Stellar les Paul copy, any one tried these?

[tbryanh]

After reading this posting, I ordered one of the Stellar Les Pauls. I used to play guitar, and I am just now getting back into it.

I can't believe how nice the guitar is. When I ordered it, I was thinking it might be equivalent to the Les Paul Special that the music stores sold for about $800, but when it arrived, I realized that it is much more.

From what I could tell, he Special had a bolt-on neck and a flat solid mahogony body, but the neck on the Stellar is glued on, and it has a maple carved arched top on top of the solid mahogony body.

I think these features of the Stellar make it quite a step above the Special, my question is how big of a step? I am thinking the equivalent value of the Stellar could be up to 5 times the price I paid for it just like the ad says.

Does anybody know which model of Les Paul the Stellar is probably equivalent to?

Also, I was wondering how to determine if the frets are spaced correctly? I am sure they are, but how can I verify?

[tbryanh]

Well, I have done a little research, and set necks are not necessarily better that bolt-on necks. Plus, I am not sure if the Special was botl on or set.

[Regis]

Well here are some pics of my Stellar Mercury 8, the 335 copy. I put a Gotoh bridge on it, added straplocks, had the nut replaced and had it set up.

I also did some cosmetic changes to make it resemble a vintage 335 like Claptons and Alvin Lee's:
Replaced the pickguard with an authenically shaped one, replaced the knobs with vintage style reflector knobs, and replaced the black switch tip with a creme one. I also had some cool custom bumper stickers made for the case, I'll have to take a picture and show you.

I really like this guitar.

[saviour]

hi group

I'd just like add this is my first post,

I also have one of the stellar guitars, but' mine has the name Mo-Geo on the faceplate, with the Large Pearliod Star. it is a LP black beauty copy, 3 pups gold hardware and gold pearloid bindings with Large block inlayed fret markers, it also came with a case and the price is same as mentioned 235.00 off ebay.

as for the guitar I liked the looks of it, how many guitars have pearliod body and neck bindings. and I allways like the looks of the 3 pups.

As for playability, I would have to agree there seems to be some tunning issues here, aswell as the way it is wired hosting the 3 pups.
this guitar doesn't seem to be very loud to me, compared to the others of my herd and leans towards a blues tone, the tone is nice, you can dig into it and feel it wants to be heard, if the pick-ups would produce more volume, there seems to be only one tone threw out this guitar and 3 volumes, this is my first 3 pup LP copy and well I felt alittle disapointed in the wire lay out. it will need some work to get the tone out of the guitar. it is build solid with good choice of woods same as the real deal.

the price is right for the craftsmanship.

I also have a ltd deluxe lp copy with seymour duncans, has alot more volume, but over all my main guitar is a Charvel model 1 with a rockhard maple fret board. it kills all the guitars I have. The only guitar I can say that I owned that blows it away is a 1982 Gibson V those are a ton of tone and volume.

my gear is to much to list here. SWR 750 power blocks running trace elliots on one channel of my rack, and Randalls with celesions speaker on the other channel. gives me good clean power with alot of gain for blues, rock and old school metal.

rock on' and don't crack the foundation in your basement

anyways hopes this helps

[Regis]

Are you sure that guitar is made by Stellar? Mogeo is a different brand.

[tbryanh]

I couldn't find Mogeo or Mo-Geo on Ebay.

Is the guitar still available, or does it go by a different name?

[JJGross]

Kind of late in the game here, but I also have a Stellar Cherry SB LP copy.
Best $200 I ever spent on a new guitar, gotta love the benefits of modern CNC machining. For that price range getting a bound and set neck in a very well constructed instrument are pretty hard to beat. Of course it needed a setup, but I did that myself and I find even guitars costing 3x ~ 4x what the Stellar did usually need a setup. I threw in a pair of Gibby pups (ebay used - $60/pair) and some Grover locking-post tuners ($39 IIRC) and that's it. I wish the snot green tulip tuners it came with were better, I just like the way those things look. Mine needed no work on the nut, but the bridge saddles were about a nautical mile off intonation. No biggie for me, I have a Conn ST11 StrobeTuner. I can pretty much intonate and tune anything with that sucker. ;D

I wish it had bigger frets, but I'm a fan of big frets. Compared to the Gibby original, it plays very much like a 68 Deluxe I had and with the better pups and tuners, it's solid as a rock. It's slightly brighter than most LPs since it's all maple, but that's not a bad thing. It cuts through the band mix like nobody's business and never feeds back. I actually liked the really crunchy bright pups it came with, but they were too microphonic for my gig rig at stage volume. IIRC, the pups I have in it now are a Gibson 490R and 498T pair.

$200 with a HSC it a good deal for any guitar, much less a really well made set neck LP copy. I love mine.

Cheers,
- JJ

p.s. - I just noticed, the little pic I use as my avatar is my Stellar LP on a gig.

[JJGross]

Larger frets you say? Mmmm.
How large are we talking about? Just about the only thing I'm not in love with on my Stellar LP copy are the low frets and my first guitar (very long ago) was a 335 copy. That one played like stool, but I've been looking real hard at an Agile or Stealler 335 type. I know the Agiles have substantial frets. Not like metal-head shred scallopped board big, but big enough to notice and plenty there to really dig into and get aggressive.

Cheers,
- JJ

[Regis]

Larger frets you say? Mmmm.
How large are we talking about? Just about the only thing I'm not in love with on my Stellar LP copy are the low frets and my first guitar (very long ago) was a 335 copy. That one played like stool, but I've been looking real hard at an Agile or Stealler 335 type. I know the Agiles have substantial frets. Not like metal-head shred scallopped board big, but big enough to notice and plenty there to really dig into and get aggressive.

Cheers,
- JJ

Hi JJ,

Yes, the 335 Stellar definitely has larger frets compared to the LP copy. I don't have any experience with any other large fret guitars so I can't compare. With all the caveats such as a setup/nut dress or replace, etc, it's a very good guitar. The pickups are different than the LP copies, they are a bit darker but that might also have something to do with the different body. Another thing is that it is a very heavy guitar, more than anything else I own. That being said I like it very much and play it a lot. I jazzed mine up cosmetically, go here to see.

I paid $160.00 for mine about a year ago and the prices are up a little but still under $200 sans case. There is a blue one and a black one for sale on eBay right now. When I get flush I am going to get one of their big jazz box electrics.

Good luck,

Regis

[tbryanh]

Is the Stellar Mercury 8 just good for jazz only?

[Regis]

Is the Stellar Mercury 8 just good for jazz only?

Huh? I've played ZZ Top, Ted Nugent, Allman Bros, Rush, Led Zep, Cream, and a multitude of blues numbers all through a dimed amp with this thing. If it's capable of jazz I've never tried it.

Plus, one of the reasons I bought it was because Alvin Lee made history on a 335 and Clapton played one in Cream. Well, that's two reasons. Good ones.

This guitar's bridge pickup measures at over 16k, so I don't think they meant for it to be a jazz guitar. The neck pickup is a more sedate 8k though, I guess you could play So What if you wanted to.

[tbryanh]

What is a "big jazz box electric"?

[tbryanh]

I guess the hollow body has less sustain than a solid body, and it feeds back easier than a solid body.

How does the tone differ?

[tbryanh]

Do you plug the electric guitar into the mic input of the Conn ST11 StrobeTuner?

[Regis]

I guess the hollow body has less sustain than a solid body, and it feeds back easier than a solid body.

How does the tone differ?

It isn't exactly a hollow body, just like the real 335 it has a center block down the length of the body, except in the Stellar it is mahogany instead of maple like in the gibson. My Stellar has loads of sustain and it has very usable feedback characteristics. Hard to say about the tone, it is very woody, smooth and warm. Even having never played a real 335 I feel it sounds like one. Of course my amp rig is probably different from yours and so is my style.

Read here.

This is the Stellar Jazz big box.