Squire Upgrade

Here's another project I picked up last night. 10 year old Squire Affinity strat in desperate need of TLC. With 10 years of dust and grime

I think it has an Alder body.

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Electronics as expected..

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The pickguard is single ply and scratched. Interestingly a replacement USA pick guard fits perfectly

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Suprisingly the body cavity has shielding paint. Its conductive but not earthed to anything!

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Headstock and fretboard all intact. Not much fretware. The tuners are needless to say junk.

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So tuners to be replaced with some Gotohs. I'll source a better trem and steel block for import style guitar. Full electronics upgrade and tonerider pups. The body cavity is deep enough for a 5 way CRL switch

Then fret job if required. A good clean and polish and setup then hopefully voila, twang.

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sweeeet! old squires are 1, a bargain and 2, a perfect platform for some easy mods like you've done that will end up making a really nice playable guitar.

From the picture of the back of the neck, it's had a lot of open chords played on it. Unless that's just the shadow.

cool project Ponch ! Is this an old Squier in your collection or one you picked up from Cashies ?
It's even red and white for the Swannies !
Should be a nice playing axe once you cleaned it up and added the upgrades

Belongs to a jam friend. He's had it sitting around for ever, the time had come for some TLC!

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Ah yes a Swannies axe!

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so you can use your Swannies scarf to clean all the gunk and build up on the axe Ponch !

Haha its so grubby it would turn it into a Magpies scarf!

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yeah we can't have that Ponch. Having one Pies fan (DB) in WA is one too many in my opinion !

See they were projecting images of Swanny and GWS players on the Sydney harbour bridge.

I thought I told you to use your Swannies scarf as a mower oil rag anyway mate ?

Too funny. The lawnmower will get its spring service this weekend, the rag used depending on footy result....

haha ok so if GWS get up it could be converted to a Pies scarf then Ponch ? hahah

I think the Swannies should be too good mate

Hi

I just bought exactly the same 11 years old Affinity in brown burst to upgrade myself. The band needs one. Mine however is in mint condition so I've thought about replacing the tuners with Wilkinson ez-lok's (the stock ones are very "wiggly"), bought Ironstone Platinum pickups that are a bit hotter than vintage specs and very reasonably priced. Also gonna put a Fender 5-way switch and bigger size pots on it plus decent wiring. Even though it had the conductive paint I put some conductive shielding in the cavities.

Thought about replacing the trem with a heavier block but as it seems the body is thinner that Fender specs so they don't fit without leaving the backplate out.

By the way - have you tap tested the stock pickups and wiring? Mine has this feature that the 5-way switch does emphasize the pups depending on the position, but it does not totally isolate the pups. When tap testing they all receive in all positions - just on different levels.

I'm not a guitar player but everyone who has played one of these has complimented the neck for being very comfortable.

@ andrewdosborne Nice Squire Strat you have there mate, I agree, those are a great platform for modding, or so I've heard, if you're going to give it some TLC and replace some of the hardware, you could consider asking the owner if he would be interested in upgrading the Bridge to something like a SuperVee Bladerunner, or maybe a Babicz Bridge, the hardware on those Squires tends to be not as good quality as the hardware installed on Fender's more expensive guitars.

Hey Ponch, the the stock pups just metal poles with ceramic magnets across them?

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Originally Posted by Andy40

Hey Ponch, the the stock pups just metal poles with ceramic magnets across them?

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Yep, same as on mine

And yes, a great modding platform - cool project

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andy40

Hey Ponch, the the stock pups just metal poles with ceramic magnets across them?

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According to them in the know over at TDPRI the CVC Squier pickups are Toneriders and having replaced those on my CVC Thinline this appears to be the case, I suspect the the Afinity ones probably come out of the same factory as your average kit pickup.

They also say the Afinity has a thinner body than a CVC or Fender which causes switch and pot modding issues

Yep. Thinner body and cheap pups. The new electronics will fit in ok though. .

It looks like the only mod required will be for the proposed new trem block. It will sit slightly proud of the trem spring cavity

I've opted for a new GFS drop in import steel trem. No additional screw hole filling / drilling required

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andy40

Hey Ponch, the the stock pups just metal poles with ceramic magnets across them?

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Yep sure are. I heard them a few weeks ago just before 10 year old strings were removed. Very ice picky and squealy

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The trem

http://www.guitarfetish.com/Made-in-...ock_p_489.html

And someone modding for Affinity Strat

https://youtu.be/rvAaoOfXJKk


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Ok. Time for some neck work whilst waiting for the trem

The neck was suprisingly straight no adjustments required.

However my fretrocker revealed almost every fret unlevel with its neighbours..

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So I have levelled the frets. Time for crowning. Note no masking tape used. Beginners to this process use masking tape to protect the fretboard! I do use use protection for crowning

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Also plastic nut removed along with the machine heads

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New machine heads conceal old holes

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good stuff Ponch,
is that your pink bike in the first photo ? hahah

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

haha ok so if GWS get up it could be converted to a Pies scarf then Ponch ? hahah

I think the Swannies should be too good mate

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Uh oh looks like my Swannies scarf is fair game!

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Haha bad luck Ponch. Main thing is Swans get a second chance against the Crows

A lot more has happened since the last post. Here is one thing that required a tidy up. Burrs from neck screw holes to be removed. The neck now sits nicely in the pocket


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And pretty much done. I'll tweak the trem later then return to its owner

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Good job, looks great

In Swanny colours too, just a shame about today's GF result.

Great job Andrew, looks almost brand new.

Cheers Waz. Yes shame about the Swannies but an entertaining game none the less. The Squire came up well and certainly a good platform for upgrades. Comparable to my Flender Strats and certainly equals in sound/playability. One strange thing with this particular guitar (for me anyhow as I'm used to vintage spec strats) is it's 10 inch radius fret board. First I've come across. The Indonesian factory back in 2006 must have been taking different specs from different types of Strats and muddled them all together into one.