Customer Reviews

Ministar, AMS-CASTAR KIT,6 String Guitar,3 Single Coil Pickups, Vibrato, Bag, OGA-1 Headphone Amp, Profile PMT-3000 Tuner, 1,Hard Rock Maple, Mahogany Stain Finish, 25.5" Scale

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Good, Bad, and Ugly....

The Good:
1. Neck and action felt good.
2. Tuner worked great.
3. Design of guitar was clever and stored easily.

The Bad:
1. Amazon packing was poor. Box was way too big. As a result the guitar in the gig bag broke out of the manufacturer box and slid around the inside of the shipping box thus causing the gig bag to rip.
2. Volume control did not work smoothly. Went from no sound to about 90% sound. More like a switch than a smooth gradual volume control. I suspect it was a poor design and the resistance was far too high for the circuit design.
3. Tone control also did not work well. More like a switch than a control.
4. I ordered the mahogany stain. Clear, no stain model was shipped.

The Ugly:
1. The OGA-1 Headphone amp did not work. Only hear lots of static. Plugging the guitar input created lots of static. Switching from normal to overdrive was not smooth and you get no sound unless you giggle the switch.
2. Vibrato bar was corroded and pitted. Poor quality control

Even though the neck felt good, the quality control of the electronics and some of the hardware was very, very poor. Great concept design but they took too many shortcuts in getting a cheap price.

I have the earlier version (non-adjustable bridge, no built in headphone amp), but aside from a few little quirks, it's a great little ax. I've taken it overseas and played at hotels with it. For ~$165, you can't beat it. Check out [...] to see how it sounds.

Pros:
o Light, compact
o Does a good job at emulating a Strat

Cons:
o It eats up strings (hopefully fixed with the new bridge, but so fare I can't find one to upgrade mine) - pack plenty of spare strings if you travel.
o Tone control needs a bit of soldering (1 wire) to fix - see LimeyInSD on youtube (vids include how to fix it plus sample songs)
o The old tremolo arm was poorly attached - it's easy to fix with a couple of O rings (#47 for the groove and #50 from Home Depot).

NOTE: This is for the original Castar and Telstar - I haven't checked it with the PRO.
Add a Zoom G1 or a Digitech RP55 and you'll be ready to rock and roll.