Hi there gear adicts!
Well i will like to tell you guys my Squier 51 Story, i hope you guys won´t find these already cheesy by the title of the post, but anyhooo!...
Long Ago (2006) i was still a varsity student and a guitarist in a Band in Mexico, as a poor student and with 2 sisters and 1 brother, my parents could not afford to get me an instrument, and as an Electronics engineering university student wasn´t able to get an extra job and carry on with my studies, or maybe i was just a bit lazy at that time! haa! any ways, i always used either gear from other people (or from church), but at that year in 2006 got a biggest bless from a friend who from out of the blue, gave a guitar, and he even give me the chance to choose it from Guitar Center un Texas!, So here is how my Squier 51 solve all my issues, i loved this guitar from the begining!
I played all the time! any where!!, Long story short... i finished Varsity, got a job, and finally was able to afford what i though is quality gear etc.. and i left this guitar in a soft case around my parents house. Later on my friend ask if he can borrow a guitar from me and i was of course! i did that before now is my turn to return the favor for the musicians socieaty!!, and lent it to my friend for literarly years!!... Then i move to SA and suddenly i felt the nostalgia of that first guitar, yes that Squier 51!, so i asked my friend if i could get that guitar back and bring it with me to SA, then his reaction was like, "i don´t have your guitar anymore, i lent it to some one else a couple of months ago"... i was in shock!! could not believe it!! so obvioulsy i told him that he must get my guitar back ASAP!... but the other thing that he already knew and didn´t told me until he gave me my guitar back is that the other Bastard M"@ther F·$"·er completly destroyed my guitar!!! here is how he return it back to me:
I couldn´t believe it how there is people there that will destroyed things from others!! anyways i was soo sad! my first guitar that i took care a lot and played a lot was completly damaged! there were the injuries:
- Scratch plate and pick up cover badly painted with black spray.
- 2 screws sadles missing
- few scratch plate screws missing
- One knob missing.
- One massive dent in the bottom that he also spray painted to covered.
Was really bad!! couldn´t take more pictures of it, so i put it in a soft case and left it...
But only a few months ago, browsing on internet i found this post :
http://uniqueguitar.blogspot.com/2011/03/squier-51-guitar.html
will give you more info about this model, and totally encourage me to fix what this Bastard M"@ther F·$"·er did to my guitar! and also is a bit of sentimental value for your first guitar. So here are some picture of the process of what i did:
First i took out the scratch plate and i remove with nail polished the black paint and luckly didn´t ruined the gloss in the plate!!
Also forgot to mention that one of the string trees was missing aswell, so i installed, plus i put a different tunning machine heads from a previous project that still work very well and keeps better the guitar in tune.
Then to do a fine polish in the body and fix that bridge, and i decide to now that i was fixing the guitar was also time to make a bit of a improve so i decide to change the pickups and the electronics on the guitar. I went to Seymour duncans humbucker: little 59 in the neck and a P-Rails humbucker in the bridge. And with the new electronics i change the volume pot and i add an extra toggle switch that allows me to separe both of the humbuckers.
And i change the knobs! also i got new screws for the scratch plate.
After a full afternoon setting up the neck, Action and bridge entonation (thanks to you tube tutorials and the forum for that) finally here is the final product wish im 1000% satisfied!! is not only restored, but also renovated!!:
The new tunner and new springs in the bridge totally keep the guitar in tune, even it goes back to the case, the new electronics and pick ups are amazing! i can have a strat like tone with the toggle switch and go to a fat sound in both positions with the humbuckers, and also that P-rails Pick up is interesting how it works, i have becoming a fan of P-90s and that P90 in the bridge post is just great!...
Well that is my story with a happy ending, i hope u guys enjoy and understood my pour english! i know is a long post, but i really wanted to share this!
Guitarristas por Siempre!!
