Guitar Nerds Anonymous

I'd avoid... I suspect you're correct that it's in someone's garden shed and there are plenty of Squiers that have been kept in cleaner and better condition for similar money...

This is absolutely magnificent. I'm usually not a fan of matching headstock but this is stellar!

Also love this MIJ Indigo Blue one...

Yeah the more I looked at the pics the grottier it looks.
What I am seeing is lots of squiers that have been bought, used for a few lessons before the owner decides guitar isn’t for them then just gather dust til they sell. Seems there’s lots out there that are essentially unused, be it 6 months old or 20 years old. Which is why I’m happy to hold out a bit and not rush.

Very cool, nice colour, I’m a bit of a JM traditionalist though and I always like to see the rhythm circuit present (even if I never use it!).

Another recent MIJ / FSR

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That’s a banger !

Accidental eBay purchase arrived. Action is very high, unplayably so, with only 4 strings on, and detuned. Frets are rusty and have the worst sprout I've ever seen, tuners are rusty, it's missing a button, it's very dirty. Other than that it's great.

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It looks the business though! Has it got a truss rod (looks not)?
Fret dressing and bridge / nut shave will do wonders and after that I reckon just accept that it's not an Ibanez JEM :)

prob could turn one of the F-holes into a handle though, that's halfway there

I just took it apart and gave it a clean. Was filthy. Probably needs another couple of goes. There were used matches as shims under the not-a-nut (it has a zero fret) for some reason. All the tuners seem intact and hopefully will be smooth enough with a scrub and some oil. The fret ends are SHARP and there's a nick in one fret top that's uncomfortable to touch. The neck seems straight, with a tiny amount of relief with the strings off.

Not sure what to do about the action. I've never taken a neck off but am up for trying. But the bridge also seems like a few mm could be taken off the bottom of the top part.

Not sure what to do about the action. I've never taken a neck off but am up for trying.

If the neck is bolt-on then it should be easy enough. Find some of those wedge-shaped shims (stewmac?) to fix that action. I guess you'll need to buy the blank ones and drill your own holes in them since your guitar probably doesn't have one of the common patterns/spacings. No big deal though.

But the bridge also seems like a few mm could be taken off the bottom of the top part.

I'd be more careful with that, changing the break angle can really mess tuning stability up.

I'd certainly start with the bridge, there shouldn't be any need to go near the neck, even if you had to replace the bridge it would probably be less messing...

I think it is a bolt-on neck, but not like you're thinking, like an electric guitar. A single bolt passes through the heel and heel block.

Cutting the bridge down too much can lower the break angle of strings over the saddle though, so it's a slightly bodgey way of doing it.

I'm going to investigate this bolt-on theory. I can see the tip of a threaded rod and a tapped plate on the inside of the heel block, and there's a tell-tale filled-in bolt hole on the outside on the heel block. Will pick away at that and see what's inside.

Fair enough, if it's bolt-on it should be quite accessible.
I had to resort to bridge shaving on my Gretsch as the neck has already been reset and the action was just not good. The outcome was very good though.
At the end of the day shaving the bridge is no different than lowering the saddles on a Stratocaster really!

Sidebar... if I were going to pull the frets on a Squier Stratocaster what width would I expect the fret slot to be... I want to order some maple or cherry veneer ready to fill the slots ahead of time... Google suggests 0.58mm, is my best bet to get some 0.6mm veneer (if I can't get 0.58mm) and hope I can wedge it in with the relief off the neck?

Actually I may have not Googled correctly... it seems like fretless conversion shims are actually a thing... probably handy even if they are a slight rip off compared to buying blank sheets.

Getting a cab built at Matamp for my Green Series 3000...

Have fallen down the Celestion rabbit hole...

FFS

Damn you Zilla cabs with your incredible speaker comparison youtube channel

Dream project tbh, enjoy it

I nearly fell in that incredible rabbit hole before telling myself to remain obnoxiously rooted in my ways and keep living a life where greenbacks are kings no matter what.

Saying that, pairing one with an alnico blue or creamback could really offer some different possibilities...

If you want to triangulate, Barefaced Audio do some good comparison videos too. They also have one of their new 112 cabs in stock and ready to go at the moment...I dont use the orange 112 I have as it is, but I am very very tempted

Just arrived. Frets out next. I had thought about reshaping to a Telecaster headstock just for a little extra project but I do like how it looks as is, particularly the very red sunburst!

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Would have nabbed either of those reverbs for new living room set up. GLWS and let me know if anyone drops out.

You know what would be super useful - an amp mod that put a couple of 9v pedal power points on the back of an small valve amp. That way you could have a nice simple no-frills vale amp in ur living room, and just sit your favourite reverb and drive pedals on top. Patch cable to the input and away you go, no messing about with separate power supplies and extension leads.

I guess it would be easy to mount a small power-brick to the inside of cab and run it off the AV in. That'd work right? I have a couple of spare ones kicking about. Shall I ghetto-mod the AC4?

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One thing I'd thought about doing to the AC4 was part opening the back to make it open back. That would make adding a two way with a 9v PSU and a short kettle lead to amp (possibly made internal?) a lot easier to accommodate and fiddle with...

Love this. Enjoying the updates too.
You gotta channel some of this dude and get deep in the crack.
https://www.instagram.com/worldfamousrepairland/

I’d love that, especially when you have an effects loop available to add reverb after the preamp stage.