New Squier Project HH strat

[sunvalleylaw]

Hi all! I have been out of guitar playing, much at least, for a while while we have dealt with some family stuff. But now, I have the hankering to get started again, and to tinker with something. So, I feel a new project coming on. a few years ago, you may remember I modded my CVC tele. It came out great, and it is currently the guitar I play the most.

You may or may not also recall that a long time ago, I bought a Dimarzio Virtual Hot PAF for the bridge from Tone2theBone, and never used it. It never sold either. I have long had a hankering to do something with it. So here is my plan, only roughly sketched out so far:

Get a Squier Deluxe Hot Rails strat, in Olympic White, or possibly try to find an Olympic White Classic Vibe 60's strat as a base for the project. The advantage of the Deluxe Hot Rails is that it has 500k pots already, due to the hot rails. And they can be had cheap used. The advantage of the Classic Vibe, if I can find one in the color I want, is that I know how good my tele is. And it has the smaller headstock that I prefer. But it will cost more, and need it's pots replaced.

THEN, either get a Dimarzio Humbucker from Hell (which despite its name is a relatively low output neck humbucker that Rivers Cuomo used), or have Bryan Gunsher who wound my tele pickups, to wind me something for the neck. I am basically looking for a Rivers Cuomo superstrat HH configuration. I will take out the middle pup. I will need to learn about wiring patterns and diagrams and figure out a cool way to wire it. Likely, I will want something like Bridge, bridge split paired with neck split, both pickups together in full, neck, not sure what else. Will do some study to see what is possible. The middle positions may be reversed, I don't know. But I think that is possible.

I have checked it out and the standard squiers, Classic vibes, and deluxes all seem to be routed HSH so that should help.
I will also need to study up on soldering and see if my little home iron is good enough for the job.

Do you lot have any thoughts on this plan, or opinions on the couple squiers I am looking at?

Cheers!

Steve

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Different possibilities:

Squier Deluxe Hot Rails. Has 500k pots already.

Ah heck, I can't seem to make that picture work. Here is a link to Fender's site with pics. I like the white one.
http://shop.fender.com/en-US/squier...caster/deluxe-hot-rails-strat/0300510506.html

Regular squier Deluxe. Spudman has two of these, one white and one blue. They are both nice. The blue one would be very Cuomo-ish, but this one does not have a rosewood board which I kinda want.

CV 60's strat in Olympic white. Haven't found one for sale, and it is a discontinued color.

I like this one the best, but it is hard to find, would need new pots, and I am sure would be a lot more expensive than the Deluxe Hot Rails that I have found for as little as $175.00.

 

[duhvoodooman]

I have checked it out and the standard squiers, Classic vibes, and deluxes all seem to be routed HSH so that should help.

As we've discussed by PM today, unfortunately this is not true. While many of the Squier Strats are routed HSS, including Classic Vibe and Vintage Modified models, the only Squier model I can find that appears to be routed HSH is the Standard....though I'm not sure it's all of them. Many of the Fender models are routed HSH, but they're typically going to cost more....MUCH more for the higher end models.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

I am pretty sure the Hot Rails one I was looking at is routed properly. But pretty sure is not sure. I have put in a question at the Strat Talk forum for Hot Rails owners there.

Also, I am getting tempted to put a nice 22 fret neck on this. Not that I have ever played up there much, if at all.

I was looking at necks from the Fender Blacktop HH strats, and they are really nice 22 fret RW, just what I want. But they cost more than used Squier Standards and Hot Rails guitars. I guess the advantage of starting with a cheap guitar, if in fact it was routed properly (though i am not opposed to some woodwork), is that I could spread out the mods over time and experiment and have fun with that.

But, OTOH, I have seen Blacktop strats used for mid to high $300 range, and I know that they are nice, have decent electronics to mod from, decent tuners, a good neck, and are routed properly. Gets me out of the real cheap project range though.

 

[duhvoodooman]

I am pretty sure the Hot Rails one I was looking at is routed properly.

Looks like you're correct from looking at one of the photos in this post: http://www.squier-talk.com/threads/squier-hot-rails-deluxe-strat.5896/

 

[sunvalleylaw]

looking strongly at a HH Blacktop Fender strat.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Well, it looks like this is turning into a new guitar day. Specifically, the one. https://stgeorge.craigslist.org/msg/5567786544.html

Deal pending with seller. Pretty excited as I think I got a good deal, and a good platform to mod from. :thumbsup :happy Now, just have to make sure the deal goes though on Saturday!