Great Vid J- The one thing I would suggest is to use painter tape to cover up those pick ups when using steel wool as to not have the remnants get into those pups.
I got a loaded pickguard on Amazon with 9K Ohms rating and they are a beast. Tone control for bridge pickup the entire thing was$38 loaded. Pickups do matter I couldn’t put it down after that. Oh it was an Affinity strat.
Hi Jayce, Good setup, for a cheapo Chinese guitar, it sounded pretty good, I'm sure any learner or even an intermediate would be okay with it's sound and performance, and it must be pretty loud, as I can hear it very well and I'm thousands of miles away, hahahahaha, Good on ya mate
Hello, what is the radius of the fingerboard, and do you think that the arm of this guitar would serve as a replacement for a '96 Squier, do you think it would work well? I took my old '96 Squier to a luthier who turned out to be mediocre, and unfortunately damaged the tension bar and now I have to change it, but Fender tonearms are absurdly expensive, so I'm wondering if the neck on this Squier Debut Series would fit, and would it play Well on my old '96 Squier Affinitty? Thank you. 
The fretboard radius is 9-1/2 inches. I couldn’t say whether the trem arm would fit other Squiers. I don’t have this guitar anymore. I did a review on the Debut. Not sure if I covered the trem arm or not.
Check fretboard level with strings at pitch. You can adjust all day chasing it flat or nearly so without all the strings. Many pounds of pull sir. Thanks
A couple pointers:The radius gauge set you illustrated in the beginning is for setting the radial arch across all 6 strings, you insert the size that matches the radius of your guitar neck, you lower the 4 inner string saddle and set the outer strings to desired height above the fret nearest the bridge, then gradually raise the each string until the string buzzes against the under-string radius gauge. The other issue I noticed is you were filing the nut slot parallel to the fret-board . You should be using one file size above your string gauge and at downward angle toward the tuners. This opens up the nut slots and allows the strings more room to not bind. If you have the Hosco 3 pc electric set, the files allow a "V" to open the downward angle of the string slots. The other issue was you checked the straightness of the neck after cutting off the strings. Then never checked relief after restringing and tuning. There should always be slightly more than "none" to allow the heavier wound strings space to "spin" as they oscillate.
That’s getting a bit advanced for me! I’m not sure what you mean about the radius gauge. I’ll have to look into that. Also Strat style necks don’t have a break angle like angled necks, so I didn’t think the nut slot should be angled too. I appreciate the comments. I will look into this for the next setup.
Some of my tele style guitar have a slight break angle as the string exits the nut. BTW, I just noticed your learning Vectric Aspire, planning to buy a Anololex 3030 and using Solidworks @@JayceAllanGuitar
I've been using Aspire for guitar building a few years now. I really haven't had the time to devote to it like I'd like. It's a lot of fun. I used to work for a company that made bar equipment and the engineering team used Solid Works. That's a great program.
I looked up the price of Vectric Aspire, $1995 or $70/ month for 36 mos at 14%. I can get a student edition of SW for $99 , but having the ability to create and generate tool paths at the same time is a great option @@JayceAllanGuitar
I paid close to that a few years ago, I opted to the one time payment. The 3D capabilities of Aspire a bit lacking, unless you're making signs or wooden toys. Making a guitar neck with it has been challenging. I thought about getting SW just fr the modeling. You can't beat the tool path creation in Aspire though. It does that really well.
I had done that off camera and during the video where I showed that you could use the fret height gauge to check the frets. I think I mentioned that the frets on this guitar were level. I think that would require it's own video. Fret leveling is a pretty involved process. But you are correct, that should be checked as well. I usually check fret level by fretting notes way down past the 15th fret.
@@alistar3051 just about every strat style guitar with three single coils that I’ve played has some hum or buzz. This one was pretty good. There is no shield paint in the pickup cavities. So expect some hum.
Thank you. I'm thinking of purchasing one of the Debut Squires. I'm 74 and have arthritis in my hands and the acoustic guitars are getting harder to fret. It looks as though the gauges and files that you used are fairly inexpensive. Would you say that the action is lower and easier to play than my basically cheap Epiphione acoustic? (Just a guess as you haven't seen it) I already have a small practice amp so I just need the guitar and a chord. Thanks for the video.
I recently got a cheaper Epiphone acoustic and the action on it is pretty high. I would definitely say the action on the Debut is better, plus easier to adjust than an acoustic.
I would say the FFST is way better than the Squier Debut. The FireFly strat that I got last November is US made Fender good. It really is. Maybe not the pickups, but the rest, the build quality is exceptional. I don't think I needed to do much setup on it.
Shouldn't the saddles be level? I would think having them slightly slanted for the radius would cause uneven wear and pressure in the saddle slot. The strings need to have an overall radius, so having the saddles angled is unnecessary, right?
I thought I heard ur fret rocker rock on upper frets when u bend 1.5 2 steps it sounded like it died. ... Fixing it by raising saddles is not solution.... Tap that fret down.
The bench time makes all the difference. Could the G ever be properly intonated? The thing I hate about Fender marketing these as "beginner guitars" is that, with any instrument ear training is a big part of what's going on from day one and a lot of players are going to get these out of the box, without setup, without intonation and they are going to be training their ears on a poor quality instrument... Is that really "better than nothing". I actually don't think that it is... I feel this way strongly about acoustic guitars too, take a $300 poor quality acoustic, it doesn't deliver much of what a real acoustic guitar does for the player, these are imitations of real instruments being sold at the lowest cost possible in the name of expanding options to new comers, new comers should save their money.
I agree with you on acoustics. I started out on a horrible acoustic, but my parents couldn't afford anything else. So I took what I got. As for electrics, my first electric was pretty decent but I adjusted the action on it immediately. This was back before the internet. So I just figured it out. I think if you're totally broke and want a guitar, get something halfway decent and learn to make the proper adjustments. Also, I haven't come across a sub $300 guitar yet that wasn't playable. I think people that play guitar should know basic setup. The lead singer of our band plays rhythm guitar for us also, he's actually a very good guitar player, but knows next to nothing about guitars. I just can't wrap my head around that.
Hmmmmmmm aren’t supposed to press the the third fret to check the proper nut slot adjustment? Doing it your way is not isolating what you are supposed to measure as lowering the saddle height or the neck relief can give you false measurements. Hmmmmmmm
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Great Vid J- The one thing I would suggest is to use painter tape to cover up those pick ups when using steel wool as to not have the remnants get into those pups.
Good to know. Thanks.
I see he forgot to tape off the pick-ups. Always need to when using steel wool.
The intonation should be done with the guitar resting on it's edge so it's in playing position.
Thanks!
Thank you very much!
Very helpful. Getting my first electric this week and I’m sure I will be coming back to this for reference
Thank you for tuning in.
I got a loaded pickguard on Amazon with 9K Ohms rating and they are a beast. Tone control for bridge pickup the entire thing was$38 loaded. Pickups do matter I couldn’t put it down after that. Oh it was an Affinity strat.
I bought one of those loaded pickguards off Amazon once too. I was very impressed for the money.
Thanks for the video, I just bought a Squier Debut and the tuning was bothering me, glad to know it's pretty easy to fix.
No problem. Thanks for watching.
Good to know this stuff. Especially if your not welloff enough to take to a luthier.
It definitely helps to know how to do your own repairs and setup
Hi Jayce, Good setup, for a cheapo Chinese guitar, it sounded pretty good, I'm sure any learner or even an intermediate would be okay with it's sound and performance, and it must be pretty loud, as I can hear it very well and I'm thousands of miles away, hahahahaha, Good on ya mate
It's not bad at all, especially once I intonated it. Lowering the strings made it way more comfortable to play. I appreciate you tuning in.
@@JayceAllanGuitar Too easy
Super informative. Thank you!
Thank you. I appreciate that.
Hello, what is the radius of the fingerboard, and do you think that the arm of this guitar would serve as a replacement for a '96 Squier, do you think it would work well?
I took my old '96 Squier to a luthier who turned out to be mediocre, and unfortunately damaged the tension bar and now I have to change it, but Fender tonearms are absurdly expensive, so I'm wondering if the neck on this Squier Debut Series would fit, and would it play Well on my old '96 Squier Affinitty?
Thank you.

The fretboard radius is 9-1/2 inches. I couldn’t say whether the trem arm would fit other Squiers. I don’t have this guitar anymore. I did a review on the Debut. Not sure if I covered the trem arm or not.
Great vid 👍🏻
my fav (and now only 😭) guitar just turned 20 she could use this.
great film brother!
i gotta go thru mine as well...fun things ahead for it too!
Thanks. I appreciate the views!
great work! try a $1 nail buffer/polish instead of steel wool when polishing. works wonders for me, and no nasty mess
Got any links to those. I’m not exactly sure what it is.
@@JayceAllanGuitarPinch an emery board from Mrs guitar girlies use them on their nails , guitarist's need to take care on their nails too😂👍
Check fretboard level with strings at pitch. You can adjust all day chasing it flat or nearly so without all the strings. Many pounds of pull sir. Thanks
Thank you buddy!
No problem. Thanks.
Hope they make them in more colors.
A couple pointers:The radius gauge set you illustrated in the beginning is for setting the radial arch across all 6 strings, you insert the size that matches the radius of your guitar neck, you lower the 4 inner string saddle and set the outer strings to desired height above the fret nearest the bridge, then gradually raise the each string until the string buzzes against the under-string radius gauge. The other issue I noticed is you were filing the nut slot parallel to the fret-board . You should be using one file size above your string gauge and at downward angle toward the tuners. This opens up the nut slots and allows the strings more room to not bind. If you have the Hosco 3 pc electric set, the files allow a "V" to open the downward angle of the string slots. The other issue was you checked the straightness of the neck after cutting off the strings. Then never checked relief after restringing and tuning. There should always be slightly more than "none" to allow the heavier wound strings space to "spin" as they oscillate.
That’s getting a bit advanced for me! I’m not sure what you mean about the radius gauge. I’ll have to look into that. Also Strat style necks don’t have a break angle like angled necks, so I didn’t think the nut slot should be angled too. I appreciate the comments. I will look into this for the next setup.
Some of my tele style guitar have a slight break angle as the string exits the nut. BTW, I just noticed your learning Vectric Aspire, planning to buy a Anololex 3030 and using Solidworks @@JayceAllanGuitar
I've been using Aspire for guitar building a few years now. I really haven't had the time to devote to it like I'd like. It's a lot of fun. I used to work for a company that made bar equipment and the engineering team used Solid Works. That's a great program.
I looked up the price of Vectric Aspire, $1995 or $70/ month for 36 mos at 14%. I can get a student edition of SW for $99 , but having the ability to create and generate tool paths at the same time is a great option @@JayceAllanGuitar
I paid close to that a few years ago, I opted to the one time payment. The 3D capabilities of Aspire a bit lacking, unless you're making signs or wooden toys. Making a guitar neck with it has been challenging. I thought about getting SW just fr the modeling. You can't beat the tool path creation in Aspire though. It does that really well.
Missed out on a very crucial step before polishing frets up should have checked frets with a fret rocker after you checked the neck relief
I had done that off camera and during the video where I showed that you could use the fret height gauge to check the frets. I think I mentioned that the frets on this guitar were level. I think that would require it's own video. Fret leveling is a pretty involved process. But you are correct, that should be checked as well. I usually check fret level by fretting notes way down past the 15th fret.
could u tell me if this guitar have noise/buzz problem when u not touching the strings? or is it well shielded?
@@alistar3051 just about every strat style guitar with three single coils that I’ve played has some hum or buzz. This one was pretty good. There is no shield paint in the pickup cavities. So expect some hum.
@@JayceAllanGuitar thanks for respond.
if i get a noise gate pedal will it kill the buzz? but will it make the guitar sound worse?
@@alistar3051 yes. Noise gate will kill the hum. I use one all the time.
Thank you. I'm thinking of purchasing one of the Debut Squires. I'm 74 and have arthritis in my hands and the acoustic guitars are getting harder to fret. It looks as though the gauges and files that you used are fairly inexpensive. Would you say that the action is lower and easier to play than my basically cheap Epiphione acoustic? (Just a guess as you haven't seen it) I already have a small practice amp so I just need the guitar and a chord. Thanks for the video.
I recently got a cheaper Epiphone acoustic and the action on it is pretty high. I would definitely say the action on the Debut is better, plus easier to adjust than an acoustic.
@@JayceAllanGuitar Thanks so much.
@@billhoppe2991 No problem, thanks for tuning in.
the pickups 😭😭 9:00
Where can I get the tools you used?
Amazon or Stewart McDonald. All the links to the tools I use are in the description of the video. Thanks.
Is the firefly far superior?
I would say the FFST is way better than the Squier Debut. The FireFly strat that I got last November is US made Fender good. It really is. Maybe not the pickups, but the rest, the build quality is exceptional. I don't think I needed to do much setup on it.
Shouldn't the saddles be level? I would think having them slightly slanted for the radius would cause uneven wear and pressure in the saddle slot. The strings need to have an overall radius, so having the saddles angled is unnecessary, right?
I was taught the saddles should follow the radius. But maybe not. Always worked for me.
@@JayceAllanGuitar if it ain't broke don't fix it!
Pickup heights?
Ya know. I didn’t mess with those. I’d have to look to see where they are set.
Shouldn't you remove the pickguard w p'ups while using steel wool on the lower frets? Fine shavings are difficult to remove afterwards!
Maybe, or just tape them off if you're concerned about it. Probably not a bad idea.
I thought I heard ur fret rocker rock on upper frets when u bend 1.5 2 steps it sounded like it died. ... Fixing it by raising saddles is not solution.... Tap that fret down.
Could be. I ended up selling this one. Even after the setup and modding it, I just didn’t bond with it.
The bench time makes all the difference. Could the G ever be properly intonated? The thing I hate about Fender marketing these as "beginner guitars" is that, with any instrument ear training is a big part of what's going on from day one and a lot of players are going to get these out of the box, without setup, without intonation and they are going to be training their ears on a poor quality instrument... Is that really "better than nothing". I actually don't think that it is... I feel this way strongly about acoustic guitars too, take a $300 poor quality acoustic, it doesn't deliver much of what a real acoustic guitar does for the player, these are imitations of real instruments being sold at the lowest cost possible in the name of expanding options to new comers, new comers should save their money.
I agree with you on acoustics. I started out on a horrible acoustic, but my parents couldn't afford anything else. So I took what I got. As for electrics, my first electric was pretty decent but I adjusted the action on it immediately. This was back before the internet. So I just figured it out. I think if you're totally broke and want a guitar, get something halfway decent and learn to make the proper adjustments. Also, I haven't come across a sub $300 guitar yet that wasn't playable. I think people that play guitar should know basic setup. The lead singer of our band plays rhythm guitar for us also, he's actually a very good guitar player, but knows next to nothing about guitars. I just can't wrap my head around that.
Hmmmmmmm aren’t supposed to press the the third fret to check the proper nut slot adjustment? Doing it your way is not isolating what you are supposed to measure as lowering the saddle height or the neck relief can give you false measurements. Hmmmmmmm
Press down the string on the second fret, then check with the feeler gauges? I don't know, but it worked. So there's that.
Cutting the strings is the way almost everyone ha done it for almost 80+ years.
I never know what some people will criticize me for! LOL. I find it the easiest way.
? O..k..
i have 2 of these and the tuners are junk, the rest is good