Right now the only two strats I have are a squier bullet HSS, and a yamaha pacifica 112V HSS with coil split. Is it worth modding the squier bullet to have SSS pickups? It would cost me £17 for a decent SSS pickguard/backplate, £30 for some wilkinson vintage pickups, and £15-£25 for a soldering iron kit, totalling around £70. Am I better off just putting that money towards another guitar, or would it be a good idea to create more of a variety out of my current guitars?
I know the pacifica has coil-split, but it would be nice to have a classic SSS strat. I don't plan on selling the bullet, since it was my first guitar, and I'd like to keep it, so concern over re-sale value isn't an issue (and it was only £110 when I bought it, anyway).
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Make the guitar more personal to you. This is its true WORTH
Someone here had their first guitar, which was also a low-end Squier I think, completely rebuilt by @FelineGuitars - madness from a purely economic point of view, but so what? Still cheaper than an expensive Fender, and actually quite likely to be as good a guitar!
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
They are a good base for modding. I would argue its rarely cost effective, but if you enjoy doing it and get a good result then that is no more of a problem than buying a brand new guitar and it losing value as soon as you leave the shop.
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If you're not going to sell the guitar and SSS will make you like it more, then go for it, as everyone else is saying. I'd maybe look at Entwistles (if anywhere has them in stock) rather than Wilkinsons, the AS57s are a lot nicer than any Wilkinsons I've tried. Or keep an eye out on Ebay... Toltec has a couple of handwound single coils up at hte moment starting at £20. They might get bid higher, but they might not...
Personally, I wouldn’t penny-pinch too much just because the basic guitar is cheap - if you’re not going to sell it the actual value is irrelevant, the only thing that matters is how much you enjoy the result.
I spent over £200 on new pickups for my old 1980s Aria ‘Strat’, and it was money well spent since I will never sell the guitar and it now sounds great, as opposed to average. I may even upgrade the bridge at some point too.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Just a SC made to fit the humbucker footprint and wound to sound more like a P90, especially the cheap ones
Ive got a HB size P90 in a Strat and it sounds like a SC to me, albeit a bit (and it is a bit) fatter which is always a good thing on a Strat IMHO
And an HSS Strat wont sound like a Strat with SC’s when just the bridge humbucker is selected?
Request this with three-conductor wiring. Coil start, coil finish and ground for the metal parts. That way, any signal phase issues can easily be corrected.
And the quality of timbers and construction of Squiers is impressive.
That's not to say I'd put Throbaks into it, of course! (But you don't have to pay anywhere close to Throbak prices to get something great. Those Toltecs I mentioned, for example, are excellent.)
I don't really think a P90 sounds like a Strat-style single coil... it's still a single coil, but its design is so different that it sounds more like a Gibson-style pickup to me. (Granted, I've only tried "proper" P90s, not HB-sized ones, but I'm guessing they're trying to sound as close as possible to the "proper" ones.)
I agree with you that humbuckers don't either, but you can split most of them. If you have one you can split, while I still agree it's not exactly close, it's a bit closer, at least to my ears. That's all I meant.
I guess there's the option of going for a tapped P90, but they're not exactly common, and to make it sound like a Strat pickup I would guess you'd have to go massively underwound on the lower output tap. And it still might not sound anywhere close to right.
And if you're willing to go to that bother, another option which still doesn't sound exactly right but is a lot closer would be to get one of those humbuckers which are designed to split, which have alnico rod magnets in one of the coils. (And ideally a tap on that coil to remove some of it for the humbucker tones, since that coil tends to overpower the slug humbucker coil. But then you're getting really complex...)
But all of that is really overkill if you know you just want a Strat... just get a new pickguard and a bridge single coil. (Or avoid the pickguard and get one of those "angled Strat singles in a humbucker casing", which I haven't tried but I'm guessing aren't a million miles away.)
It also has a crap switch and jack, and the pots aren’t great.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
The switch, pots and jack aren’t worse than the stock ones, but if you’re going to replace them, why not use decent ones?
I would get a good replacement pickguard made in the colour you actually want, with a CRL switch, CTS pots and a Switchcraft jack. It will only cost a bit more but the result will be far better.
I would actually save money on pickups before the rest of the electrics - things like Toneriders are pretty decent for not much money.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I added up the price with nicer components, and I'd end up paying £120, and that's with the wilkinson pickups, it'd probably end up about £150 if I got toneriders, at that point, it'd probably be better to get a fender tex-mex pre-wired pickguard for £150.
Even buying the cheapest components it would still be a lot more than the £50 pre-wired pickguard. I think maybe the £50 pickguard is quite a bit cheaper because they get it pre-made from the factory, and that might allow them to discount it a bit more. I'm not sure. I suppose it really depends on what pickups they have in the £50 pre-wired one.
I haven't had any issues with the current electrics in the squier, the switch actually feels quite solid compared to some more expensive guitars I have, so I don't think I'd have a problem with the electronics in the £50 loaded pickguard. It's just that I'm wondering how it's so cheap. Whether its because it was made in the factory, or because the pickups are really cheap or what.