NAMGD - Modding a Squier bullet Mustang, and my impressions of the guitar

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
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carron
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NAMGD - Modding a Squier bullet Mustang, and my impressions of the guitar

Post by carron » Wed May 23, 2018 7:02 pm

Instead of New Guitar Day, this is New Guitar but I had it long enough to already Modify it day.

After all of my guitars/amps/pedals were stolen I was contemplating how to get a new minimum rig. Instead of buying an offset guitar, which I love, I opted instead to buy what is my opinion a super versatile guitar, as SSS strat. I got a really nice channel bound american strat, really a great guitar. I also got an VOX AC15C1, which was one of my favorite amps pre-all the gear stolen days, but after that the money ran out. In a strange twist of fate I was able to recover one of my old strats from a pawnshop, an HSS candy apply red one. So I felt kind of silly to have now 2 strats, even though they sound very different from each other.

I wanted an offset, and had almost no money. So I bought a Squier Bullet HH Mustang for 129$. Since I had in a drawer a pair of Seymour Duncan p-rail pickups I thought I would install those and just modify the Mustang to kingdom come.

Here is what I bought:
Image

And here is the current state of the Mustang, next to my Strat:
Image

In the next couple of posts I will tell you my impressions of the original guitar and tell you a little bit about my simple mods.
Last edited by carron on Wed May 23, 2018 8:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: NAMGD - Modding a Squier bullet Mustang, and my impressions of the guitar

Post by carron » Wed May 23, 2018 8:06 pm

Ok, finally I got the images sorted out.

First of all, the new channel bound american Strat is awesome in every single way possible. CS fat 50's pickups, compound radius neck, channel bound neck, plays great, sounds great. I am really happy with it. I mod my guitars a lot and there is nothing I want to mod in this strat. The only thing I did to it is changed the tip of the tremolo for stainless steel, fitted a couch strap to it and gave it a good setup. Awesome guitar.

The bullet Mustang was another story. A lot of people have commented how great the mustang is for the price, but I found a number of, correctible, issues with it.

First of all, the Frets were extraordinarily scratchy, they were level enough but when bending it felt like they were made of sand paper.

There were issues with the finishing:
Image

The nut was absolutely horrible, badly cut:
Image

The neck felt unfinished, the tuners, at least mine where not very stable. But worst of all, the bridge was impossible to intonate without modifications.

What I liked about this mustang: The pickups were actually quite good, the 12 inch radius of the neck felt great, and it looks like it is ready to rock.

So, below are a few of my mods
Last edited by carron on Wed May 23, 2018 9:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: NAMGD - Modding a Squier bullet Mustang, and my impressions of the guitar

Post by carron » Wed May 23, 2018 8:46 pm

I refinished all of the frets:

Image

sanded the neck with various sandpaper grits until smooth as silk:
Image

Finished the neck with with linseed oil and beeswax to a mirror shine. It still is super extra smooth and slippery after it cured:
Image

filled the holes for the tuner screws. I installed grover tuners instead, I messed up and used a different color of wood for my fill, but it is not very noticeable with the tunners installed
Image

Installed new tuners, new string trees because why not, crucially I cut a new nut from bone myself (I think it is better cut than the original), and did the unthinkable of removing the squier logo and adding a fender logo. I know I should not have done that but there you go:
Image
Last edited by carron on Wed May 23, 2018 9:02 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: NAMGD - Modding a Squier bullet Mustang, and my impressions of the guitar

Post by carron » Wed May 23, 2018 8:59 pm

Continuing with the saga.

After covering all the electronics cavities with conductive tape for reducing the noise (which comes handy in P-90 only mode), I pretty much re-did the whole electronics. Now with P-Rails as pickups, new higher quality pickup selector switch, 2 push-pull 500K pots to give me lots of possibilities with the P-Rails (humbucker in series, P-90 only, rails only, humbucker in parallel), orange drop capacitor, new jack:
Image

I also had to modify the bridge, a few saddle screws needed to be cut to allow for precise intonation.

Here is the final product with a new perloid minty-green/cream pickguard:
Image

I did a full setup on it and now I really like it. It is a very versatile guitar. In the image below one of the push pull pots is up (that is for rails only mode)
Image

The only thing I am on the fence about is the bridge. I think I am going to change it and I can't decide between a hardtail string-through bridge for more sustain or to route the cavities for a proper mustang tremolo bridge so that I can do my shoe gaze dream-pop routine on this mustang

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Re: NAMGD - Modding a Squier bullet Mustang, and my impressions of the guitar

Post by carron » Wed May 23, 2018 9:29 pm

ahh, and obviously 11 gauge strings, the short scale needs thicker strings.

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Re: NAMGD - Modding a Squier bullet Mustang, and my impressions of the guitar

Post by paulnb57 » Wed May 23, 2018 11:31 pm

Nice work, these are great little modding platforms....like yours my frets were very rough, but surprisingly level, they got polished.....I also had bridge issues, the saddle height screws were so loose in the saddles that string vibration caused the saddles to gradually drop while playing! Some intonation screws were too long....I did the "Bubba Mod" on the original bridge plate and installed three Brass Wilkinson compensated saddles, much improved.....
I rewired with CTS pots, the nut on mine had a quick going over with fret files sorted the action...

It has had several incarnations, to the point that next time the scratchplate comes off I will have to dowel the screw holes as the screws now hardly grip! Its currently "Esquired" with a single (neck) humbucker at the bridge.....


Image

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Re: NAMGD - Modding a Squier bullet Mustang, and my impressions of the guitar

Post by solfege » Thu May 24, 2018 5:00 am

Talk to me about what you did to the bridge, if you can. I have a Squier Cyclone that I've been messing with, but the bridge is a disaster. Decked, I can *just barely* get the low-E saddle far enough back to more or less intone. I'm pretty sure I need to relocate the bridge backwards (or pay someone to do it), but I'm also wondering if there are less radical solutions.

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Re: NAMGD - Modding a Squier bullet Mustang, and my impressions of the guitar

Post by 601210 » Thu May 24, 2018 5:40 am

paulnb57 wrote:
Wed May 23, 2018 11:31 pm
It has had several incarnations, to the point that next time the scratchplate comes off I will have to dowel the screw holes as the screws now hardly grip! Its currently "Esquired" with a single (neck) humbucker at the bridge.....
Maybe you're already doing this, but one tip I learned from the StewMac YouTube channel is to keep track of which screws go where to reduce the chance of cross-threading

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Re: NAMGD - Modding a Squier bullet Mustang, and my impressions of the guitar

Post by paulnb57 » Thu May 24, 2018 6:29 am

I do but it is good advice...

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Re: NAMGD - Modding a Squier bullet Mustang, and my impressions of the guitar

Post by paulnb57 » Thu May 24, 2018 6:34 am

solfege wrote:
Thu May 24, 2018 5:00 am
Talk to me about what you did to the bridge, if you can. I have a Squier Cyclone that I've been messing with, but the bridge is a disaster. Decked, I can *just barely* get the low-E saddle far enough back to more or less intone. I'm pretty sure I need to relocate the bridge backwards (or pay someone to do it), but I'm also wondering if there are less radical solutions.
Im not familiar with the Duo Sonic, but in my case imagine looking at the raised back edge of the bridge plate from the back, there will be six screw heads in a line, one to adjust the intonation of each saddle, I removed all the screws and drilled three new holes exactly in between the six now empty ones, installed the three Tele saddles in the new holes and top loaded the strings as normal....

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Re: NAMGD - Modding a Squier bullet Mustang, and my impressions of the guitar

Post by carron » Thu May 24, 2018 7:27 am

paulnb57 wrote:
Wed May 23, 2018 11:31 pm
I did the "Bubba Mod" on the original bridge plate and installed three Brass Wilkinson compensated saddles, much improved.....


Image
Your guitar looks amazing. I like the purity of thought of having just one pickup. The pickguard choice really works I think.

I like what you did to your bridge. How do you feel about the tone? Brass should have made a positive difference. The stock bridge is a lot of trouble. I just cut the intonation screws, which did the trick for intonation, but my saddles and plate are still the cheap pot metal and this surely affects tone and sustain.

I was thinking of eventually changing my bridge. Now, what you did is an option, or I could instal a real hardtail string-through high quality bridge or even an original Mustang tremolo. I am completely undecided.

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Re: NAMGD - Modding a Squier bullet Mustang, and my impressions of the guitar

Post by carron » Thu May 24, 2018 7:37 am

solfege wrote:
Thu May 24, 2018 5:00 am
Talk to me about what you did to the bridge, if you can. I have a Squier Cyclone that I've been messing with, but the bridge is a disaster. Decked, I can *just barely* get the low-E saddle far enough back to more or less intone. I'm pretty sure I need to relocate the bridge backwards (or pay someone to do it), but I'm also wondering if there are less radical solutions.
I just cut some of the intonation screws and added thread lock to the saddle height adjustments. But what was done to the blue mustang above was much better I think. The stock bridge on the bullet Mustang is junk. I just checked and it seems to me the Squier Cyclone has a strat-like tremolo bridge. If so it is a completely different design. Perhaps you can find a shorter saddle for the low E, or...

One option to consider if you ran out of space for your low E is to use a different gauge string for the low E. Heavier gauge will require more tension and a different intonation length, come to think of it, I am not sure if heavier or lighter string will decrease the intonation length. I guess you could experiment.

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Re: NAMGD - Modding a Squier bullet Mustang, and my impressions of the guitar

Post by s_mcsleazy » Thu May 24, 2018 12:56 pm

i have a modded one.... now with sticker.
Image

sounds like you had a similar issue to what i had. i have noticed the qc on these are basically non existant. rough frets, dry necks. mine had 2 bridge pickups and one of my friends got one with 2 neck pickups. the tuner holes on mine were too big so i replaced the tuners with a old fender set i had and wraped them with a little tape so they would not move about anymore.

all that aside, mine is now a total tone machine
offset guitars resident bass player.
'Are you trying to seduce me Mrs Robinson? Or do you just want me to solder a couple of resistors into your Muff?'

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Re: NAMGD - Modding a Squier bullet Mustang, and my impressions of the guitar

Post by MechaBulletBill » Thu May 24, 2018 1:18 pm

s_mcsleazy wrote:
Thu May 24, 2018 12:56 pm
mine had 2 bridge pickups and one of my friends got one with 2 neck pickups.
:D fate works in mysterious ways!

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Re: NAMGD - Modding a Squier bullet Mustang, and my impressions of the guitar

Post by solfege » Thu May 24, 2018 3:01 pm

carron wrote:
Thu May 24, 2018 7:37 am
solfege wrote:
Thu May 24, 2018 5:00 am
Talk to me about what you did to the bridge, if you can. I have a Squier Cyclone that I've been messing with, but the bridge is a disaster. Decked, I can *just barely* get the low-E saddle far enough back to more or less intone. I'm pretty sure I need to relocate the bridge backwards (or pay someone to do it), but I'm also wondering if there are less radical solutions.
I just cut some of the intonation screws and added thread lock to the saddle height adjustments. But what was done to the blue mustang above was much better I think. The stock bridge on the bullet Mustang is junk. I just checked and it seems to me the Squier Cyclone has a strat-like tremolo bridge. If so it is a completely different design. Perhaps you can find a shorter saddle for the low E, or...

One option to consider if you ran out of space for your low E is to use a different gauge string for the low E. Heavier gauge will require more tension and a different intonation length, come to think of it, I am not sure if heavier or lighter string will decrease the intonation length. I guess you could experiment.
Thanks! For some reason I was looking at the original picture and seeing a strat bridge. D'Oh. But that last bit about string gauge is a thought. I've considered getting a shorter saddle (if I can find one), or honestly maybe just replacing the fucking bridge and locating it correctly this time. I think the real problem here is Squier c. 2011 QC. But I appreciate the reply.

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