Any fans of buying low enders & souping them up?

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Any fans of buying low enders & souping them up?

Upgrading mid-priced guitars is day-to-day life on the forum, and I bet a good percentage of aftermarket PU's are bought for that reason.

Yep. It's a reasonable chunk of change that has an immediate, substantive impact on the instrument's amplified tone. Even if the existing pickups are good but not quite what you want, you're still doing the same thing.

 

[LazyLightning]

Re: Any fans of buying low enders & souping them up?

I think it's more the level of satisfaction. Even if you have sunk 1000 bucks into modifying a Squier, it IS still a Squier, which is a cheapo brand. Not the same level of satisfaction from a factory-standard real Strat.

What exactly is wrong with a Squier? My 60's CV Strat is more then satisfactory and wasn't "cheapo" price wise or build. No it's not a $2000.00 guitar, but it isn't a toy either.

 

[daan]

Re: Any fans of buying low enders & souping them up?

All I do is mod cheap guitars. I think I have more fun doing that, than I would have saving up for multiple years for a "brand name" high-end guitar and then never playing it because I might scratch it, or something...

 

[MatelotFripon]

Re: Any fans of buying low enders & souping them up?

I looooove doing that ! It's a fun way to get familiar with mods and tweaks and a great way to put a little bit of yourself into a guitar ! It creates a special bond with the gear when you've got your hands dirty modifying it !

 

[Kramer Guy]

Re: Any fans of buying low enders & souping them up?

What exactly is wrong with a Squier? My 60's CV Strat is more then satisfactory and wasn't "cheapo" price wise or build. No it's not a $2000.00 guitar, but it isn't a toy either.

I agree. Squier is not a " Cheapo " brand. They are putting out some top notch guitars today. Before I made the switch to Acoustic in March, I had 2 Squier Standard Strats which I installed some Fender 250K tone pots and 57/62 pickups. They sounded great after I got done modding them and I also had a Butterscotch Affinity Tele which I took the stock bridge off and installed a Vintage style one with the top load 3 brass saddles. I then put in a set of Fender Tex Mex Tele pups which turned it into a player. In a way, I regret getting rid of them.

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Any fans of buying low enders & souping them up?

Ctn likes squires so they must be good stuff. :biglaugh:

 

[CTN]

Re: Any fans of buying low enders & souping them up?

Ctn likes squires so they must be good stuff. :biglaugh:

I have 1 squier, and it's a rare, mid 90's model that is known for being of exceptional build quality, almost on par with Japan/USA production.

 

[King IzzO)))]

Re: Any fans of buying low enders & souping them up?

Some Squiers are really nice, it's a good starting point for this purpose. Indonesian made seems a little better than the MIC stuff in my experience. I like Indo Ibanezes too, and the older MIK stuff was decent. You used to be able to find really good lower end MIK LTD's, but the newer low end stuff is just bad. I don't know how or why, but Indo LTD isn't near Indo Squier and Ibanez.

I've got a Squier Affinity neck that was just as good or better than a MIM neck I've got, before I worked my magic of course.

More than fixing up cheapo stuff I like to get parts for cheap and make what I want. I don't come out ahead of if I had just bought a guitar, but I have what I want, and when I have time and motivation I enjoy it.

 

[BeatTheBastard]

Re: Any fans of buying low enders & souping them up?

Some Squiers truly are great guitars. Many I have played have had awesome necks to my liking. I got this cheapo one from my mom as a birthday gift this year, before that it belonged to my cousin´s husband and after that to my uncle from which my mom acquired this guitar. I first hated it due to problems with pots and keeping it up in tune, but after doing some rewiring and blocking the trem it turned into a great machine. Stock pups will stay, they fit perfectly to SRV stuff and neck is better than in any other guitar I have.

It needs fretwork and I´d like to put HB to bridge to make it my go-to-guitar since the neck is so good, but it has been "in the family" since new so I´ll keep it stock.

 

[Mr. B]

Re: Any fans of buying low enders & souping them up?

Over the years I've usually had a lower end version of my main guitars. I'll buy a Squier Strat that has specs as close as I can get them to my main strat. I'll mod the crap out of the Squier, changing pickups, tone pots, caps, etc dozens of times. After I figure out exactly what I want and make dozens of corrections and several mistakes, I will do the mods once to my main Strat. Some of the "practice" guitars end up being my favorites too.