Squier Guitars: Worth Supercharging?

[Ben Logan]

Has anyone with experience with "pro guitars" successfully converted a cheapo Fender Squier Standard Strat or Tele into something that sounds close to the real deal? Particularly on recordings. I own a "real" Les Paul and a "real" vintage Mustang. But I'm kinda dreaming of having suped up Tele and Strat Squiers to record with - one's that will stay in tune and sound great, if only for the duration of one take!

Can it be done? How much difference do new pick ups make, for example, thrown into a Squier, given the limitations of cheap wood and hardware?

I recently bought a Squier Strat. Wondering if it's worth upgrading. Forgive me if this one's been asked a bunch...

Thanks,
Ben

 

[distortedrumble]

i dont know if it has and i own a squier.....i havent super charged it with anything but i dont think its a problem..as for staying in tune...use light strings and adjust the bridge and it should stay in tune. mine stays in tune

 

[apl]

I bought a Squier Bullet (hard tail strat), $90, replaced the bridge with a string-through, replaced the tuners, and put in Mighty Mite Alnicos, all from ebay, and put the old parts on ebay. I then had the nut recut because it was way off. It plays and sounds good, very stratty. I used it on the Rumble I and II submissions.

The guitar was a piece of crap out of the box, though.

 

[bongolation]

I recently bought a Squier Strat. Wondering if it's worth upgrading.

No. It's just bad business. You'll never get your money back out of it and you can sell it and get a better instrument for what you'd waste trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Modding guitars is almost always a mistake from the standpoint of informed resale, unless the guitar is previously modded and alread taken the loss and you get your parts very cheap or free. Buying new parts to mod a new Squier makes absolutely no sense.

 

[acorec]

Has anyone with experience with "pro guitars" successfully converted a cheapo Fender Squier Standard Strat or Tele into something that sounds close to the real deal? Particularly on recordings. I own a "real" Les Paul and a "real" vintage Mustang. But I'm kinda dreaming of having suped up Tele and Strat Squiers to record with - one's that will stay in tune and sound great, if only for the duration of one take!

Can it be done? How much difference do new pick ups make, for example, thrown into a Squier, given the limitations of cheap wood and hardware?

I recently bought a Squier Strat. Wondering if it's worth upgrading. Forgive me if this one's been asked a bunch...

Thanks,
Ben

Modding is great if you plan on keeping the guitar. I would only bother if you have a 1 or 2 peice body and a neck that you love. The problem with the cheap Fender guitars is that the bodies can be any number of peices of wood laminated together (worthless) and the necks can just plain suck (also worthless).

Now, if you happen to get a millionaire's Squire ( 1 peice body, great 1/4 sawn neck, better than avg workmanship) then go ahaed and gut it. Throw away everything period. I have seen and built great Strats out of old Squires and other asst crap models that beat the hell out of custom shop models.

The great thing about a Strat is that they are all made the same. It is designed to be made the same. It just depends on whether you get a 5 piece body (made the same as a 1 peice body) or a 1 piece body (desireable). There are no "handmade" custom shop strats or otherwise. They are all cut on CNC machines and wood blanks are made in batches. They are 1 piece, or glued 2, 3, 4, 5 being the greatest number of pieces I have ever seen (These glue edges can clearly be seen through the finish on the back of the body). Any "hand operations" done after the fact are just dandy if you want to pay for them. So, I am saying that any strat from the cheapest to the most expensive, by-and-large, have the same wood parts. If all you care about IS the wood parts, then a Squire is as good donor as any other Strat (IF the neck and body match the above criteria). Now, the "Made in America" thing is a whole nuther thread and best left alone if you are NOT interested in selling your new project Strat.

 

[apl]

No. It's just bad business. You'll never get your money back out of it and you can sell it and get a better instrument for what you'd waste trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Modding guitars is almost always a mistake from the standpoint of informed resale, unless the guitar is previously modded and alread taken the loss and you get your parts very cheap or free. Buying new parts to mod a new Squier makes absolutely no sense.

Hey, bongolation, it ain't all about the money. Are you a Republican or something? I did it for fun. Ain't nobody got an axe like my axe!

 

[Ben Logan]

Modding is great if you plan on keeping the guitar. I would only bother if you have a 1 or 2 peice body and a neck that you love. The problem with the cheap Fender guitars is that the bodies can be any number of peices of wood laminated together (worthless) and the necks can just plain suck (also worthless).

Now, if you happen to get a millionaire's Squire ( 1 peice body, great 1/4 sawn neck, better than avg workmanship) then go ahaed and gut it. Throw away everything period. I have seen and built great Strats out of old Squires and other asst crap models that beat the hell out of custom shop models.

The great thing about a Strat is that they are all made the same. It is designed to be made the same. It just depends on whether you get a 5 piece body (made the same as a 1 peice body) or a 1 piece body (desireable). There are no "handmade" custom shop strats or otherwise. They are all cut on CNC machines and wood blanks are made in batches. They are 1 piece, or glued 2, 3, 4, 5 being the greatest number of pieces I have ever seen (These glue edges can clearly be seen through the finish on the back of the body). Any "hand operations" done after the fact are just dandy if you want to pay for them. So, I am saying that any strat from the cheapest to the most expensive, by-and-large, have the same wood parts. If all you care about IS the wood parts, then a Squire is as good donor as any other Strat (IF the neck and body match the above criteria). Now, the "Made in America" thing is a whole nuther thread and best left alone if you are NOT interested in selling your new project Strat.

Thanks acorec. Great response. Luckily mine seems to be one of the 1 piece body variety. Whew. The neck is nice and straight. The strings don't slide off the edge of the fretboard and there are no deadspots. This one may be a keeper.

Yeah, you guys are dead right about "don't mod unless you're going to keep."

 

[Ben Logan]

I bought a Squier Bullet (hard tail strat), $90, replaced the bridge with a string-through, replaced the tuners, and put in Mighty Mite Alnicos, all from ebay, and put the old parts on ebay. I then had the nut recut because it was way off. It plays and sounds good, very stratty. I used it on the Rumble I and II submissions.

The guitar was a piece of crap out of the box, though.

How much of a difference did those Mighty Mites make over the stock pu's apl?

Sounds like you had fun with this. How about a link to the tunes you mentioned - Rumble I and II.

 

[Be Loveless]

Many moons ago....I replaced the stock pickups in my 1982 squier strat. NOW remember that in 82 the american made strats were CRAP. Only one tone control and they did'nt even have the inset jack. However the japanese squiers of the time had all the "classic" features and better (but not by much) hardware.
I added some Seymore Duncanm "jimi hendrix" pickups and the tone deffinitely improved. Now Ive owned a parker for several years and rarely play that strat. When I do I wonder how I ever even got a note out of it. What seemed like a super badass guitar to ME at the time now feels like a clumsy, screechy hunk of shit. So I guess my answer is that the process of suping up a shit guitar will bring you some short lived joy but once you play a quality instrument you might regret the investment on your Jalopy. But Hey, thats just me.

 

[acorec]

Thanks acorec. Great response. Luckily mine seems to be one of the 1 piece body variety. Whew. The neck is nice and straight. The strings don't slide off the edge of the fretboard and there are no deadspots. This one may be a keeper.

Yeah, you guys are dead right about "don't mod unless you're going to keep."

If you really like the wood and feel of the neck, look at it this way, so many people get an expensive MIA strat (they feel its made better.......maybe, maybe not) and start to replace pickups, bridges, tuners etc.

The end product is......do you like the neck?

All the parts that you add, you can take out. The Strat is a guitar that acts like an erector set. In truth, you can buy all the parts you want in *any strat* and still put the thing back together, sell it, and buy a body and neck that is better. You will never lose because you would have bought and replaced those parts *anyway* reguardless if it was a MIM, MIJ or MIA strat. The resale value thing will kill you however if that is where you *might* go *leaving* the good parts in. People only care about "Made in America" and that is that. I have seen complete pieces of shit that were totally useless to play, but sold in a few days because it is MIA.

So, people seem to have more greed than brains usually. I will say that I have a MIJ strat that I would not trade for any MIA strat period. It has the finest neck and body I have ever seen, and is very balanced and comfortable to play. It becomes part of me if that makes sense to you.

 

[reshp1]

I've modded the crap outta my squier strat and it is by far my favorite guitar (own a gibson SG, roadhouse Strat, Cort MGM). I put Fat 50's pickups in, redid all the wiring, replaced the pots, switches and jacks, re did the springs on the bridge, re-nutted, put sperzel locking tuners in, roller string trees, etc, etc. The only thing to look out for is that a lot of squier strats are NOT identical to normal fender specs. So your new pickups may not fit in the pickguard, and if you replace the pickguard, the holes may not line up 100%. Nothing major... definitely worth the time, money and effort. It was a lot of fun too, polishing a diamond in the rough

 

[apl]

How much of a difference did those Mighty Mites make over the stock pu's apl?

Sounds like you had fun with this. How about a link to the tunes you mentioned - Rumble I and II.

They made a big difference; the originals were ceramic. The rumble entries are here.

 

[nuemes]

A Squire can be worth upgrading if it's a good one to begin with. If it doesn't have much going for it right off the bat then don't waste your money & time on it. If you're not sure whether or not it's a good or not one go to a shop and play all of them. Chances are there will be one that has a little more vibe to it than the others.

I've got a Korean Squire that blows away my Fender MIM tele in every way. The Squire can't really compare to the quality of a well made $1k guitar but sometimes it fits into recordings when nothing else can make the thin spanky twang that it has.

 

[bongolation]

Hey, bongolation, it ain't all about the money.

Money isn't everything, but it's an unsurpassed method of keeping score.

I did it for fun. Ain't nobody got an axe like my axe!

If you do something for "fun," you don't need anyone else's advice, and you're wasting his time asking for it..

It's your axe and your money, and as I always say, if you want to douse the thing in lighter fluid and do a Jimi with it on the front lawn, be my guest. You don't need my advice or permission or respect.

If you do something in hopes of a rational outcome that you're not sure about, then that's the time to ask away. For instance, I'd say that it would be a bad call to spend a couple of hundred bucks and a lot of time turning a three hundred dollar guitar into a two hundred dollar guitar, which is ultimately what amateur modding generally is all about.

When somebody asks if it would be "a good idea" to do these mods, that's the calculus I present, based on forty years of buying and selling guitars.

 

[apl]

If you do something for "fun," you don't need anyone else's advice, and you're wasting his time asking for it...

Really? I didn't ask; Mr Logan did. He was asking about tone, to which I responded directly.

You, good sir, are the one who brought up unrequested parameters. But you make a point worth noting.

My Bullet sounds stratty enough for me, I don't have that much $ in it, and it was fun to hot rod.

It ain't for sale.

 

[bongolation]

I've got a Korean Squire that blows away my Fender MIM tele in every way.

The late, lamented Korean and Japanese Squiers are quite a different story from the current output.

The Korean builder, Cor-Tek, who still manufactures some of the best-built Fenders, has always done quality work, as did Fujigen Gakki who made the Japanese Squiers. The build quality from these companies was consistently superior to Corona or Ensenada product (it's my understanding that FJ product is currently from Kasura and that Fujigen Gakki is no longer building Fenders).

The problem with all import FMIC product is not build quality, but that it generally uses somewhat inferior parts and materials. In the case of the later and current Squiers, this is very evident and sometimes fatal, as in the case of the often poorly-cured neck wood, which can sooner or later produce twists and warps.

If I thought modding guitars was a good idea, I still wouldn't advise modding new Squiers. Everything about them is consistently and very calculatedly cheap, and to build a good, long-lasting axe out of one will require replacing everything from the inside out, which is not possible. They're adequate for what they are, but it's a fool's errand to try to make them into what they're not.

 

[Ben Logan]

Apl and Bongo,

Thanks to the both of you for sharing your experience. I value both your perspectives.

 

[nroberts]

Spend the money you would have spent replacing all the hardware on your Squire on a G&L Tribute. They are miles above what you have.

 

[billyshuler]

You should get at least a squire standard, not the bullet model. Don't buy off of the internet, go to your local music store and play squire strats, mexican strats and american strats. With squire and fender, and pretty much every other brand guitar you may find in many cases you will find one cheaper guitar that is better than many of the expensive one. You'll just have to search with some hands on playing. Whatever you do, don't rely on looks as far as if it is pretty or not.

 

[travelin travis]

I have owned a few strat style guitars. A fender american strat which sounded very good and played very good, a g&l strat which sounded good and played very good, a fender mexican strat which sounded very good and played ok, and a lotus strat which sounds ok and plays like crap.

The biggest part of a strats tone is in the pickups. To my ears, all pickups give their own color to the sound. Which pickup do you tend to use the most on a strat? I tend to use the neck pickup and it's adjacent "quack" position. You can get that sound out of just about any pickup. If you're a bridge position player, the cheaper pickups tend to be almost useless. From my experience, a cheap bridge pickup just does'nt have any guts.

Something to remember about strats is that they are'nt made to play like butter. A big part of the strat sound is that the player has to fight the guitar a bit to get that sound, unlike gibson type guitars. I tend to keep my action a bit high for this very reason. To me, it's like you have to pull your sound out of a strat with a bit of force. For me, the struggle is where it's at. At the moment, I own the crappiest strat I have ever had but I can still manage to put up a bit of fight with it. I'm not all that good but here are a couple of clips of me fighting the lotus into submission:

"$2 mic blues" and "drive"

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/1/travisthompson_music.htm

one more thing though, my favorite guitar ever was my mexican strat.