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Post subject: Late 80s early 90s mik squier "restoration" project.
Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 7:54 am
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Hallo this is my first post here.

I'm in the process of bringing my first electric guitar back to life. She's a mik squier strat with an S reg that I acquired at age 14 in exchange for an RC buggy. The body is multilayer wood and the neck is finished maple.

I started with the electronics because when I plugged her in she just would not sing, she'd hiccup and burp but no singing. She came with ceramic pickups, 500k pots and a 33 microfarad capacitor. I changed the pots (kept them 500k) and got a push pull for volume for the series parallel switch. I wired it so that when pushed there's normal operation and when pulled the middle pickup is in series with either the neck or bridge, the added advantage is that when pulled in middle position I have an off switch. I also did some rather ham-fisted kitchen foil shielding, but it works really well. The result is rather surprising in a good way, I actually meant to change the pickups with cheap wilkinson alnicos, but I'm not so sure now. Of course the tone pots I got were linear rather than logarithmic and the my 5 way is dying so I'm going to have to change them, but it's ok for a start.

Now my worries are for the actual physical aspect of the job, her pickguard and jack screws are loose and there's an annoying high pitched mechanical buzz at some frequencies, that I want to solve. I've actually adjusted the action with the sadles and the trus rod, I tried getting the action excessively high to exclude fret buzz and it seems like something is picking up vibration through the body and needs tightening. Before changing all the mechanics, would injecting all the screw holes with superglue be a solution or should I use something else?

TIA


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Post subject: Re: Late 80s early 90s mik squier "restoration" project.
Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 2:45 pm
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Screw holes have been tightened with toothpicks, matches & just about any piece of wood that happened to be at hand. A drop of ordinary wood glue with it keeps the screw in longer.

My favorite fix for loose screw holes is rapid epoxy; apply a tiny amount in the hole, wait five minutes, redo if the screw is still loose.

But to that mechanical buzz.
Check every screw & nut on the guitar - especially the nuts on the tuning keys are often forgotten...
No help? Check every other piece of metal that might be the cause. If you got a tremolo system, the springs may rattle (duct tape, plastic foam, rubber tube & many other lo-fi fixes quiets those). Also look under the pickguard; anything loose there? Pickups, do they sit tight?

BTW, my full support to keeping the MIK-Strat original.


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Post subject: Re: Late 80s early 90s mik squier "restoration" project.
Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 2:20 am
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jmattis wrote:
Screw holes have been tightened with toothpicks, matches & just about any piece of wood that happened to be at hand. A drop of ordinary wood glue with it keeps the screw in longer.

My favorite fix for loose screw holes is rapid epoxy; apply a tiny amount in the hole, wait five minutes, redo if the screw is still loose.

But to that mechanical buzz.
Check every screw & nut on the guitar - especially the nuts on the tuning keys are often forgotten...
No help? Check every other piece of metal that might be the cause. If you got a tremolo system, the springs may rattle (duct tape, plastic foam, rubber tube & many other lo-fi fixes quiets those). Also look under the pickguard; anything loose there? Pickups, do they sit tight?

BTW, my full support to keeping the MIK-Strat original.

Yep what he said :D

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Post subject: Re: Late 80s early 90s mik squier "restoration" project.
Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 12:47 pm
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Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 7:29 am
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I'm afraid original is a big word, she did survive for years as the trusted companion of a rather angry teenager and as such acquired a little character. But she's my first guitar and I love her.

Image

BTW I don't have any epoxy so I was looking at what it is, are all epoxy glues compound?


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Post subject: Re: Late 80s early 90s mik squier "restoration" project.
Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2012 4:28 am
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Yep, epoxys are compound (one tube resin + one tube hardener); they harden by chemical reaction. One pack will last forever; you only need a pea sized drop for all the screw holes in a guitar.

By keeping it original I meant I like that you don't rush to change all parts of the guitar. I've found there's a special type of "craftsman satisfaction" when you start with a lo-fi, low cost, beat up guitar, fix it and make it play and sound great.

That skull&swords emblem is sooooo hipster. :D


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Post subject: Re: Late 80s early 90s mik squier "restoration" project.
Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2012 10:48 am
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Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 7:29 am
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In that sense yes, I'm trying to get the best out of its original design goal. I want it to be a strat that sounds and behaves like a strat. Before I change any components I want to make sure I've done everything I can do to make it better. Only then, if components become a limiting factor I'll consider changing them.

That skull and swords trinket I got at an Iron Maiden gig in '93 and somehow found its way on to the guitar body. But in the general accidental look it kind of fits ...

I'm starting to think she may need a fret job and I'm not equipped for it ... Hmm it seems like I have found myself an excuse to acquire new toys, erm I mean tools. :P


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Post subject: little update
Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 7:00 pm
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I received my fretting tools from stew-mac and proceeded with the fret job.

She really needed it, the added bonus is that to save the strings I disassembled the tremolo and now that I've put it back together and moved the springs she's lost the buzz. Really happy with this, she plays and sounds amazing now!

Next I have to replace the cheap 5 way switch.


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