GRM Guitar Rehab - Squier Strat

For those of you that don't know, I listen to lots of metal and play music. I'm mainly a drummer and bass player, but I dabble in guitar too.

My soon to be 15 year old nephew recently showed interest in playing guitar, and since he can't keep his hands off of my Les Paul every time he comes over, we decided it was time to get him his own for his birthday/Christmas (his b-day is the 23rd). The wife and I decided that we didn't want to spend over $100 on a guitar, just in case that this is a passing teenage fad for him. I also wanted to get something basic that you could service and upgrade later, like a cheap Strat.

We hopped in the car and went to Guitar Center and picked this little guy up:

It's a Squier Affinity HSS (humbucker-single-single) Strat, and it was cheap. I tested it at the store and it played nice and everything worked, but it was GROSS!!! It looks like someone left it outside for a year. The frets were discolored and the strings were really rusty. The hardware had stuff growing on it!

The plan is to clean it up, re-string it, make some minor adjustments as needed, and give it to my nephew along with a fender gig bag and a Squier 15 watt amp I have kicking around. It played nice at the store, so I'm not touching the neck or anything like that.

First thing I did was get it home and remove the strings. 1st thing I noticed was that someone converted the tremolo to a hard tailpiece. I'm fine with this, as it will be fine for a beginner. Everything is still there to revert it back if he wants to. My 1st guitar was a Jackson PS4 with a Floyd Rose, and I STILL can't get the thing to play right over 10 years later after a string change.

Closeup of the pickups and grossness:

Nasty (not in a good way) neck and frets!

Check out the stuff growing on the tuners! I cleaned the High E string one for a comparison.

Stay tuned for another update later tonight, where I clean the rest and get some strings on it.

How can people let stuff get gross like that. I swear I spent more time cleaning and polishing my bass than I did playing it.

Good luck and have fun, I just bought a 66 Guild last night!

I don't know much about electrics--the only one i have is an Aerodyne Strat MIJ--but are the electronics in this really really good? To me, $100 seems kind of steep for a Squire with stuff growing on it.

Oh, also... Zymol is your friend. Expensive, but a little bit goes a long long way and works better than anything I've seen.

Honestly with a used Squire I wouldn't even bother cleaning the tuners. I would just replace them with a cheap set of anything. guitarfetish.com is awesome, cheap and sells good stuff for crazy prices.

It will be a polyester finish so any auto polish and wax will clean and shine the body up. Citrus based cleaners will get rid of the gunk on the fingerboard and 0000 steel wool will polish it them up.

ditchdigger wrote: It will be a polyester finish so any auto polish and wax will clean and shine the body up. Citrus based cleaners will get rid of the gunk on the fingerboard and 0000 steel wool will polish it them up.

Then put some oil on the fretboard.

IIRC, I read somewhere that Stanley Clarke uses Mennon's original Skin Bracer aftershave to clean his fretboard.

mtn wrote: Good luck and have fun, I just bought a 66 Guild last night! I don't know much about electrics--the only one i have is an Aerodyne Strat MIJ--but are the electronics in this really really good? To me, $100 seems kind of steep for a Squire with stuff growing on it.

I didn't pay $100. You can buy a new one for $130. I paid $70, and then got some odds and ends, like a strap, nice strings (I really like DR's!) and some other stuff. Still didn't pay $100.

Nice gesture. I'd say include a copy of Are You Experienced with it--you know, for inspiration.

SilverFleet wrote:

mtn wrote: Good luck and have fun, I just bought a 66 Guild last night! I don't know much about electrics--the only one i have is an Aerodyne Strat MIJ--but are the electronics in this really really good? To me, $100 seems kind of steep for a Squire with stuff growing on it.

I didn't pay $100. You can buy a new one for $130. I paid $70, and then got some odds and ends, like a strap, nice strings (I really like DR's!) and some other stuff. Still didn't pay $100.

Okay, that is what I thought... $70 sounds like a decent deal.

DaveEstey wrote: How can people let stuff get gross like that. I swear I spent more time cleaning and polishing my bass than I did playing it.

Leave it in a basement with poor humidity control... I'm willing to bet that guitar looked MUCH worse before it was brought in to the store to be sold...

I don't keep any of my guitars in my basement anymore...

You should see the array of cleaners I busted out to make this thing look presentable. You would think that I was detailing a Ferrari.

I tried Craigslist, but every time something was posted that was cheap, it was gone in minutes. I could have hit up eBay, but after shipping it wasn't worth it. There's also another store around here called Music Go Round that had some screaming deals, like an Epi SG for $70, but the Guitar Center we went to was a lot closer to my house. The SG was in similar shape and probably just as gross. Besides, there's no better beginner guitar than the good ol' classic Stratocaster.

Oh and David... Hendrix is cool, but get this: He posted up an artsy pic of himself on Facebook last night that his little brother took of him playing my Epi Les Paul. He quoted some lines from Fear of the Dark. Love for all things Metal runs in my family.

Yup for upgrades go GFS, but their shipping takes forever and a day.

I worked at an independent music store when I was in college. I find I really prefer places like that as opposed to shopping at "Guitarget" (AKA Guitar Center).

That being said, the strat you found looks like a good first guitar. I wish you had been my uncle.

Type Q wrote: I worked at an independent music store when I was in college. I find I really prefer places like that as opposed to shopping at "Guitarget" (AKA Guitar Center). That being said, the strat you found looks like a good first guitar. I wish you had been my uncle.

Guitar Center is the Walmart of music stores, I know. We had a chain up here in New England called Daddy's Junky Music that I used to find great deals at, but they closed down last year. I practically stole my Warwick bass from them. It was in almost perfect shape, originally sold for $1200+, and snagged it for $299. Used, this model (Streamer Standard) usually gets around $500-600, or more. It's the cheapest real Warwick (not a Warwick RockBass, but a genuine Made in Germany one) I've seen to this day.

All the mom+pop stores around me don't have anything under $250 that's even playable.

Speaking of guitar stores, here's our local place--just down the street from the GRM offices: http://www.guitarattic.com/

And very cool on Fear of the Dark.

Very cool man! My first electric was a hand me down squire strat that I got for Christmas. A $100 anything was a BIG gift. Same p'up configuration, same color, someone had upgraded it with gold hardware, gold pickgaurd and fake floyd. If you're wondering how anything could ever get so skanky, put it in the hands of a 12 year old with greasy fingers ;)

And Strats have always looked good in black:

ditchdigger wrote: Honestly with a used Squire I wouldn't even bother cleaning the tuners. I would just replace them with a cheap set of anything. guitarfetish.com is awesome, cheap and sells good stuff for crazy prices. It will be a polyester finish so any auto polish and wax will clean and shine the body up. Citrus based cleaners will get rid of the gunk on the fingerboard and 0000 steel wool will polish it them up.

Thanks for posting this site! I've been looking for some parts for my Jackson PS4 (specifically some cheap tuners) and this site has them for over $30 less than I've seen anywhere else. Now if I could turn it into a hard tail and ditch that Floyd Rose...

I picked up one of these Affinity Strats over the summer at a Guitar Center (used) for $50. I was shocked that it was so inexpensive, but honestly, for that price it was definitely a steal. It is plenty good for practicing, and they even wired the coils so that when I have Neck+Middle, or Middle+Bridge, they are hum canceling :D

If I can play my Eric Johnson, Satriani or Joe Pass stuff on this, I can definitely play it on my nicer guitars.

I've heard of plenty of people picking these up and replacing the tuners, bridge or nut to spruce them up a little.

DaveEstey wrote: How can people let stuff get gross like that. I swear I spent more time cleaning and polishing my bass than I did playing it.

Depends on the axe... Personally, I will never own a Les Paul or 335, for the simple reason that they are so beautiful. I would be scared of putting any little scratch on it, to the point that I would never play it.

With a Fender, it's different... The more beat-up they are, the better they play, and more importantly, the better they sound.

In reply to SilverFleet:

Real Floyd or a copy? I'm looking for a Floyd to replace the copy on my ESP.

I swear as soon as unload some of these pos cars, I'm going to invest in refurbishing my guitars. That'll cost a few K...

Alright, here are some quick updates!

Here's my detailing kit for the job:

Glass cleaner was used just to hose the thing down and get off any loose grime. Then, I used some Q-Tips to get to the hard to reach places, like the bridge. Then, I got out the Nevr-Dull. I hit all the chrome and metal with that, including the frets. There was this gross green stuff growing on the frets, and this took care of it easily. It's also what I used on the tuners. Then, I hit it with 2 coats of Gold Class wax. I waxed the body front and back, and the back of the neck. I used the Fast Fret on the fingerboard a few times. It was so dry that it was absorbed immediately. The black marker was used to fill in a few of the small chips here and there.

More pics after cleaning:

The whole deal...

Check out that shine. Oh and GO PATS!!!

Another shot. The hardware looks a lot better.

The back...

Tuners...

And this is the gig bag I had kicking around. Talk about perfect.

BONUS: My baby... late 90's Warwick Streamer Standard. I love this bass.

I'll be re-stringing it tomorrow night. I'm tired and I wanna watch some Monday Night Football.

Ian F wrote: In reply to SilverFleet: Real Floyd or a copy? I'm looking for a Floyd to replace the copy on my ESP. I swear as soon as unload some of these pos cars, I'm going to invest in refurbishing my guitars. That'll cost a few K...

It's a Jackson Floyd copy, but I believe it's a licensed one. If I can figure out how to get it to sit right, I will use it. It always sits really high.

Nicely done. Okay, I should stopping working and practice--yes, on the Strat tonight.