It is currently Mon Mar 16, 2020 4:57 pm

All times are UTC - 7 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 4 posts ] 
Author Message
Post subject: Squier 51 Discussion
Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 3:31 pm
Offline
Roadie
Roadie
User avatar

Joined: Tue May 18, 2010 2:56 pm
Posts: 266
Location: Marysville, WA
I just picked up two Squier 51's from a guy on Craigslist. He sold them to me for about $100 each, and both of them are in almost new condition.

I am about to begin doing some mods and wanted to hear what other people are doing with their 51's.

My Review of the Unmodded Guitar
I still can't believe how good these guitars feel. No sharp edges, the finish looks great and the necks are perfect as far as I can tell.

The Basswood body is surprisingly resonant and when you play the guitar unplugged, you can feel the sound in your hands and you can tell that the guitar has some real tone to it.

On both of my 51's, the necks were in perfect shape. Low action and great feel. The frets are a Medium/Jumbo.

I actually love the thought of having the humbucker in the bridge and the single in the neck. You can get a growl on your rhythm stuff and some quack for a singing melody line with the pickups. Very cool idea

Of course the big drawback is the tone knob, but I have said it many times. I'd rather control the tone through a pedal or on my amp. I hardly ever tone down my guitars.

The Pickups are by far the cheapest part of the guitar. I have not switched them out, but when you play the guitar unplugged, you get a very pleasing tone. When you are plugged in, the neck pickup gives a pretty rounded tone, but the humbucker sounds pretty cheap. I'm not totally sure how to describe it, but cheap is a good word. It just doesn't sustain with the guitar and doesn't enhance the pleasing tone.


The Mods I am doing:
On my Sunburst 51. I am going to relic the body and neck. (I like to do this to make the guitar feel better and get the poly finish off of the guitar and neck.) I have relic'd a few strats and they have sounded and felt a lot better.
I am going to install a GFS Split Humbucker that is a Seth Lover Style pickup, along with a GFS Vintage Little Killer Rail pickup in the neck. I am looking for a cool, quacky vintage sound.

On my Blonde 51. I am not going to relic this guitar, although I will sand the back of the neck a bit to give it a more satin type of feel.

I found a used Duncan P-Rails pickup that has a p-90 with a hot rail together. I am not going to use a neck pickup in this guitar. I am going to cover the pickguard with a thin plastic that will eliminate the hole for the single coil neck pickup. I will wire the p-rail into the 3 way selector and have a setting to split the p90 and the rail and a setting for both together.

I am still debating whether to use a 500k or 250k pot for the blonde 51.

The work starts tonight!


I'd love to hear what you all are doing with your 51's


Top
Profile
Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject:
Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 2:50 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Fri May 15, 2009 12:39 pm
Posts: 1466
Location: Birmingham UK
I say have fun. These are amazing guitars in terms of their design concept. They are just.. so absolutely Fender.. One of the best designs that Fender never made!

I bought a blonde (yellow) one and was lucky to get it. It was the only one left in a store with over 800 guitars in stock. The week before they'd had 7. All of a sudden it seemed that they just disappeared off the shelves when Squier/Fender discontinued them. No doubt due to their growing reputation as the Guitar to have and use for modding.

With mine, I concentrated on making it a good player first. Replaced the nut first with a Tusque supper slippy job. Then replaced the tuners with a set of mini Grovers (a perfect size for the tight Tele headstock). Filed down some ragged fret ends (over half of them actually) and finally I tweaked the neck pocket very slightly to make the neck sit better in the body (tut tut Squier - this shouldn't have been necessary, but I think it was limited to that one guitar. But it was the last one so I had no choice.)

With it playing and set up nicely, I pulled out both the pickups and replaced them with Seymour Duncan alnico 2 Pro equivalents. And that's all I've done. I had great plans for further work but just never got round to it. It plays great and sounds fantastic (pure fender RnR!). A real Strat/hot Tele cross..

The concept of the 51 was great and it was a seriously good design, but was let down by it's deliberate budget guitar status. As a result, the set up and hardware were left seriously lacking. The paint finish too is quite patchy on every one I've seen, especially when you look at it up close and personal.

Overall: Huge potential - poor execution.

I heard that Fender pulled it because they wanted to make a deluxe version under the Fender name. Would love to have seen that, but no evidence it ever happened.

If you're interested in modded Squier 51s, there's at least one really good website with dzoens of photos and detailed stories of mod work carried out by players. Some of those 51s are mind boggling.

_________________
Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2010 11:11 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Sat Sep 12, 2009 4:43 pm
Posts: 27
I bought a blond one for my son as a first guitar because he wanted to learn on electric; I handed him the Fender catalogue with trepidation (him knowing my love of strats and teles) and the 51 is what he chose. Personally, if his is anything to go by I would not change a thing.


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2010 11:39 am
Offline
Roadie
Roadie
User avatar

Joined: Tue May 18, 2010 2:56 pm
Posts: 266
Location: Marysville, WA
I still can't get over how awesome my 51's have turned out.

Actually, I am done with one and working on the second.

I relic'd the Sunburst one, added a black pickguard, put in a Fender Split GFS humbucker and a Vintage Little Killer Rail in the single coil spot. The price of the guitar was $100, and the pickups cost $60 total. It not only looks and feels amazing, but it is has an amazing vintage blues tone. I set it up and intonated it as perfectly as I could. After stripping the poly off of the neck, I have to say that the neck is one of the best feeling maple necks I have ever played.

I had a friend play it and he was beside himself saying that it felt, and sounded like the kind of guitar that you would find from an independent guitar maker who charges upwards of $1500. I told him that the whole package cost me $160 and he immediately started combing the online ads for a 51 of his own. He told me that I should sand the headstock and get the Squier Logo off of there. I told him that I am thrilled to let anyone know that a Squier sounds this amazing.


Top
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 4 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 7 hours

Fender Play Winter Sale 2020

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: