How To Turn An $80 Squier into a John Frusciante 1962 Stratocaster
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- Опубліковано 11 чер 2020
- Here we attempt to replicate one of the most iconic electric guitars in the history of rock music, using nothing more than a basic, off the shelf, Squier 'Strat'.
In Part 2 of the video, we'll finally see how it sounds....
• How To Turn An $80 Squ...
We loved making this video.. be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a comment on which FrankenSquire you'd like us to create next!
I can make a 1962 Fender Stratocaster sound like a Squier.
😂
lolooloooloo
I feel you
Same
Bet you can
Next episode: how to turn $80 Squier into $16 Snow Shovel.
They already kinda are.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣...
🤣 I nearly piss myself
Lol!
lame comment
Little tip. When you cut your template for the black around the burst, instead of putting it straight on, lay the guitar flat on the ground, put pins through your template and place the template on top of the guitar balanced by the pins. It spaces the template a few mm above the guitar body. Then spray from directly above and you will get a nice soft edge to the black.
I use this technique in Photoshop
Yes, I was about to comment this also :)
Oh man, that's what i was gonna say
Wouldn't that create possible spray build-up drips or runs?
Wouldn't use a template.
I’d love to do this with my Squier, but I would probably skip over the aging part of it. I’d prefer it to look like I got one right out the factory in 1962 and time travelled
If anyone did this to my Squire, they better run fast......
@@manuelhung7571 it’s just a shitty guitar 💀 u can find them everywhere (classic vibes aren’t they are fenders with squier logos)
@@manuelhung7571 why, this is a massive upgrade over a squier
Just buy a classic vibe 60's strat, if you don't care about having the squier logo on the headstock
@@lolxd7753 💵
I relic’d my guitars by playing them for 40 years. They look really genuine. :)
Lol
Some poor goit may actually buy this guitar thinking it's real lol
Completely logical comment. Kudos
my old yamaha pacifica looked fine after I bought it after it had been in the store for 4-6 years, but i still have the urge to paint the neck dark wood color
Good luck doint that to a poly finish
Gary Moore's guitars would have completely dissolved after 40 years.
Next episode: How to make your fender strat turn into squier ✌🏻
Just give it to me, I'll take it from there :/
😆
Nice work. I especially liked how the aged Fender headstock decal magically appeared from out of nowhere before the nut went in.
He did a before and after 💀💀💀 are you dumb
@@fathippo3518 before and after what? The parts added or swapped out were documented and explained throughout the article. The decal "simply" appeared, no explanation of where he got it, or how he managed the aging of it. Considering how much the decal contributed to making the guitar look like the original, I do think that it was a very obvious and deliberate omission. So tell me FatHippo, where did he get it, and how was it aged? The author could have saved a lot of time by just showing a before and after shot of the whole guitar.
Yea, I ended up scrolling back through the video to try and see where I missed him talking about "Hey, I have this genuine strat logo that we're going to add on here!" But.... alas. No.
He did set himself up to be questioned when he specifically pointed out removing the squier logo then said nothing except "here's the after" with the fender logo
He omitted to mention the Fender decal because he's embarrassed.and so he should be ...Squier are fine guitars in their own right, 🤷
If she plays as good as she looks…nice job man. That was inspiring.
What the fuck
@@moonwalkerkop4479 ??
Ive learned from tomofujita that any cheap guitar can sound good if its well adjusted and the right fingers play it
Pretty much. The biggest issues are tuning stability and intonation. The nut is the first order of business, because if the highest point is towards the back, the intonation of every note will be off no matter what you do to the bridge. If you have solid machine heads that eliminates most of the issues, especially good locking tuners (wound properly). Then you have to look at the bridge, if it’s floating, it has to float properly or else it will go out of tune within minutes. If you have a super cheap squire or whatever with a 6 point bridge, you may as well crank the springs super tight and not use the whammy bar and treat it as a hard tail. Get your strings intonated, action and relief set, pickup height set, and after that, as long as your electronics work properly (even if they aren’t the best) you will at the bare minimum have a $150 guitar that plays just as good as a $1500 guitar.
Tomo can make a tomato can sound great!!!
@@tatialo37 agreed
That’s also not bad marital advice
@Sauce Commander: great intervention. I agree wholeheartedly on every point. Of course, the right fingers are the determining aspect to make it sound good, but pretty much everything you listed must be in place for it to happen ....
Really an incredible video. Thanks for turning the whole project including the video and your soft-spoken yet amazingly detailed narrative into a true labor of love.
From a knife maker to a guitar creator, a nice way to sand in those curves is to use a wooden dowel with sandpaper glued on the outside. Make the wooden dowel whatever size you need for the Curve. And if you don't want to do it by hand you can place a screw at the end of the dowel, and put the shaft in a drill. For better stability place a screw at the other end of the dowel and hold it with a sewing thimble. That way you can apply as little or as much pressure as you want, and sand any size curve you have.
👍yes! Thats the best tool you can have for doing little projects like this, I have several of them myself 😁
Oh that’s a good tip!
Hole saw with desired circumstance with a long dowel going through the pilot hole about 6inches each side. Cordless drill on one end and whiskey bottle cap for opposite end and you gain a little flex/suspension to yer mini drum sander apparatus thingy. 🔨🪚👌
This is an amazing tip, thank you 😁
Genius 👏
Good video, but i sometimes have to turn my volume up, because as you are talking you seem to go a bit quiet, but awesome transformation on the guitar, well done.
Same. He speaks so low and quietly I had to turn on the captions.
he is shy
Agreed. I haven't seen any other videos, this is my first. l have a great smartphone with great speakers, so it isn't the phone.
ive spend more than 300 hours on you tube regarding guitar making, this is amongst my top 10 videos and opened some new creative ideas. thank you very much
Would you share a playlist with those in the top ten? Maybe more. It would be appreciated.
That looks like a squier bullet, the standards have the 70s headstock. Some squiers are excellent stock like the classic vibes series, they don't need any modifications.
It looks that way, but it's a mid-90's squier affinity, they had full size alder bodies and full size necks/nut width.. clearly they realised that they were too good and that as modding platforms they'd hinder sales of mexican made instruments. At least thats my thinking!
@@wilsonguitars2724 i both own a 70's classic vibe 2019 which is very good and nice, i just improved the saddles and put 2 rolling string guides; and i also own a Squier Strat N Series MIJ 1993 and it's just very, very nice. just wanted to know if you anything about those japanese rock n roll katanas.
I have a squier affinity strat, fender tele, Gibson les Paul, and a squier classic vibe. My favorite guitar out of all of them is my stock squier affinity, it goes great with my amp and I get srv and frusciante tones with ease. Great neck and fret job too with pretty good sounding pickups as well. I just find it weird that my squier 50s classic vibe which costs 250 more dollars sounds worse and has a really crappy fret job for some reason.
@Wilson Guitars what you’ve got there is a Squier Strat SE (Special Edition). They were originally sold with a small amp as a “starter pack” at various retail outlets and catalogue stores like Argos in the UK. Unlike the Affinity Strats, they have full thickness bodies, so you can fit proper Fender bits like full-depth trems rather than the lightweight (and somewhat weedy) Squier versions. They’re easy to spot as (like yours) they don’t have the “Affinity series” logo on the headstock, just “Squier STRAT by Fender”. They are cracking platforms for modding … like wot you have done! 😀 Brilliant job!! 👍
Had s Squier from -96, made in China. Headstock looked exactly like this one, however mine did not have an alder body, it was some gray wood and plywood front and back.
Btw , this video needs way more views , it's a very wonderful
Thankyou Flavius! As long as the people who do watch it are happy, then we're happy!
How To Turn An $80 Squier into a John Frusciante 1962 Stratocaster
"It's super easy dude just buy about $250 worth of parts (ngl I didn't know his pickups were so cost-effective) and be an expert at finishing guitars"
Jokes aside I think your recreation of his guitar looks better than his guitar.
I don't think this video shows anyone being an expert at finishing a guitar😅
Eh, cheaper than commissioning a shop to do it, fender themselves would probably charge upwards of £5,000 for something like that
Taking a Squier that plays great and then replacing literally everything is actually one of the most cost efficient things you can do. A Bullet Telecaster can be shipped to your door for $120. For another $300 I got: Locking tuners, Bill Lawrence pickups (a Nashville set with a strat mid), Graphtec nut, CTS pots, Switchcraft jack, Electrosocket jack cup, a 6-way pickup selector, and a real Fender Tortoiseshell pickguard. I left the bridge stock because I really couldn't find fault with it and replacements are hilariously expensive. Throwing on your own series/parallel toggle is easy and costs literally a switch.
The only difference between my guitar and an American Ultra is $1,600 and the heel cutout.
@@TcSomers o
@@TcSomers yeah., ok
Nice work, I just finished turning a Texas tea ultra strat into a inspired replica of David gilmours black strat, changed the pickguard to exactly what gilmour had, copper shielded the inside, polished all the laquer off the frets, made a custom nut. Meticulously set it up and I would rather it than any custom shop strat.
Aww man, I mean it's your guitar and you can do whatever you like, but I think the texas tea ultra is the coolest of all the newer Fender guitars. Having said that, the gilmour strat is the coolest of all Fenders, so yeah haha
I love this kind of DIY protects, the filial results are so satisfying
I love it! Looks like a lot of fun to do actually. Thanks for sharing your process.
Well done my friend. That relic job on the neck is phenomenal!
I dont care anything about head stock names, like james brown Said, If it feels good & sounds good it is good. I just bought-a squire jazzmaster today its amazing
Goooood, let the cope flow through you
If all you need is a body and badly fretted neck, there’s no cheaper way to build a custom fender. Fret job isn’t even necessarily bad, just poorly finished and unpolished.
i also just bought one, its also incredible and im really impressed with the quality
It feels amazing until you try american one. ✌️
@@silenuic Meh. I still like my Korean and Mexican built stuff just as much as my Usa stuff, likely more since I'm not afraid to bust it out to actually gig with and actually play at rehearsals unlike my Usa stuff which stays home in its case. Honestly, my cor tek built squire Tele standard kills some guitars double or even triple its cost making it a hell of bargain and I'm not afraid to scrape/bump it against something. These budget guitars have come a long way from the old Tiesco's and other imports.
I have a Squier standard with 70's head stock. It's closer to my American standard 98 than my Mexi Strat. It stays in tune and has pretty good bridge, I'm tempted to put 59 pickups in it for fun. Nice guitar job it came out awesome
Nice job I've done upgrading parts,but never relict always looked too extreme, I like how this turned out,thanks for sharing 👍
Those old Chinese squier strats are a super solid modding guitar. I gigged with mine for 10 plus years and it always stayed in tune once I put graphtec saddle, and string trees on it and upgraded the machine heads. As you say the necks are fantastic too. The guitars are so good I picked one up needing a fair bit of work for I think was about 35 quid at a guitar fair. I have got Japanese and American strats but I love both of these strats they’re so great once refretted and upgraded and set up properly
Common misconception: John thought the pickups were Seymour Duncan SSL1's, but his tech Dave Lee insists the set that they settled on using was the stock Fender set at the time (~1998)
I’ve always wanted to do this but never thought it was worth it because I’ve never seen it done. So glad I found this video🔥
That’s great to hear! Glad you enjoyed it Josh
Absolutely brilliant. I'm going to try this myself!
Your skill is impressive! Great video-Thanks for posting.
Nice work man! For those who have passion in modifying something, spare money, and resources, this would be a perfect project. For those who need a shortcut then get a Squire Classic Vibe 😁
I got this guitar today for christmas and I have to say it's an amazing guitar by itself and it looks amazing. (I got a bullet squire so idk if it's different but it sounds great!)
Your attention to detail is really admirable, it came out looking really good!
Great job man, i know it was fun as Hell to make...I've done one myself and I know just what goes into it..its tons of fun to pull off!
amazing job, i love these cheap guitars, you can make it into anything you want and there is no reason why shouldnt it be great sounding instrument
Brill vid man, right up my street! Keep on going, can't wait too see more of this channel!
Really appreciate that man, Cheers! Don't worry there'll be plenty more coming up over the next few months!
@@wilsonguitars2724 brilliant, I'll look out for them!
Great job man, looks awesome. You should be proud of your work. I subscribed and look forward to more of your content. You did such a good job with this, I can only hope this type of video will be one you make again
Good job! Like the way you present it and great result!! Thanks for sharing.
The second string tree is actually a beneficial change they made, and weirdly mostly squires have them. It helps with string angle and buzz when you use low action.
I don't much care for relic-ed guitars, but man, you conquered this thing; it's beautiful. Great job.
This is an absolutely astounding video, cheers for the effort on this one! Subscribed for life, mate ❤
The mint green really makes it pop. Great faux my Friend, cheers!!
This I really amazing ! Tho the amount of work put into it is far more valuable than the guitar itself haha
I recently acquired two Squires that are both fantastic!
The 50’s Esquire and the 70’s Phat Strat H H.
I don’t need to change anything on them. They both sound and play great!
Absolutely
Well, my first electric guitar is a Squier Strat (got back into playing after a LONG hiatus). I think it's "keen" the way it is. Making a new one look all beat-up reminds me of model railroader "rivet counters" who make a boxcar look like no one ever did any maintenance
on it, ha-ha! BTW, when the Antichrist throws his line in the lake, do all the fish rise to the top....dead? Have a good day!
Greetings from Blackpool. Loved the video, I really like these projects. I have done a few although no to the same level of success hehe now I am gonna go watch some of your other videos , cheers
Damn man! Very cool and super interesting! Thanks for the how to video. I just bought me a $450 MIM Strat and it has a ding on a couple spots. I'm going to make it a project this summer. Thanks man!!!
Fantastic outcome! I would love to hear a before and after tone comparison…
Hi bud, thanks very much, theres another video on the channel where you can hear just that 👍
Dude you have to do more of these and more in-depth I loved watching this
Great video ,always wanted to do that as well on one of my cheap (but great ) Harley Bentons.
Thanks for the upload
This video popped up quite a few times now on my feed and i finally watched it and im absolutely flabbergasted on how pretty the outcome was 💯
The newer squier affinities are on par with player mim fenders imo. Every squier that I’ve played has sounded great and has also played great
The squire classic vibes are also great
I own a player MIM and have had several squier affinities and this is simply not true
Not into the who;e relic thing myself, but you did a damn nice job there. Looks great!
agreed. I was wincing a lot during the "relicing" parts, but it was well done. maybe over-done, but still impressive.
What a fantastic video. Thanks for sharing from across the pond!!
I had a set of Stevie Ray Vaughan pick ups installed in my Squire because I loved the playability but the pups were so noisy . It's a beast now!!
I put a warmoth neck into my squier, along with hipshot tuners, pickups from bare knuckle and a good setup. Probably the sweetest warm sounding tele I'll ever playb
That turned out awesome. I’ve always wondered why Fender hasn’t made a Frusciante signature. They put out signature models for lesser known players than him for sure.
He didn't agree on their terms
Because they are already unaffordable as they are.
Omg I know. Corey Wong. Drives me mad that he has a signature guitar.
Because he killed a dog once and Jim Fender has 2 dogs he walks them all the time
he doesn’t consider himself a “rockstar” and he said having a signature model is a very rockstar thing to have
Keep up the great work! I love this. Great replica!
I have just started a guitar business with my friend after playing for 1.5year~.
the result is crazy! well done👏🏻👏🏻
Squier necks are brilliant especially the earlier Korean ones! I love them...
Just a thought, I have had better success doing the fade for the sunburst by holding both cans of color at the same time and spraying them in at the same time. The fade of the dark to light is much more gradual when both are sprayed together. Its helpful to run a test on cardboard to get the feel first.
Thanks for the tip bud
That's how you usually make fade in graffiti, way more control than just trying to do it with help from templates
I'd also recommend Graffiti paint, because usually it's really saturated and dries good
I recommend 94 or Montana White, or all it's analogues
or you can use wood dye like pros do, and blend it to perfection
Loved it. More like this please!
Wow incredible work thanks for sharing!
Great video man! LOVE ME some frusciante stuff! FYI im only up the road from you in saltburn! 👏🏻👏🏻
Cheers man, Not far indeed! Great music shop in saltburn!
Great job 👍🏻 I really enjoyed watching. You did great to make it look old & authentic, instead of it being relic’d. I didn’t realize that just the vapors could age the metal parts. Really good job there. Not overdone.
I’m curious, is the body standard thickness & what wood is it?
In the start of the video, he says it's a Squier Stratocaster Standard. However, it doesn't look like a Squier Standard to me. It's an Affinity, because the hardware on a Standard is way better than both their Bullit and the Affinity. The Standard also have Alnico pickups and full size pots. Your question deserves an answer, and I'm Sorry, that was all I could tell.
man this is an impressive amount of work! well done
Nice job man give us all a boost, to experiment with our own guitars ,to put our spin on them
My only beef with the cheap Squier for modification is the truss rod . I found a good quality neck replacement was essential but neck pocket modification was needed for good fit and alignment . This pushed the price up . It probably comes down to the luck of the draw when buying a cheapy. I find the classic vibes are generally very good guitars requiring very little modification .
According to a Rep, the Affinity series was upgraded and has similar guts as the classic vibes now.
@@TexanUSMC8089 worth knowing as the affinity is half the price . I have examples of both including a " vintage modified " that is hard to find now . For the medium level player Squiers are all that are needed . Great guitars for the money
Really? Cos I wonder how great the quality was in 1962. I know thats not Flintstones era but weve come a long way.
@@metaldreams3595 I've played a properly set up '57 hardtail Strat and it played like a wet dream. And I own a '62 which has a thinner neck than the 57 but it plays like butter too. Trust me Leo Fender had perfected the electric guitar by 1962. And that's saying nothing about the sound!!! Those pups are simply magical. That's why the '57 Strat's are going for 30k these days.
@@patrickfoster4586 wow, how silly of me...I stand corrected. Thanks, maybe I can find a 62 re-issue
Work of art mate, the good thing is that people are opening thier eyes to the fact that electrics are mostly planks of wood. Keep banging the plank!
Splinters can be really painful if you do that. 😂
I bought a classic vibe 50s Strat and use that as A platform. I replace the pick ups with hand wound pick ups CTS pots in a fender five way switch. I put a Mexican made 50s neck . I stripped the paint from the body and neck and repainted it with nitro lacquered now it looks like a custom shop and it plays and sounds so good.
That was nerdy fun I must say. Nice job. My God, what a lot of work.
I started playing about 2-3 weeks ago and My guitar is this exact squire (before mods) even down to the colour. They do not sound bad at all really. I have watched many comparisons and they sound pretty good.
They're fine mate. I've been playing 40 years and owned custom shops and Squiers, and apart from the quality of the machine heads on the Squiers, they're great instruments. Pay more attention to practice, than your guitar. Nobody cares what you play when you can play well. ✌️🇦🇺
@@castleanthrax1833 Absolutely agree. Machine heads can always be replaced with something better later on. Pick ups too.
I still have a 23 year old tele affinity squier going strong.
You can’t usually hear a difference but if you ever play a nice fender, you’ll notice a huge difference in playability and hardware
@@grizzmorin968 I agree, but as the topic of this video (and comments) is turning a Squier into a Fender, your comment is redundant.
I always like the tone on Squire guitars, I just never liked the neck radius. It’s very uncomfortable for someone with small hands or short fingers.
insane luthier work! i wanna learn to this someday
Exactly
Jimi!!! I knew you didn't die
the tone comes from the amount of love you put into this instrument, bro.
it seems you have reached the youtube recommended page... enjoy the views ;) also great video, love jf and this guitar was perfect homage
Check out a 'slack belt sander' for the tight corners and inaccessible bits.
Card scraper (also called cabinet scraper).
Wow.. incredible job. Looks spot on. JF is my fav guitarist of all time.. my god, I would so love to own this guitar. Absolute respect 👍🏻
wow great work! i was confused with the way you paint it but the results are very good 👍
I forgot to say great video . New techniques learnt so very grateful .
I personally am not a big fan of intentionally damaging guitars for looks but it was still a cool video to watch, nice man
I am interested in doing this to my squier! Minus the finish change. Do you mind posting links to the parts you used to replace the stock parts? Thanks!
It's more money than the guitar is worth just buy a better guitar trust me I own 12 and the better the guitar the better the wood hardware etc
Fantastic job! I took a Squier Tele and made it into a distressed relic, something you would find in a back swamp Louisiana bar. It looks awesome with scratches, dents, dings, belt buckle rash, cigarette burn, yellowed headstock, cracked "clay" dots, aged hardware (formerly shiny chrome), and actually plays real nice. I bought it for $100 only because it had upgraded pickups and it was a steal. I refinish vintage drums (like in bad shape!) and this was about 10 years ago. I was testing every technique I could do just to mess around. My initial goal was to take my Squier Jazz Bass and distress it, but I changed focus to vintage drums (since I'm a drummer!). Killer end result here - looks and sounds fantastic! Cheers....
Do have a link to some pics?
Bravo! Amazing job! Congrats!
I did the exact same thing to a Squier guitar; stripping the body and it was the biggest ball ache of all time. getting the sealer off underneath the poly finish was dreadful. It took a heat gun and a belt sander and was as stubborn as hell.
great, great video!!!
how did you do the labeling on the headstock?
I was also wondering how he labeled it so well.
Doesn't matter how he did - it's simply illegal . . .
You can find the water transfers on eBay usually
@@Hochwiese He's not selling it though
That was really cool to watch, cheers for sharing
Job well done.looks amazing 👏
Hey great video! One question, I noticed that the headstock went from having nothing on it to having full Fender Stratocaster markings... how did you do that part?
Water transfer logos and/or stickers mate
...yes, hush, hush...... go searching for 'em.. ;-)
eBay.. usually..
It’s mostly all in the player. Squiers are very acceptable instruments especially when set up right.
i got my squier hss ht strat set up a while ago. used to play terribly but now it plays like a fender. the next and last thing im gonna do with it is transform it to an sss pickup configuration.
Great Job, just wish i had the confidence to try it.. Well done
This is one of the better relic jobs that I've seen on UA-cam
Next episode: how to make your voiceover not sound like you've lost all will to live
He's northern, he can't help it. ;)
I totally love the guy's voice!
How much would it cost for u to make one like that for me cuz I love it
Thanks rick! We are considering commissions as we've had a lot of interest.. if you want to drop us a message on our facebook we can chat prices etc.. our online store will be launching in the near future too so stay tuned!
I have a Ibanez Iceman that I redone I changed everything on it Schaller locking tuners and 2x Bill Lawrence pickups (l500xl and l500r) also new pots new output Jack new toggle switch it's pretty cool actually one-of-a-kind. Left it black colored with cream & abalone binding. Nice job on 62' Fender 👏
This is a great video. Thank you making it and publishing it. I am quite fond of Frusciante's 62 Strat. You did a fantastic job. Wow.
I love the guitar!
Just wish the new label said "Wilson Reman" or just about anything other than Fender Stratocaster.
I had a similar thought.
Omg I thought I clicked on a different video, I was so confused.
I absolutely loved the finished guitar. Wish it was mine.
Great relic job. Honestly looks better than custom shop relicing. Kudos 👏
The first guitar I ever owned was a Squier my dad bough me all the way back in 1996. I STILL play that guitar. 26 years later. I eventually upgraded the pickups and wiring, but I gotta say, I never had a single problem with the tuners. They always stayed in tune, were never hard to turn, nothing. It still has the original tuners on it to this day. I honestly have had less issue with them than I do on my Epiphone studio.
Maybe Squier switched to worse tuners since then, I dunno. Or you bought a used guitar on facebook. Maybe the original owner abused the tuners.
I'm gona start by swapping out the neck the pickups the body the whole guitar lol just buy a used fender strat mim lol
Fun video, thanks. I've been thinking of going this kind of route for my next Start.
I’m impressed man.. great job 😊