tl;dw - They take a squier bullet, throw 350 pounds worth of parts (Bareknuckle pups, new wiring, tuners,+ setup) vs a stock bullet vs a 500 pound Mex Strat. They talks lots, noodle some and conclude...that modded guitars are a moneypit.
The Mex feels & looks best, modded one rocks like a animal (they chose the wrong pups for this comparison, imho). The stock Bullet sounds great to me - Personally I think the hardtail is making the difference. I'd like to hear the Mex hardtail'ed
Bit of an unfair comparison. A mexi strat is hardly a budget guitar.
If the intention is to add the dosh of the bullet, plus the hardware costs, and compare to a guitar of simliar expanded cost then fair enough. But the base cost to make a bullet vs a mexi strat will always be worlds apart and resulting in different looking and feeling guitars.
Now if they compared a mim or mij strat that has upgrades, with a stock usa strat.. that would be interesting..
In some of the epi vs gibson lp tests they done, they always guessed which the gibson was. Not because of the soumd though.. chappers said he could smell the vanilla on the gibson.. and also feel the ridges on the binding from the scraping. Thats a testament to epiphone. Id go as far as suggesting the binding work os better on the epi as i cannot believw the ridge on gibsons is intentional... hand scraping or not.
Their comparison of amps is fun too.. modellers vs tube. Im surprised how often chappers gets it right.. and also surprised how in a blind test sometimes the modellers are chosen as the preferred tone ?
guidothepimmp If the intention is to add the dosh of the bullet, plus the hardware costs, and compare to a guitar of simliar expanded cost then fair enough.
That;s basically what they did, but included the cost of labour (around 160 squids, IIRC).
guidothepimmp But the base cost to make a bullet vs a mexi strat will always be worlds apart and resulting in different looking and feeling guitars.
Which was the almost immediate conclusion!
guidothepimmp . Im surprised how often chappers gets it right..
I'm not much of a fan of his style of playing (squeally shreddy squeal), but his ability to hear pickups brands/etc is ridiculously good.
First thing I'd do to any strat is hardtail it. Next a fresh set of strings and a setup. Might do a little fretwork (roll the edges if needed) and check the nut. Would also change the wiring to route the bridge pup to a tone.
if I'm feeling energetic do a kinman style treble bleed mod on the volume. And that's about it.
Total cost is a set of strings, maybe a tusq nut if the stock one can't be re-used and the resistors for the treble bleed mod - maybe about R350 for everything.
