This 2003 hardtail, single humbucker Squier Stratocaster was my first electric guitar. Inspired by Squier's new Sonic HT Strat I restore this 20 year old axe to its former glory. Squier 2023 Sonic Stratocaster : Pink - thmn.to/thoprod/560978?offid=1&affid=367 Black - thmn.to/thoprod/560976?offid=1&affid=367 Support on Patreon - www.patreon.com/csguitars More details on how CSGuitars implements product promotion - www.csguitars.co.uk/disclosure #squier #sonic #stratocaster Timecodes: 00:00 - My First Guitar 01:03 - Selecting a Humbucker 01:36 - Renovating a Super 10 Humbucker 03:01 - Wiring the Pickguard 04:04 - Recap of Work Done 04:27 - Full Mix Sounds 05:41 - Isolated Guitar Sounds 06:44 - Closing Thoughts & Patreon More from CSGuitars: Gain access to exclusive content at: www.patreon.com/csguitars Join CSGuitars Discord - discord.gg/csguitars Buy CSGuitars Merchandise - www.csguitars.co.uk/store Website - www.csguitars.co.uk Contact - colin@csguitars.co.uk ____________________________________________________________________ *Description contains affiliate links. Purchasing using one of these links will generate a small commission for CSGuitars at no additional cost to you.*
Thank you. These kind of videos are funded by supporters on Patreon. If you aren't already, you might consider helping me out there. It means I can do more of these and less sponsored content: www.patreon.com/csguitars
Not listened to Atreyu in time. Memories of annoying my parents trying to learn Bleeding Mascara as a 15 year old who thought he could sweep pick haha. Great vid Colin.
My 1st electric was a black Korean Strat from 1989 and it’s been through many mods and pickups but has ended back as original apart from the pickups. Still the one guitar I gravitate to and would never sell.
To keep it more authentic you should've plugged it into a Line 6 Spyder amp. I don't know if that is what you had back then but I'd say it's a pretty good guess. Tube screamer was on point!
My grandfather’s first electric guitar was a hagstrom 2 from the 60s. When he got it it was a sunburst finish with a strat-like headstock and a wammy bar & he used it like that for quite some time. Recently (or somewhat recently I don’t really have an exact timeline) he decided to make some modifications to it so he sanded the finish off to the natural wood and redesigned the headstock to be a 3 on a side style with the g and b string tuners flipped for whatever reason. The frets are worn down to next to nothing but it’s one of the best guitars I have ever played!
Great stuff. It's cool to see that you've kept it, too. I still regret selling that late 80s Korean-made Squier Bullet strat that 16-year-old me bought second-hand with money from his first job in order to play Oasis and Green Day badly!
A cheap guitar from the better part of two decades ago that the idiot teenager learning to play early 2000s metalcore riffs on it kind of fucked up trying to install new hardware? That had an Invader in the bridge for years, no less? You're just describing my original Epiphone LP Special II I got as a freshman in high school 😂
Surely to God that band was not named after that Indian kid from the Never ending story? Great content as always. My son is into modifying his Guitars, he's forever buying 'value brand' Guitars to meddle with but the Guitars he uses are Westfield ones. He swears by them and to be fair by the time he's done 99% of them have turned out to be really good. I have mentioned Squire to him on a few occasions and he pulls his face unless it's a CV or contemporary. Anything but a Bullet or Affinity. 2003, that's the year he was born. I have tried an Affinity and thought it was good, especially as a platform for modification, lol. He's also on about winding his own Pup's, he's saving up for a winder. I might sling him a few quid so we can both have a go. Thank you for your superb content.
I got one 🙂 Bought brand new in Phoenix back in February 2003 when it came out for $99... Great strat, I'm fortunate to own many higher-end Fenders and some vintage ones too but I just love that little orange thing 😁😁😁 I completely modified mine too...
You litteraly almost just made your old guitar into one of those Squire Sonic strats, but with better specs. Its good that some companies make cheaper single humbucker strats nowadays.
I got the SSS hardtail bullet a few years back, and with some work it's glorious. Easy to fix and service, its a great learning tool. With a good setup it's easily one my easiest to play guitars. Even the pickups sound amazing
I guess Squier decided that having "Bullet" in the name is against the whims of the modern era. Even though with history dating back to CBS era Fender truss rods ... Sonic is a good name ... but why no Sonic Blue as that might be a ... shoe in choice. No?! Nice playin' Colin. My first guitar is an Ibanez RS135, the first pointy headed RS. My first Fender was a Bullet Strat, gold star logo ... that I should have never sold.
I'm not sure why this video popped up on my feed, but I thought I'd say hello. 3-4 years ago I bought a pawnshop 2004 Squier Bullet like yours but in Ice Blue Metallic for $67 US. It was dirty and needed a string change but I took a liking to it. I did a set up and it played very well, but the single generic humbucker wasn't doing it for me. I butchered the guard and installed a Gibson P-90 soapbar with a black cover. I also added a tone pot and Tele knobs. As a Fender scale Junior, it does the thing now! Cheers!
ooh the Duncan Invader, that one I remember as being heavy! Man I wish I had your skills soldering and stuff. The guitar looks sick. Wow that Atreyu riff took me back man ! How does supercheap Squier guitars like these feel to play compared to lets say a MIM style Fender like the Fender Player series ? I wanna buy a cheap guitar to play some Maiden on.
I had a 1992 Squier Stratocaster that I loved, lost, got back, only to lose again and have yet to see it turn back up. I only had to have one very important thing done to it, and it only cost me the installation fee: replacement of tuning keys. I had a set of black Grovers that I saved from a destroyed Lotus Telecaster style guitar (and before that, a no name pink guitar), and had those installed as the ones on the Squier were frozen stiff (and the ones that did work didn’t hold the tuning). So, I know the quality of Squier guitars first hand.
reminds me a lot of a Charvel, not because of the obviously similat shape, but the paintjob looks brand new and it´s more metal oriented, looks like the guitars charvel makes, simple but designed to shred
Wide tip, big heat, thick lead solder for this kind of stuff. If you aren't getting enough heat transfer then it's going to be a lumpy disaster that doesn't take. If you are doing finer PCB stuff then you want less heat, narrower tips and thinner solder to not burn the board and flood solder everywhere. Then it's just a case of melting a little solder onto the iron to help with heat transfer, apply heat to the joint (large surface area stuff like the pot casing require more time than small contacts and you'll want to prep the surface with a file to get adhesion), melt in the solder at the point of contact between iron and surface, remove solder, then remove the heat. Right hand, left hand, left hand, right hand. Grab a strip board and a bag of resistors and just practice the technique until your skill levels up. The real trick is the weird contortions required to hold the iron, solder and the wires in place for the duration as I simply refuse to make life easy for myself by using croc clip helping hands.
The right tools are half of the path to success here: a good iron (w/ plenty and preferably variable power) and the right tin will make things tons easier. Watch a YT video explaining the basics of the soldering process. Rest is practice. Oh yeah and get "helping hands" so you have 2 hands free for your iron and for the tin in case you're soldering things which need to be held in place.
Glorious! I'm still rocking mine (in black) modded with a added Casino Neck pickup and I got rid of that useless volume knob and replaced it with a 3 way selector.
That is my first guitar too! Also my main one It was given to me by a friend of my dad, it is the red one but someone had modified it before it ended up in my hands. Instead of the stock humbucker it has a Gibson Dirty Fingers pickup
It of course originally had black tuners, but back in 2008 (when I came to make some changes to the instrument) I didn't have as many options for upgrades as I do now. GuitarGuitar in Glasgow had one set of 6 in line tuners and they were chrome. Finding black hardware locally just wasn't an option back then. It's been this way for so long now that I like how it looks and is a reminder of a more exciting time in my life.
our first guitar: i think it's the best thing for a player to have a cheap enough guitar to 'work on' to learn how to work with the very real Carpentry it is we get into.. then when you have an instrument you care enough about, you know what not to do then!
This 2003 hardtail, single humbucker Squier Stratocaster was my first electric guitar. Inspired by Squier's new Sonic HT Strat I restore this 20 year old axe to its former glory.
Squier 2023 Sonic Stratocaster :
Pink - thmn.to/thoprod/560978?offid=1&affid=367
Black - thmn.to/thoprod/560976?offid=1&affid=367
Support on Patreon - www.patreon.com/csguitars
More details on how CSGuitars implements product promotion - www.csguitars.co.uk/disclosure
#squier #sonic #stratocaster
Timecodes:
00:00 - My First Guitar
01:03 - Selecting a Humbucker
01:36 - Renovating a Super 10 Humbucker
03:01 - Wiring the Pickguard
04:04 - Recap of Work Done
04:27 - Full Mix Sounds
05:41 - Isolated Guitar Sounds
06:44 - Closing Thoughts & Patreon
More from CSGuitars:
Gain access to exclusive content at: www.patreon.com/csguitars
Join CSGuitars Discord - discord.gg/csguitars
Buy CSGuitars Merchandise - www.csguitars.co.uk/store
Website - www.csguitars.co.uk
Contact - colin@csguitars.co.uk
____________________________________________________________________
*Description contains affiliate links. Purchasing using one of these links will generate a small commission for CSGuitars at no additional cost to you.*
thomann links are not working, or is it just me?
Wow you have a shirt from guitar pusher from the Philippines ❤
well, teenage boys know about cranking.
30yo boys know a thing or two about it as well 😂
Is this a mids joke or a masturbation joke
@@tntisbased yes
Hahah
In general, that is the perfect shade of orange, but especially for a guitar
Thank you. These kind of videos are funded by supporters on Patreon. If you aren't already, you might consider helping me out there. It means I can do more of these and less sponsored content: www.patreon.com/csguitars
That right side of the bed cover was phenomenal man, seriously impressive stuff, colin
Shout-out to the Guitar Pusher shirt you're wearing in this video, glad to see a store from my country being represented here.
Guitar Pusher is a fantastic store and the staff took great care of us on our visit to Manila.
Man, right side of the bed! Haven’t heard that in YEARS!!
I have the same model. Still all factory spec. Just loved the colour combination.
Not listened to Atreyu in time. Memories of annoying my parents trying to learn Bleeding Mascara as a 15 year old who thought he could sweep pick haha. Great vid Colin.
That was me half a year ago. lol. Spoiler alert, I couldn't. lol
Love the outro video at the end
The orange is one of the rarest colors I have a black and a metallic blue one. Greatest cheap guitar ever
Great job Colin! That Atreyu cover had me time traveling back to HS. I still have the discman I wore that CD out in
yeah good ole days and not much problems in life when listening to songs like that one =)
Reminds me how my $99 bullet from ‘01 still has the finest neck finish of any guitar I’ve owned
Ah, old school Atreyu. Those were the days. 😊
My 1st electric was a black Korean Strat from 1989 and it’s been through many mods and pickups but has ended back as original apart from the pickups. Still the one guitar I gravitate to and would never sell.
I remember those Bullet Specials very well. Amazingly, they were actually good enough to make us feel like proper rockstars.
To keep it more authentic you should've plugged it into a Line 6 Spyder amp. I don't know if that is what you had back then but I'd say it's a pretty good guess. Tube screamer was on point!
I wanted to see how you addressed the super straight string-through ferrules!
My grandfather’s first electric guitar was a hagstrom 2 from the 60s. When he got it it was a sunburst finish with a strat-like headstock and a wammy bar & he used it like that for quite some time. Recently (or somewhat recently I don’t really have an exact timeline) he decided to make some modifications to it so he sanded the finish off to the natural wood and redesigned the headstock to be a 3 on a side style with the g and b string tuners flipped for whatever reason. The frets are worn down to next to nothing but it’s one of the best guitars I have ever played!
Great stuff. It's cool to see that you've kept it, too. I still regret selling that late 80s Korean-made Squier Bullet strat that 16-year-old me bought second-hand with money from his first job in order to play Oasis and Green Day badly!
A cheap guitar from the better part of two decades ago that the idiot teenager learning to play early 2000s metalcore riffs on it kind of fucked up trying to install new hardware? That had an Invader in the bridge for years, no less? You're just describing my original Epiphone LP Special II I got as a freshman in high school 😂
My first real guitar was a squire II HSS strat maple neck candy apple red top mounted hardware. God I loved that guitar, I should have never sold it!
4:38 that note strongly reminds me of some song and for the love of God I can't figure out which
It pleases me to know that we had the exact same first guitar. I loved that thing so much. and I miss it.
Such a simple and COOL guitar. I love Squier Strats .
That Orange is sick looking! Beautiful guitar!
Man, I love Atreyu. The Crimson still slaps.
This is so freaking cool friend. Keep killing it you handsome devil!
Looks like a perfect punk rock machine 😍
I really like the orange
single **BRIDGE** humbucker, AKA UGGA CHUGGA MACHINE
What's the background music for "WIring The Pickguard" @3:05
Surely to God that band was not named after that Indian kid from the Never ending story? Great content as always. My son is into modifying his Guitars, he's forever buying 'value brand' Guitars to meddle with but the Guitars he uses are Westfield ones. He swears by them and to be fair by the time he's done 99% of them have turned out to be really good. I have mentioned Squire to him on a few occasions and he pulls his face unless it's a CV or contemporary. Anything but a Bullet or Affinity. 2003, that's the year he was born. I have tried an Affinity and thought it was good, especially as a platform for modification, lol. He's also on about winding his own Pup's, he's saving up for a winder. I might sling him a few quid so we can both have a go. Thank you for your superb content.
I got one 🙂 Bought brand new in Phoenix back in February 2003 when it came out for $99...
Great strat, I'm fortunate to own many higher-end Fenders and some vintage ones too but I just love that little orange thing 😁😁😁
I completely modified mine too...
You litteraly almost just made your old guitar into one of those Squire Sonic strats, but with better specs. Its good that some companies make cheaper single humbucker strats nowadays.
yea... Sweetly simple but it really wouldn't have been distasteful to through in a tone pot. Just sayin"... excellent work though...
Was really hoping to get Colin vocals when I realized the song, awesome stuff nonetheless
Atreyu sounding right off the hook made me go back 20 years ago too !
I got the SSS hardtail bullet a few years back, and with some work it's glorious. Easy to fix and service, its a great learning tool. With a good setup it's easily one my easiest to play guitars. Even the pickups sound amazing
My first guitar was 2002 Bullet Special in silver sparkle finish. Great guitar, shouldn’t have sold it! Thanks for sharing the video! Very cool!
Me on the weekend... 2:22. Couldn't have said it better myself!
Never been a Strat guy nor am I a fan of single pickup guitars, but this axe is killer!!! Now I need one
Despite hating metalcore I actually thought Atreyu of all bands were decent
I guess Squier decided that having "Bullet" in the name is against the whims of the modern era. Even though with history dating back to CBS era Fender truss rods ...
Sonic is a good name ... but why no Sonic Blue as that might be a ... shoe in choice. No?!
Nice playin' Colin. My first guitar is an Ibanez RS135, the first pointy headed RS. My first Fender was a Bullet Strat, gold star logo ... that I should have never sold.
I'm not sure why this video popped up on my feed, but I thought I'd say hello. 3-4 years ago I bought a pawnshop 2004 Squier Bullet like yours but in Ice Blue Metallic for $67 US. It was dirty and needed a string change but I took a liking to it. I did a set up and it played very well, but the single generic humbucker wasn't doing it for me.
I butchered the guard and installed a Gibson P-90 soapbar with a black cover. I also added a tone pot and Tele knobs.
As a Fender scale Junior, it does the thing now!
Cheers!
I'm just pissed they didn't make the pink single humbucker available left handed. I really want a cheap pink guitar.
ooh the Duncan Invader, that one I remember as being heavy! Man I wish I had your skills soldering and stuff. The guitar looks sick. Wow that Atreyu riff took me back man !
How does supercheap Squier guitars like these feel to play compared to lets say a MIM style Fender like the Fender Player series ? I wanna buy a cheap guitar to play some Maiden on.
Lmao, I had a 2003 Squier that I later sanded and spray-painted orange. I also listened to Atreyu on repeat from 2003-2006
I don't even play guitar anymore but I still have to check in to support Collin!
Was not ready for Right Side of the Bed. Suddenly I'm back in my childhood bedroom ripping on Burnout 3.
Right Side of the Bed was the first guitar solo I learned. I actually learned how to play lead listening to Atreyu.
I had a 1992 Squier Stratocaster that I loved, lost, got back, only to lose again and have yet to see it turn back up. I only had to have one very important thing done to it, and it only cost me the installation fee: replacement of tuning keys. I had a set of black Grovers that I saved from a destroyed Lotus Telecaster style guitar (and before that, a no name pink guitar), and had those installed as the ones on the Squier were frozen stiff (and the ones that did work didn’t hold the tuning). So, I know the quality of Squier guitars first hand.
I wish they offered this orange model , I would choose this over the blue / Pink one offered today. Great vid, that guitar sounds great
reminds me a lot of a Charvel, not because of the obviously similat shape, but the paintjob looks brand new and it´s more metal oriented, looks like the guitars charvel makes, simple but designed to shred
Teenage Colin really chose the right instrument for the music he wanted to play. That isn't nothing.
I fucking hate watching people solder. It looks so easy, but whenever I do it, its a complete disaster and I've no idea why.
Wide tip, big heat, thick lead solder for this kind of stuff. If you aren't getting enough heat transfer then it's going to be a lumpy disaster that doesn't take.
If you are doing finer PCB stuff then you want less heat, narrower tips and thinner solder to not burn the board and flood solder everywhere.
Then it's just a case of melting a little solder onto the iron to help with heat transfer, apply heat to the joint (large surface area stuff like the pot casing require more time than small contacts and you'll want to prep the surface with a file to get adhesion), melt in the solder at the point of contact between iron and surface, remove solder, then remove the heat.
Right hand, left hand, left hand, right hand. Grab a strip board and a bag of resistors and just practice the technique until your skill levels up.
The real trick is the weird contortions required to hold the iron, solder and the wires in place for the duration as I simply refuse to make life easy for myself by using croc clip helping hands.
The right tools are half of the path to success here: a good iron (w/ plenty and preferably variable power) and the right tin will make things tons easier.
Watch a YT video explaining the basics of the soldering process. Rest is practice.
Oh yeah and get "helping hands" so you have 2 hands free for your iron and for the tin in case you're soldering things which need to be held in place.
@@ScienceofLoud Cheers. I need to gut and repair my flaky wah wah soon.
I still play mostly in Drop C because I still listen to that era of music lmao
I'm intrigued by a hand rank pickup winder...?
Glorious! I'm still rocking mine (in black) modded with a added Casino Neck pickup and I got rid of that useless volume knob and replaced it with a 3 way selector.
That is my first guitar too! Also my main one
It was given to me by a friend of my dad, it is the red one but someone had modified it before it ended up in my hands.
Instead of the stock humbucker it has a Gibson Dirty Fingers pickup
hey for your more music video sections whats you lighting setup
... guitar collection video 2023? 🤔
Black tuners would really complete the look here.
It of course originally had black tuners, but back in 2008 (when I came to make some changes to the instrument) I didn't have as many options for upgrades as I do now.
GuitarGuitar in Glasgow had one set of 6 in line tuners and they were chrome. Finding black hardware locally just wasn't an option back then.
It's been this way for so long now that I like how it looks and is a reminder of a more exciting time in my life.
That was my first guitar it's a twenty years anniversary bullet I loved it because it was like tom delonge signature strat
I just got a Barreta and it’s my favorite guitar now.
I must admit that I prefer your orange strat to the new pink one.
bro this squier has a darker rosewood fretboard than the most of Vintage II Strats I've tried lmfao
Haha atreyu as the demo track is perfect for that 2003-04 vibe
Just looking at that think makes me wanna join a snot nosed pop punk band.
that atreyu song seems awfully close to infame's the hive
great video. going to grab one of the new sonic HT H strats.
your playing sounds really great! this bullet looks and sounds pretty cool
our first guitar: i think it's the best thing for a player to have a cheap enough guitar to 'work on' to learn how to work with the very real Carpentry it is we get into.. then when you have an instrument you care enough about, you know what not to do then!
What happened to your thumb bro!?!?
6:00 onwards... I recognise those riffs 👀😩
Fantastic job. Man, that final result is lush! I want one! :D
Whats the name of that cloth tape you used for your pickup restoration? Where i can get it?
22 fret should be standard for guitar at any price range.
Does everyone have a squier bullet strat as there first guitar
string through????!!! You weirdo!!! LoL
That’s a badass looking guitar right there. I’d get the headstock painted to match too.
Love that colour what's the proper name for it
Colin was emo in 2003. Now he’s a Boomer.
Pink guitars rock hardest....
WHO'S SLEEPING ON MY SIDE OF THE BED TONIGHTTTTTT
is that the stock bridge or an upgrade?
That colour is killer!
Hi Colin, can I get a hoyaaaaa??
The Bass is mixed a bit too loud in the mix and I can't hear cymbals at all, but solid mixing job otherwise. Sad to see the Invader go tho :(
You just took your history, and chunked it. Sad move .
But, your young.
It's literally all on a pickguard that can be swapped back in by soldering two wires. Stop being dramatic.
The blue tape. Memories.
Nice shirt!!
Lol, Atreyu!!!
nice guitar pusher shirt!
CSGuitars...You forgot to fix the string ferrules on the back of the body!...just saying...
They are perfect just the way they are
@@ScienceofLoud lololololololol...they sure are....lololololololol
Guitar Pusher😮😮😮
Less Is More…🤟
🌔🖤🔥🎸🔥🖤🌖
Thanks for sharing.
What color is this strat?
4:37 COME ONNNNNNNNNNNNN