Doing up a Squier?

[TheBones]

Lots of good advice here. In my experience, I bought a squire bullet series back in the late 90s dropped a Seymour Duncan hot rails in in and it became the love of my life for the next 10 years or so. The bullet series was bottom of the barrel at the time, but I loved that guitar and still wouldn't sell it for the price of a new Gibson. Legwork is key. Play as many guitars in your price range that you can get ur hands on and then decide.

 

[airbagtester]

Hey,

Would it be possible to get a Squier Strat sounding a lot better if I spent about $500 replacing pickups, tuners, bridge etc? I'm thinking about buying a new guitar but was wondering if this is a goo way to go. Cheers

Yes. Definitely. I don't even think you'd have to spend $500 to make it sound better actually.

I think the most important thing in buying a budget guitar (as someone else has mentioned) is the neck, and how it feels in general without even being plugged in. If you can find one with a comfortable neck, smooth fret ends that won't cut your fingers off, etc. then you're good. Twist the tuners around, do some bends, see how it holds in tune. You might need to spend $60 on replacement tuners, or you might decide they are fine as is. If you plug it in and it sounds bad, hums, microphonic pickups, etc. then a few hundred on new pickups and also new potentiometers will greatly improve the sound. Heck, sometimes even the pickups are fine and you just need to shield the pickup cavity or change the strings. Oh, and also there's the cost of having a tech do some work if you are like me and can't solder a piece of chewing gum to a marshmallow.

Then add up the cost of improvements to the cost of the budget guitar and try out some other guitars in THAT price range to get some perspective. How does the neck feel? Do the tuners hold up? Since they cost the same now, buy the guitar that feels better in your hands.

 

[Guitargodgt]

I would personally much rather part up a warmoth kit than use a squire. It would end up being nicer in the end as well. I think I priced out a telecaster with p90s at $650 (I already have a set of locking machine heads though so I didn't factor those).

 

[andrew_s]

It will improve the sound, but, i'm sure, you'll be disappointed after a while, because good pickups, bridge and other parts require good wooden body sound. Squir is the cheapest guitar with the cheapest wood. For the money I would get American Special strat which is only one step lower than American Standard

 

[ashcat_lt]

Me, I'd get an Xavier from guitarfetish.com. They are at least as playable as a Squier in the same price range, but more consistent. Parts like bridge and tuners are comparable quality or better, but they come with GFS pickups stock which are the ones I would swap into a Squier so that part is already done.

 

[DrummingGuitar]

I took my squier strat and made it "better" with like $200 worth of electronic mods. The sound improved some, but you can't improve the way it feels in your hands. The feel of a guitar is just as important as the sound. So I would make sure if you mod to find a neck that you love.