trying to fix my friend's cheap strat

  • Thread starter Thread starter heatmiser
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heatmiser

heatmiser

mr. green christmas
Hey,

A friend of mine from high school is trying to get back into playing guitar and I am trying to help him. He inherited his younger bro's cheap '90's korean squire strat. Cosmetically fine, but was oddly missing a saddle on the bridge..?

Got a saddle ($6 at local store) and new set of strings and was hoping to just clean some dust out of the insides and maybe look for loose or disconnected wiring...maybe apply some machine oil here and there...but....

The volume control and the bottom tone control are messed up. instead of rotating smoothly in a complete circle before stopping, they each roughly rotate in either direction indefinitely. I have removed one from the pickguard (still wired) and the post moves up and down in a way that seems wrong.

With a guitar like this...probably not worth having new controls put in, right? Or, is it possible this has happened to others and there is a reasonably simply way to fix these two controls (doubt it)?

BTW - it really didn't put out sound at all plugged in unless I constantly fiddle with the volume knob.
 
Sounds like those pots need to be replaced; they're like 3 dollars apiece, so it's not a huge investment to replace them. It's not hard to do yourself; just hook up the new pot the same way as the one you're replacing.
 
danw said:
Sounds like those pots need to be replaced; they're like 3 dollars apiece, so it's not a huge investment to replace them. It's not hard to do yourself; just hook up the new pot the same way as the one you're replacing.
Click to expand...

Sounds promising. Thanks...cheaper than I expected. Not sure I have a soldering iron though...

Thanks again :).
 
can you post some pics?

if all the solder joints are loose and the mounting nuts are loose, the pots might act that way.

just a thought.

later...
 
Thanks e-man...

I'll see about pics. The soldering looks fine and I removed the nut that held it up against the pickguard to get a better look. It really feels like something inside the pot may be broken...the whole thing is layed out on my dining room table and will sit there at least overnight while I ponder...
 
Yes, those pots are trashed-check the action of the switch as well while you are in there. Squires often use a cheap Chinese manufactured switch that is fairly delicate and will break easily. As long as the neck is in good shape and playable, it's worth the cost of a couple of 250K pots and a 5 way switch to get it back into a playable condition. If you need a wiring schematic check Seymour Duncan's website.
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=3s_1v_2t_5w
 
stevieb said:
Than how the hell do you expect to repair your bud's guitar? An iron is the FIRST tool you should have lined up.
Click to expand...

Good point :o. Never needed one before...guess I mistakenly thought I would be able to clean some dust out and apply some oil and move on (it has worked before)...obviously not prepared for this, but maybe this is an excuse to get some proper tools :).
 
heatmiser said:
Good point :o. Never needed one before...guess I mistakenly thought I would be able to clean some dust out and apply some oil and move on (it has worked before)...obviously not prepared for this, but maybe this is an excuse to get some proper tools :).
Click to expand...

Well, there is always that possibility. Not happening this time.

Tools to start with:

Soldering gun
sliver solder
cutting pliars
Needle nose pliars
small screwdrivers, phillips and standard.
Multimeter
 
Anfontan said:
Yes, those pots are trashed-check the action of the switch as well while you are in there. Squires often use a cheap Chinese manufactured switch that is fairly delicate and will break easily. As long as the neck is in good shape and playable, it's worth the cost of a couple of 250K pots and a 5 way switch to get it back into a playable condition. If you need a wiring schematic check Seymour Duncan's website.
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=3s_1v_2t_5w
Click to expand...

Awesome. Thanks man :D.

The neck looks straight as an arrow. The frets towards the nut have some pretty serious grooves cut into them (never seen that before - and I have some really old guitars), but the action seems relatively fine and no buzz.

Kind of cheap-looking close up though...the pickguard has no layering to it and the chrome just looks low-grade. The tuning machines were attached with screws at all kinds of odd angles and the pick ups sounded weak for the few seconds I got it to produce sound.

I bought a Japanese Squire strat in 1985 for like $250 (I see them new for $99 now) and that thing was kick-ass. They seem to have gone down hill.

That schematic is almost an exact match except this has the cap on the other tone knob and the volume knob has wires coming onto the back of the pot at two different points. I have some work ahead of me, but you folks have provided direction...thanks!
 
stevieb said:
Well, there is always that possibility. Not happening this time.

Tools to start with:

Soldering gun
sliver solder
cutting pliars
Needle nose pliars
small screwdrivers, phillips and standard.
Multimeter
Click to expand...

Thanks...I am all set except for the 1st two items...looks like I'm going shopping!
 
I though lead solder was in breach of some law or something now?
 
Make sure and get a soldering IRON, not a gun. Guns are too hot and very cumbersome to do electronic stuff. Get a "pencil" iron that is around 30-40 watts. One other thing that was mentioned that I'll elaborate on is the use of small needle nose and side cutter pliers. Get the ones with the spring loaded handles. They are SO!!! much better than regular pliers for this sort of stuff.
Good luck!!!
 
arcaxis said:
It is in house plumbing on soldered copper water pipes. Electronics still pretty much uses a tin/lead mix with a rosin core flux. NASA and jewelers might use silver solder also, as well as plumbers. I've tried some silver solder and it doesn't seem to flow as easily.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure. It's an EU restriction so maybe not relevant to the US. I think it's more related to the disposal of products with lead solder and the environmental impact than the actual hazard of using them, which is minimal.

Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive
 
Silver Solder is ROHS Compliant and all consumer electronics products will all soon be ROHS compliant But that is only for consumer products you are still allowed to use Lead solder for DIY and other things....Lead solder is just so much easierto use than Silver and much less expensive...


Cheers
 
arcaxis said:
Electronics still pretty much uses a tin/lead mix with a rosin core flux.
Click to expand...

Most electronics has already moved to lead-free solder, even though leaded solder is legal in the US market, it's now illegal in the EU, and most manufacturers do not run separate production lines.


Silver Solder is ROHS Compliant
Click to expand...

That's not true; there are tin/lead/silver solders on the market, and if you buy silver-bearing solder at your local Radio Shack that is what you will get. Lead-free solder is usually mostly tin with a bit of copper and silver, but there are various formulations. "Silver" solder, whether lead-free or not, is mostly other metals than silver, which is typically less than 4% of the alloy.


The important point here is that this guitar almost certainly has leaded solder. It is easier to solder with leaded solders, but the key in any case is to use a decent soldering iron.
 
Mis-spoke about the silver solder. Mea culpa (that sounds so much more elegant than "My bad," doesn't it?)
 
before you go replacing the pots try using contact cleaner on them first.

may be all they need
 
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