An ongoing struggle solved
 

Over the past 15 years or so, I have gotten the bug for an electric guitar a number of times. When the bug bites, I would always go out and buy a decent mid range electric (or two), a nice amp, a pedal or two, etc.

Once the electric itch was scratched, I’d go back to my acoustics, begin to feel guilty about having that much electric equipment just sitting around, and decide to sell everything (losing my shirt, of course) and use the money for another acoustic.

Well, recently I got the bug again, and at about the same time I ran across a couple reviews on Fender Squire strats and Teles. I saw some great demos of these budget guitars and some videos on how to optimize their performance/playability. Lightnbulb went on!

I found a new Squire Bullet Telecaster at GC on sale for $179. I thought it might be worth a try, so I brought it home. Some labor was involved in getting it in shape to play…dress fret ends, fret polish, roll the fretboard, adjust neck, oil fretboard, adjust pickups, adjust intonation and action, restring, all free labor plus I love setting up guitars…a bonus!

I gotta say that for a guy who plays some old time rock and roll in his basement, this guitar is the berries! It plays GREAT, sounds good enough for at home playing, feels good, and looks killer. It’s Lake Placid blue. Best part, when I lose the urge, I won’t feel guilty letting it hang on the wall until the next bug bites… I’ll be ready, A win/win in my book.

I know many of you might look at this askance, but for me it works. I can put my serious money in my acoustics and feel good about it.

Roger

The current Squier instruments - unlike their MIJ ancestors from the '80s/90s - can be hit-or-miss IME and, as you discovered, if yours has good bones to begin with and you can do the setup work yourself (in your case about $150-175 in my neck of the woods) they can be nice little jam axes/mod platforms (I never could see the purpose of buying a $2K+ guitar with the express intent of carving it up). Don't know if you're considering any electronic mods yet, but I had my old-and-sold late-CBS '52 Tele reissue rewired with a 5-way stealth-mod switch, that enabled me to get some Gretsch-style "tone switch" sounds while retaining all the '52 functions:

Position #1 - Neck PU, .1 mfd cap (original '52 spec)
Position #2 - Neck PU, .047 mfd cap ("Wooden Ships" Stephen Stills lead tone)
Position #3 - Neck PU, factory tone pot/cap (original '52 spec)
Position #4 - Neck/Bridge in series, factory tone pot/cap ("hot" Bakersfield-style tone with a hint of Gretsch upper-mid twang)
Position #5 - Bridge PU, factory tone pot/cap enabled (no hard bypass as on original '52, roll off tone knob for softer "Chet" tones)

Use it well, often, and LOUD... :guitar:

Good for you for bringing that Squire Bullet Telecaster up to its best capabilities, Roger!

That's very cool that you have learned to do all that stuff! :guitar:

- Glenn

Setting up guitars can be a very therapeutic pastime. And when the end result is a positive transformation, to bring a guitar to its best potential, makes it even more satisfying.

What a great answer you found for your ebb and flow electric desire. Would love to see a picture of your new axe!

I have a friend who dabbles in a lot of horse trading.

He takes in a lot of Squire's, sets em up, fixes any issues that they may have, and resells them for a marginal profit, mostly covers his time and expenses.


It's kind of uncanny what a few hundred dollars will buy you these days.

if you're willing to put the time in to do the setup details they don't do at the factory, you're off like a herd of turtles for not a heck of a lot of dough out the door.

what are you using for an amp?

I’m currently using a Fender Mustang which I find to be just ok. I also have a Bugera 5 watt tube amp that is VERY cool. Great for in home use. Looking at a Supro, however. Love the warm clean tones.
Roger

First off, I’m a little confused Roger. Are you both Rogerblair and rbpicker?

Secondly, I’ve had the same struggle and ended up in the same place. I’m primarily an acoustic player (50+ years) but dabble with electrics on and off. I’ve had and sold Les Pauls, SG’s, an Epiphone hollow body, Strats, a Tele and a couple of US G&L’s. All good guitars but none have stuck around.

All I have now is a Squier Strat that I bought off EBay for $48. Like you I enjoy working on guitars so I’ve changed tuners, pu covers, knobs, pickguard, pots, caps, switch and jack with US made components. I also rewired everything with vintage style push-back wire. I’d planned on changing the pickups but they sound fine after all the other upgrades. I’m at $130 invested. It completely satisfies my occasional rock star ambitions and isn’t worth enough to consider the effort to sell it.

Oh, and my 2 amps are a Mustang 2 and a 5W Bugera. I seem to play through the Mustang the most.

Photo evidence;

https://live.staticflickr.com/353/32...f4897e07_c.jpg

I have a similar story with one of my two electrics. I’m a strat guy going back 40+ years. I have a very nice strat and when I want to play electric, I pick that up 95% plus of the time. Any other electrics I’ve had over the years has suffered a similar fate to your electrics more generally - it hangs next to the strat, almost never gets played, and I eventually sell it either out of guilt or to help fund something else. When I don’t have a second electric, I eventually get the itch, buy another, rinse and repeat. I eventually figured out the only other electric sound I just GOTTA have from time to time is a solid body P90 guitar - I’ve been through a few of em.

So a couple years ago, I picked up an Epiphone SG with P90s for $400. I promptly modified it so it’s better for my picky wants and needs, but it probably cut the potential resale value down to $100-$200 - ie, not worth selling. I play it almost never, but when I play it, I love it. And it’s worth so little I never even think of selling it. It’s just hanging there for the few times a year I start jonesing for that P90 growl. So I TOTALLY get what Roger is going for here. I’m a little different in that I do play my strat a good bit - I play acoustic more these days, but playing electric has always been a big part of my thing and still is. But playing any electric other than a strat happens so little I find myself with the same basic dilemma as Roger and solved it basically the same way.

-Ray

I love “photo evidence” in a thread/post!!!! The articles are good, but the pictures bring the stories to life. Just sayin’. Thanks for that rampix.

And my two cents about these Bugera 5watt beauties, get an inexpensive attenuator and get those tubes singing at bedroom sound friendly levels.
frank d.

Yes, rogerblair and rbpicker…one and the same. Not sure how that happened, but….

My Bugera has an attenuator,,, a switch that goes from .5 watt, to 1 watt, to a whopping 5 watts. Or maybe that’s not what an attenuator is…don’t know much about the technical electric side of the fence.

Glad to read about others who have taken a similar route as I have to achieve occasional electric guitar bliss.

And, I don’t know how to post pics on this forum without “hosting” them someplace. Other forums allow posting from my computer, but not this one. ?????
Roger

For my home recordings, I have been using a Squire Bronco bass and it does the job nicely.

Yes, it is in fact a Bugera attenuator(or Power Soak in Bugera speak) already factory installed in your amp. That’s wonderful. One less piece of gear to research and purchase!
All the best,
frank d.

oh yea.. Let us know how that goes, those Supro's are really nice amps.

Try a Bugera V22 1x12" combo first - lotsa warm clean tones in there as well, it'll take you from the bedroom to the stage (IME it'll handle a 600-700 seat house with no problem) while still scaling down for home use without losing tone, and it's cheaper then the Supros to boot. A lot going on for around $400 out the door, and tube amps are only going to get more expensive in the future...

https://mediadl.musictribe.com/media...3_Front_XL.png https://mediadl.musictribe.com/media...03_Rear_XL.png

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...tube-combo-amp

I have a Squier Strat from the 90s and two recently acquired Squier Teles.