Can a Black & Chrome Squier Tele sound as good as a US model? (read for answer)

[tremoloman]

Here's my story:

I used to own an American Tele but sold it due to lack of use. It had the best neck of any guitar I had ever played and loved the twang, but I couldn't justify keeping such an expensive guitar that wasn’t utilized more than 2 or 3 times a month.

Several months after selling the Tele I realized how much I really missed this guitar. Being low on dough I picked up a Black & Chrome Squier. The Squier is considerably lighter and felt a bit cheap due to the budget components. After plugging it in I was sold. It sounded very good, had great action, and is a solid guitar well worth the $199 asking price.

A month into playing the B&C I decided to try an experiment:
Could I get my Squier to sound like my old American model for relatively low cost?

I gutted the guitar completely of all its electronics - pickups, pots, jacks… all gone. I bought an American Highway 1 control assembly w/input jack off of flea-bay for $55 complete with Greasebucket circuit. Another auction won me a set of authentic American Standard pickups for $50, bringing the total investment to $105.

I put the entire guitar together in an hour. I restrung the guitar with Elixir .010s, set intonation, truss rod, and cleaned up the frets. I skeptically plugged the guitar into my Fender Hot Rod DeVille. I was really scared that all this work was a waste of time.

As soon as I hit the first chord all I could say was "OH YEAH!!" The sound went from good to OUTSTANDING for just $105! The famous Tele 'spank' I craved was out in full force for the price of a new single pickup! It may take some time to track down the parts, but the investment is well worth it if you have patience to do so.

I got a set of stainless steel Graph Tech Ferraglides in a trade for a pedal I no longer used. Adding the Ferraglides brightened up the neck/dual pickup sound quite a bit, giving me the crisp “SPANK!” Tele’s are famous for.

All in all, I managed to get the exact tone I was looking for roughly $150. So now I’ve got a $350 Tele that sounds like a $1000 bucks! I’m ecstatic with the results and thought I’d share them with you in case you ever decide to upgrade your Squiers.

I used it at a gig recently and people kept doing double takes when they saw it was a Squier Telecaster, not a Fender.

I was so happy with the result I'm now rebuilding a Squier Jagmaster with Strat parts. Modding Squiers is affordable and very fun! I think I've found a new hobby!

Take care,
tremoloman

 

[warren0728]

very cool trem....i have been thinking about souping up my old peavey strat knockoff but don't really no where to start. I'm sure i could take it apart! but deciding what to put back in that would give me a better (or just different) tone is overwhelming.

ww

 

[SuperSwede]

Tremolo, I would love doing the same to my tele (and what a low price you got away with!)... But I am really stupid when it comes to soldering and working with the electronics of the guitar. I would prefer to have someone do it for me, but there are no guitar techs around here (that I know of). The wood in the BC tele has a dark and almost a bit hollow body tone to it that I love, and I am sure that it sounds great with better pickups/electronics...

 

[duhvoodooman]

I'd love to try something like this, too, with the B&C Squier Tele I bought for my son. I've had it professionally set up now, so it plays very well, but there's no doubt that the tone is not up to that vintage American Tele twang. Unfortunately, I share Swede's lack of knowledge & experience in the physical process of making such modifications. But then again, I guess a guy's gotta learn sometime, and better to do it on a $200 guitar than a more expensive one, eh?

 

[tremoloman]

Soldering is SO easy! There are a couple of videos at stewmac.com that can help you and are very affordable:

"How to wire a Fender guitar" ($9.95)

Dan Erlewine shows you the basic techniques: tinning a soldering iron, proper wire stripping, the use of heat sinks, how to hold the connections for tinning and soldering, and lots more. Special animations show you how the components work: volume pots are explained clearly, and you'll learn how capacitors shape your tone.

For $10 you can't go wrong! I say go for it!

 

[Katastrophe]

That's outstanding, tremoloman! I love the idea of taking a less expensive guitar and turning it into something personal. How does it compare with a MIM Tele? The one I played a few months ago was pretty darn good, and while it didn't have the full on Tele "SPANK" of which you speak, it 'twernt too bad...

 

[Justaguyin_nc]

Here's my story:
I got a set of stainless steel Graph Tech Ferraglides in a trade for a pedal I no longer used. Adding the Ferraglides brightened up the neck/dual pickup sound quite a bit, giving me the crisp “SPANK!” Tele’s are famous for.

tremoloman

I really have enjoyed my black and chrome since I dropped the Vintage Noiseless into it.. as good as a full blown tele? probably not.. but most excellent for me... I was disappointed at first to find the Fender tuners I purchased did not fit in place of the squier tuners on mine but have now seemed to be content with these... they are staying in tune longer and longer.. The pots and switch have no noise so I will wait on those replacements and a very tight twist on the plug nut has made the 1/4 " stay tight in the body.. now the Graph tech ferraglides might be a welcomed additon.. if for looks alone not including the added sound.. do you know the part # you used Trem? I can find listings for USA Tele, Strat and import strats but the import tele if different from the strats does not show up in my searches.. any help would be appreciated...

 

[duhvoodooman]

I bought an American Highway 1 control assembly w/input jack off of flea-bay for $55 complete with Greasebucket circuit.

Trem, what exactly do you see as the benefits of this upgraded control assembly relative to the stock Squier controls? How big a difference does this upgrade make vs. the p'up upgrade on the tone of your Tele? Hoping you can clarify/quantify a bit....

Also, what do you know about the Texas Special or Hot Vintage Tele p'ups vs. the American Standards you installed?

 

[tremoloman]

Trem, what exactly do you see as the benefits of this upgraded control assembly relative to the stock Squier controls?

The Greasebucket wiring allows you to turn the treble down without adding bass. The US components are of much higher quality and in turn cause less hum since they are shielded better than Squier's stock wiring. If you go to Fender's website, you can download the wiring diagram and see exactly what I'm referring to.

How big a difference does this upgrade make vs. the p'up upgrade on the tone of your Tele? Hoping you can clarify/quantify a bit....

My stock volume control cracked when I turned it. My tone pot was bent to one side and wobbled when I rotated it. The jack assembly was loose and would never stay tight. I can't stand nuisances such as these thanks to my OCD so one night I got P.O.'ed ripped it apart. I decided to give it an overhaul since I wanted the Tele sound I missed. I live by the motto "If you are going to do something, do it right", so there was no way I was going to put it back together without giving it the hardware it deserved.

I cannot tell you how different the tone mod would sound alone since I didn't try that by itself. I just knew my controls had to go.

Also, what do you know about the Texas Special or Hot Vintage Tele p'ups vs. the American Standards you installed?

Since I was specific in terms of tone I wanted, I went right for the same ones that were in my American Tele. I've heard Texas specials in an American model that sounded great but was more of a rockin' blues sound to my ears.

 

[tremoloman]

That's outstanding, tremoloman! I love the idea of taking a less expensive guitar and turning it into something personal. How does it compare with a MIM Tele? The one I played a few months ago was pretty darn good, and while it didn't have the full on Tele "SPANK" of which you speak, it 'twernt too bad...

Thanks! Standard MIM Tele's are great, but I went for the Squier because:

1. I liked the feel of it better than the MIM
2. The cost was $169 less than the MIM
3. Fully upgraded with US hardware, it costs roughly the same as a stock MIM

Since cost was my #1 concern so it was the Squier or nothing. I never planned to doing any upgrades but I figured I'd give it a shot.

If I did it all over again I may have opted to go with a used MIM since they are easier to upgrade due to their consistent measurements. There are lots of aftermarket parts readily available for MIMs while Squiers are very diffucult to find compatible parts that fit due to lack of consistancy. You will be hard pressed to find Squiers that are exactly like, especially pickguards!

 

[duhvoodooman]

Just nailed a set of new Hot Vintage Tele p'ups (the ones they use in the Highway 1 Texas model) on eBay. Read good things about them so thought I'd give 'em a shot. Not sure if I'll try installing them in my son's Squier Tele myself or let the pros do it, but should be interesting to see what tonal benefits accrue! The same guy was selling a set of the Greasebucket controls, too, but I decided to hold off on that until I see what the p'up change accomplishes....

 

[duhvoodooman]

Got the Hot Vintage p'ups in and running. I can't believe there's an easier guitar to change the p'ups in than a Tele. A few screws and four solder points and that's it. And you do all the work from the top side. Very convenient.

Anyway, these Hot Vintage p'ups were advertised as having a classic Tele twang but with a "growl". That's a pretty good description. You definitely wouldn't want these for playing a lot of clean country or jazz styles, but for blues and rock, they're great. Definitely "hotter" than the stock Squier pickups and lots of bite. I played through my Delta Blues' clean channel with the volume up a bit for a few minutes, and there's a lot punch there. Go over to the lead channel or stomp on the ol' Bad Monkey, and it gets down & dirty very nicely.

I thought they might be kind of noisy, and while there's still some hum, they're quieter than the stock Squier p'ups were. All in all, a very substantial upgrade for a reasonable (~$75) expenditure....

 

[Robert]

What brand are those pickups, VDM?

 

[duhvoodooman]

They're Fender USA produced, the model used in the Highway 1 Texas Tele. I can't find where these are offered for sale as an upgrade, so I'm pretty sure they must have come out of a new HW1 Texas model that somebody wanted a different sound from. The eBay source was an extremely reputable seller, and I have no doubt from his description and their condition that they were new.

 

[blogan]

If you're planning on swapping pickups, there's a lot more you can do to improve your g'tar. GuitarNuts.com has a lot of information on grounding, shielding, and switching. Time to get the soldering iron out...

Oops! Just realized that Tim posted a link to GuitarNuts in another thread just a couple of days ago. Maybe that's how I found out about GuitarNuts. Thanks, Tim!

 

[duhvoodooman]

Yeah, there's plenty left to do. I'll stick with just the p'up upgrade for a while, and will then go after either the tailpiece/saddles or the control set next, I think....

I bookmarked that Guitarnuts site a couple of weeks ago, after reading a well-done VOX AD6VTX review there. Good site!

 

[duhvoodooman]

Just a short clip with the new Hot Vintage p'ups. One of my favorite old (and I do mean old!) Clapton riffs, played from the bridge p'up, first through the clean channel of my Delta Blues, then through the lead channel with the gain up high . The distortion you can hear on some of the "clean" notes is from a little too much volume through the mic, not from the actual sound from the amp speaker.

Hot Vintage Sample Clip