Upgrading my squier!

JREC · #1 April 9th, 2008

Hey guys, got a couple questions for ya. My first guitar was (is) a black squier, love the thing but you know, it's a squier

I was considering some modifications to it, such as:

taking off the whammy for a hardtail (I never use the whammy and would prefer the sustain of the stopbar)
possibly putting in some Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups

I'd like to play it in a variety of situations often probably with a lot of overdrive so I thought the noiseless pups might mork well, plus they have pretty good reviews from what I've seen... Any thoughts on this or other non-aesthetic changes I could make to my squier? Thanks

allthumbs · #2 April 9th, 2008

Putting in a block takes care of the whammy. Keep the stock pups so you can throw them back on when you decide to sell the squire and get something better.

Noodler · #3 April 18th, 2008

I put Seymour Duncan Hotrails (humbucker that fits in a single-coil hole) in the bridge position of my strat copy at the request of my first band. Definitely helps for high-gain lead. I think if you start customising it, you'll probably keep it, especially since it's your first guitar. I wouldn't swap my strat copy, which has been personalised, for an American genuine strat. Mind you, it's a good copy.

I also tend to leave my whammy bar off, but I haven't bothered blocking it because it holds tune just fine. Another thing people do to Squiers is to put better tuners on them, but there are other threads about that here. Just do a search on Squier.

krissovo · #4 April 18th, 2008

If its noiseless pups you want then these babies are the ones. Great pups and it does exactly what it says on the tin "noiseless" (if you have it earthed correctly).

In terms of upgrading then if its a good squier then it might be worth the investment but these pups are more expencive than the guitar so as previously said keep the old ones or you will lose nearly 100% of your investment.

Buy Fender SCN Noiseless Strat Pickup Set online at Musician's Friend

fly135 · #5 April 18th, 2008

I'm thinking about replacing the pups on my Affinity Tele. It feels better than my std tele so why not. I'm looking at the single pup sized humbuckers at Guitar Fetish, but I'm not sure about the pro/cons of the various impedances. Anyone got any comments on that?

Lil Puncher XL- NEW fits USA Teles- Three Versions Available
Lil Puncher XL- Neck Pickup- Fits USA Telecasters- 2 Versions Available

krissovo · #6 April 18th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by fly135

I'm thinking about replacing the pups on my Affinity Tele. It feels better than my std tele so why not. I'm looking at the single pup sized humbuckers at Guitar Fetish, but I'm not sure about the pro/cons of the various impedances. Anyone got any comments on that?

Lil Puncher XL- NEW fits USA Teles- Three Versions Available
Lil Puncher XL- Neck Pickup- Fits USA Telecasters- 2 Versions Available

Go for it, looks like nice pups!

Stratrat · #7 April 26th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by fly135

I'm thinking about replacing the pups on my Affinity Tele. It feels better than my std tele so why not. I'm looking at the single pup sized humbuckers at Guitar Fetish, but I'm not sure about the pro/cons of the various impedances. Anyone got any comments on that?

Lil Puncher XL- NEW fits USA Teles- Three Versions Available
Lil Puncher XL- Neck Pickup- Fits USA Telecasters- 2 Versions Available

Fly - The GFS pickups get pretty good reviews almost everywhere. As far as the impedances go (generally speaking), lower impedances will give you a cleaner, more "vintage" tone, while the pickups wound "hotter" (more impedance) will give you a more driven tone. Personally I prefer staying on the vintage side of things - it's easy to add dirt to a clean tone, much harder to add clean to a dirty tone.

fly135 · #8 April 29th, 2008

I went for the vintage 5K pups. Plus I ordered two 500K push-pull pots for coil splitting. I haven't decided on a schematic yet. Looking at the control plate I have room for a DPDT toggle switch between the control pots if I need more switching capability.

fly135 · #9 April 29th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Noodler

I put Seymour Duncan Hotrails (humbucker that fits in a single-coil hole) in the bridge position of my strat copy at the request of my first band.

Noodler, from my research it looks like 250K pots are used with single coils and 500K pots are used with humbuckers. People were saying that the lower impedance muddies up the HB's tone. If you didn't change out the volume pot, you might not be getting everything out of that SD that you can.

Just relaying what I found deciding which to buy for myself.