Someone tell me about the MIK Stellar 3

[Inazone]

Not being a fan of TOM bridges, there's not much to interest me in the Hamer camp these days, but there's a Stellar 3 on evilBay that caught my eye. They (Guitar Center by way of Instrument Exchange) claim that it has a 25.5" scale length and an oak top, which is hard to say since it's solid black. I've never tried a Wilkinson trem, but now I'm curious.

Anyone have experience with the Stellar 3? Duncan Designed pickups aside, it *looks* like a good guitar for the money.

[holLoWskull]

I used to own one just like the one on ebay...bought it from AMS a few years back when they were selling them at closeout for $269 brand new. The good...like most MIK Hamers, solid construction, fairly decent pickups, played really well, and a very attractive price to boot. I actually liked the Wilkenson on it, you could do dives and pull ups (well, not too far up) and warbling like a Floyd. The bad (at least on mine)...low quality nut (looked very "plasticky" and poor workmanship regarding the slotting of it), and crap tuners. I swapped in locking Sperzels and swapped out the Duncan Design pups with some Seymour Duncans I had lying around and after that it really was a damn fine guitar for what I had into it. That said, as soon as I got my Mirage II maple top, the Stellar 3 became expendable and wound up as trade fodder a few months back. If you buy it expecting a decent guitar that is a solid platform for modifications that can make it a really good guitar, you probably won't be dissapointed. Just make sure you buy it cheap because at the very least, you'll need better tuners if you plan on using the tremolo at all and hope to keep the guitar in tune afterwards.