Squier California Series SSS Strat Upgrade

Rust never sleeps. Grime and gunk spread like Covid-19. Two things to remember if you love your guitar. The current owner of this Squier Strat bought it used for MYR200 (USD47). Quite a good deal, I must say. It was grimy, rusty and caked in various evolutionary stages of gunk; testament to years of neglect.

On the plus side, this Strat had been recently refretted (there was hardly any fret wear). Someone had also upgraded the stock ceramic pickups to Alnicos (probably Alnico 5s, as printed on the pickup covers). Popping the neck revealed a seller's note on the heel, indicating that it had once been up for sale in 2007 for MYR960 (USD223). Now I knew that this Squier was at least 13 years old. Nice :)

Poor guy -- he could not even plug it in coz the output jack was broken. Now, I could have just replaced the broken jack, serviced the electronics; and called it good. However, as the owner intended to keep this Strat; he requested that it be upgraded to gig-worthy specs.

The first thing I did was degrime/derust the whole guitar as best I could, and recondition the fretboard. A full shielding job ensued, followed by an electronics upgrade. This upgrade included Alpha A250K pots, generic PCB selector switch, Neutrik/Rean NYS229 output jack and full rewire.

As per the owner's request, the bridge was to be set flat. However, even with three springs and the trem claw screws screwed in to the max; the bridge was still lifting slightly from the body. I'm glad to say that adding an additional spring solved the problem.

Well, that's about it for this write-up. Now, boys and girls; burn this into memory:
(i) Rust never sleeps
(ii) Grime and gunk spread like Covid-19

Squier California Series HSS Stratocaster Restoration and Upgrade

This rosewood board Strat is a fine example of how NOT to take care of your guitar. From the looks of the sweat and grime-caked fretboard, I knew it'd seen a lot of action over the years. The stock electronics (except for the pickups) were shot, and every single piece of hardware was either seriously tarnished or rusty. To make matters worse, someone had broken off the tremolo arm right where it screwed into the block, leaving an unsightly stub; and most of the saddle height adjustment hex screws were frozen in place. On the plus side, a thoughtful soul had added aluminium foil shielding in the pickup and control cavities. Testing with a multimeter revealed that continuity was good. However, there was no grounding tab from any of the pot casings to the foil.

The tremolo arm stub refused to budge despite my best efforts, so I ended up filing it flat. This means that no one will be playing "Apache" on this Strat. As for the saddle height screws, I managed to remove them after breaking the rust bond via heat/cold treatment. As expected, these 12 tiny screws needed to be replaced. The still-functioning pickups were de-gunked; and wiring, pots, 5-way switch, output jack and tone cap replaced. Besides this, a grounding wire/tab was soldered to the 2nd tone pot casing and screwed into the foil in the humbucker pickup cavity. I also added a self-adhesive strip of copper foil to the pickup cavity shielding that would make contact with the foil shield on the underside of the pickguard.

De-griming and polishing the frets was a relatively painless task compared to reconditioning the rosewood fretboard, I must say. A naptha-soaked rag didn't do much, so out came the scrapers. It was only after removing loads of crud that one could see the beautiful wood hidden beneath. The rosewood board was so dry that the first couple of applications of lemon oil were soaked up in a matter of minutes. Talk about a thirsty board!

After stringing her with a set of 9s and carrying out the usual setup procedures, this Strat was once again ready for action.

Squier California Series Stratocaster Upgrade

This strat was bought used for a mere RM250, according to the owner. Besides needing a full refret, it was suffering from years of neglect. Work done on this guitar included the following:
1. De-rusting and polishing the bridge plate
2. Replacing the bridge mounting screws and saddles
3. Replacing the tremolo claw and springs
4. Repairing a previously-botched fretboard "repair job"
5. Replacing the output jack plate
6. Replacing the stock 18-spline control knobs with genuine Fender 24-spline ones
7. Full shielding
8. Upgrading the electronics/wiring
(Gavitt wire/CRL 5-way switch/CTS 250K pots/Sprague "orange drop" tone cap/Switchcraft output jack)
 

Squier Japan Silver Series Stratocaster Upgrade

This Squier Japan Silver Series Stratocaster was hardly in stock condition when I received it. Modern Fender-style tuners had been added, the neck pickup had a brass base plate; and the 5-way switch was an Oak Grigsby. The nut was also missing. The owner wanted a new bone nut and vintage-style tuning machines, amongst other things. As such, work done and parts replaced/added on this guitar included the following:

1. Full refret
2. Pickup/control cavity rewire (Gavitt wire)
3. Custom bone nut (courtesy of Nonuz Zella)
4. New pickup springs
5. HDCustom pickup height adjustment screws
6. New pickguard screws
7. New set of vintage-style tuning machines