Hi Everyone:

I've created two threads before and have received really thoughtful and solid responses. I apologize if I do not write back in a thread; I have read all the comments and it has influenced how I'm going to proceed.

The suggestion was made to look into CV Fenders, I have and that is going to be my next purchase. However, I have a huge problem from now until then.

I wrote before how I took my guitar to get restrung at local small music shop instead of taking it to the normal large retailer. Many suggested I learn to restring my guitar on my own; I've looked into and I'm definitely going to do so in the future. However, the damage has been done.

My Squire Bullet is completely off. It worked perfectly fine when I took it to the store. Bringing it back home, the bridge pick-up was dead. Luckily I have both the manufacturer warranty and the retail warranty. I called explained the situation and they directed me to a local store to drop it off to determine how to proceed.

I am going to drop it off tomorrow. Tonight I switched to the neck pick up for a song with a deeper tone...there was no change from the middle pick-up. Then I switched to each remaining setting and noticed no change. The whole thing is messed up.

On top of that, I'm pretty sure the guy restrung my guitar with 10's instead of 8 or 9's like I requested.

Any replies to the following questions would be really appreciated:

The replies to the previous thread were that the most likely culprit was a power surge. I have a 15watt Crate Amp. How would a power surge damage the instrument?

I've never done this, but a could a 15w amp set at the highest volume destroy a Squire Bullet?

Is there any kind of material I can plug in between the Amp and the Guitar to prevent a surge from destroying it? Is there any device that can prevent damage from an Amp or power surge?

Thanks again for any replies.

Hi NS, you should wait for a diagnosis from the shop before drawing any conclusions. The best we can do here is make educated guesses at a distance. But then if I was in that situation I would try to exchange it if possible regardless.

Mate if you get power surging from the amp to the guitar, damaging the guitar is the least of your worries. It will damage you. It does happen sometimes, but it's very, very rare. And it's due to a problem with the amplifier, not the guitar.

I think you are worrying a lot, making you jump to a lot of conclusions and it's all getting you worked up.

Don't worry. Step back from it a bit. Theres nothing gone on that isn't fixable. Just as Mojjett said.

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No no and no

nikininja is spot on.
I'm thinking your selector switch has gone bad or been damaged.
If the guitar was laid face down, the pressure on the switch might have bent it away from the contacts inside.

There is no power travelling from the amp to the guitar. The amp receives a small signal from the guitar pickups and amplifies it (go figure). As stated before, either a problem with the amp (meaning somebody re-wired it wrong) or a lightning strike would be required for the amp to affect your guitar.
Then again, it is possible you simply have a defective selector switch. If you can solder, it's about a ten to fifteen minute job to replace/upgrade.

As for the strings, it's not likely you can tell the difference in sizes by sight or touch at this point. I wouldn't worry too much about that, since you'll be changing them within a month anyway. Buying and installing your own strings is nearly essential. There are about a blue million youtube videos covering this. It's also a good idea to have spare strings on hand in case of breakage.
I order mine online and always have five sets on hand.

I think I responded to one of your other threads and you've received spot on advise.
1) there's not a whole lot that can go wrong with a Strat. They are pretty simple devices.
2) fixing any of it isn't going to be that expensive. The description you give points to the 5 way switch. The switch itself is about $15 depending on where you get it and soldering the wires is about 30 minutes (less for a tech who's done it a bunch).
3) the power surge thing, while may be possible, sounds pretty far out in left field. Unless some idiot plugged it into a wall outlet or something, there's just not that kind of juice coming out of an amp unless it was wied badly and if that was the case, the moment you touched the strings you'd get the snot shocked out of you.
4) it is possible the shop who changed your strings damaged the swtich, but that's about the only thing they could have done while doing a string swap that could have caused the problems you mentioned. I'd serously doubt it the shop did anything to your guitar other than put on new strings. Switches and control pots go bad and when they go bad, it's always unexpected. That day may just have been right with the moon and stars aligned just right and your switch decided to say "see ya later".
5) Sounds like you may be looking for a good excuse to exchange the guitar for something else anyway. If that's the case, use this as that excuse, swap it out and get something else. If not, take it to the tech where you bought it and have him/her check it out and tell you what's really wrong with it. Heck, it may be none of what we've been saying and just some wire in there somewhere came loose due to a bad solder joint from the factory.
6) while there HAVE THE GUY SHOW YOU HOW TO CHANGE YOUR OWN STRINGS. If you're going to play guitar, you have to know how to put on strings. What happens when you're out at a jam or your band is at a gig and you snap a string in the middle of a song? Will you put the guitar away and go home, or will you reach inside your case, open a pack of strings and replace the one that snapped and keep on playing?

Hope this helps.

Jeff