Modding questions.

Lands Leaving

Looking to pick up a squier strat to mod, so I just have a few questions.

Firstly, is the standard, affinity, classic vibe or bullet better in terms of woods and hardware? Also which is most similar in weight, neck profile, etc. to a mexican standard strat?

Second, I want to put new pickups in and I looked at the new Billy Corgan strat as a guideline, dimarzio humbuckers and a chopper (HChopperH) and want that sort of heavyish sound, but without losing the strat character. I don't want a strat that sounds like an LP but I do want some heavier sounds than my main guitar, a mexican strat standard. Any suggestions on pickups?

Third, what other than the pickups in terms of electronics do I need to replace and where would I get that stuff?

Fourth, would it be worth replacing the bridge?

Cheers all!

Seziertisch

Lands Leaving wrote: »

Looking to pick up a squier strat to mod, so I just have a few questions.

Firstly, is the standard, affinity, classic vibe or bullet better in terms of woods and hardware? Also which is most similar in weight, neck profile, etc. to a mexican standard strat?

Second, I want to put new pickups in and I looked at the new Billy Corgan strat as a guideline, dimarzio humbuckers and a chopper (HChopperH) and want that sort of heavyish sound, but without losing the strat character. I don't want a strat that sounds like an LP but I do want some heavier sounds than my main guitar, a mexican strat standard. Any suggestions on pickups?

Third, what other than the pickups in terms of electronics do I need to replace and where would I get that stuff?

Fourth, would it be worth replacing the bridge?

Cheers all!

As an interesting project this would be good, but I would be slow about saying you should do all this with a squier strat as an investment. I have played squiers that have been reasonable but in terms of the wood used they really are fairly sub par in most cases. Why not save for a (second) second hand Mexican or Japanese model and then take it from there. When you are finished it will have cost a bit more but at least you will have a something approaching a keeper.

Also why not do some mods to the guitar you have already? A change of pickups would definitely be an improvement (you could go for a humbucker of some sort in the bridge position to give you a bit more flexibility). A lot of guys rave about the improvement that a change of bridge brings about (Wilkinson seems fairly popular as a more affordable alternative, while something like Callaham is at the pricier end of the market). A change of tone caps in a guitar is also an improvement (those ceramic disks are kind of nasty, paper in oil are sweet and orange drops are kind of punchy). The thing about tone caps is they affect the tone even when the tone control is wide open. Also, on the guitar you have already if the nut is plastic you could consider getting a bone nut installed.

Paolo_M

Lands Leaving wrote: »

Looking to pick up a squier strat to mod, so I just have a few questions.

Firstly, is the standard, affinity, classic vibe or bullet better in terms of woods and hardware? Also which is most similar in weight, neck profile, etc. to a mexican standard strat?

Second, I want to put new pickups in and I looked at the new Billy Corgan strat as a guideline, dimarzio humbuckers and a chopper (HChopperH) and want that sort of heavyish sound, but without losing the strat character. I don't want a strat that sounds like an LP but I do want some heavier sounds than my main guitar, a mexican strat standard. Any suggestions on pickups?

Third, what other than the pickups in terms of electronics do I need to replace and where would I get that stuff?

Fourth, would it be worth replacing the bridge?

Cheers all!

If you're looking to do this learn about guitars mods, electronics etc. then I'd say this is a good idea. A squire isn't a huge investment if it all goes horribly wrong and most parts you'll buy, pick-ups etc., can be salvaged and sold if needed.

Not much of an expert of woods really just that denser woods usually => thicker sound with more sustain. I tend to just adapt to any neck profiles and I don't really have a preference. I own guitars with all sorts of profiles and don't have a concious favourite that way so I'm not much use to you there. I'm usually; if it feels good that's good enough.

I installed a DiMarzio Fast Track 2 in the bridge of mine. It's a single coil sized humbucker. It doesn't sound like a humbucker, somewhere between a P90 and bucker really. It actually sounds great for articulate, agreesive metal with high gain. It has more definition and cut than any humbucker I've played.

The switches are often crappy enough and worth replacing. I'd definitley recommending shielding the entire body cavity, especially if you want to keep at least one single coil. The pots usually aren't great either.
There are loadsa on-line stores for this stuff www.allparts.uk.com, www.tube-town.net, www.tubeampdoctor.com are a few of the places that I've bought stuff.

I didn't find any issues with the bridge. I blocked it up as the trem is appalling and now it functions just fine. If you're into dive bombing a bridge upgrade would be worth it though.

The 5150 vid on my uTube page featues my modded squire, there's also a vid called squire strat mods on there too if you wanna have a look.

Lands Leaving

Cheers for the help. Think I will go the mexican strat route. I'll just replace the pickups and pots. Would I be better going for 500 or 250k, I'm going with all humbuckers on this I think.

Paolo_M

Lands Leaving wrote: »

Cheers for the help. Think I will go the mexican strat route. I'll just replace the pickups and pots. Would I be better going for 500 or 250k, I'm going with all humbuckers on this I think.

500k is pretty much the default choice for humbuckers, 250k will sound a bit muddy with 'buckers. This is down to that pesky old impedance bit again.
Some high output 'bucker may actually sound better with 1M.
I wired my Fast Track straight across the output jack to get the full voice and output from it. Who needs a volume control on the bridge anyways?!?!?:)

Red Sleeping Beauty

Eugene, the guitarworkshop.net fella modified an "affinity" tele to the hilt and it's probably great.

http://www.theguitarworkshop.net/mygear/Tele/tele.htm




He says that the wood turned to dust when he was routing it out. Still though, good combo of pickups . Probably sounds deadly.

Dord

There are several Mexi strats on adverts.ie for round 300-400euro. Perfect for moddin'! :cool: