Fun story:
I've been trying to get my hands on a good Stratocaster for a while now. A good friend and former college roommate of mine had one that was absolutely everything I wanted, but he seemed totally unwilling to part with it, even on a "temporary" basis :twisted: So I did the next best thing, I found one of my own!
The dude I spend much of my time writing and playing music with has an older squier (approximately '95) that I can occasionally play. The guitar's bridge is fully floating and set up poorly, so it's always out of tune, it's strings are old and it's intonation is terribly TERRIBLY off, on top of that, it's just dirty, it sits open in the basement that we record in often, and had just gotten grimy. All in all, out of the 12 guitars we have available to play between us, it is very seldom called on.
Until now...
My friend asked me if I wanted to take it and mess with it and see if I could make something serious out of it, if not a tone monster then at least something that we could use for situations where you need that stratty feel.
So...
First I added all the trem springs on, just to see if fixing the stability would make it into a more respectable player. It didn't, it was stable, but the bridge position in particular was ruined, like a tele with stainless steel frets, so bright and piercing that it was unusable. So I brought it back down to 3 springs, replaced the rusty strings, and spent about 2 hours getting the nightmare of trem to stay even and level.
I then cleaned the whole thing up, from top to bottom, adjusted the truss rod and set the intonation - not perfect, but far better. I also changed the saddle height on a few of the strings, and fiddled with the bridge height a little bit, finally, I lowered all three of the pickups about 1/4".
The result? Amazement. The guitar went from essentially useless and lousy sounding to the epitome of what a strat should be, ranging from chimey and clear to light and 'sexy'. The rosewood is dark and smooth with all the gunk off.
Here's my refurbished Squier. I'll never talk a Squier down again, this $150 guitar does it's job well, even compared with my LP.
Do something you love and you'll never work a day in your life...
Nice job recycling that axe!!!
Chuck Norris invented Kentucky Fried Chicken's famous secret recipe, with eleven herbs and spices. But nobody ever mentions the twelfth ingredient: Fear!
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Looks great, especially after what you describe.
-- John
"Hip woman walking on a moving floor, tripping on the escalator.
There's a man in the line and she's blowin' his mind, thinking that he's already made her."
'Coming into Los Angeles' - Arlo Guthrie
Here's a little sound clip: it's called "squier demo":
Do something you love and you'll never work a day in your life...
Looks and sounds great undercat. Good job!
"The only way I know that guarantees no mistakes is not to play and that's simply not an option". David Hodge
nice job undercat! sounds good too
#4491....
Excellent! I always like hearing about things like this. It's like restoring an old car or something. Bringing something back from the dead.
"Rock And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution"
you have inspired me to sort out my squire... i have left it for dead for some time now... well done that man!
This signature is a forgery.
Nicely done undercat. A true diamond in the rough.
"Practice until you get a guitar welt on your chest...if it makes you
feel good, don't stop until you see the blood from your fingers.
Then you'll know you're on to something!"
- Ted Nugent
Thank you guys for the kind words. My only regret is that I don't have a before picture or a sound clip for comparison. It's truly striking. The only thing I can think to do now is possibly some part improvements: maybe drop some higher quality pickups in there, possibly some locking tuners, but seeing as I don't own the guitar (yet!) I'm not going to be dropping lots of money into it.
That's probably the best part of this transformation actually: I haven't put any money into it all, except for a pack of strings. Everything else was just elbow grease and time... :D
Do something you love and you'll never work a day in your life...
I already regretting selling my to my ex's dad.. Now I am really kicking myself. Nice work though.
Geoo
“The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn” - David Russell (Scottish classical Guitarist. b.1942)
congrats, you have brought it back into life, you gave it a second chance :lol:
1995, that should be a MIJ, if so, there quality was way better then the usa counter part. A good set of locking tuner will help out a lot.
Great job bud.
I thought it would be, but in fact it's.... Indonesian! *GASP*
Indonesion/Chinese/Korean guitars really have to earn their dues in my eyes, because generally I understand that even if the workmanship is good, I know they generally aren't sent the highest quality of materials (See the Epi "Assorted wood" bodies). However, this one seems fine. 3 piece alder body with properly lined up seams, and a very nice, dark rosewood fretboard.
Do something you love and you'll never work a day in your life...
Undercat,
Looks really beautiful, and sounds great too. I would have loved to see a before/after pic and sound. :(
Congrats though
