Popularity
The Starcaster was commercially unsuccessful, perhaps because of a public notion that Fender was a "solidbody, single coil brand" and Gibson was the "semi-hollow, humbucker brand". As a result, Starcasters are very rare, but are worth less in today's vintage market than many other semi-hollow guitars from the same period to collectors because of their unpopularity and lack of name endorsers at their time of manufacture. Despite (or possibly because of) their modest vintage investment value, several modern high profile guitarists use the Starcaster as a preferred instrument. Jonny Greenwood, guitarist of Radiohead, can frequently be seen playing a Starcaster on stage. Sammy James, Jr., guitarist and front man of the Mooney Suzuki, uses a natural finished one and appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien with it on June 21, 2007. The guitar can also be seen in the music video to Morrissey's single "You Have Killed Me". Dave Keuning of The Killers also started using one shortly before the release of the album Sam's Town. He could be seen playing his Starcaster during The Killers headline slot at Glastonbury Festival 2007, on Later... with Jools Holland for "Read My Mind" and in the videos for "For Reasons Unknown" and "Human". Trey Anastasio of Phish plays a custom Languedoc guitar that was originally designed after the vintage Fender Starcaster. Arctic Monkeys guitarist Jamie Cook can also be seen playing one at the 2009 Reading Festival, also in the video for the 2009 single 'Crying Lightning'. Chris Walla of Death Cab For Cutie has occasionally used a Starcaster live Chris Walla - Starcaster.
Read more about this topic: Fender Starcaster
Famous quotes containing the word popularity:
“A large part of the popularity and persuasiveness of psychology comes from its being a sublimated spiritualism: a secular, ostensibly scientific way of affirming the primacy of spirit over matter.”
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—Administration for the State of Con, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)