Easy Squier Bullet Strat mods
I've talked about Strat mods before but I figured it was time to talk about mods for this very specific guitar.
The Squier Bullet Strat, while cheap, is the best low-cost traditional Strat you can buy. And like I said just recently, "traditional" means the old-style 6-screw bridge and no tone control wired to the rear (bridge) pickup.
Things to know about the Squier Bullet Strat
Slim profile body. The Bullet is thinner than a standard Strat is.
Differently sized potentiometer posts. In my experience they're slightly wider.
"Barely there" pick guard shielding. The Bullet only uses the absolute minimum shielding necessary to reduce single-coil hum.
Sealed tuners specific to Squier. The Bullet tuner does not use a nut to hold it to the headstock but rather screws in the back. In addition, the headstock holes are smaller than standard Fender Stratocaster tuners.
Mods that are not easy or not possible for the Bullet Strat
Because of the slim profile body, you cannot upgrade the tremolo block due to the fact the block will stick out of the back of the guitar. With the Bullet you have to stick with the trem block that it comes with.
A tuner upgrade of any kind will most likely require cutting away wood and drilling new holes. This is a doable but not easy upgrade.
You may find it difficult to find replacement control knobs that fit right. I actually suggest purposely seeking out the cheapest knobs possible because as crazy as this sounds, those have a better chance of fitting correct. If they fit too tightly, the easiest way to make them fit is by filing down the inner plastic using an emery board (the thing you use to file your fingernails with.)
Also know that if all you want to do is darken the white knobs for a vintage-like slightly brown look, you can do that with a coffee stain. Make a cold cup of coffee, submerge the knobs for 15 seconds, take out and dry. If the stain isn't dark enough, repeat the stain as many times as necessary until you get the look you want.
Mods are are easy to do
Pick guard replacement. The Bullet has a 1-ply white pick guard. Replacing with a 3-ply white-black-white is simple. However, you do have to remember to shield it with proper copper tape. You also have to remember that if the screw holes don't line up, that's a very common issue that even happens on regular Fender Strats. For whatever reason, people who make pick guards seem to have a really difficult time drilling screw holes that actually fit the guitar properly, so if you have to pilot a new hole or two, that's normal.
Electronics replacement. The Bullet has plenty of room under the pick guard to throw in pretty much any replacement pickup you want and rewire the whole thing if you like.
Wiring in tone control to the rear (bridge) pickup. I wrote a tutorial on this a while ago. All it takes is soldering in a 1-inch wire. If you can wire in a pickup, you can do this. Really easy.
Staining the front of the headstock. This is done using brown shoe polish. The maple portion of the neck is urethane coated. If you polish over the urethane, yes this does work but you'll have to re-stain every once in a while to keep the color. To permanently keep the color you have to lightly sand off the urethane, then stain, then apply a clear sealant. The only part you have to be careful of is to try your best not to sand off the Squier logo.
If you want that really nice browner color, you will have to sand the headstock completely including the logo, stain and seal. If that's the way you want to go, just get a custom waterslide decal made to replace the one you sanded off. It is okay to put the decal over the sealant as Fender themselves did that at one point for years (and maybe still does?)
Replacing the tuner buttons. Easy to do. Take out the old tuner buttons, put some wood filler in the holes, let that set, then thread in your new tuner buttons.
Replacing the string saddles. From my experience, any set of regular Strat saddles will fit the Bullet. You can even get roller saddles on the cheap these days (this does help keep the guitar in tune a little better.)
Happy modding!
Cheap guitar picks for 2017
As the 4th quarter of 2017 draws near at the time I write this, these are my picks for good cheap electric guitars for 2017.
To this day I am amazed at the level of build quality Schecter can deliver for a price so low. I don't know how Schecter does it, but even when you pick up one of their cheapest models, it feels like something that costs triple the price. The C-1 is a design that's been in Schecter's stable for a long time. It's balanced absolutely correct, never dives, feels good and it's a very easy player. This is pretty much a can't-go-wrong electric.
Still the best cheap good traditional Strat there is. 21 frets, 6-screw bridge, old school wiring with no tone control wired to the bridge-only pickup selection, all awesome.
I gotta admit that I miss the one I had. Some wonder why I ever got rid of mine. Simply put, I wore it out. I played the bejeezus out of that thing. Maybe it's time I get another?
While true Squier makes a Strat with HSS, this is simply the better guitar for the same price. Many players prefer the 2-knob layout of the Ibanez compared to the 3-knob Strat.
This is the most "expensive" (but still cheap) guitar on the list. While true there are Epiphone SGs cheaper than the G-310, this particular model has the full 4-knob controls instead of just 2. That means each pickup has its own separate volume and tone controls.
VE means Vintage Edition, as is stated on the truss rod cover at the headstock. While this guitar's electronics are the same as other low-cost Epiphone Les Paul guitars, what's different is the finish and the neck profile.
The finish is "vintage worn", which basically means low-gloss satin urethane. The neck is a bolt-on with a Slim Taper D profile. This profile is the slimmer style that many Gibson players prefer and you can get it for dirt cheap with the VE Paul.
Which is the best?
My pick for the best cheap electric from the above is the Schecter C-1 SGR. As for why, all I can say is that you'll know why when you pick one up. Everything just feels better and the playability is amazing.
This isn't to say that the others are bad because they're not. I still want another Bullet Strat. But I can't deny that out of this list, the C-1 is definitely best bang for the buck.
Affordable fanned fret - Ibanez RG Iron Label RGIM7MH Multi Scale
If you've been thinking about getting into the world of multi-scale guitars, this is actually a really good place to start.
Take the Ibanez RGIM7MH multi-scale guitar. The fact that it's multi-scale isn't the selling point here, but rather that the guitar has fanned frets (note the "lean" in the frets across the fretboard). Another selling point is that it has individual bridges for each string saddle as well.
Now granted, this beast is a 27 inch scale, but that's why it's a multi-scale. And while this is personally not my style of guitar, something like this at the price it sells for was simply unheard of before. A guitar built like this was previously custom-shop-order only and would have easily run you $2,500 to start. This guitar is way below that because it's a production instrument.
Do I have complaints about this guitar? Yes, but just two. First, I don't like pickups that are angled for no good reason. Both the pickups - while they are better-than-normal EMGs - are angled and I don't like the style of that. Second, there are no fret markers. True, you can easily go by the dot markers on top of the neck (I did so myself back when I owned a Schecter C-1 Classic with "vine of life" inlay treatment), but I prefer having markers on the fingerboard itself.
Aside from those two minor complaints, if I were to get a multi-scale, this Ibanez would be it because its positives outweigh the negatives, such as all strings being straight after the nut, an easily accessible truss rod adjustment at the heel (note the exposed "wheel" in front of the neck pickup), and no vibrato system meaning this thing will hold its tune well.
Is a fanned fret guitar hard to play? No. It looks intimidating but it's actually easy to get along with. You won't have to learn the guitar all over again.
Good to see Ibanez offering an affordable fanned fret model. Now you can get one easily without the high price tag.
How unsanitary does a guitar get sitting out in the open?
It can get pretty gross, actually.
While the idea of picking up an old, beat-up Fender Stratocaster and strumming away on it is a very romantic notion, the reality is that unless it's cleaned first, the entire guitar is a cesspit of filth.
What are the most unsanitary parts of an electric guitar?
In this order:
- Forearm rest area
- Fretboard
- Back of neck
- Back of guitar body
- Tuner keys
- Volume knob
- The 5 and 6-string bridge saddles
Here's a further description of each. All of these go on the assumption that the owner never cleans his guitar (and there are a lot of guitar players like that out there).
Forearm rest area
This is the #1 place where sweat is transferred to the guitar body, so much so that it actually mars the finish even on urethane coated bodies. Sweat upon sweat upon sweat is caked here again and again and again. Yes, it is as disgusting as it sounds.
Fretboard
Every guitar player knows this one. Gunk cakes up and there's just no way of avoiding it. On a maple fretboard you can clean this with a toothbrush and Windex since the finish is sealed (meaning it is the sealant is dirty and not the wood itself). On a rosewood fretboard, use of a cleaning cloth with warm water will usually break up gunk on the wood. If not, you'll have to buy a Dunlop System 65 cleaning kit and clean your fretboard per the instructions that come with it.
In my experience, ebony is the worst for gunk buildup. The wood looks nice, but it attracts finger gunk like a magnet. And it doesn't matter if you wash your hands every time before playing, that stupid ebony board will gunk up so quickly it's not even funny.
Back of neck
The fretboard gets all the finger gunk while the back of the neck gets all the palm gunk. Fortunately this is easy to clean using just warm water and cleaning cloth.
Back of guitar body
On older guitars, "buckle rash" doesn't necessarily happen due to a belt buckle. In fact, most of the time it doesn't. It usually happens from the guitar player playing the instrument shirtless, and/or wearing thin shirts and having sweat come through the fabric and on to the guitar.
Tuner keys
It is incredible how many guitar players don't clean these things. All it takes is a squirt of Windex on a paper towel to shine up tuner keys in less than 30 seconds.
This very specific area is, by the way, the #1 place where you would pick up filth on your hands in the guitar store. You'd think it would be from the strings but it's not. The tuners have a larger flat surface where some greasy, disease-ridden moron put his grubby fingers all over it. To avoid touching filth like that, ask a sales guy for a polish cloth and wipe down the tuners yourself. He'll get one for you, not to worry.
Volume knob
This is always the dirtiest knob on any electric guitar because it's the knob used most, so it's easy to understand why it discolors faster than the others.
5 and 6-string saddles
Many players rest their palm on the bridge, and this can cover the 6-string saddle and sometimes the 5-string saddle as well.
Look at any used guitar that has gold hardware and notice that the bridge will always have the gold worn off on the 5 and 6-string saddle. Now you know why.
How to clean filth off a guitar to make it sanitary again?
This basically involves taking the guitar apart and putting it back together again. And when I say "take apart," that doesn't mean the entire guitar (ex: you don't have to take off the neck.) Just dissemble most of it, clean, then put back together.
On a Fender or Squier Stratocaster, you do the following for a complete cleaning:
- Take off the strings and throw them out.
- Take off the bridge completely.
- Take off all string saddles, clean each saddle, and use a pipe cleaner through the hole where the string goes through to clean that properly.
- Use a pipe cleaner to clean out the bridge block where the strings go through.
- Clean the bridge. Windex and paper towels work here.
- Reinstall string saddles to bridge.
- Unscrew the pick guard and put the screws to the side.
- Wipe down the entire body, front and back, and under the perimeter of the pick guard. You will probably find the most gunk under the guard.
- Reinstall guard to body.
- Reinstall saddles to bridge.
- Reinstall bridge to body.
- Pop off the 3 control knobs, clean those as best you can, reinstall.
- Raise the pickups as high as they will go, clean them, then lower them back to where they were (note: Yes it would be more proper to remove the pickup casing entirely to clean it that way, but this way is faster.)
- Wipe down the neck, front and back. Use either warm water or cleaning solution in the System 65 kit mentioned above.
- Fret cleaning is optional. I would only do it if they're really dingy and/or are showing green, in which case you should mask off the wood and perform light polishing using 0000 grade steel wool (a very fine grade steel wool that feels like cloth.)
- Remove the tuners and clean each one by one. Use Windex and paper towels again. Use a pipe cleaner for vintage style slotted tuners to get inside the slot easily. Reinstall tuners when done.
- Install a new set of strings, tune, get the pickup heights set properly, and you should be done.
How often it is required to do a "total cleaning?"
The general rule of thumb is that if you can see gunk, you need to clean it.
For most people, that means a guitar with regular play needs a complete cleaning roughly once every 3 to 6 months. And that's only if you think it needs it.
What about nitro finishes?
The old "secret" to cleaning a nitro finish is to use Meguiar's products. Namely, Meguiar's M7 Show Car Glaze followed with Meguiar's M34 Glaze Final Inspection. Yes, car stuff. Works well. Those two used one after the other is a longstanding standard process to maintain nitrocellulose lacquer finishes. In fact, it almost works too well. After cleaning with those two solutions you won't even want to put so much as a fingerprint on your guitar finish. I'm not joking.
As for how well it Meguiar's works on checked nitro finishes, that I don't know. Maintaining a checked finish is a weird animal because you have a finish that has visible deterioration, so... how clean should you go? That's an uncertainty. Personally, on a checked nitro finish I would just use warm water and a cleaning cloth. But on nitro that hasn't started cracking yet, then oh yeah, give 'er the Meguiar's treatment for a better-than-new shine.
Should you use Meguiar's on urethane finishes? You can, but it's total overkill. Because urethane doesn't check and is much tougher than nitro, you can use Windex and then apply regular car wax for a super shine on a urethane coated body. As for the neck, I wouldn't wax that because that can lead to gunk which can be difficult to clean off. That, and a waxed neck just feels weird to the hand.
Fender Mustang Faded Mocha Special Edition
Sometimes it's the simpler special edition Fender guitars that make for the best kind, and this is one of them.
Take the Fender Mustang in a special faded mocha finish. Its price is the same as a regular Fender Mustang such as this one in Olive (which is a standard finish option), meaning you don't pay any extra to get this particular guitar.
If you have played the Squier Bullet Mustang HH, a dirt cheap guitar, and wanted another Mustang that is more upscale with some pizzazz to it, getting this mocha Mustang is actually a really good deal.
Obviously, this Mustang patterns after the mocha color options of the 1970s, where at the time you could get this finish on Stratocasters and Telecasters. Seeing it applied to the Mustang actually works very nicely because of its decidedly woody appearance. Grain lines are easily seen on both the body and neck, the black-on-black pickup covers and pick guard work nicely (and yes the guard does have a white outline stripe to give it better definition), and the chrome isn't overdone at all. What you get is just a really nice look.
This is an example of my favorite type of special edition Fender. It's subtle, not overblown, no crazy gold, no crazy stripes, no crazy colors. You get a limited run instrument that's outside of the normal Fender catalog that you're proud to own. And again, it does not cost any more than a regular Mustang.
I honestly think this should be a standard color option for the Mustang because it works so well.
If you have the cash, grab one of these.