Gear Friday: Daisy Rock "Stardust Elite" Guitar

Every now and then, a finish on a guitar catches my eye and I have to have it. That happened one day when I was at Sol's in Omaha (local pawn shop that I might talk about in a future post), and I just had to have the guitar because of the way it looked. I didn't even care that it was a Daisy Rock brand... it played decent and looked awesome.


As you can see, it's sort of a gold-yellow pearloid and a pinkish-purple outline. They call it a violet burst, but I've never really thought that was quite accurate. In any case, after a little tweak on the track bar - I mean truss rod (the Nascar fan in me strikes again), this plays nearly as well as many of my higher end guitars.

From Musician's Friend writeup:
...with a pair of high output humbucking pickups and mahogany body. Master volume control and master tone-tap, a push-pull tone control for coil-splitting the humbuckers into single-coil pickups, adding tonal versatility. The mahogany body with a gorgeous burst finish makes a big visual impression. The Daisy Rock Stardust has a set mahogany neck with a smooth-fingering rosewood fingerboard an 24-3/4" scale that offer great sustain and superb playability. Grover tuners and a fully adjustable tune-o-matic-style bridge ensure accurate intonation.  
Guitar Player Magazine summed up the Stardust Elite as follows: "Pros: rude tones, excellent playability. Cons: none. It's fun to play, it feels great, and it always rocks hard." 

As for tone, it's pretty comparable to my Ibanez RG3XXV, so it can be fairly hot without being totally overbearing like I find actives. The simplicity of the knobs and the switch make for a comfortable playing guitar. It's got a fast neck with a thin profile, but I do find the guitar input jack to be a bit odd. It's stuck out a bit further than I'm used to, so I'll probably swap that out or make an adjustment with a washer at some point.

Overall, I was pretty impressed with the build quality. This one had a little damage to it from being banged around at the pawn shop, but nothing some epoxy and sandpaper couldn't take care of. Basically, it's just a little dent in the neck and a little bit of a rough spot along an edge.

Of course, first time I showed up with it at band rehearsal, I got made fun of. I didn't care, though. If they're not man enough to play a Daisy Rock, that's their issue. I'll play whatever suits my mood, and something that stands out on stage is always better than another boring LP or Strat to me.

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