Squier VC 50s Returned - New Build Esquire Takes Its Place

[stingx]

First, I just want to emphasize that my returning the Squier Classic Vibe had nothing to do with build quality (or lack of) - it is a damn fine guitar at any price point. However, I had planned to do a lot of customizing to it and found myself short on time and desire to self-mod.

I ended up returning the Squier and had a partscaster built for me by Rob DiStefano of frettech. The guitar was built with the following parts:

• GFS cream body
• Allparts tmo-fat neck
• Cavalier lion bridge pickup
• CTS pots
• CRL 3-way switch
• Electrosocket jack
• Bone nut
• Wilkinson bridge w/compensated brass saddles
• Gotoh deluxe vintage tuners
• Black guard

Rob's hand assembled, custom wound Cavalier pickups are amazing sounding. I opted for a reverse control plate for the build and it is wired as follows:

Switch engaged all the way forward (towards neck) = full open pickup, no tone (bypassed)
Switch engaged in the middle = tone engaged
Switch engaged all the way back (towards bridge) = cocked wah (sounds fantastic with distortion)

The guitar is extremely light and very acoustic sounding unplugged. I've never had a guitar this light and even with the fat neck (finished beautifully by Rob in a nice amber tint) it is not top heavy and feels great. I'm amazed at the build and attention to detail. I'm also amazed at the amount of tonal variations to be had in a single pickup guitar!

Anyway, the short of it is I finally got an Esquire fix and did so with specs of my choosing and the end result is just fantastic. I cannot emphasize enough as to how much I like Rob's pickups. In fact, I am getting a "tiger" Strat set installed into my JV to replace the stock Tex-Mex pickups. But that's another story.

Here's some eye candy for you.







Sound clips to follow.


Edit: Seems I typo'd the title of the thread. Should be CV not VC.

[Eric***]

Cool! Looks like a fun little guitar. I want to hear the 3rd position -- not sure what 'cocked wah' means.

[stingx]

Eric, have a listen...

[Katastrophe]

Congrats, stingx! It looks like a real beauty.

Now go play the snot outta that sucker!

[sunvalleylaw]

Nice! I keep thinking a mod project would be really fun, but never find the time. Yours seemed to turn out very well!

[stingx]

Almost complete. I've added the waterslide and vintage nickle screws. I have since decide to swap back to a black, vintage, single-ply 5-hole pickguard. I should be able to call this one done by Friday when the guard arrives.