New Squier Day, mod suggestions please!

[ak47dragunov]

 

I just acquired this lovely Squier from my band's other guitarist in hopes that we might be able to upgrade it. I have absolutely no knowledge of electronics, and cannot wire pickups. Does anyone have any suggestions as to the mods I can do to this guitar to make it play and sound great on a budget? Also, suggestions on how to learn electronic wirings and such.

[CoqBelliqueux]

The wood is nice. I would switch the pickguard to a more original color. While it's off, you can look at the wiring and see which wires go to the pickups so that you'd know where to solder new pickups. That and Auto-trim tuners, maybe?

 

But I'm not a Strat guy.

[Preacher]

Mods? Maybe steel or brass full size trem block - and stainless block saddles unless you're looking for twang.

For wiring mods I love the Master volume/master tone/ blender setup, mega versatile.

There's some good info on these boards (maybe search "strat mods" through google?) and good youtube tutorials on how to solder.

Lots of good wiring diagrams to found as well...

[Metalrulez]

HNGD!!!Play it for a while figure out what you do not like then go from there. Random part replacement is nothing but a waste of money.

[frankie pajamas]

Re-radius the fretboard to give it a 12"-16" compound radius. Also, refret with some med-jumo fret wire. Then install some high-end hand wound pickups. O, then Strip the body and re-finish it in a radically cool color so nobody will think its a Squier anymore. Then sand Squier off the headstock and put a "Fender" waterslid decal on it.

[clay sails]

That's a nice looking Squier. Congrats!

 

If it were my guitar, I'd put in a humbucker at the Bridge (something sweet like an Seymour Duncan SH-4).

 

I also personally like tortoise or black pickguards on a sunburst, but white looks okay, too.

 

As for how to learn to wire, my suggestion is to buy a decent soldering iron (not the worst), get a wiring diagram online, and try. That's how I learned. I can usually manage to do simple wiring jobs like pickups with no problem...and its fun.

[prolog]

Wire the second tone control for mid+bridge. And swap the pickups for something nice. GFS or Tonerider would be a good, inexpensive upgrade.

[mnhhngbfs]

New string trees and graphite nut will go a long way on the cheap.

[wedgehed II]

[brewgoodbeer]

Happy NGD. Why mod it? Do you like it? What don't you like about it? So many people start modding a guitar for no reason. Don't touch it. Play it for a while. Only mod the things you think need to be improved. You are the one playing the guitar, not someone else. You want to stay on a budget, then only change what needs to be change per your specs. $10 bucks hear, $20 bucks there adds up fast.

[onerailunder]

New nut is absolutely the most bang for the buck.

I thought my Squier Affinity's pickups sounded too ice pick like, so that was my next mod.

[photon9]

I would swap out the pots. On mine they used cheap 500k mini pots. Put in some full size 250Ks. That alone should make a huge difference in the timbre and should cost less that $20. I used GFS and they were fine http://store.guitarfetish.com/costupelcoki.html. If you still don't like the sound upgrade the Pups. I'm sure you will get a lot of recommendations for them before this thread is forgotten.

[Alex W]

If you can follow the directions to putting together a Lego castle you can wire pickups. Go to radioshack, get some solder, a 15 watt soldering iron, download some diagrams from the net, and watch some soldering instructional videos on youtube.

Remember you don't put the heat to the solder. The solder will literally follow your heat.

[NHLfan2010]

1. Swap the pups for some GFS's (that'll give you some experience in electronics)

2. Swap the trem block for one from GFS

3. Swap the nut (if its not already good, i dont know how it is on squiers)

4. Swap the tuners

 

after that see where you're at and then if you're feeling ballsy, maybe go for a re-finish.

[diceman1000]

first thing i'd do is oreder a set of Rose Pickups Meriposas($30) when they're back in stock, a 7 way Strat harness($30) from Dragon fire on ebay, and a TUSQ nut($12) from ebay, she'll be a new guitar for a grand total of $72:thu:

[Emory]

It looks to me like the tuners were already swapped? I think I see nylon bushings there.... that is usually the first thing to go, so may have saved you a step. You may wish at some point to work on sheilding and all that, there is a page on that in the essential links tab...

[dcindc]

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?t=1960969

 

Read here...

[Cats-o-caster]

Just don't waste your time and money - buy something decent.


I tried 2 modify affinity strats and teles, no point, money spent

[MrChitlins]

Also, refret with some med-jumo fret wire.

 

 

Which Stewmac fret wire corrsponds to medium jumbo ?

 

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_supplies/Stewart-MacDonald_Fretwire/Medium_Fretwire.html

[nomadh]

Re-radius the fretboard to give it a 12"-16" compound radius. Also, refret with some med-jumo fret wire. Then install some high-end hand wound pickups. O, then Strip the body and re-finish it in a radically cool color so nobody will think its a Squier anymore. Then sand Squier off the headstock and put a "Fender" waterslid decal on it.

Oh, and pay someone else to have it done. MIA Fenders will suddenly seem like a bargain. Seriously, check out the squier forum at strat-talk.com They(we) live this stuff over there.

[nomadh]

That's a nice looking Squier. Congrats! If it were my guitar, I'd put in a humbucker at the Bridge (something sweet like an Seymour Duncan SH-4). I also personally like tortoise or black pickguards on a sunburst, but white looks okay, too. As for how to learn to wire, my suggestion is to buy a decent soldering iron (not the worst), get a wiring diagram online, and try. That's how I learned. I can usually manage to do simple wiring jobs like pickups with no problem...and its fun.

 

A strat has to be the worst type of guitar to learn wiring on. Loosening all the strings and removing the whole pg assembly. I always thought if I wanted to do that I'd cut the control section from the pickup area so I could remove it separately and leave the strings/pickups alone. Maybe also mount a 1/4" jack on it. That would make it easy to pop it up, mod, and test.

[Sheraton]

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?t=1960969 Read here...

 

 

THIS! This is the stuff that makes a good guitar out of a mediocre one.

[WRGKMC]

I have the same one. I say play it till it "Needs" something modded. Its senceless to mod it till it does. Things like frets, switches, pots all will wear out soon enough. No sence replacing them till they do. Who knows by then you may want to upgrade to a Fender, so no additional money will be thrown away. Modding squiers does not add to the unless the buyer just happens to have wanted the same mod you put in, and in fact can depreciate the instrument in many cases.

 

With mine, I build guitars and do refretting so I eventually replaced the frets after I wore the originals down quite a bit playing. Of course you replace the nut at the same time and chose a brass nut. I also replaced the pickguard with a tortise when I dinged the white one up.

 

Other than that theres not much you can do to make it much better. You can play the pickup swap game and hope you find something that will sound better, but the pickups it comes with arent bad. They use shielded wire to make them noisless, and they do give a good full tone.

 

The knobs and Switch are El Cheapo, but you should be able to get at least a few years out of them before they need replacement. I've had mine kicking around maybe 8 years and have been able to clean them a few times, and they're all still original. Unless you consider this to be your dream guitar, changing that kind of stuff out before it fails is like pissing into the wind. Theres no useful return on your investment.