last night.

First of all, I thought the pickups worked great. Not mismatched and quite powerful for me, bearing in mind I normally play LPs.

It held Tuning great, probably better than my Les Paul I took and I ignored the Bigsby, just stuck that arm to the back.

I only played it for a couple of songs as it started to cut out. First time it did, I wiggled the jack plug of my lead into the amp and it came back on. Did it again next song, so repeated it and all was ok. Tried my lead with both my other guitars and absolutely no issues. Reading what others have said about the 3-way switch makes me suspect it was that. It was in the middle position when it cut out and perhaps just me just moving round to the amp made the connection again. I'll take a look and maybe get it replaced
 

Nuuska

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Hello

The way the mic select switch is built - it can only cut out one pickup - never both.
 

johnreardon

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Hello

The way the mic select switch is built - it can only cut out one pickup - never both.
Why. if there is a short in the pickup selector switch it could cut out both pickups. The switch is similar to that on a Les Paul in that if, in the centre position, if you turn one pickup volume all the way off you will get nothing. If the short effectively cancels out one pickup, bridge or neck, then you will get the same as turning one volume off i.e nothing.

I have just tried the guitar and the pickup selector is very sloppy and not as sturdy as those on my LPs, which I admit cost a lot more. I'll give it another go at the rigours of a gig and if it happens again will get it changed
 

GAD

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Why. if there is a short in the pickup selector switch it could cut out both pickups. The switch is similar to that on a Les Paul in that if, in the centre position, if you turn one pickup volume all the way off you will get nothing. If the short effectively cancels out one pickup, bridge or neck, then you will get the same as turning one volume off i.e nothing.

That behavior is due top the wiring - not the switch.
 

johnreardon

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That behavior is due top the wiring - not the switch.

Yes I know, it's the expected behaviour, but if the switch is faulty as some have indicated here, then it could cause a cut out.

I will also take a look at the jack
 

Quantum Strummer

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Iirc, Fender had wound pups with 42 gauge around the same time, so their was a period in the 60s where there was a shortage of 43 guage?

At one point in mid-1966 Fender had an excess of 43 gauge wire on-hand, and a shortage of 42 gauge, due to an order mixup. The powers that be told the plant to use the 43 gauge in place of the normal 42 gauge. According to Forest White this was the thing that finally drove him to leave Fender. The pickups in my ('66) Jaguar are very juicy sounding, and the folks at Elderly (where I bought the guitar) were pretty certain the pickups had the thinner wire.

-Dave-
 

GAD

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It might just be a cold solder joint. Leadfree solder is prone to that.

So is crappy import soldering. When combined with RoHS and crappy parts the results are, well... you get the idea.
 

Nuuska

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Hello

In electronic devices in general - most problems start with bad connections, cold solderings etc - in some cases they escalate to burned amps / buildings.

In this particular case checking out that switch should be fairly easy. Remove strings - detach neck pick-up from top - pull it a bit aside - take off the switch knob - loosen the nut - pull the switch out.

Check the connections - bend the blades so it works nicely - put everything back.

Use thin hose or cable sleeve to guide the switch back through the hole.


For output jack you probably have to unscrew the bridge pick-up - with any good luck that cable going from selector switch to jack is not tied to volume/tone-harness - but who knows.


Of course - if you can have your dealer take care of it - all the better - I personally like tinkering and trust my own work better.
 

RyanV

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I bought the new sunburst stoptail Starfire. It's made a believer out of me. I can't imagine how nice the vintage ones are.
 

guildman63

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Excuse me Frono. You don't know how to Multiquote? Look at that little quote sign with the + next to it just right of "Reply" and "Reply With Quote" just at the right hand bottom of each message, yes, that is the "Multi-Quote this Message" button! So you hit the multiquote first for how many messages you want to multiquote and last the Reply with Quote and afterwards you can (should) delete what you don't want to quote.

Ralf

Hey Ralf, once you click on the multi-quote button below each post you wish to quote pressing the regular “Reply” button will work as well. It took me a few years of posting out here to find that feature, and what a hassle it was before that.

As for the NS Starfires, I have been wanting to get a green NS SF IV, but with my AP guitars, and private high school then college for my son starting next year even the cost of those is out of my range. 😣. It may be blasphemy, but I did buy a mint but used Epiphone Les Paul Standard a while back for $300. Sure, the Gibson version is better, but by the smallest of margins to my hands and ears. Perhaps I got lucky, but it’s definitely a keeper!
 

DV-72 NT

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It may be blasphemy, but I did buy a mint but used Epiphone Les Paul Standard a while back for $300. Sure, the Gibson version is better, but by the smallest of margins to my hands and ears. Perhaps I got lucky, but it’s definitely a keeper!
I've had 2 Epi LPs, a 2004 Standard and I just sold a 2014 LP Traditional Pro (neck way too thin for me) and they were both top-notch! Hard to beat for $300. The Trad Pro pickups were fantastic!
 

DrumBob

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I've had 2 Epi LPs, a 2004 Standard and I just sold a 2014 LP Traditional Pro (neck way too thin for me) and they were both top-notch! Hard to beat for $300. The Trad Pro pickups were fantastic!

You thought the Traditional Pro's neck was too thin? That's a very chunky neck of those guitars. I had one, and I'm partial to fat necks. You must like baseball bats! I do too, actually. The fatter the neck, the better.
 

DV-72 NT

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You thought the Traditional Pro's neck was too thin? That's a very chunky neck of those guitars. I had one, and I'm partial to fat necks. You must like baseball bats! I do too, actually. The fatter the neck, the better.
Epiphone necks are notoriously inconsistant. I have found that the 2014 run of the Trad Pros had a uniquely thin neck compared to other years. I brought mine into a GC and did a side-by-side comparison to a new Standard Pro and the difference was dramatic! My 2014 LP Standard was nice, but my 1999 G-400 is purrrrrfect :eagerness:.
 
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