Squier Vintage Modified electronics

[LushTone]

Hello, I recently picked up a Squier vintage modified strat with pretty decent Duncan designed pickups. But does anyone know the level of quality of the rest of the electronics in the vintage modified level of Squier? I'm  fairly impressed with the guitar.

Also, is there any experience fitting a Warmoth neck to a Squier body?

 

[rgand]

I put a new Warmoth neck on an Affinity Squier. It was a slight bit loose in the pocket but I just get the screws tight enough to be able to tap it one way or the other with my hand to line up the strings. Once snugged down, it holds just fine. No problem in two years, so far. I did scrape the paint out of the pocket before installing because it was a rough finish.

The electronics were crap so I replaced the pickups and pots. The output jack was fine, though.

 

[AirCap]

Fender used to put a strip of sanding screen in there to keep things from moving. Still works.

 

[rgand]

Can't say I'd have thought of that. I may do that if I pull it for any reason.

 

[LushTone]

These electronics don't sound like crap to my ears, and didn't feel like crap pots when I changed the knobs to black. But this is a higher level Squier with Duncan designed pups. The neck pocket looks perfect

 

[Cagey]

It's pretty tough to get a bad-sounding guitar these days, but keep in mind that even junk pots will feel good at first. In any event, I wouldn't worry about it. Even if they die tonight, replacements are cheap and easy so, no worries.

 

[myramyd]

Hello,

I have a VM Jaguar and I had initially intended to replace all the electronics right away. It actually had a wiring issue when it arrived, but it was just some of the wire was touching another part of the switch. Anyway, to my surprise, the switches and pots are all pretty good throughout. I may be wrong, but they look to be the same as what is used on the Standard MIM line. They are better than any other inexpensive guitar I have gotten for sure (I'm looking at you Epiphone). I LOVE the pickups on mine. They are also Duncan designed. The hardware also appears to be no different from more expensive models. All in all, these are probably the best value out right now. I'm guessing that yours was made in the same factory.

A friend of mine also bought VM Jaguar bass for his son and I set it up for him. It was near perfect out of the box. Unbeatable bass for the price. I think that whole line of Indonesia-made Squiers are fantastic. I would say hidden gems, but they raised the price on a lot of them (Jags and Jazzmasters by $100), so I think they already know.

I may swap the neck on mine with a Warmoth at some point, if it fits (I made a thread about this, just haven't had time to try the fitting yet). It's not bad at all though. Now that it's stabilized in my lower humidity environment it's doing better. I would say a Strat neck should fit or very close though. The Strat bridges and sting spacing may be a bit narrower than other models, so that's the only thing to watch for.

J

 

[rgand]

These electronics don't sound like crap to my ears, and didn't feel like crap pots when I changed the knobs to black. But this is a higher level Squier with Duncan designed pups. The neck pocket looks perfect

That's good. You may not need to replace anything, then. The one I got was a 2003 model and well used. Maybe the electronics had just worn out from time and use. Would be interested in hearing how you like it after putting a new neck on it.

 

[weezingthejuicebodhi]

The stock pups are actually pretty decent in those CV/VM guitars - the stock electronics are... okay.

No need to go out of your way to replace them, but it is worth doing sometime down the road (especially because an overhaul would only set you back ~$20-30 bucks).

 

[DustyCat]

I have a buddy's MIM Standard strat (or whatever it is..early 90's MIM but not Squire) stock single coils.

So I take it to a jam one time to ease the wear and tear off my own gear (don't tell him!). Crank up my tube amp to get a strong clean sound (for once! its usually always laden with gain) just so I could hear the darned thing.

And just like that, this neglected beater with uncalibrated intonation (at the time) turns out to be a tone machine, and becomes one of my favorite tapes to listen back to. Then again, I think there's something to be said for the vibe or energy in the air with the people you are playing with, and me does like the elasticity/ribbon of the cassette tape. They dont even fudging making them anymore

 

[TConnelly]

I too put a Warmoth neck in a Squier Affinity Strat. I found the Squier neck heel (and pocket) was significantly more rounded off than the Warmoth neck heel. I elected to round off the Warmoth neck to match rather than trying to carve out the pocket. Other than that it fit fine. I did wind up using a 0.5 degree shim from Stew Mac because there was a stack of sticky back sand paper strips underneath and that was just too cheezy for me.

I also put a loaded pickguard from Seymour Duncan in it (California fifties). I probably hold the record for the most money spent upgrading a Squier. I know, I get it but there are reasons. It works awesome! Be advised though that with the shallow body cavity in the Squire and the Oak Grigsby 5 way switch they use, the terminal for the neck pickup just touched the shielding in the bottom of the cavity. It caused a really weird hum in the neck pickup positions. I was able to snip just a bit off of the terminal to make it clear. I also had to plug and re-drill two screw holes and trim the trem. opening a bit.

Cheers..................Todd