Ministar Travel Guitars

Started by Elantric, September 15, 2013, 07:32:40 AM

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Elantric

Often I need a whammy bar on a travel guitar - one option is the MiniStar Castar
http://ministarguitars.net


and with some creativity Both above can accept a GK-3 for mounting

GraemeJ

Quote from:  Elantric on September 15, 2013, 07:32:40 AMOften I need a whammy bar  - another options is the MiniStar Castar
http://ministarguitars.net

That has to be one of the worst designed websites I've seen for many a year.

Elantric

#2
QuoteThat has to be one of the worst designed websites I've seen for many a year.

Who cares? - (I've seen many web sites full of glossy CGI mock-ups, that turned out to be vaporware / marketing fishing expeditions)



But I never judge a product solely based upon a slick website ( slick websites often promote  junk  gear ) 
And the only model I can recommend is the Castar, Mine is great , got it two years ago on recommendation from Bill Ruppert.

They were selling on Ebay back in 2011 for $109 - but now they raised the price  - but it fits its purpose as a "gig-able" travel guitar - AFTER you spend $ with a Luthier to set up the frets - most are horrible out of the box.

Despite its whacky appearance,  after I updated the Tremolo to the recent version  my Castar works very well  -

http://www.playawayguitars.com/play_away_guitars_shop.php?itemID=552


Good article on these MiniStar Guitars.
http://www.gizmag.com/bob-wiley-ministar-guitars/20726/


Bill Ruppert

#3
MiniStars are GREAT!
I have a bunch of them.
My favorite is the versions with out preamp. strat , les paul, soap bar, tele ect. Last generation is best...for me.
The old versions are on ebay all the time
I use the leg base alone without the strap bars.
The are barely 3lbs and look like an umbrella in the case. Fits in the airplane overhead easy. I also have a 3/4 version I took this week end and it is TINY! They all sound and play great with set up.
Here is the acoustic version demo I did.



Brak(E)man

#5
my own ministar version of my main guitar ( double neck )

one fretted and one fretless neck
to be fitted with 2 GK in the near future

here's the main axe


swimming with a hole in my body

I play Country music too, I'm just not sure which country it's from...

"The only thing worse than a guitar is a guitarist!"
- Lydia Lunch

Brak(E)man

#6
my double neck
one fretted and one fretless

swimming with a hole in my body

I play Country music too, I'm just not sure which country it's from...

"The only thing worse than a guitar is a guitarist!"
- Lydia Lunch

supernicd

Aw, man, that is cheating.  Double neck guitars are supposed to weigh 60 pounds and leave you crying in agony for days after your performance. :)

Kidding of course.  Very cool rig!
Strat w/ GK-3, Godin LGXT
VG-99, GR-55, GP-10
---------------------------------------------------------------

Elantric

#8


I actually have all the components now to create  similar setup.
I recently got the MiniStar double neck bar on ebay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/380809705918?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649



I already had a MiniStar Castar (which is Fender 25.5" Scale length) , so I found a used MiniStar Lestar (Gibson 24.75" Scale Length) but the fret work on the Lestar is extremely poor - I had considered refretting, but now i may try my hand at Fretless

EDIT

Here is is:


Bill Ruppert

Just the last two months I bought 2 Ministar Lespaul guitars.
I LOVE THEM!
They are the new version.
They need a set up and spot fret leveling but man thats all I have been playing.
Takes a few hours.
I used them on the up coming EHX demos.
Plays like butter and sounds huge. Plus you can angle them up to the ceiling which helps and wrist problems you may have.
Here they are with the lap bar.

Brak(E)man

Quote from:  SuperNiCd on February 27, 2014, 08:48:16 AM
Aw, man, that is cheating.  Double neck guitars are supposed to weigh 60 pounds and leave you crying in agony for days after your performance. :)

Kidding of course.  Very cool rig!

I have one of those to :)



but thanx to this strap , it's a non back breaker
slider dual shoulder strap
swimming with a hole in my body

I play Country music too, I'm just not sure which country it's from...

"The only thing worse than a guitar is a guitarist!"
- Lydia Lunch

Brak(E)man

Quote from:  Elantric on February 27, 2014, 09:09:09 AM


I actually have all the components now to create  similar setup.
I recently got the MiniStar double neck bar on ebay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/380809705918?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649



I already had a MiniStar Castar (which is Fender 25.5" Scale length) , so I found a used MiniStar Lestar (Gibson 24.75" Scale Length) but the fret work on the Lestar is extremely poor - I had considered refretting, but now i may try my hand at Fretless

I got a MiniStar Lestar really cheap new on ebay since it had major fret issues.
Good for me , defretting was/is my goal, they play beaut. together so go for it.
next step for the twin ministars are mounting GKs
swimming with a hole in my body

I play Country music too, I'm just not sure which country it's from...

"The only thing worse than a guitar is a guitarist!"
- Lydia Lunch

alexmcginness

VG-88V2, GR-50, GR-55, 4 X VG-99s,2 X FC-300,  2 X GP-10 AXON AX 100 MKII, FISHMAN TRIPLE PLAY,MIDX-10, MIDX-20, AVID 11 RACK, BEHRINGER FCB 1010, LIVID GUITAR WING, ROLAND US-20, 3 X GUYATONE TO-2. MARSHALL BLUESBREAKER, SERBIAN ELIMINATOR AMP. GR-33.

tawalker

Quote from:  Brak(E)man on February 28, 2014, 01:52:37 AM
next step for the twin ministars are mounting GKs
Sorry I came in so late on this topic - I only just came across it, looking for anything I can find online about the possibility of fitting a GK pickup to a Ministar. I was beginning to think this would be either impossible, or not something that anyone else on Earth would want to do... hope I am mistaken on both counts ;D

I have a Ministar Testar ("Harley Benton"-branded), and if there was any way to get a Roland-compatible hex pickup fitted to it (even if the SCAMP (headphone amp) had to go to make room for the electronics), I'd be delighted. I'm guessing a magnetic-type hex pickup wouldn't be possible, so presumably it would have to be a piezo-type?

If you manage(d) to install a GK or similar pickup in a Ministar, I'd be really interested to find out how you went about it, and/or what the results were like?

Many thanks :)

Tim

Elantric

#14
Mounting a GK-3 to a Ministar is  rather straightforward for someone with DIY skills - requires a couple hardware store metal L Brackets to mount the  GK PU.

A couple LP Pick guard brackets + screws should work

I'm making a MiniStar Doubleneck myself and intend to install a GK-3 on at least one Ministar.

cooltouch

I just took a look at a few different Ministars. One had no bridge saddles at all, but the other two did. It would be very difficult to go the piezo saddle route (like the RMC ones that Godin uses) because you would have to fabricate new saddles for the transducers, and the you'd have to find somewhere to fit the accompanying circuit board.


I'm not familiar with the gk3, but I am familiar with the gk2a, which is used with the GR-33. I suspect there's not a big difference, however, especially when it comes to mounting the pickup. With the gk-2a, you want to locate the pickup as close to the bridge as possible, which doesn't look like it would be a problem with the Ministar. Locating the accompanying module may take some imagination, however. But my gk-2a came with a bracket that fit under the rear strap lug (loosen the lug's screw enough to pass the bracket between the lug and the body, then tighten down the screw). I'm thinking that if you went this route you should probably mount the bracket upside down so the module would be facing the player because otherwise it will be hanging over the bridge area, thus restricting movement. But yeah, it seams doable.


Elantric, I'm not really clear why you'd need a mounting bracket for the pickup, unless you mean the module it is connected to. Does the gk-3 not come with a bracket? I've mounted my gk-2a to my Strat using a piece of adhesive Velcro because I wanted to dispense with the bracket, after years of using the bracket. It's a cleaner setup that way. But in tawalker's case, a bracket will be necessary.
Best,
Michael

Elantric

The Gk-2A and GK-3A PU's are a bit wider than the Ministar's minuscule "log" body (about 1/2" wider) . so custom mounting bracket to mount the GK-3 PU on is required

tawalker

Quote from:  Elantric on June 03, 2014, 02:54:28 AM
The Gk-2A and GK-3A PU's are a bit wider than the Ministar's minuscule "log" body (about 1/2" wider) . so custom mounting bracket to mount the GK-3 PU on is required

I wondered about that myself - looking at the GK2A on my Steinberger S-series, it does look wider than the Ministar "body", so there would need to be some kind of special mounting bracket for it. This was why I wondered about a "piezo bridge saddles" solution, but I imagine that would pose its own challenges.

Possible alternative: aren't there hex pickups which take the form factor of a "regular" (single-coil, humbucker, etc.) pickup? I wouldn't mind replacing the Ministar's bridge pickup with such a unit, if it made things easier... though I'm guessing the price would be steep :(

Incidentally: when I was thinking of a GK pickup in a Ministar, I had in mind an "internal" kit rather than an external "Borg box", not least because I can't see anywhere on a Ministar where you could place the latter. There wouldn't be much room in a Ministar for an internal GK's electronics either, so I guess the SCAMP (headphone amp) would have to go (and maybe a bit more space routed out?).

BTW, if it helps, here is a Flickr photoset of various views of my Ministar - note the shot of the SCAMP on the rear of the guitar.

cooltouch

Well, after looking at your photos, I know what I'd do if the Ministar were mine. I think I could find some small L-shaped brackets at a Home Depot or well-stocked hardware store. I'd mount them where they need to be with wood screws so I could mount the pickup. And to attach the bracket that comes with the module, I'd drill a hole in the flat of the bridge between the G and D strings and mount it with either a sheet metal screw or a small screw and nut, with washers as necessary. Now, I'm going  by the photos, so I could be off. But that's what I'd at least try to do.
Best,
Michael

tawalker

Hope no-one minds me reawakening this topic, but I'm always interested to find other Ministar owners (especially if they actually get on with the guitars :) ). I have a Testar (Harley Benton-branded, as I bought it from Thomann) - I originally only wanted a cheap "travel" electric, but have ended up playing it more than my "main" guitar, a Steinberger S-series with internal GK.

A couple of things I wondered:

  • Does anyone think it would be possible to install an internal GK kit in a Ministar? I guess I'd have to lose the SCAMP (headphone amp - which I hardly use anyway), and the pickup itself might be unwieldy as it's wider than the "body" of the Ministar, but it would be handy to be able to use it for MIDI guitar duties without having to resort to Sonuus, etc.
  • The Ministar Web site seems to have disappeared (not that it was much good anyway) - anyone know if they've gone out of business?
Many thanks!

Bill Ruppert

Quote from: tawalker on June 24, 2014, 04:05:55 AM
Hope no-one minds me reawakening this topic, but I'm always interested to find other Ministar owners (especially if they actually get on with the guitars :) ). I have a Testar (Harley Benton-branded, as I bought it from Thomann) - I originally only wanted a cheap "travel" electric, but have ended up playing it more than my "main" guitar, a Steinberger S-series with internal GK.

A couple of things I wondered:

  • Does anyone think it would be possible to install an internal GK kit in a Ministar? I guess I'd have to lose the SCAMP (headphone amp - which I hardly use anyway), and the pickup itself might be unwieldy as it's wider than the "body" of the Ministar, but it would be handy to be able to use it for MIDI guitar duties without having to resort to Sonuus, etc.
  • The Ministar Web site seems to have disappeared (not that it was much good anyway) - anyone know if they've gone out of business?
Many thanks!


I know Dennis at Musicland Central is now the distributor for the Ministar.
You are right I do not see the web page.
It was invented by a cool guy name Bob Wiley who has had a long history in the biz.
His dad invented the Fender Steel guitars with the tuners pointing up.
That is why the Ministar head stock looks the same!
Here is Musicland Central.
http://www.musiclandcentral.com/mismfutrguin.html

I often think about mounting a vg pickup on it. I should!
Think I would mount the external pickup system on it.



Elantric

I know Dennis at Musicland Central is now the distributor for the Ministar.
You are right I do not see the web page.
It was invented by a cool guy name Bob Wiley who has had a long history in the biz.
His dad invented the Fender Steel guitars with the tuners pointing up.
That is why the Ministar head stock looks the same!


http://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/bob-wiley

Bob Wiley's father opened a small music store in Kansas in the mid 1930s and specialized in steel guitars. When the sales rep, Charlie Hayes, came into the store with electric guitars from a new company called Fender, Bob's father was thrilled. In 1947, the store was one of the country's first Fender dealers. Throughout his childhood Bob played music, he played steel guitar before there were pedal steel guitars. Bob has come to design his own guitars over the years and has remained a well-respected leader in the industry.


Elantric

#22
The most comprehensive info on MiniStar Guitars with upgrade parts is the UK based Playaway Guitars
http://www.playawayguitars.com/play_away_guitars_shop.php?itemID=552

Two years ago I ordered two upgrade tremolo bridge Kits from them for my MiniStars - I currently own one Castar and two Lestars myself


It appears they are currently "Sold Out"

But Musicland Central shows stock - and there is Ebay
http://www.musiclandcentral.com/mismfutrguin.html




Elantric

#23
Here's mine

a First Gen Natural finish Castar 25 1/2" scale - which was perfect right out of the box - ebay $109 in 2011) in Maple with Rosewood board with upgraded latest gen Tremolo ( made a big difference !)

and a new Red Lestar (24 3/4" scale) which required a major Fret Level and Dress before it was playable ( $139 ebay 2014)

and a "Ministar Dual Bar Kit $39 ebay 


Most flexible double neck I ever played - that can still disassemble into carry on luggage.







All I need now is a cool cowboy hat and I'm there




But wow do these things sustain - no need for a Fernandes Sustainer here - I was playing the Lestar for the first time last night until 2:00am with my Roland Cube Street on High Gain, and this thing sings! 

I owe this to the solid piece of Maple from the bridge to the headstock

Of course Mr. Les Paul figured all this out over 60 years ago




Elantric

#24










































http://www.gizmag.com/bob-wiley-ministar-guitars/20726/picture/149909/

Ministar travel guitars - it's all in the neck



By Paul Ridden

December 5, 2011
Bob Wiley's Ministar dispenses with the traditional guitar body, which adds little or nothing to its tone, and instead offers an odd-looking neck with pickups
Image Gallery (17 images)
Guitarists who travel a lot and want to take an instrument along for the ride - but don't want to risk damaging that prized vintage Strat - might find themselves turning in the direction of a scaled down stand-in. Such solutions come in many different shapes and sizes - from full size instruments with parts that collapse (like Daniel Mapp's Jetson travel guitar concept) to models with a shortened neck and small bodies (such as Martin's Backpacker) to strange-looking beasts with tuners positioned in a hollowed out section of the body (like the Traveler's Speedster). Bob Wiley's Ministar guitars, though, are essentially a bunch of necks with pickups. While there is a model with a shortened 19-inch scale neck, most of the odd-looking electric, acoustic and bass guitars sport full length necks and, says Wiley, play and sound just like the big brand models, but at a fraction of the price - and a fraction of the size.

The novel Acoustar travel guitar, with a neck that slides inside the body for transportThe Acoustar backpackThe five string, fretted Basstar - notice the 'Pop Notch' in front of the pickup, for play...Full shot of the four string, 34-inch scale Basstar, this time with a humbucking pickupView all
In order to string pick on the road, players can expect to have to make quite a few sacrifices if opting for a travel guitar. That might be a shortening of the scale, a compromise in comfort or a weakening of the sound. Wiley has put his significant creative pedigree behind a series of minimalist guitars that are said to be easy to play, oddly comfortable and where tone is king. Before taking a closer look at what the Ministar guitars have to offer, let's take a quick diversion into Wiley's past innovations.

Wiley's interest in all things used to create modern music started at an early age, he accompanied his father to his very first NAMM in 1948. He dipped his toes in design and development while working on the Guitorgan guitar synth in 1967.

"It used frets cut into segments, with a wire running from each segment to organ electronics that we eventually located inside the body of the instrument," Wiley told us. "Contact between the string and the fret turned on an organ note. You had to learn to play all over again to get the best results. Needless to say, bending strings was not possible, and contributed a large part to its limited success."

Design of the first Auto Orchestra followed in 1973, which put a host of rhythm accompaniment at the guitarist's disposal - not unlike the drum, bass, fills, intros and endings available to keyboard players. Wiley has designed numerous products for guitar and keyboard players in the years since, including the Orchestrator, some One Man Band products (like the OMB2 and the AO 16R), the Programmer 24, and the Instant Harmony.

Bringing things right up to date
For his latest creations, Wiley has left the old argument about which guitar shape is the best well and truly behind. He says that Les Paul's Log led the way and proved that an amplified guitar didn't need a full body to produce great tone. The design of the Ministar range takes this a step further with guitars that look like they've just lost an epic battle and been chopped to pieces - with only the neck and pickups remaining.

After exhaustive spectrum analysis and blind model comparison testing, Wiley found that body shape is of little consequence to the most important element of any guitar - its tone. Consequently, much of what we've come to think of as a guitar body has been deliberately left out.

The unique Ministar head featuring die cast metal machine heads and precision tuners that'...
All Ministar guitars are made from hard-rock maple and feature a unique Ministar head featuring die cast metal machine heads and precision tuners that's claimed to give the guitars better sustain and more strength than the industry big boys.

"Currently, with few exceptions, neck/headstocks are made either using an undercut such as a Fender, or a Gibson-like 'scarf' joint, wherein the headstock is a separate piece of wood glued onto the neck at an angle," explains Wiley. "The Fender design does allow the wood grain to extend to the end of the headstock, but in order to obtain enough bearing on the nut of the guitar, Fender ads T-shaped hold-downs that some of the strings must be placed under. The Gibson type obtains the bearing on the nut by gluing two pieces of wood together at an angle. The Ministar design allows the wood grain to extend in a straight line from the top of the fingerboard to the end of the headstock, providing a solid platform on which the strings can vibrate. There is a cutout area in which the tuning machines are mounted with the key knobs pointing straight back from the headstock. This places the posts of the tuning machine in a position that is lower than the level of the nut, providing the bearing needed in the nut to ensure rattle and buzz-free performance."

At the other end of a Ministar guitar, you'll find a battery-powered headphone amp built into the 1.75 inch (for electric) or 2 inch (for bass) thick business end called a Scamp (which stands for Self-Contained-Amp). It has its own distortion circuit for electrics and EQ/contour boost for bass guitars, and can be used as a direct output for a monitor in stage setups. A set of quality earbud-type phones are also supplied with every instrument.

Those strange looking metal antennae pointing up and out don't, in fact, pick up Jazz FM but are slotted into the instrument to enable players to attach a strap to the guitar, the left arm also sporting a useful adjustable wooden comfort plate, which mimics the area on a standard guitar often worn down by the player's picking arm. A further rod is included for those who play while sitting.

A red Castar model - named after the Stratocaster and including single coil pickups made t...
The electrics on the business end vary according to model but you can generally find a volume knob paired with a tone knob, and pickup selectors of some sort - a Fender-like 5-way pickup switch on a Castar and a 3-way selector on a Lestar, for instance. The instruments are wired up to an amp via a 0.25-inch output jack on the bottom side.

Putting the player in charge
One thing is quite evident from talking to Wiley about his guitars, every aspect of guitar manufacture has been closely examined and studied. In models like the Castar (a play on the word Stratocaster), the Testar (a nod to Fender's Telecaster) and the Lestar (where the Les Paul is given a similar treatment), the company's own single coil or humbucker pickups have been made to the same configurations as the instruments from which they get their names - although Wiley admits that his technicians do "put a few extra turns of wire on each pickup to give it an extra bit of output, without becoming muddy."

Some models have Maple fingerboards, others have Rosewood, but all feature German Silver (nickel/silver alloy) frets. Also common to the electric and bass models is an adjustable nut and a unique Ministar adjustable bridge with buzz-proof saddles, with which a player can fine-tune a given instrument to preferred tastes.

"Ministar allows the user to address critical settings that will determine the overall performance of the guitar or bass," said Wiley. "These are the curvature of the neck, the string height above the frets, the clearance between the strings and the first fret, the string spacing, and the string length for proper intonation, and once set, the bridge and all of its components can be locked. This provides a solid mass to increase sustain and eliminate any possibility of rattling or buzzing, which is very common in many upscale electrics. "

Models featuring a whammy bar have an exposed vibrato system that allows for easy adjustment between locked and floating, and even caters for the player to decide the placement of the fulcrum point of the bar itself.

Models featuring a whammy bar have an exposed vibrato system that allows for easy adjustme...
If your budget doesn't run to a gorgeous Veillette double neck guitar, the Twinstar connecting rod allows you to pair up any two compatible models. Once the need for double the pleasure has passed, each Ministar model can be disconnected from the other and used as individual instruments again.

There's also a stand-up kit available that can turn any of the full 34-inch scale four or five string, fretted or fretless Ministar bass models into an upright slap bass for that Stray Cats vibe.

Acoustically speaking
Two stick-like acoustic Ministars are also on offer - one for a folk feel, and the other for classical players. A 12-sting model is also available and is said to benefit from both electric and acoustic sound qualities. The Folkstar, Classtar and 12Star guitars all feature a unique Rosewood Pin Bridge that's said to give the strings an easy 90 degree turn from the string mount hole to the bridge. There's a 3-band graphic equalizer and a digital tuner built in, and the Folkstar includes a folding speaker that will make the instrument look like it belongs to the Disney Club but makes it "sound just like a big Dreadnaught acoustic guitar, but without feedback."

Wiley told us that the 2-watt, battery-operated folding speaker with built-in frequency-sensitive light show was originally intended for use with an iPhone but just happens to have the same thickness as a Ministar guitar. It outputs at about the same volume level as an unamplified acoustic, although with slightly more treble and less bass end, and is driven from the guitar's onboard headphone amp, which of course also makes the distortion circuit available.

The novel Acoustar travel guitar, with a neck that slides inside the body for transport
Then there's the Acoustar travel acoustic - available as a full-sized or three quarter model - with a neck that slides inside the body for transport.

"There is a single bolt located under the heel of the neck," Wiley says. "A simple ratchet wrench is included that allows you to tighten the neck into position (indicated by a mark on the side of the neck) or loosen it so it can slide inside the body. Detuning is not necessary, and with broken-in strings, it will return to pitch. It takes about a minute to put on the capo, put the padded velcro wrap around the neck, loosen the neck, gather the strings and place in the smaller velcro wrap close to bridge, and then slide the neck inside the body into the cradle. The process is reversed to re-assemble the guitar. A backpack is included, and it will allow you to carry the Acoustar disassembled or assembled."

Pricing and availability
The latest versions of the Ministar guitars and basses were introduced earlier this year. Various scale lengths are on offer - including the 19-inch scale Microstar, the 24.75 inch scale Jazzstar, and the 24-fret, 25.5 inch scale Rokstar. Unlike earlier models, they are now available in at least six different finishes, feature a linear volume knob as opposed to just offering either on or off, benefit from that Scamp built-in headphone amp and some now sport a useful compensating bridge.

They're all assembled at the Ministar factory in Tang Vu, in the Shandong province of China, and built to Wiley's exacting specifications. Prices start at around US$272.

Ministar has enlisted the talents of a young Polish guitar player called Luke Ashmack to demonstrate the various aspects of the Ministar guitar - such as tone, sustain and playability.

"Lestar has a Les Paul-like sound and really sounds big," said Ashmack when asked to describe his 22-fret Lestar model with two humbucking pickups and a Maple fingerboard on a 24.75 inch scale neck. "The tone is incredible, absolutely fantastic! I don't really know how Bob did that."