Regarding Starcaster Strats generally, I can't make the claim to speak from wide experience. Truthfully, I own one other example besides this silverburst. That other Starcaster has a maple fretboard, a traditional SSS pickup configuration, and a rather fat neck. It revealed itself to be a very respectable Strat after I spent some time setting it up. I have additionally set up another Starcaster for a friend, and have inspected several examples in shops. Given that admittedly small sample size, the Starcaster comes across as very similar in quality and construction to many of the other Squiers I've worked on and played. The point I'm getting at, explicitly stated, is that the Starcaster is not a step down from the Squier in the hierarchy of Startocasters. It's more like a parallel. If pressed, I'd compare it with a Squire SE Strat, many of which were manufactured out of the same CXS factory, except this Starcaster has a 70s headstock, is set up HSS, and has a much more interesting silverburst finish.
What most of these cheap import guitars really needs to make them decent, sometimes even exceptional instruments, regardless of their particular origin, is some love and attention in the hands of somebody who understands what it is that makes a guitar feel and sound good. I've always felt that a significant part of the soul of AGF .... of this cult of guitar hoarders, tweakers, and aficionados who've lived through betrayals, a diaspora, defections ... is this DIY spirit of making cheap guitars play and sound good. I can never repay this community for what it has taught me about guitars. So it is was that in reverence to that spirt, I set about making this used, though not abused, Starcaster HSS Strat into all that it could be.
It took some tinkering to get it where I wanted, which included some truss rod adjusting, lowering the saddles and cutting the adjustment screws shorter, tightening the trem claw, cutting the nut slots deeper, and of course intonation and tuning. What I find really kills the feel of a guitar, the whole set up actually, are the nut slots being way too high. This is an exceptionally common thing on cheap import guitars. You will never get the playability right unless this issue is addressed. The problem is that this can be an intimidating and daunting fix, as it requires more than just those ubiquitous hex wrenches that adjust the truss rod and bridge. You will need nut files, and will have to actually cut into the guitar. The good news is that nut files can be easily found online. What I personally use . . . because I'm not a professional luthier and a cheap bastard to boot . . . is a disassembled set of feeler gauges I purchased at my local Harbor Freight store for just a few bucks. Cut some "teeth" into these marked gauges and you've got a set of nut files. If you f*ck up and cut too deep, just mix up some baking soda and super glue, fill the slot in in, and do it over again. If you don't think that the pro luthier you're paying hundreds of dollars to set up your guitar is doing this, then think again! These are just a couple amongst the countless other shade tree luthier tips I've picked up here on AGF, and to which I don't even remember who to give proper credit.
After a couple days of fiddling around with this guitar in such a manner, letting things settle in, then coming back to it, it now plays very well and stays in tune perfectly. Granted, I'm not using the trem, which I never do with a six screw bridge. I always deck the trem on such guitars, block them off, and thereafter consider them a hardtail. I can always push forward on the back of the headstock a la Jake E Lee if I need to dive a note.
The frets were actually perfect and needed no work other than a polish when I cleaned and oiled that gorgeous fretboard.
The pickups are ceramic all around and sounded surprisingly good once significantly lowered. The bridge humbucker is in the 15k range and has a SD Distortion vibe. The middle and neck single coils are in the 5k range, very Stratty sounding when played individually, and quack pleasingly when paired together in position 4.
Position 2 on this guitar is interesting because it pairs up the unsplit bridge humbucker with the neck single coil. From the extremely clean soldering it appears it was wired this way from the factory. At first I thought to myself, "I'm going to have to heat up the soldering iron and put this selector switch aright." However, after playing the guitar for a while as configured, I realized that I actually liked it, and even understood and appreciated the logic and utility of it. Whether a mistake or intentional, it is a very interesting wiring alternative for an HSS Strat.
Let's be completely honest about this: If one has chosen an HSS Strat as their weapon of choice, then certain concessions have already been made which renounce any pretense to authentic vintage Strat tone. Knowing I’m not going to get authentic quack out of a hot, unsplit bridge humbucker paired with a middle single coil, the more useful option for me is pairing it with the neck pickup, which can at least give me a pseudo-middle-position-Tele-tone.
Position 1: Bridge
Position 2: Bridge + Neck
Position 3: Neck
Position 4: Neck + Middle
Position 5: Middle
