Improving the sound of my Goldstar

Hello.

I have been playing with my goldstar for time now. and i cant help notice that the magic is lost when i turn on the amplifier. When the guitar is not plugged it, you can tell that the wood resonates nicely and it has a very warm tone. But it loses this when the amplfier is turned on. I am playing through a fender super champ xd so that is not the problem.

My guitar was the one that couldnt be identified, but it was thought that it was from 90's !? The problem is that the sratchplate and the tone knob and pickups all look quiet new. And somebody speculated that the pickups could have been squire. Im thinking that the scratchplate has been replaced with a loaded one from a squire strat.

here are some pics
Scrathcplate


Scratchplate:



Now i have some spare money that i can spend towards improving my guitar, i am not thinking about keeping it as a collectors item and am not planning to sell it on. I just want it to sound good and play good.

I have done some research and have found that changing the electronics inside the guitar makes a difference. the pictures show that the elctronics are not very good. So i found this on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fender-Japan-Strat-Stratocaster-Upgrade-Kit_W0QQitemZ130297469235QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Guitar_Accessories?hash=item130297469235&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1683|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318

It looks good, and it has cts and cloth wire

Was also thinking about getting these, Tonerider vintage pickups, cos they have got good reviews. I was thinkign about getting some handwound ones but they are ?40 more.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3-PICKUP-SET-Tonerider-Pure-Vintage-for-Fender-Strat_W0QQitemZ260386268081QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Guitar_Accessories?hash=item260386268081&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1683|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318

and put that all onto a vintage mint scrathcplate and some aged pickup covers and some aged knbos. Only cos i like the look and it wont improve sound.

My question: Do you think this is a good investment to make my goldstar sound better ? Thanks

A new 5-way, and cloth wire will make no difference to the sound at all, save your money! If the 5-way packs up replace it with a higher quality one for the sake of reliability, but until it does it's not essential. An Orange Drop cap might make a small difference if you use the tone controls, and they are onlt a couple of quid so you might as well. I prefer 0.022uf ones normally used in Les Pauls.

Pickups will make a big difference, and unfortunately you usually get what you pay for so cheap pickups are not usually the best option. Keep you eyes peeled on ebay for some used ones, it's personal preference but there are a lot of nice pickups available.

IMO it's well worth spending the money as you have a basically good guitar, that is lacking in the pickup department.

+ 1 John, though I would probably change the switch for something that feels better - some of those plastic switches can be horribly vague.

The most cost effective upgrade would be to get some Seymour Duncans secondhand from eBay - if you're patient you can get them for between ?20 to ?25 each sometimes. Either the Vintage type or the Alnico IIs should be good replacements -or even a mix of the two. You could do all these improvements for under ?100, but if you want to spend more & get new pickups, that's fine too.

I'm curious about Toneriders, though I haven't tried them, since I've usually managed to get used SDs for less money.

I'm very happy with my Voltage Vicious pickups. At ?80 a set surely one of the cheapest hand wound UK made pickups around and did wonders for my Silver Star. 8)
Can sometimes be had even cheaper on ebay!
http://www.voltageguitarpickups.com/

/Magnus

Thank you for your replies.

So changing the pots and wiring will not make a difference to the tone. and you say that the only reason to change a 5-way switch is that it can be a bit vague...

I find it ok and you can feel the notches very well when you are changing so i guess i wont change that either.

Concerning Tonerider, i too was not interested in pickups made in china. but from the numerous reviews and from all the samples i have they really are great for the vintage tone. They are on the same level as Tokai: a well kept secret!

If i was going to get some SD's i would try to find some antiquity pickups. But they wont go very cheap im sure.

So to conclude the viable way of doing is just to upgrade pickups!

Also im finding that the tremlo bridge doesnt give me that much sustain. thanks

gtxtokai said:

So to conclude the viable way of doing is just to upgrade pickups!

Also im finding that the tremlo bridge doesnt give me that much sustain. thanks

Click to expand...

The most common upgrade for any Tokai is to change the pickups, lots of us have done that, even when the guitar had proper Tokai pickups in the first place.

As for the trem, it's hard to comment without playing it. Maybe it just needs a proper set-up?

Maybe that is the case, im finding that the strings always feel a little too high in action, but then when i lower it, they start to buzz really bad...

And i cant even upgrade the pickups cos, i blown all the money on a new wah pedal! Oh dear i fail at life...

But thanks for your comments

gtxtokai said:

im finding that the strings always feel a little too high in action, but then when i lower it, they start to buzz really bad...

Click to expand...

Hopefully that could be remedied quite easily with a bit of neck adjustment.
If not you probably need to redress your frets.

/Magnus

mrsuspend said:

gtxtokai said:

im finding that the strings always feel a little too high in action, but then when i lower it, they start to buzz really bad...

Click to expand...

Hopefully that could be remedied quite easily with a bit of neck adjustment.
If not you probably need to redress your frets.

/Magnus

Click to expand...

Well i puts some 0.10's on, and now the frets seem really shallow, and the neck is dead straight, with a slight bit of curvuture like any neck should. but who knows really...