Starcaster tweaked

mart

After lusting for a while, I finally bought one of these off meltedbuzzbox. Added the Bigsby cos I is a bit addicted to a bit of vibrato. Replaced the pickups with Oil City Ash's finest, and all the electrics just for the masochistic thrill of re-wiring a semi. And now I'm just faced with the final dilemma: pickguard or no?

http://i327.photobucket.com/albums/k455/mart206/Starcaster/imagejpg1_zps4b35e5bb.jpg

http://i327.photobucket.com/albums/k455/mart206/Starcaster/imagejpg2_zpsf5ff638b.jpg

What say you?

PVO_Dave

No - looks great without it

Richardj

No.  Seems to break up the flow a bit.  Maybe a bit cluttered.  IMHO of course .

Lixarto

Yes to the scratchplate.

And well done

Richardj

Bigbsy looks good though.

OilCityPickups

Glad to see a proper Starcaster sporting my Buccaneers :-)

ICBM

No pickguard. Looks cluttered with it.

Not having it also shows off the offset f-holes much better.

Megii

Cool guitar! nice work. I'm another vote for no pickguard...

octatonic

Nice.

Do these have proper cunife widerangers?

OilCityPickups

None of Fenders current lineup have CuNiFe as standard I believe.
Mind you I don't see that as a minus ... CuNiFe is a god awful choice of magnet material for practicality and longevity. Problem is that Fender these days don't even get the basic principals of what an original  WR was about: magnetised poles rather than bar magnets, Wide, flat bobbins for bass response ... and a steel inductance plate for tone.
CuNiFi is inherently very unstable as a magnetic material, and loses its charge far faster and more easily than alnico. Many 1970s WRs have long since died through decaying magnets.

octatonic

Have you seen these?

http://www.telenator.com/cunife-wide-range-humbucker/

IIRC one for the guys on TPDRI makes them.

ICBM

$450 each!! :-O

I actually think CuNiFe may have been chosen in order to make threading and slotting it easier than with Alnico, rather than for its magnetic properties, but TheGuitarWeasel will know better than me...

octatonic

Yup, they aren't cheap.

mart

Thanks for all the comments, folk. Looks like the pickguard will be coming off for good. I never really thought about it as the guitar looked so good to me in it's original state. But when I was reassembling it, before putting the guard on I noticed that it looked very good without. But I had to put it back on to make the comparison and be sure which was best. You've (mostly!) confirmed my instincts.

Yes, as Ash says, the pickups are his Buccaneer wide-rangers which, I have to say, he did me a fantastic deal on. No, not cunife, but I wouldn't want the hassle of its instability. And these make a wonderful sound.

Deijavoo

Looks great dude. I'd have been tempted to put some chrome humbucker sized p90s in personally but either way looks awesome. 

failed_astronaut

No to the pickguard, yes to an awesome looking guitar!

monquixote

Better without the pickguard, but looks cool.

stickyfiddle

I really want to try one of these...

meltedbuzzbox

Did I mention the buy back clause on that Starcaster @Mart :-)

Im glad its got some decent pickups and electrics in it. It's a great playing guitar. 

I would love to hear a clip if you make one

And I think pickguard off.