Silk Purse/ Sows Ear?

[arealken]

Let me preface this by stating we all love our high end Warmoths. I have a stable of beautiful thoroughbreds. That said, I recently came by a cheap import Fender Squeir Classic and  I am rooting around with the idea of upgrading this pig.Upgrades I am looking at are a Solid Steel trem from GFS, and new pickups. I already have upgrade tuners.
Basically , I will be spending about as 2/3'rds much on the upgrades as the entire guitar did cost.

My question is this; Am I oinking up the wrong tree here?...I mean, is the guitar after the upgrades going to sound better than the sum of it's parts? I know the wood on the Squier wood is not real good, but the guitar looks good and does play pretty well, at least from a mechanical standpoint. The reason I am thinking about doing this is I want to make an SRV tribute Strat, and even already have the SRV pickguard.

Will I end up with a prize winning show hog, or a just a big fat sow?

I'll hang up and listen to your answers, thanks.

 

[AirCap]

Do it.

 

[fdesalvo]

You know what we are gonna say lol.  We are the masters of the money pit!

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Make it so!
So Be IT!

 

[rgand]

Give it a go. I did a Squier a few years ago. It came out good. It was fun, too. A friend of mine is doing a Squier JM right now. I expect to hear good results from that, too.

 

[zebra]

What with automated production and all, IMO the biggest difference between a $300 guitar and a $900 guitar is quality of the hardware (especially the trem and tuners), pickups (and then maybe not so much - look at what you can get through GFS for dirt cheap), set-up, and maybe fancy woods.

I'm desecrating a 90s RG as we speak...I say "Go for it!"

 

[spe111]

What you need to do is determine if you really want a Squier SRV stratocaster or not. Will you be happy with it two years from now? If yes, then do it. If you think in two years you'll want an upgrade, just save up and get the upgrade first. The resale value on a Squier with upgraded hardware isn't much more than a Squier with crappy hardware.

 

[musicispeace]

Upgrading and modifying Squires is practically an institution at this point and I think worth the effort. I love to see such guitars reclaimed and turned into viable working instruments. The one Squire I had sounded good and was not a bad guitar at all. I am very pro Squire.

 

[Sovereign_13]

Buddy of mine has a Squier Strat, one of his first guitars.  He's swapped just about everything on it at this point and has used it as a mule for some mods he wasn't sure he would use.  The guitar plays pretty well and, while it may never be quite as nice as a Fender American model, it's a solid guitar that he's not afraid to leave the house with.

Squiers may not be incredible guitars, but these days they're pretty consistently decently-made.