Preliminary Report on the Starla

Mnoble

New Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2013
Messages
11
Location
Mohrsville, PA
The Starla arrived on Thursday and I have gotten in a good deal of hours on it. So here are some initial thoughts.
First. It is stunning. When I opened the case for the first time my jaw dropped. I have the Vintage Mahogany version and the color is great. My wife, who doesn't understand why I need more than one guitar, was also amazed. It is a beautifully designed instrument. Love the shape of the headstock!

As I started playing I really appreciated the strings. They are PRS strings and the gauge goes from .10 to .46. They work really well; stable while playing chords and very bendable when needed. The action is perfect and the fret board is extremely playable. The fret bars are made from proprietary fret wire from PRS. At first they felt a little odd and higher than my other guitars, but once you start playing you notice nothing out of place. Very smooth working your way up and down the fretboard.

The Bigsby is FUN! I had read one review that claimed that the Bigsby threw the Starla out of tune. Not so. I was playing with a jam group the other night for about three hours and only needed a slight adjustment early on. Otherwise it was dead on. Very nice. Never used a Bigsby before. I hope that I don't become annoying with it. The tuners work great, by the way.

The Starla is heavier than I thought but, again, once you start playing, you don't think about it. It is a very mellow sounding guitar. You can find some nice voicings switching between the single coil pick-ups and the Humbuckers and using the three-way selector for the bridge pickups, the neck pickups or both. I think that I would like to hear a bit more guts on the low end, but I can get that from my amp when needed. All in all, it is a beautiful sounding instrument - lows, highs, and mids.

One minor thing. The buttons for attaching a strap are a good deal larger than on my other guitars. I have to wrestle a bit to get the strap on. Otherwise it is perfection. I am going to have a hard time playing my other guitars for some time. (I have a fifty year old Gibson J45, a Taylor 414CE, and an Eastman T184 MX.) But all have their place.

I will work on getting some photos posted. I am a free lance photographer but I do not do most of the on line Photo Bucket like sights. Too bad you can't simply cut and paste!
 
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