Fender - Starcaster Distortion

A forum devoted to mod, tips and suggestions for upgrading and rehousing your VERY CHEAP commercial stompbox to near boutique excellence.
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sidseizure
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Post by sidseizure »

Ben N, that's the same seller I dealt with. She contacted me a couple of days ago and told me that she had a family tragedy and that she was refunding my money. She didn't mention anything about me returning my broken pedal, so I guess I'll see if I can repair it.

My only real complaint with the seller is that the pedal was shipped in an envelope. The Starcaster packaging is just a blister pack which offers no real protection and the pedal is made out of sheet metal, so an envelope isn't the sturdiest option.

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Ben N
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Post by Ben N »

Interesting. She just sent me a USPS tracking number--we'll see what arrives.

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Ben N
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Post by Ben N »

OK, just to let you know, my Starcaster Distortion came today, wrapped in some tissue paper in a Priority Mail envelope :shock: , but intact :applause: . I played it for a couple of minutes, and--Whoah! That is certainly a handful of pedal! Not an overdrive or a fuzz, nothing at all like a Guvnor IMHO, more like a coked up Rat, and not really my cup of tea, to be sure, but it is a flavor (or collection of flavors, with all those knobs) that may come in handy someday, and for the price I might as well keep it around. It also made me feel dumb & happy just sliding those power chords all over the neck.

Actually my son might like it, which is what scares me. I may give it to him--after he moves out. :wink:

One thing I did not manage to get out of it in my five-minute audition was any kind of pinch harmonics or a decent palm mute sound, which I'm sure this ought to be able to do. (OK, I know my goldtop clone with P90s is not the ideal guitar for this stuff, but...) Can somebody suggest a setting? Also, I hear that Gilmour had an MT-2 on the board for a bit. If anyone knows, what did he use it on, and at what settings?

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Ben N
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Post by Ben N »

OK, sorry I keep beating this to death, but I just got another 10 minutes with this thing, just wanking in a pseudo-80s-shred kinda way, and now I gotta say--this has GOT to be as much fun as you can have with your clothes on. (Gotta get me some spandex pants.) There is no way I was ever gonna get this kind of thrill from a Rat or DS-1.
So, kids, go out and get yourself one of these fine, fun toys!

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Lovekraft
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Post by Lovekraft »

The same seller has lots of 10 of these on Ebay broken/cheap. Not my thing but fun for someone-

Ethan

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.Mike
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Post by .Mike »

I have been wanting to try some of the MT-2 mods on my Starcaster Distortion for a while, and I finally got around to tracing it in order to make a cross-reference sheet.

Here it is, in case anyone else wants it:
Crossreference.xls
Starcaster Distortion -> MT-2 Cross-reference guide
(20.5 KiB) Downloaded 141 times
Here it is as HTML, in case you don't have Excel: Starcaster_distortion-Boss_MT-2_xref.htm

And here is the cross reference for the Starcaster Chorus -> Boss CE-5 (analog version): Starcaster_chorus-Boss_CE-5_xref.txt

:)

Mike
My website: America's Debate | My effects site: Just one more build...

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TheShadowKnows
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Completed builds: Modified Builds: Dan Electro FAB TONE, Fender Starcaster, Dan Electro FAB METAL, Washburn Lyon Distortion, DOD Grunge.
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Post by TheShadowKnows »

I dredged out my blue Starcaster Distortion. Of course it sounds like chainsaws on a good day. That vintatage metal sound, but with the cool parametric EQ.
I've studied the different mods here and didn't want to replace caps and what have you. I'm new and sort of lazy.
So I pulled C17, C18, C5 and C14. Pulled the original diodes and put in some Radio Shack mini-reds. Wow! No chainsaws but great distortion!
Now there's a couple problems. If I use the parametric in boost mode, freq. knob at about 3 o'clock and EQ gain the same, I'm getting this squeel feedback. I'm guessing it's because of one of the 4 caps I've pulled. No problem. Back to the soldering iron. This only happens when the gain (top knob) is past 3 o'clock also. Seems 3 o'clock is a forbidden number on this pedal.
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Next problem was mentioned before. The bleed through when you're on bypass. I'll have to reread what the solution was, but so far so good.
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Over all the pedal is extremely useful without that chainsaw effect. It has tons of gain. You can dial the gain totally down and use it to boost the front end of your tube amp. And that parametric really comes in handy! Then you can go from mild crunch to all out distortion! And full blast is more than you'll ever want. I never knew there was a golden egg in this rotten pedal, but... if you take what most manufacturers give you for a sound in a pedal, you might as well thrown away part of your collection. At least that's been my fate. Until I discovered diodes.
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Will report back after tinkering with the caps and then get some audio files up for a listen. I'll have to dig out my good mic and set up my interface and DAW so be patient.

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TheShadowKnows
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Post by TheShadowKnows »

Turns out C5 and C14 were the culprit. Once I put those back, the squeel disappeared and I can boost the tone range all I want no problem. I can also pump up the gain to max and still no squeel. Guess I should've taken it step by step. But ripping out components is so much fun!
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Here's a pic of my LED mod. The LED's are to the left of the long black IC. I used a Radio Shack 276-0026 Red LED 3mm 3VDC. This box on its own has tons of gain. Those particular diodes brought the gain down to a mild crunch with the knob at full left to blazing distortion at full right. An easy mod with a great range for the gain. Just with the Dr. ordered. Plus you get the benefits of the parametric. I've not tried it as a boost in front of the gain channel on my tube amp but I'm guessing it should work well.

Thanks again for the mod info. It took a doorstop and put it back on my pedal board.
Attachments
Fender Starcaster final mod
Fender Starcaster final mod

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