Product Description

Fender Starcaster Strat Packs deliver a great-sounding, sleek-looking Stratocaster electric guitar paired with a compact but still-mighty guitar amplifier and a host of essential accessories. This Strat Pack includes a 3-tone sunburst Stratocaster guitar, strings, picks, a strap, Squier SP-10 amp, a 10-foot cable, a tuner, a gig bag, guitar stand, and an instructional DVD.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #418 in Musical Instruments
• Color: Sunburst
• Brand: Fender Starcaster
• Model: 0284001107
• Released on: 2008-08-01
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 30.00 pounds

Features

• Everything you need to start rocking, including a 3-tone sunburst Stratocaster guitar and 10-watt Squier amp with 10-foot cord
• Classic Fender Stratocaster guitar for all styles of music
• Synchronous tremolo bridge for subtle shimmers or hard-core whammy
• Three single-coil pickups paired with a 5-way pickup selector switch; volume and 2 tone controls for wide range of tones
• Package also includes strings, picks, strap, gigbag, guitar stand, and instructional DVD

From the Manufacturer
Manufacturer's Description (December 10, 2008)
Fender Starcaster Strat Packs deliver a great-sounding, sleek-looking Stratocaster electric guitar paired with a compact but still-mighty guitar amplifier and a host of essential accessories. This Strat Pack includes a 3-tone sunburst Stratocaster guitar, strings, picks, a strap, Squier SP-10 amp, a 10-foot cable, a tuner, a gig bag, guitar stand, and an instructional DVD.

The legendary Fender Stratocaster electric guitar.

The Squier SP-10 amp.

The highly versatile Stratocaster guitar offers legendary Fender tone combined with classic styling, and it's suited for all styles of music. It features a 22-fret fingerboard with dot position inlays, three single-coil pickups with 5-way switching, sealed die-cast tuners for consistent tuning stability, chrome hardware and a three-ply white pickguard. The synchronous tremolo bridge can be used for subtle shimmery manipulation of chords or hard-core whammy-bar excursions. You'll also get a wide range of tones from the single volume and dual tone controls.

The Squier SP-10 amp controls include volume, treble, bass, and an overdrive on/off button that delivers tube-like tone. A headphone output allows silent practice. It features a 6-inch speaker, 10-watt drive, and a tough, textured vinyl exterior.

What's in the Box
Fender Stratocaster electric guitar (3-tone sunburst), strings, picks, a strap, Squier SP-10 amp, a 10-foot cable, a tuner, a gig bag, guitar stand, and an instructional DVD

Customer Reviews

Perfect!!

Its just amazingly perfect for playing at home!!

It includes everything. And I mean everything that you might need. Its not even mentioned in the product description that a headset is also included! Which is totally what I needed as I play it for hours and hours and I should not be disturbing others. Amp is cool, its loud enough for home use. It has Bass and Treble effects as well which is very cool. A guitar stand is also included which makes it easy to keep the guitar when not in use.

About the guitar itself, it needed a bit of tuning when I took it out of the box, but that was again very easy with the chromatic tuner provided. After that tuning its just been sounding inch perfect!

Everyone around me is in love with this guitar. Trust me it won't let you down. A fender is always a good choice! Specially if it comes with all the accessories for a really great price!

About amazon, very fast service, cheers!!
I paid for standard shipping only. And I got in something like 60 hours!

holding up really well
For someone just starting out, this is an excellent buy.


I bought mine in 2004 when this package first hit the market. Still works great. The action (the space between the strings & fretboard) has held up well. The electronics have held up on mine, although the one I bought was made in Indonesia; not sure if they are still made there or in China.

Everything that came with it is still working great (tuner, strap, cord, amp, gig bag).

When it is new, it goes out of tune quite frequently, not only from the strings being new; but also since this is a $200 bundle, the hardware is not what you'll find on a $700 Strat.

My musician friends all agree that the Starcaster sounds and plays close enough to a Stratocaster that you could do ameteur performances with it; but doubt that you'll ever see a Starcaster at a paid gig.

If the Strat style is not your thing, check out the First Act Paul Westerberg signature model.

Now that I've made the jump to another guitar, I still use this one when I travel and have taught myself how to adjust the neck, action, and change hardware. So it is not only great to learn to play, but also great for learning how to maintain, adjust, upgrade, and repair a guitar.

Great Starter Kit...worth the minor limitations
First, I am writing this from the perspective of having played and owned numerous guitars over the last 43 years...yes, I am a dinosaur from the '60's. I've experienced everything from Silvertones, Dan Electros, Lafayettes [anyone remember those?] to Gibsons & Fenders.

This guitar is a very decent instrument as a starter...and the rest of the kit rounds it out. I am using it as a backup for slide, mainly...purely for home use.

Pros:
-Generally well-constructed and and nicely finished & appointed, and it arrived in very good shape [there were some issues that had nothing to do with shipping...they were quality-related, mentioned below].
-very responsive pick-ups, considering: bass & tonality very good
-good slide guitar action & sound
-Everything you need to start up...as listed...BTW, mine DID include headphones with a 1/4" adapter
-nicely packaged and comes in a nice box...presents well as a gift to your budding rock star

Cons [note: all are reasonable considering the level of intended use]:
-the tuners adjust very sloppily...not a big deal for beginners, but if important to some, they can be replaced. Two of mine are leaking at their seals, and I am going to see if Fender will provide replacements
-as mentioned by others, the frets are not finished well and might cut fingers that are not callused [not a problem for me]...but they can be filed off
-the strings are expectedly not the best...even the expensive guitars come with them...I'm putting on either Elixir or Ernie Ball strings
-the amp is not bad for what it is...however, it produces a rapid ticking noise at high volume [it sounds like a clipping transistor], almost 200 ticks per minute. This is a design flaw in the amp...not a defect. Can't expect much better for what it is, though.

Other Notes:
-the neck and fretboard on mine were both maple; the fretboard was not rosewood [as stated in the product description], which I would have preferred, but no biggie
-mine is made in China, but it's understandable
-the stand is a bit flimsy...but expectedly so
-I haven't tested the tuner...but I don't use them...however it does tune quite well using the "harmonics" method [see: [...] ]
7/25/09 EDIT: Amazon censored my reference to an external web site that shows how to tune a guitar using the harmonics of the guitar...kind of silly, since it wasn't a web site of a competitor, just an instructional site. So, if you are interested in this technique, just google it. It works well on amplified instruments!

Overall, I'd say it is a definite "buy"...maybe not at the MSRP, but in the $100 to $125 range.

Good luck!