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Fullerton ST3 3 Single-Coil Pickup Solid Body Electric Guitar (Closeout) $49!

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This is kind of funny....

Checked the FedEx tracking site this morning, and the Aria Strat Pack that I ordered from Music123 (location: South Bend, IN) on May 1 was in Chicago as of 5:42 AM today. So, in ten days, the guitar has moved 75 miles farther away. I must concluded that the intention here is to ship it to NY by circumnavigating the globe in a westward direction. Since it is moving at an average speed of 7.5 miles per day, at its current speed and heading, I should receive it in late Feb. 2016. Maybe I should have arranged to drive out to Indiana and pick it up. Then again, the shipping charge was only $4.95, which is really low. But I guess I understand why now....

Seriously, it's supposed to be delivered by next Tuesday, which will be 2 weeks from the actual order. Glad I wasn't counting on a speedy delivery! :eek: Guess I can afford to be patient though, at the pittance I paid for it! :D
 
buddy of mine stopped over and had to have my silver one (just when I had the neck just right) so I'm now back to a single red reverse burst fattie..... guess I'll just have to stand by for the next reported killer deal....
 
Opposite experience from you DVM, I finally got a tracking number on the 9th for the Aria pack, FedEx showed the estimated delivery date for the 15th, and not more than 5 minutes ago, it shows up at my door. 2 days from Indiana to Oregon, and no, I didn't spring for faster shipping. Go figure. Incidentally, the woman delivering it told me that this is at least the 20th Aria pack she has delivered in the last 2 days. Everyone loves a deal eh?
 
Isopeanut said:
....Incidentally, the woman delivering it told me that this is at least the 20th Aria pack she has delivered in the last 2 days. Everyone loves a deal eh?
Click to expand...
That may be exactly why some of these orders are taking so long to get out the door there @ M123. They must have sold a boatload of these cheapo guitars on that close-out deal!
 
I just read somewhere that Music123 was just bought out by another company. That may explain the shipping strangeness and the product dump.
 
finally got around to wiring up the GFS Overwounds in the neck & mid positions and a 14k bucker in the bridge.. really smoothed up the harshness i heard in the stockers.. had to scratch my head awhile on the 5-way until recalling T-mans comment on it looking like the mega-switch from Stew Mac. Their wiring diagram matches the placement on the Fullerton ST-4, it doesn't quite function like the Stew-Mac but other than that the solder points are as follows:

Humbucker/single-coil/single-coil

Point # Wire assignment
1 middle pickup hot wire
2 neck pickup hot wire
3 output to volume pot
4 ground to volume pot
5 empty
6 bridge pickup coil tap (just left empty)
7 bridge pickup hot wire
 
Well, the Aria Strat Pack finally showed up today, exactly 2 weeks after I ordered it. I unpacked it just enough to check out the guitar itself. Very similar to the one belonging to my coworker that I described HERE. Intonation is off quite a bit on a couple of strings, but otherwise well set up with no noticeable fret buzz and a nice low action. The neck is nice and straight with just a bit of fret sprout. This time, since I was at home during lunch, I was able to plug it into my Vox AD30VT and checked out the tone of the pickups. Nothing to rave about, but really not bad at all, and with a very typical Strat tone. Honestly, I don't know how they can put out a guitar of this quality for $100, much less the $30 I paid for it along with a cheap SS amp, gig bag, cord, strap and a couple of picks. This one will go to my son as a Confirmation present--he's being confirmed this weekend. While he didn't play that nice Squier Black & Chrome Tele hardly at all, for $30, it's no big deal if he doesn't touch this one. I know somebody who will....
 
marnold said:
DANG! You guys are going to get me divorced . . .
Click to expand...

With as much I've been spending lately, if my wife hadn't divorced me a long time ago, she sure would be now!

I just ordered an ST4...after going back and reading this entire thread, I wound up ordering a Standard also. Deals this good are too good to pass up.

I had been thinking about ordering an SX strat for a while, glad I held off.

...I was going to either order some GFS pups or a Yamaha DD55 digital percussion unit this week, guess that plan's out the window now!
 
marnold said:
DANG! You guys are going to get me divorced . . .
Click to expand...

HAR! ...actually I'm compensating for all the gear I lost while I was married

...sometimes divorce can be a good thing :D

anyway... There's back bow in the little Silvertone guitar which can't be fixed through truss rod adjustment... but again, I just don't view it as a big deal... the amp/tuner/strap/DVD/guitar body that came in that pack was EASILY worth more than $39... the amp is actually rather impressive... so it's all good...

I gotta say, the grain and the cherry-burst on the Silvertone body is totally beautiful... I'm gonna put a different neck on it and upgrade all the hardware... at some point, it will be a great little guitar...
 
Guess I was lucky, 'cuz I've read about quite a few neck problems on these closeout guitars. I got two Fullerton ST4's and one Aria Strat knockoff, and the neck is straight as a string on all of 'em! :D
 
In case anyone is still in need of one of the Standard Body Fullertons, they are still available - just not if you browse the guitars or search by name. If you search by product #, they still show up and are in stock - just had a black and red delivered here to work for 2 co-workers. They are still available in black and blue.

Black
Blue
 
About the Floyd Rose ST-4

If anyone was wondering about the ST-4 with floyd rose tremolo, I got one. The FR seams to be identical to the Gotoh version, which gets reasonably positive reviews. Took about 5 minutes total time to get it in tune the first time. Has stayed in tune through my attempts at stressing it.

The neck is typical ST-4, straight but will need some serious filing or dremeling.
 
went for a little different look on my red-reverse burst
 
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Just a quick follow up on my Silvertone with the bad neck bow which was uncurable with a truss rod adjustment... under normal circumstance the guitar would have gone right back, but I figured that for the $39.99 I spent, no foul... the amp/body/tuner were easily worth twice the total price... so... I found an article describing how to heat the neck with a clothes iron to soften the glue holding the fretboard in place... then, through the use of clamps the slight repositioning of the fretboard would cure the bow...

Well... I tried it last night... heated the neck up real good and then clamped it to a chunk of 2X4 so that it was slightly past flat... then I let it sit overnight... after work today I unclamped it, put it back on the body and voila! ...I'll be damned if it's not completely fixed... the bow which caused it to be completely unplayable is now gone...it now plays like butter... YeeHaw!!

...just thought I'd share
 
Here's my Fully Strat Sunburst w/ GFS overwound p'ups, Fender Champion 30 Reverb amp, and Behringer OD100 & NR100 pedals.

522681173_63003e9970_o.jpg
 
Thanks guys! It's meager, but I like the sound. The Fender sounds a lot better than the little practice amp that came with the Fullerton pack. I'm using the eMedia Guitar Methods Ver. 2 CD to learn by.

I like that look also, Big K. :)
 
I got the standard strat kit as a gift and loving it! Since then, I've purchased a Squire '51 and looking to mod both..

Anyway, any of you try different pickguards for the Fullerton Strat? Is it the same size as the ones you can buy at GFS or other sites?
 
dyle said:
I got the standard strat kit as a gift and loving it! Since then, I've purchased a Squire '51 and looking to mod both..

Anyway, any of you try different pickguards for the Fullerton Strat? Is it the same size as the ones you can buy at GFS or other sites?
Click to expand...

I dunno. They look pretty unique. I haven't ever seen an aftermarket pickguard shaped like it. I'm not saying that there aren't any. I've just never seen one. Some folks will custom cut one for you though.
 
Now that you mentioned it, the pick guards aren't similar at all! I wanted a black one with the black fullerton strat and aged plastic pickups and knobs. I think that would have looked cool. Maybe i'll go a different route now.

In the meantime, I'm just going to continue playing with it since it is a guitar after all :p
 
I was going to do a tracing of the PG on my son's SSS to try to adapt so I could add one to my ST4 which does not have one. I will have to place the holes for the controls differently, etc. Then I was going to see about ordering one, or the material to make one.
 
anyone try a stock "Strat" replacement and see how it fits or what would need to be cut down to make it work?
 
i played one of those the other day and i was amazed on what it played like though since i only own one guitar myself i would probaly buy something a little more solid
 
Thanks Tremoloman, I may try it out you know me not a Strat Fan in general but at that price WOW. I also have a fellow co worker who is interested in this site. Call my wife and I when you can.

The Freak..............................
 

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