Squire question

[Becker34]

A friend is offering me some kind of Korean Squire in trade for some work. I have no clue about these guitars, their playability, quality or value. All I own are LPs. I'm not really concerned with value as I was gonna do the job for free. Any info is appreciated.

 

[motowntom]

Is the neck plate stamped? if so pic, I have one that looks identical, can tell you all about it.
cheers

 

[QuicksilverSS]

Not terrible, change the tuners and get a good set up.

 

[LP1865]

Amazing guitars for the price, far better than the Chinese made ones.
I say go for it

 

[Becker34]

Is the neck plate stamped? if so pic, I have one that looks identical, can tell you all about it.
cheers

Dunno.

Not terrible, change the tuners and get a good set up.

I've been doing my own work on my LPs for the last 30+ years so I'd like to tackle the setup myself. Any suggestions for setup videos?

Thanks for the advice. I'll most like grab it up. Price is right.

 

[ehb]

Some Squiers are killer.

 

[judson]

my first guitar when i started back playing was a CN silver logo fender squire.....i now own 5 of them which were made in Korea in the early 90's and 1 Mexican strat and honestly the Korean made are better quality than the Mexico in my book....

they go in the $255 to $325 range( i paid $125 to $300) if you can find them...yeah tuners i swap out plus pots and pups but the price point of these is great!.....the tuners on your pic look like the better tuners so they might be fine for awhile....
even the stock pups will give you that strat sound with a good amp...the Mexico has 3 dimarzios and honeslty the others sound better to me for a true strat sound...but let your ears be the judge...

if you are trading work for a guitar...do it..they feel great,

 

[Burny FLG]

my first guitar when i started back playing was a CN silver logo fender squire.....i now own 5 of them which were made in Korea in the early 90's and 1 Mexican strat and honestly the Korean made are better quality than the Mexico in my book....

they go in the $255 to $325 range( i paid $125 to $300) if you can find them...yeah tuners i swap out plus pots and pups but the price point of these is great!.....the tuners on your pic look like the better tuners so they might be fine for awhile....
even the stock pups will give you that strat sound with a good amp...the Mexico has 3 dimarzios and honeslty the others sound better to me for a true strat sound...but let your ears be the judge...

if you are trading work for a guitar...do it..they feel great,

View attachment 513490

6 Korean Squires? No one can help you now my man

 

[fett]

I have a few Squiers. That's a nice one. You can tell by the detailed headstock. The serial number should be stamped on the neck plate. The body is thinner than normal Strats. The body is prolly multi-layered wood. Plywood, to you. I love those maple necks. Check to see if it's one-piece. You will get into modding it in nothing flat. It takes a while to remember how to spell Squier. Not Squire, dammit!!!!!

 

[jvin248]

.

That's a nice looking guitar.

Check the frets with a fret rocker, level if a lot are out.

Replace the wiring harness with the typical USA Strat controls: CTS/Bourns pots, CRL switch, Switchcraft jack
Use shielded cable from the volume pot to the jack. You'll spend under $25 with careful shopping. Pop the hood and it's possible a prior owner already upgraded those parts.

Pickups will work fine, no swapping needed. If not quite the tone you want then adjust heights plus tip bass/treble, measure and swap pots for other values. Ceramic block magnets under Strat type single coils will have stronger output than Alnico slug magnet 'classic' style pickups -- so they are better for rock/etc. If you want jangle of old styles then lower the pickups flush with the pickguard to weaken them up.

Looks like the tuners were already upgraded. Probably means the controls and maybe pickups were already swapped out.

While rewiring I'll set up a guitar like that with an Armstrong Blender mod ... so the second tone pot blends between stock SSS (reason for having a Strat) and hot HSH Super Strat (reason for more fun) mode or anywhere between. Look up Youtube 'breja toneworks armstrong blender" to get an easy walk through.

If you want to see how to set up a Strat, check out youtube videos from 'Daves world of fun stuff' and 'Frudua' channels.

.

 

[scott 351 wins]

I have a Squire Classic Vibe 60's strat damn good guitar for the 225 bucks I paid for it. It doesn't need any upgrades to its stock components. The mid 80's Squire's made in Japan are supposed to be just as good as Fender strats. I have yet to see one in person.

 

[CB91710]

Dunno.

I've been doing my own work on my LPs for the last 30+ years so I'd like to tackle the setup myself. Any suggestions for setup videos?

Thanks for the advice. I'll most like grab it up. Price is right.

Only difference between setting up one of these and a Les Paul is the tremolo... trickier if you want to float it... and the saddles are individually adjustable for height, so rather than adjusting the ends of the bridge to eliminate buzz on perhaps one string, you can tweak one string a bit higher, but you still want to maintain roughly the radius of the neck.
A common mistake is to angle the saddles with the radius... the top of the saddles should be parallel to the body.
Occasionally, generally with heavy strings, you'll run out of intonation room on the low E... trim a few coils off of the spring... or go to a lighter gauge. 9's on a Strat feel like 10s on a Lester because of the longer scale length.

Tremolo setup is not too bad as long as you approach it logically.
Fender spec is for the rear of the bridge plate to be 1/8" above the body.
Make a 1/8" spacer out of old ATM cards, slip that under the back of the bridge, and tighten the tremolo claw down.
Now tune to pitch, and fine tune the intonation and string height.
If you need to raise the saddles, or pull the saddle back to adjust intonation, slacken the string first, to avoid camming out the screws.
Once it's all set up and tuned to pitch, slowly and evenly loosen the tremolo claw JUST ENOUGH for the spacer to fall out from under the bridge.
Strings might be a hair flat, but should be very close.
Re-tune, and you're set unless you change string gauges.

There is nothing wrong with the original electronics as long as they still work. Upgraded pots and 5-way would be in order if the existing ones get scratchy or the switch cuts out.
My early 90s Korean Squier had Alnico magnets... nothing wrong with those pickups.

If you don't care about "floating" the tremolo (dive-only), then instead of the spacer, tighten the springs until the plate is flat on the body and continue the setup from there.

Pickups should be no higher than ~1/8" below the strings, maybe a touch lower on the neck pickup. A lot of guys run the pickup covers flush with the pickguard, similar to how some run the LP neck pickup flush or even slightly below the frame.
A sign the pickups are too high is known as "Stratitis", which is a "warbling" sound, and difficulty setting intonation. This is caused by the magnetic pull of the neck pickup, which happens to be directly below the 5th fret harmonic node.... also means tht harmonic will be very weak on the neck pickup.

 

[ehb]

Leo was smart where he planted those pickups...

 

[catawompus]

Apparently a Squier is good enough for Jack Pearson...

 

[ehb]

A freaking Jazzer, that’s one of the top blues players alive, played/recorded with countless folks, can play any guitars he wants...and loves Bullets... cheap pickups and everything...

Sounds like a gillion bucks.

 

[catawompus]

A freaking Jazzer, that’s one of the top blues players alive, played/recorded with countless folks, can play any guitars he wants...and loves Bullets... cheap pickups and everything...

Sounds like a gillion bucks.

Definitely one of my all time favorite players...

 

[diavolo]

i cant quite read the serial number, is it silver? looks like it starts with an E, might be a samick build '87 or '88
plywood body, 1.5 inch thick as compared to standard 1.75 inch thick strats.
really doesnt mean anything other than you can't upgrade to a full size fender trem block unless you want it to be sticking out of the back a bit. budget electronics, but they should sound fine. the neck on those older korean made guitars are usually pretty nice. they cut the cost in other places.

for set up start with:
setting the relief to about .010 inch at the 9th fret.
1.6mm action height at the 12th fret on all strings.
get the intonation right, and go from there.

the guitars are nothing special, newer made in china ones coming out of cort factories are better all around, but people like to think those old korean ones are magic so they're going up in value.

 

[CB91710]

really doesnt mean anything other than you can't upgrade to a full size fender trem block unless you want it to be sticking out of the back a bit.

Or some quality time on a mill or bandsaw and drill press.