Modified Squire Stratocaster

This is a guitar that was really cheap, but after doing some modifications it is a great and versatile instrument!

Actaully I was looking for a new neck for my Bastardcaster, when I found out, that those replacement necks are kinda expensive and I didn't want to spend that much money on an old guitar, which isn't a really good one, but I needed a guitar to install the synth pickup system on.

The Squire had been on a music trade show, so I got it for really cheap. I didn't care much for the sound in the beginning. After adjusting the neck and the bridge it was a playable guitar with a good string action.

The first modification was the installation of the GK-2A synth pickup.

After a couple of months I wanted to upgrade the pickups and bought a Bartolini LCE50 humbucker for the neck position and a Seymour Duncan SCR-1 "Cool Rails" single coil sized humbucker for the bridge position.

After milling out the body for building in the Bartolini LCE50, I noticed that the body wasn't made of plywood, but of solid wood. Some guy told me, that the Japanese Squires were made from "real" wood, which is a great feature for a cheap guitar.

 
The pickups were a great choise and I got a whole range of sounds from them. After playing them for a certain time, I rewired the whole guitar with shielded cables, applied some copper based paint inside of the body, to provide a better shielding and installed two switches to alternate the humbucker coild between a parralel and a series mode, which enhanced the sound capabilities of the guitar even more.

Last modified on Wednesday, 22. February 2006