Hi
Ive been given a Squier Strat by my dad who got it off my late brother in law who bought it to fix, unbeknown to us.
Today i plugged it in to find that the jack socket has interference, the neck pick up isn’t working or the switch isn’t selecting it. The volume knob crackles, the tone knobs dont seem to do anything, the action is off, its not staying in tune, and the intonation is wrong.
Is it worth fixing as i am good with a soldering iron and screwdriver
Or shall i give up the ghost and buy a Harley Benton
Do you need a project? If you would be fixing it for fun and education, then by all means go for it. If it’s because you need a guitar (and you have the funds) just get the Harley. Personally I think you should do both, but I have chronic GAS…
When you say 'Old Squier," it is hard to give a sound answer without knowing just how old it is. There are a series of made-in-Japan Squiers which are highly collectible and considered to be far superior in every way to what was coming out of the Fender side of the company at that time.
Assuming you have some basic tools then for the price of a set of strings you should be able to get it set up - set the neck relief, action and intonation - all straightforward on a strat.
Plenty of good tutorials online - don’t let it scare you. Small adjustments, take your time.
I’d be tempted to do that, and if I could get it set up nicely I would then make a decision about whether I liked it enough to invest in sorting the electrics.
The electrics will be fixable, very likely an easy quick fix as noted already - worse case a new pot/pickup or switch, but if you can’t get it set up well then it’s possible there might be something more fundamental in play (for example a twisted neck, damaged truss rod or major fret work needed). It’s all doable, but that would be a bit more expensive.
LIke others before, I vote fixing. At least you sound like you could do it
More often than not, one can make a nicely playable instrument out of it. (well, in my limited experience) Hopefully the frets aren’t too bad and the neck isn’t torn… (the latter doesn’t happen so often)
But if you do the setup on your own on that not so expensive guitar - String height and intonation - and then possibly more, the gained knowledge will serve you later with more valuable guitars. You’ll not have to go to a shop/luthier for every so small issue then.
Buy the guitar you want/can afford. HBs are great value.
Keep the guitar you’ve been given and fix it up gradually, as time and funds allow. When you’re done, keep it, sell it or pass it on
Hi John,
I read that you have already started a bit, that’s good , don’t be afraid, everything is explained in detail somewhere on this site what you need to do, otherwise there are plenty who will show you the way …
This guitar already has a story and it will probably be worth a lot more to you if you get it somewhat playable than the pounds it will yield …
Just go for it! It won’t get any worse than it is now.
There are tons of tutorials online for setting up your guitar. Justin has some too: https://www.justinguitar.com/modules/set-up-your-electric-guitar. They worked for me, so they should work for you too
I’d be cleaning that up my first bit of free time!
If you are handy with a screwdriver and soldering iron, then you’ll do fine.
Contact cleaner on the pots and switch is the first thing I’d do too. I’d also look to see if someone has been inthere before and mis-wired it or broke a wire.
It’s a nice acronym but I don’t think it works. If you make changes to the nut then you’re going to have to double check the intonation. Different people will have their own routines they swear by and leaving the intonation until last was what I was taught by a guitar tech
I understand the idea that if you change the nut, the intonation changes. If you examine practical changes, then it is really not enough to pay attention to.
Here are some numbers:
25 inch scale length - let’s just say we are starting here with exactly 25 inches.
lower the nut by 5 mils - this is a lot in my opinion, so we’d likely lower it less.
new length = sqrt(25 * 25 + 0.005 * 0.005)
Difference in length is now 0.0000005 inches (5 * 10^-7)
intonation will be half that distance off if it were perfect before the nut change.
You can see it is so tiny it won’t make a difference.
