Guestimated cost?

[Squireman131]

i think i wanna switch out the hardware on my squire affinity strat for all black and switch out the pickguard for a black one, my guitars red and i think it would looke cool, rosewood fretboard. estimated cost? im planing on switching tremolo, tuners, jack. hahaha one more question is it possible to put on a floyd rose tremolo with no alterations. if not its fine but id think it would be a nice thing to have. one more question, are roller nuts a good investment?

[t_ross33]

GuitarFetish (http://www.guitarfetish.com). I love these guys (as do many others here). Not sure what the upgrades you mention will run, but my guess is somewhere in the $100 to $150 range.

If you are going to a Floyd type trem, you'll need a locking nut. If you a sticking with a traditional Strat trem, I've heard that a roller nut and saddles are an improvement.

For comparison, I bought a pick guard, two pickups, bridge and a push-pull pot from GF for a "huckleberry" about $150 for my Squier Tele upgrade.

Let us know how you make out. Pictures are of course, required.

Trev

[Spudman]

I personally think you are going overboard. I wouldn't spend that kind of money on that guitar. Basically you are replacing everything. For a comparable price you can get a guitar that comes pretty close or exceeds your Squier in sound and quality. Check some of these out.
http://www.rondomusic.com/seg1stdmwr.html
http://www.rondomusic.com/product728.html

[t_ross33]

I personally think you are going overboard. I wouldn't spend that kind of money on that guitar. Basically you are replacing everything. For a comparable price you can get a guitar that comes pretty close or exceeds your Squier in sound and quality. Check some of these out.
http://www.rondomusic.com/seg1stdmwr.html
http://www.rondomusic.com/product728.html

Good point, Spud! Those are sweet looking axes :rockon:

[just strum]

I agree, sounds like a lot of money to put into that guitar, I would go the Rondo route or if you don't like going that route, put the money aside for something you are GAS'g for or eventually will GAS for.

IMHO.

Edit: Here is another option

http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=6459

[TS808]

Mods are cool on a Squier, but I wouldn't do the Floyd Rose at all. You're really getting into some serious routing issues there, etc. If anything, buy a Wikinson trem and some locking tuners if you're concerned about tuning stability.

I've never had problems with my strats staying in tune..just set it up well, lubricate the nut with some graphite (a pencil works), and make sure that you stretch out the strings pretty well when you change them.

Part of the fun of owning a Squier is making some mods, whether it's installing new pickups or a different pickguard. Just keep all the original parts, so if you ever decide to trade the guitar in or sell it, you won't lose your investment. I've put better pickups on guitars, new pickguards, etc., and when I went to trade the guitar in, it didn't really make a difference. You'd be better off selling the guitar stock down the road, and selling the parts separately.

[Squireman131]

http://www.rondomusic.com/gg2bo.html

now i have never seen that site before but if i did buy a new guitar it would be this one. I love the explorer type guitars i think they are the coolest looking guitars. plus its only like 40 dollars above what i get for X-mas which id have soon. and thanks for all the advice. i dont think im gonna change anything on my squire until i get another guitar which will hopefully be that one.

[Spudman]

http://www.rondomusic.com/gg2bo.html

now i have never seen that site before but if i did buy a new guitar it would be this one. I love the explorer type guitars i think they are the coolest looking guitars. plus its only like 40 dollars above what i get for X-mas which id have soon. and thanks for all the advice. i dont think im gonna change anything on my squire until i get another guitar which will hopefully be that one.

That's a cool guitar for sure. Think about this though. Are you a big strong guy? If not that guitar can get pretty heavy when you have it hanging from your shoulder for several hours. There is a lot of extra wood on the body. You can get great tone from something a little lighter too. Just something to consider.

[Squireman131]

That's a cool guitar for sure. Think about this though. Are you a big strong guy? If not that guitar can get pretty heavy when you have it hanging from your shoulder for several hours. There is a lot of extra wood on the body. You can get great tone from something a little lighter too. Just something to consider.

hahahaha no where near i weigh 105 lbs. id just like some thing other than the norm. it seems like everyone has a strat, which may be beacause they are so good. but id like something else maybe a LP or SG

[Bloozcat]

It might be a good idea to wait a few weeks before buying anything from Rondo, Squireman.

The new models are due to start arriving sometime in May. You may see something that you like when they do, and if not, you may find good closeout deals on some of the current models.

Just a thought....

[Crowecaster]

I have a Squier and a SX strat. The SX easily beats the Squier in sound and playability. My SST57 was $114 shipped. :rockon:

[Ch0jin]

Dude I just did most of that.

http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=7658&page=3

To make it all short and sweet based on my very recent experience.

Get your parts from GFS, great service and the quality of parts is more than good enough for a Squier.

Yes it's poor sense economically to do that many mods to a Squier. But who cares? I bought mine in the 90's second hand for $100 and just put close to $300 worth of parts in it (thanks mostly to the current poor exchange rate) and I had a blast doing it and learned a fair bit along the way. I went down the mod route because that guitar has sentimental value and I thought I'd try and make it a bit more fun to play, fix a couple of issues and basically end up with a very different sounding axe. Sure it's still inferior in all regards to my main guitar (of course, my main guitar cost $3K or thereabouts) but now it plays better, sounds FAR better and is a genuinely interesting guitar to play, and I got to learn about wiring, shielding, bridge and trem setups and all that jazz.

I'm not sure if your guitar is new or new-ish, but unless your tuners are faulty, don't bother replacing them, ditto your jack. I replaced mine cause the chrome football plate thingy was all rusted, but the GFS one is basically the exact same thing.

One thing though. I'm not a whammy bar user so I went for the Wilkinson vintage bridge and didn't worry about replacing the old string tree's with rollers or any of that so I can't really comment on fitting a floyd.

[Ch0jin]

hahahaha no where near i weigh 105 lbs. id just like some thing other than the norm. it seems like everyone has a strat, which may be beacause they are so good. but id like something else maybe a LP or SG

Haha I couldn't leave that alone.

It seems like everyone -here- has a strat (me included I guess). Out in the real world though, none of my favourite bands guitarists use them and I'm personally much more of a fan of Gibson-esque styles with big heavy bodies and fat humbuckers.

Fear not the Fender alternatives~!!

[Duff]

I put high output humbucker single coils in my afflinity strat I got for 25 dollars and a black pearl pickguard on it and a new tone pot, cts. It sounds awesome, awesome and is a pleasure to play. Did the work myself and it has a way of adding appreciation to the sound and everything, probably psycological. It becomes, naturally, more part of you. More of you is in it. Naturally more of you might come out of it, if you are lucky and connect or in that state of mind.

Mine's awesome. But I would replace the pickups too.

Duffy

[Bloozcat]

Since this thread was originally about modding - no rebuilding - a Squire Affinity Strat, try applying this formula:

Take the dollar amount of the guitar if you were to sell it as is (A).

Take the cost of all the parts that you were going to buy for the mod (B).

Add the two together (A+B).

If that figure is more than the $299.99 cost of a Squire Classic Vibe Stratocaster (C), then A+B > C.....

Sell the affinity, buy the Classic Vibe, and don't mod, just play. You'll have classic looks, great playability, great tone, and a possible future Classic like one of the early Japanese Strats. Plus you'll also get the added bonus of not having to change your user name to "Rondoman131".

Hear me now, believe me later...:rockon:

[duhvoodooman]

"Sound" advice, BC! :AOK:

[Duff]

THE MOST RECENT post by the guy was in May. He probably made his decision long ago. Maybe he will see this and respond. Just noticed that.

The cost of a new pickguard, proline or something, the GFS trem, tuners from GFS, no affilliation; doesn't sound like a lot of money.

A red guitar with black pickguard sounds neat to me and the black hardware is popular with some. At GFS prices I don't think it is definitely a bad idea.

Also, what would the value of a used affinity strat be? Probably not much.

But if he is going to do this I think investing in a set of GFS hot rail pickups might be a smart idea, or other pickups, in black.'

Actually all of this is probably after the fact.

[Andy]

I echo everyone else , no sense in building a super strat from a squire.

save up and get a Jackson,ESP,Ibanez...ect.
the squire will seem like a toy in comparison

[Duff]

I don't know. I built up a 25 dollar affinity strat into one awesome guitar with 160 dollars worth of SD pups and a pickguard and tone pot. I had some Fender locking tuners laying around.

I can always take these parts and put them on my Squire standard strat, or my Hwy 1 in the bridge or neck, but it sounds great as is.

That affinity is light and has an incredible flammed maple neck, you wouldn't believe the tones. I think it comes down to individual guitars, with price just being a guideline. Electronics are cheap. My affinity has an alder body and an awesome neck. I'm thinking of the GFS trem or a Wilkinson.

First, I'm going to A/B it to my Fender '07 Hwy 1 and see how it stacks up; the affinity has SD "hot rail" in neck, " 'lil 59" in mid, and "JB Jr in bridge", plus the Fender locking tuners. I am assuming the affinity is going to sound better than the Hwy 1, but a test will quickly tell.

If not the pickups will be switched to the Hwy 1 in the neck and mid and so will the tuners. I already put solid stainless steel saddles on the Hwy 1, which I like much better than the bent metal.

Duffy

However, I A/B'd several of my guitars and the stock guitars without variance proved to my ear that the significantly more expensive guitars in the same class, LP, strat, tele, etc., sounded better than their substantially cheaper counterparts.

This does not prove that you can't hot rod a cheaper guitar and make it sound and play superior to a stock Epi LP standard or Fender Hwy 1 Fat strat, but it does have some face value, from my limitted standpoint.

Even my P90 Squire tele Custom II w duncan designed noise cancelling in the middle position position sounded considerably better than my set neck all mahogany including neck SX Gibson LP Special copy with SX P90 pups which were not noise cancelling. Maybe some better P90 pups would sound better. I would try the hot Seymour Duncan ones or some comparable GFS high end ones. But the SX sounds real good as is just not as chimey and nice as the Squire tele Custom II.

My Epi Birseye maple top LP Standard limitted edition sounded, along with its real Seymour Jazz open coil pup in the neck and corresponding SD JB in the bridge, way better than my ESP LTD EC-50, which sounded real good then extremely good after I put the original pups from my Epi LP standard plus top in it, did not sound nearly as good as the Epi Lp STD Birdseye top w SD hot rodded pups in it.

So, the more you can spend on a guitar to begin with, or buying a less expensive guitar like a Classic Vintage Squire or Squire Deluxe, is going to sound way better to begin with and will probably require no or minimal modification.

Plus, with modification, often you run into unforseen things that also need to be modified in order to get your guitar up to what your goal is; like new pickguards, tuners, pots, technical assistance from a pro, etc.

I enjoy hot rodding guitars. It is fun. But there is still something to be said about buying a real quality guitar regardless of it's price, to begin with.

When I compared my G&L semi hollow swamp ash top maple fretboard telecaster to my Squire standard telecaster, there was no comparison actually. Very apparent tele tones to the G&L Tribute semi hollow swamp ash tele, much better sound all the way around, '07 model, amazing tele, sustain city. I want to hot rod my Squire now.

*****Question for the tele experts******:

I have a Fender tele Custom Shop tele bridge pup right now on hand. Does anyone think this would sound good in the Squire Standard tele? Improve the sound? Will it be noise cancelling like the Squire standard is now? Sounds like a very good idea.

I don't want to spend the time to test it without some opinions from some knowledgeable tele people. I don't want to waste my time. But I'm expecting that the stock pickups in the Squire Standard tele are about 20 dollars max and the Fender Custom Shop bridge pup is probably over twice that price, plus it is about 5 years old.

Input appreciated.

Duff

It does not say what Custom shop the pup is but just says Custom shop. Does this make any sense?

[Duff]

How about that inexpensive Xavier XP 600? Is that great right out of the box or does that need upgrading?

Duff

[Ch0jin]

*****Question for the tele experts******:

I have a Fender tele Custom Shop tele bridge pup right now on hand. Does anyone think this would sound good in the Squire Standard tele? Improve the sound? Will it be noise cancelling like the Squire standard is now?

Hi Duff, I guess it all depends on the design of the Custom shop PU. I'd assume it'd be a single coil right? If the squire is noise canceling then maybe it's a stacked humbucker of some sort. You might be able to tell by the number of wires if you can get at them. (Stacked HB will of course have 4 wires with two joined either up near the PU or at the end of the lead)

If you remove a HB and replace with a SC, it's sure going to sound different, and there might be some hum, but you'd expect a Fender Custom Shop PU to sound better than a stock Squier one so I'd say go for it.

[Duff]

Cool.

I can't rember how many wires are on the Custom Shop tele pup. It is wrapped in bubble wrap to protect it. It does have white string like covered and waxed wires on the windings though. Looks like my G&L bridge pickup in the sense that the windings look the same, comparison stops there; my G&L has the MFD or whatever American pups.

The Squire is noise cancelling in the middle switch position though, but I suspect the pups are not nearly like a Custom Shop one. Maybe the neck covered one is reverse wound.

On the original Fender MIM that I put a GFS 'lil Puncher, hot, in; the middle and neck positions sounded very hissy, way more than my Squire or Peaveys, but the humbucker rail I put in the bridge is silent. I suggested to the dude to put the matching 'lil Puncher neck pup in but he says he likes his neck pup. Very noisy. Don't know how he could like it but he does have a volume pedal that he might have mastered for killing the hiss when he stops playing. He plays thru a new V100 Crate head and four by twelve cab that he says is awesome.

That pickups is nagging at me to try it out in my Standard Squire tele which pales when A/B'd to my G&L semi hollow Classic Tribute Telecaster, no comparison in sound and feel. The Squire is quite nice though and could be beefed up I think. Maybe I should put the 'lil Puncher hot pups in it, or some more expensive SD tele pups, or even some Fender nice ones. Bet the SD ones would sound the best though.

Any ideas?

Duffy

[Ch0jin]

Hi Duff,
It'll be hard to tell looking through the bubble wrap :D

Look at the wires on the end of the cable you'd be soldering to the switch. I'd expect one wire and a shield if it's a single coil. There's a possibility you might have a hot wire, a ground and a shield, but I don't know how common that is. If it's a humbucker there's a strong chance you'll see four wires and a shield and two of the wires will probably be soldered together.

The Squier is likely noise canceling in the middle position because the bridge and neck single coils are out of phase. Same deal as a Strat in position 2 and 4.

Humbuckers are supposed to be hum free. Hence the name ;) so no surprise your humbucker rail is silent, but the lil punchers are supposed to be humbuckers too, so I'd have assumed they'd be quiet. Maybe it's just that they are super hot and the hiss is a result of the gain. I'm afraid I'm not sure.

I don't know how people put up with SC hiss either, but thats probably just because I've never played a guitar with really good SC's. As I posted just before I just got a new (2nd hand) guitar with hand made humbucker sized P90's so maybe I'll be a SC convert soon ;)

[Duff]

I'm opening the bubble wrap at this moment.

However, if that beautiful cherry red new Maton you got has P90 single coils, they might be hum cancelling in the middle switch position with both P90s on, like my Squire Tele Custom II is.

I would think that if they are not hum cancelling you could reverse the polarity on one of the P90s somewhere in there, probably on the switch by switching the wires on one of the P90s. Right? Then you could have, like my Squire P90, hum cancelling when both pups are on.

I don't think you quite understood what I was saying about the Fender tele I put the bridge 'lil Puncher in. He kept the chrome covered stock single coil in the neck and it hisses profusely in the middle and neck switch positions but, as expected, is silent in the bridge switch position where the 'lil Puncher humbucker rail is engaged by itself.]

I encouraged the guy to get a neck 'lil Puncher but he claims he likes the neck stock extremely noisy pup. He has a volume pedal and probably is quite adept at backing off on it when using the noisy switch positions.

My main concern about him putting the rail in the neck is that it would be humbucking and he could use the other two switch positions.

He plays heavy metal almost exclusively and only is using the bridge pup on the tele, the rail I put in which is silent. I would want to use all three positions. But maybe he likes that sound from the possibly custom shop chrome covered neck single coil. But why would it be so noisy if it's a custom shop? Maybe the guy that put the custom shops in didn't wire or ground things right. The job the dude did was the sloppiest pup installation I've see yet, except for the wiring that was in my 25 dollar affinity "Black Pearl" that I super hot rodded and is now an awesome guitar with a black pearl pickguard on a black naturally relic'd body with a beautiful heavily heavily flammed maple neck with rosewood fretboard. Awesome guitar man. Wired right by me. Flux and all.

The Custom Shop Bridge pup that I just took out of the bubble wrap and came from the sloppy mod to the Fender tele says Fender Custom Shop on a silver sticker and has a brass backing plate on the bottom.

There are three wires. A yellow cloth covered one and a black plastic covered one coming off the same spot on the back of the pup. Then there is a separate solder joint from which a black ground wire with a sloppily attached star washer type wire end adaptor is designed to have a screw go thru it and ground it to something. I can't remember if it was screwed onto anything or not. I should have labelled the wires. Memory isn't what it once was. I even forget if the yellow wire went to the switch (I think it did) and the black wire went to the pot and ground. Plus why would there be an extra ground. Maybe it was the main ground that went to the tele switch plate or switch. Can't remember. Definitely should have labelled the wires.

I want to try to put this in my Squire Standard tele, but might just get a set of 'lil Punchers. This Custom Shop pup could be something of a twang master however and it might be super cool to have in there instead of humbuckers. It has staggered pole pieces and an antiqued looking cover, you know, real old looking but obviously not that old, immitation old. There is a big V on the Fender Custom Shop script on the sticker that might indicate alnico V magnets, maybe it is just part of the corporate logo. White cloth wrapped and waxed wires are the windings. I'm thinking this could be a decent pup.

Nice guitar by the way dude! How's it sound? Noise cancelling in the middle switch position? Noisy in the other two positions? My P90's aren't all that noisy but you can hear them; nothing like this Fender tele I worked on.

[marnold]

I would think that if they are not hum cancelling you could reverse the polarity on one of the P90s somewhere in there, probably on the switch by switching the wires on one of the P90s. Right? Then you could have, like my Squire P90, hum cancelling when both pups are on.
Nope, one pickup needs to be both reverse wound and reverse polarity to cancel hum. Switching the wires will only put the pickups out of phase with each other which probably won't be what you want.

[Squireman131]

haha thanks for all the input guys but i went a complete different route. i bought myself a douglas les paul copy from rondo instead.

[Squireman131]

thought id also add i would have had to buy a new neck for the strat cause the previous owner screwed the frets up so badly and a whole fret job would have cost me a ton. may mod it later though just so i could get some modding experience.

[Duff]

Thanks Marnold. You learn something new every day.

I'm not an expert tech by any means. I should buy a GFS reverse wound one for my other P90 guitar and see how it quiets things down, if GFS sells reverse wound ones.

Duffy



Squireman131:

How is that Douglas LP sounding, playing, etc.? Any feedback yet? Which color did you get?

[Squireman131]

I really like the douglas although the finish wasnt amazing. the binding on the next wasn't to great but hey what do you expect for a under 150$ dolar guitar. The pick ups sound very nice just enough crunch in the brifge pick up and i guess very smooth in the neck pick up. The neck isnt as fast as i'd like but its great for rhythm. I think my next buy is going to be a schecter omen 6. i played one in my local store and its a great feeling guitar.

[thearabianmage]

You can't really go wrong with a Schecter. Just about everyone I have ever played has been nice. And most come stock with Duncan Design pups, which are a step up from most stock pups. But if you replace them with proper Duncans, CTS pots, and vintage cloth wiring, you'll get the modding experience and have a totally rude guitar!

Most excellent!

[guitrkill3r]

Anyone know how nice those strats or teles are from Rondo music? I wanna get a strat with a floyd rose(dont really need any more guitars, but i have a bond to cash and why not, ya know?) and they are extremely well-priced. Anyone have any experience with em?