Modifying a Squier

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Zarathustra

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I recently got a Squier Stratocaster. Someone gave one before, with buzzy strings and a cheap sound, so I sold it. This one seems alittle nicer, without any noticable string buzz and it's tunable. I'm not thrilled about the sound or the way the strings feel. I'd like to make it sound nicer, but I don't know anything about electronics. Would it be worth it to take to a guitar shop to get the pickups changed, should I just change the strings, should I do both, or should I just give it to my sister?
 
Every once in a while, i find a squire that is playable and sounds nice, but in the vast majority of cases, you will be throwing good money at bad.

If it intonates well and is easy to play, and its your first guitar..... it will be fine to learn on, but I would aspire to something a bit better. There are tons of import strat clones out there that are great.
 
Damn buzzy strings. I'm actually going to try and rebuild a squire I have. I'm planning on getting a warmoth neck, some seymor duncan hotrails and a new pick guard. Should be a decent player.
 
Nut cut depth is critical for setup and playability. In cheap guitars it's a lot easier to cut them not deep enough at the factory. Have a guitar tech check that. Also, alnico single coils will sound a lot better than the stock ceramic magnet pickups. See eBay for good values. Next would be tuning machines.
 
Up date on the Squires....

Their Standard ones coming out of China right now are actually quite good........especially for the price! .. They are being made with an Agathis body (Which is a good tone wood), they have the larger 60's style head stock, modern stlye 2-Point floating trem with the "Modern" saddles", great finish's, and the necks are actually quite decent.........so much so that I actually bought one the other day :eek: -- Candyapple translucent sunburst finish (With great grain!), and Alnico pups....play's great right out of the box (Better than the 3000.00 LP's and 1500.00 strats up there! ) ....

My only gripe is the smaller fret wire.....they say it's a medium jumbo, but it feels more like a Vintage to me....

I will however swap out the bridge singlecoil for a nice humbucker in there, ....but that's just my Strat set up of choice..

Just to let you know I'm not blowing smoke here, I've got a 1994 Custom Shop Jackson Soloist, 1964 Gibson SG, 50th Ann. Strat, an LP, and an 86 Kramer .....and they all play great (I do all of my own guitar work...).......

Either way, for 199.00, you can't go wrong with one of the Squire "Standard" strats Made in China (There are some that are made elsewhere that don't quite play as good ...don't recall where all of them are being made at this point....)

Rick
 
I also have a shitload of gits and one of my better playing axes is a Squier tele.
Yes, the stock p'ups are a bit anemic but since it's my beater that I take to beach gigs I don't care enough to change them.
But the thing plays great.
As long as the one you get has a good neck on it, I don't agree that putting new p'ups in it is a waste. Yiu'll probably end up with a decent git fo a low total price.
 
No

It's not my first guitar. It was actually a gift that came about rather randomly. I've had two acoustics, two cheap electric guitars (another Stratocaster Squier and a cheap knockoff) and I'm getting a semi-hollowbody in the mail sometime in the next weak. I don't have expensive tastes, but I know Squiers can be crap.

There is some buzz on the A, actually, before the 5th fret. I don't know anything about changing guitar hardware, so I guess I'll get someone else to do it. My main complaints with it is that the sound is a little tinny and weak, and the strings don't feel right. I dunno if it's the thickness or the action, but they don't have the same good feel as alot of acoustic guitar's. I guess I like a thicker gauge of string that's further from the fretboard, I've played other electrics that've felt the same way.
 
I have three Squiers - Affinity P-bass, Fat Telecaster and Bullet Special. I also have a Fender Standard Precision Bass, and a Fender So Cal Speed Shop Strat. The Squier bass can actually hold its own against the Fender, and it's highly likely I'll end up swapping the same kind of split-pickup into both. From there, I can decide (nit pick) which bass gets roundwound strings, and which gets flatwound strings. I noticed the biggest differences between the Squier Bullet Special, and the Fender So Cal Speed Shop Strat, in that I kinda figured the Fender would sound a bit better than the Squier, but I found out that "a bit" was quite an understatement. A completely stock Squier Bullet Special cannot hold a candle to the "raw unadulterated horsepower" of tone from the completely stock Fender So Cal Speed Shop Strat. As soon as I ever remember to buy a soldering iron and solder, I have a TV Jones Power`Tron to swap into the Bullet Special. Once that pickup swap is done, I'll have to decide which of the two gets drop tuned C-C, and which one gets standard tuned. I'll even be playing around with the Fat Telecaster, sometime in the future, having a set of GFS Lipstick pickups for it. Pretty much, I'll use my Squiers (the cheaper guitars) as "mules" toward brushing up on my soldering skills before I start doing pickup swaps in my Fenders.

Matt
 
yeah, I've gotten numerous compliments on my Squier Jazz Bass. I like it, but its always amazed me somehow that it gets that kind of response from listeners as its all stock and usually DI.

the build has been amazing, never a problem.

as far as throwing money at a Squire, I don't know...thats a tough call. I mean, if I was to throw $300 into my $100 guitar I could have gotten a used US Standard Strat that doesn't need anything.imo.

cheap guitars have to stand on thier own or be a "fun" mod kit your doing for fun, not financial reasons.
 
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I bought a Squire standard Tele for a backup guitar on my last tour... I ended up using it for about 90% of our gigs. The neck has a nice flame to it, and the pickups have a fairly beefy output and never get shrill. I put some Schaller locking machines on it, and I'll be replacing the nut whenever I can get around to it, other than that the thing is just an all-around great little beast.
 
Whatever you do, change the jack. You'll be happiest if you change all of the electronics (pickups, pots, switch and jack, though I guess you can keep the cap), but the jack is a must. The cheap ass POS jacks in those things fail regularly, rapidly, and inconveniently.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
surfmaster said:
www.guitarfetish.com
Click to expand...

+1

I'll chime in on Guitarfetish.com pickups. Great pickups for really low prices. Great service too.

I just finished changing out the pickups on a black Squier 51... the single coil neck position now has one of their chrome "lipstick" bridge single coils in it, and I replaced the stock humbucker with one of their chrome crunchy PAFs with a chrome mounting plate. I replaced the stock single ply white pick guard too with a GF white pearl pickguard. It still sounds like a Fender, but looks WAYYYY cooler, and it's a whole lot quieter now too.

Frankly speaking, I've always been a bit skeptical about low cost guitars, and never even considered owning a Squier, but I was really knocked out by the Squier 51... so much so that I swapped one of my many Shure SM-57 mics straight across for the one I mentioned above. The thing plays and sounds great.
 
never heard of a Squire 51?

agree, i went to GC a few days ago and played several G's trying out a couple Blues Jrs and I was amazed again, how shitty some expensive guitars are. Fret buzzing, necks that, imo, are like frkn logs, nasty mud tones.....etc..

So I began playing several cheaper ones to double check my sanity.

and this one Squire Strat was $100 and didn't have a buzz on the entire neck, most impressive. A cheaper Ibanez also, really well done. Of course a few expensive ones were perfect too.

I know its being picky, and most can't hear the fret buzz thru the amp anyway, unless its totally dead-notes...

but this one Squire had zero!! every frkn fret, a clean note. I almost bought it, it was used, so GC probably paid $50 for it... maybe I'll offer $70?;)

guitars are a trip for sure. a player really has to play them thoroughly due to all the inconsistency's of mfg., expensive ones and cheap ones.
 
i've had my squire jag-master since 2001 and i love it. with a little tweaking to the truss rod and bridge the thing plays better than my friends mexican made fender strat, and recently i put in some phat cat pickups and the thing sounds unbelievable.
 
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