Squier Bullet strat a good modding platform?

jhalliday89

Hi guys, 

I'm looking at buying one of the cheap shell pink squier strats - For the ridiculous reasons that I love the colour and want a HSS config strat.
Always had good experiences with Squiers but never one at this price point (£120 quid) - I would be looking at changing some hardware, pickups and electronics so I guess my question is:
Is it worth it? Paying 120 quid or so for a body and neck in a colour I like - Tone snobbery aside (I put such a barrage of effects through my signal that specific tone woods are irrelevant to me) But is this guitar worth it as a modding platform, like the bullet mustang is?

Cheers!

BeardyAndy

I'd say to go and play a few and buy the one you like. If you buy online and have to start paying for fret work and set ups then you'd have been better off spending the extra on a Classic Vibe or similar in the first place. The less you pay the greater the chance of getting a friday nighter!

p90fool

I had a Hello Kitty Squier Strat for a while and although the neck was on the skinny side the overall quality was pretty good. 

I would imagine it's probably in the same ballpark. 

Paul7926

I recently rescued a squier bullet strat from the back of a charity shop.  It had no strings at the time but a quick check revealed that the neck was straight and the frets were ok.  So I parted with £30 assuming that even if the electrics were shot I'd still have an ok neck for my money.

Turns out that with just a little bit of cleaning up, some basic repair on the jack socket, a new set of strings and a basic set-up it plays just fine.  I mean it could do with the pots being cleaned or replaced and the lose nut either being glued back in place or replaced but neither of those are urgent.  Not even replacing the pick-ups at the moment as they actually don't sound awful.

So in principle your idea is sound but I'm wondering if the asking price is too much.

Pic of mine after it had a good clean.

jhalliday89

Yeah - It's basically a guitar destined to be filled with weird pickups and make noise. I do agree with the above though i'll go try a few out. I still have a bullet mustang that I bought at a local PMT that I've done nothing with because it just plays perfectly as it is - I think it was about 100 quid and I still find myself picking it up regularly

dbphoto

I picked up a Bullet Strat for £75 recently for leaving at my office and it’s perfectly acceptable without any modifications:

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/163164/new-strat-day#latest

darthed1981

One of the nicest guitars I ever bought was a Bullet Strat.

Sold it to my cousin to help him into playing and regularly regret it!!

UnclePsychosis

I upgraded my bullet mustang and its great.

No real reason why the strat one wouldn't be similar, although I guess there's the possibility the trem is pants. 

Nunogilberto

Nothing wrong with Squier Bullets. Here’s mine from a few years ago. Started off as a normal SSS configuration hardtail model, but I did a bit of a Tom Delonge/EVH style mod with the single high output HB and single volume. Played nicely and sounded decent as I remember. 

https://imgur.com/rHYueqn

The advantage the Bullet has over the Affinity models is the more standard neck width - the Affinity is narrower like a Pacifica.

MartinBush

That's brilliant... what happened to it?

jhalliday89

That looks fantastic!
I'm going to pull the trigger on a shell pink squier this weekend - I will be locking out the trem most likely and putting something silly like a super distortion in and replacing the tone with a killswitch. Merry future Christmas to me

Nunogilberto

MartinBush said:

That's brilliant... what happened to it?

I moved it on like the guitar whore I am...