DOWN TO DESIGN
Let’s face it: this is a pretty unique looking guitar. It is not going to get the traditionalists nodding in approval that is for sure and I would hazard a guess that this was what Vox intended. So if you can’t get past the looks, you will never understand the benefits. The outer frame of the body is a slim plastic contour that fits perfectly up against the body when you are playing either seated or standing with a guitar strap.
There are two strap pins on the underside of the body so you can easily adjust the height and angle at which the guitar sits. But, the beauty of this is that when you lean the guitar up against your amp, the two pins stabilise it and stop it from falling over! The inner section of the body is mango wood, with enough timber to house the pickups and harness their tone without adding too much mass or weight to the instrument.
THE SWISS ARMY GUITAR
What the Starstream Type 1 is all about is offering the modern guitarist versatility for practice, studio and live performance. There are 27 different guitar models within the on-board DSP along with reverb for the acoustic models and distortion for the electric models that can be wound up to a level you desire. The electric guitar models have great honesty to their tones as the standard magnetic pickups on the Starstream capture that sound to begin with. But, you are able to move from a humbucker to a single coil sound quite easily and hear the dynamic and tonal differences between the settings.
The acoustic sounds give this guitar a real edge as it allows performances that require a number of instruments to all be played from the one. I especially loved the 12-string models and got totally distracted by the Sitar mode. It even offers some synth sounds that are probably best left for experimenting with at home, but in a limited capacity they can be a lot of fun. A headphone output further improves the versatility of the Starstream, making it a perfect silent practice tool for any guitarist anywhere. It is not something you can understand by looking at the pictures or watching the videos though, you need to get into your local dealer and try this guitar out. It is a lot of fun to play and is going to rethink the way you see electric guitars.
For more details on the range of Vox products, head to voxamps.com.
