Highway one strat bodies

If my daughters Squire is any example of the MIM, then I agree with the junk

Squiers are made in Korea, not Mexico. There were two series of high quality Squiers, which were made in Japan (those with the serial number starting with JV being very sought after).

Thanks Greybeard!

^ Greybeard you are wrong I think... the Squier Bullet that i sometimes rent says "Made in Indionesia" maybe its old or something...

If my daughters Squire is any example of the MIM, then I agree with the junk. Her mini strat sounds nasely and tinny. A very thin sound, and the workmanship is poor. Yeah, because a Korean miniature guitar is a perfectly reasonable model to compare to any Mexican made Fender. :roll: And Squiers get a bad rap - some of my favourite bands/guitarists use Squiers and my Squier Strat is awesome.

Generalizations are not cool my friend.

Tucker, I have had mult guitars over the years. Some good some bad. The squire I am refering to is my daughters and it is poor, The workmanship stinks! They mis router in 2 spots one on the neck joint that stands out bad, paint is ho hum and pickguard had nicks and peals that I had to repair. It is definatly a $100 guitar. Refering to the workmanship it is not there. I have had a G&L Legacy that at $350 in 97 was not made in the states I am sure. This was a nice guitar and played well. My Ibanaz is made in Korea and I have no complaints on this one also. Build, fit and finish is there an these Korean models, just not this mini strat.

Things like Suiqer Juniors and Bullets are still crap, but I am quite impressed with the current run of Standards and Affinities. But I am even more impressed by the new Richwood series, it's totally amazing. Check it out if you have a chance...

The one I would like to try is the Showmaster FAT SSS
http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=0263170
That looks sweet to me. I will look for the Richwood series.

The Jagmaster series does look particularly buff.

Just my opinion on the Squires, I owned a tele which i would have put up against any American model for playability. Since the electronics help to make the sound in a solid body, the cheaper korean components sounded like crap. I did like most and upgraded the pickups and pots to something useful from the mini's and got a tone very close to vintage tele sound. It can be done through capacitors and the right pots. I eventually sold that one and bought an Indonesian Strat. Same thing, Good solid guitar, poor electronics. I chose to do away with the single coils and went with a full pickguard upgrade from ebay to get the sound I wanted. If you work with a good electronics repairman, you can dial in the tone you want for just a few buck. Most capacitors (which help control tone) cost only pennies. The pots can get expensive, but are worth it if you want a certain sound. It is all just relative to what you want. Cheap guitars are fun to experiment with without ruining professional quality ax.

Mark,
That sounds intresting. I have an Ibanez I would like to improve the sound on. I am going to start with a rewire as they set the pups to cancel sound and running both they sound like crap. The rear pickup is real nasely sounding. Sounds like I can start with replacing the pots & caps and a rewire before I replace the pups. Is that good logic?

300M

Sure sounds logical to me. I think one way you can test the sound of your pick up is to wire it directly to an output jack, and go straight to your amp. Start with your amp's volume setting at zero of course. If youlike the way the pick up sounds, then you can experiment with different capacity ratings to get the tonal color you want. There are several sites that will give the cap ratings for Fender and such. You could do a search for those. Generally speaking, it's like everything else, if you buy good quality, you can expect good results. Cheap stuff always sounds cheap to me in electronics. Lots of buzzing and crackling and that kind of stuff. There are also several good wiring sites online also. Let me know how it turns out.
Mark

Mark,
Thanks for the info. I am diging around the project guitar forum someone post a while back. I think I will start with 2 new volume controls, a tone pot, new cap, 1/4" jack and a switch. I figure I will experiment on the old jack and see what I think of the direct setup for the pups. Looking for a more jazzier sound so I will probably go with a 250K pot and .033uf cap. Have not decided yet on the pups, but I am sure I will replace the existing units when I get a few $$. But I do want the try the stock units and see what they sound like. I had one of those love/hate deals with the Ibanez last night. One minute I liked the sound, but when I switched to single notes I did not. :( . I was to lazy to break out my Carvin as I olny had 30 min till my daughter went to bed.I see from the discussion that Fender uses a .047uf cap. Any idea what gibson uses?

John M.

Haven't had much experience with Gibson. I would try a .055 mfd. I generally have good luck with that. On the humbuckers I have used it on it gives me somewhat of a smokey? sound. Of course I can't tell that it adds any color when open all the way.

Mark.

Thanks Mark. I did some reading on guitar project last night and they more experance builders said Gibson was all over the place with caps and pots. Think I ma just going to start with a rewire and then new pots and caps and compair the sound. I am off tomorrow and I will try this in the afternoon after I pratice.