Star (guitar)

The star is an avant-garde body shape of solid body electric guitar, particularly favoured for heavy metal music. It blends some features of the Flying V and Gibson Explorer, both of them much older designs.

Models

Jackson

The earliest known star bodies were built by Jackson Guitars, who produced both through-neck custom models and commercial versions with bolt-on necks.

More recently, Jackson have produced the Kelly Star KSXT/KS-2 with a similar body shape to the Star, combining the "front" half of a Jackson Kelly with the asymmetric pointed 'V' ends of the Jackson Randy Rhoads. This body shape was only in production for a short time in the early 2000s, with its market niche now being served by the Jackson Warrior, which is less distinctly "star" shaped at first glance but has a similar general structure.

Other major makers

A "star" body produced by Kramer Guitars was known as the "Voyager". Charvel Guitars have also produced at least one model of star profile.

The Dean ML is a similar design to the star, but differs in having symmetrical tail horns (or "wings" as they are known in Flying V and similar designs). The Washburn Guitars "Dime" (or "Dimebag", after Dimebag Darrell who popularised the Dean design) uses the Dean ML profile.ESP guitars have the RS series guitar, similar to the star but with a different headstock. It is only available for sale in Japan. There exist also an ESP Edwards version of it.

Ibanez built star shaped models in the mid-1980s in its DT and DG series. As with most other "star" guitars, the body was a variant of the "Explorer" shape (called "Destroyer" by Ibanez) that had a roughly triangular section of its rear end cut out.

B.C. Rich have a star shaped model called "Ironbird", as well as the more slender "Stealth".

Custom designs

The original Jackson "star" shape remains popular with home constructors and commercial custom-builders. Reasons for this popularity include:

* A recognisable and distinctive shape.

* Not currently available from larger manufacturers.

* Historic, having been owned and played by some notable guitarists and appeared in publicity shots.

* Suitable for both standing and seated playing positions, unlike most radical shapes.

The main disadvantage of the shape is the difficulty in obtaining a suitable guitar case, owing to the large upper tail horn. Also some patterns of tremolo arm, for example the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece, the Mustang trem and the long pattern Gibson Vibrola, cannot be accommodated owing to the nearness of the bridge to the edge of the body.

A stratocaster-compatible body is available from Warmoth Guitars, but through-neck star bodies are not commercially available.

Rosa Hurricane

The guitar at left in the image at right is a Rosa Hurricane of "star" design, date and country of manufacture unknown. The electrics are simple and classic: Two high-output humbuckers, conventional three-position pickup change switch, single passive volume and tone controls. This is because the guitar was built to be played loud to extremely loud and dirty, with most of the tone shaping being done by guitar effects or the guitar amplifier itself.

"Rosa" was a house brand of Australian importer Rose Music. Originally equipped with a Stratocaster style tremolo arm, this particular instrument has been converted to hard-tail ("blocked") to improve tuning stability and provide even more sustain.

Other "star" designs

The name "star" has been given to several other guitar shapes unrelated to the Jackson star body.

One example was the guitar, or really two guitars, played by Gerry Shephard from 1972 in The Glitter Band, the backing band of Gary Glitter. These had bodies in the shape of a regular five-pointed star, in keeping with the glam rock genre of the band. The first, silver in colour, was destroyed in a baggage handling accident; The second, gold in colour, was built by John Birch to replace the first.

A copy of the John Birch star guitar, but silver in colour and produced by First Act, has more recently been played by Martin Gore touring with Depeche Mode.

ee also

Other radical guitar profiles

* Gibson Explorer.
* Gibson Flying V.
* Dean ML.
* Jackson Randy Rhoads.
* Jackson Kelly.
* Jackson King V.
* Burns Flyte.

External links

* [http://www.jcguitars.com/stardeath.htm Rob Cavestany's Custom Shop Jackson Star Body] , a Jackson through-neck, with photos.
* [http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/bodies/radical.cfm?fuseaction=star Star body] at Warmoth Guitars.
* [http://www.glitterband.fsnet.co.uk/StarguitarstoryGerryShephard.htm Gerry Shepherd's Star Guitar] .
* [http://www.firstact.com/Products/CustomGuitars/Gallery/Gore_Martin_StarGuitar_silverSparkle.aspx Martin Gore's First Act "Star" guitar] .