Squier CV Upgrades/Mods (strat)

[kweefthief]

So I ordered a candy apple red classic vibe strat off proaudiostar for $250. It should be in by tomorrow if I'm home in time to sign the delivery! Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself since I haven't even touched or heard it yet, but I'm readying to start changing things on it LOL.

From what I can tell, the nuts and tuners are pretty decent. The laurel does look a bit light and I'm thinking about possibly staining it. I heard Monty's has a wax conditioner typa thingy that seems nice. I want to change the white pickguard to tortoiseshell. I think the red and white thing will wear off for me after christmas and I want something a bit more unique.

As for pickups, I dunno. I've never messed around with pickups or anything. I've had my eyes on bootstraps since they are only $50 but I'm not sure it would be necessary. I could wait a few month and get some lollars or something but spending so much on pickups seems a bit silly to me. Maybe there's something im missing. It just seems like magnet and wire, if the specs are right shouldn't they sound basically the same? I plan on doing a little blender wiring, not sure which one yet. Switching out the jack also seems like a good idea.

Let me know what yall think! I would love to hear your guys' experience! I'd much rather ask here than on TGP LOL.

 

[KR Sound]

I’d try it out first and do a proper setup on it. Use some F-One or some fret board oil or conditioner- that will darken it up as it will be pretty dry. Check your frets to see if they need any work. On my Jazzmaster, I smoothed out the slightly gritty frets with #0000 steel wool or 1000 or 2000 grit and I filed and buffed the ends as they were sticking out ever so slightly, but enough for me to notice. Just my 2¢.

Edit: most good pickups are around 200 for a set. That’s basically what you paid for the guitar
<— red Strat lol.

I’ve played my CV Tele as-is for the last 5 years and it plays great after I set it up. I’m only now updating the electronics on it.

 

[Blooze]

I have an older (2010) CV tele (blonde 50's with the alnico 3 magnet pickups) that hasn't been touched other than a setup. Out of all my guitars, its the one I pick up first nearly every time, and the least expensive. I love that guitar.

 

[Joben Magooch]

So as over in the other thread about it...I ended up ordering two. Kind of accidentally, sent in two offers on eBay which I thought were honestly a bit low and expected to get counter-offers - then choose the better deal and go from there. Well, they accepted both. So I got a 60's CV in both CAR and LPB.

The LPB one arrived today. It was listed as used/open box but looks brand new as far as I can tell. The box was sealed, guitar wrapped like it would come from the factory, plastic still on the pickguard/covers/etc, swing tags still attached, all the accessories still sealed up, etc. I don't know how they classify but it seems brand new to me.

ANYWAYS, looks like the CAR one is set to arrive on Thursday or Friday and at the moment I'm planning on seeing which one I prefer, keep that one and move the other one. I know you can never have too many guitars and such but at the same time I don't have any need for two identical guitars in different colors, lol. So we'll see.

With that said I played around a bit with the LPB today. Like yourself I already had a list of mods ready to roll...in part because that's just what people tell you that you "need" to do but more just because I can't not tinker with my instruments. I really love Fenders (and similar) for that reason - they're super easy to work on and customize to your heart's content.

When it comes to *needs* though...there's not a ton that jumps out. The fit and finish is really, really good. I don't have any complaints with the pickups; I think they honestly sound great. I guess I've never played some of the REALLY high end sets (you know, the ones that are costing $300+) but I can't justify putting in pickups that cost more than the guitar and honestly I suspect there has to be some big diminishing returns there, but who knows. Tuners seem fine, and the nut looks decent, too. It seems to be cut a bit on the large side, but it came strung up with 9's and I typically play 11's anyways so I'm sure that'll be just fine.

I will probably replace the wiring and electronics with some nicer components as I do this with all my instruments. Probably will change up the wiring scheme a bit, and I really like the "Pure Tone" input jacks; I'll be putting one of those in. But I don't think it *needs* any of that. Everything feels really solid and works just fine - if you told me it already had full size CTS pots and an Oak-Grigsby switch or whatever, I'd probably believe you.

I'm also planning on swapping out pickguards just because I think the white's a bit bland. Going to swap in some aged plastics while I'm at it, and shield the pickguard, but of course that's just aesthetic changes.

I'm not a big tremolo user. I hear many people talk about replacing the trem block and/or springs (Raw Vintage gets recommended a lot), but other than that I really can't think of anything too pressing. I've played a handful of the CV series and they've always impressed me. It does need a bit of setup tweaks to get just where I want it, but honestly there's nothing that really needs replaced or "upgraded" or fixed right off the bat.

 

[kweefthief]

So as over in the other thread about it...I ended up ordering two. Kind of accidentally, sent in two offers on eBay which I thought were honestly a bit low and expected to get counter-offers - then choose the better deal and go from there. Well, they accepted both. So I got a 60's CV in both CAR and LPB.

The LPB one arrived today. It was listed as used/open box but looks brand new as far as I can tell. The box was sealed, guitar wrapped like it would come from the factory, plastic still on the pickguard/covers/etc, swing tags still attached, all the accessories still sealed up, etc. I don't know how they classify but it seems brand new to me.

ANYWAYS, looks like the CAR one is set to arrive on Thursday or Friday and at the moment I'm planning on seeing which one I prefer, keep that one and move the other one. I know you can never have too many guitars and such but at the same time I don't have any need for two identical guitars in different colors, lol. So we'll see.

With that said I played around a bit with the LPB today. Like yourself I already had a list of mods ready to roll...in part because that's just what people tell you that you "need" to do but more just because I can't not tinker with my instruments. I really love Fenders (and similar) for that reason - they're super easy to work on and customize to your heart's content.

When it comes to *needs* though...there's not a ton that jumps out. The fit and finish is really, really good. I don't have any complaints with the pickups; I think they honestly sound great. I guess I've never played some of the REALLY high end sets (you know, the ones that are costing $300+) but I can't justify putting in pickups that cost more than the guitar and honestly I suspect there has to be some big diminishing returns there, but who knows. Tuners seem fine, and the nut looks decent, too. It seems to be cut a bit on the large side, but it came strung up with 9's and I typically play 11's anyways so I'm sure that'll be just fine.

I will probably replace the wiring and electronics with some nicer components as I do this with all my instruments. Probably will change up the wiring scheme a bit, and I really like the "Pure Tone" input jacks; I'll be putting one of those in. But I don't think it *needs* any of that. Everything feels really solid and works just fine - if you told me it already had full size CTS pots and an Oak-Grigsby switch or whatever, I'd probably believe you.

I'm also planning on swapping out pickguards just because I think the white's a bit bland. Going to swap in some aged plastics while I'm at it, and shield the pickguard, but of course that's just aesthetic changes.

I'm not a big tremolo user. I hear many people talk about replacing the trem block and/or springs (Raw Vintage gets recommended a lot), but other than that I really can't think of anything too pressing. I've played a handful of the CV series and they've always impressed me. It does need a bit of setup tweaks to get just where I want it, but honestly there's nothing that really needs replaced or "upgraded" or fixed right off the bat.

I also see people talking abt the trem block. I have no personal experience but I don't feel like they would make a noticeable difference in sound. Maybe its a feel thing?

What wiring scheme are you going with, if you dont mind sharing? I was thinking about something like blender on tone 2 for the bridge/neck (can't decide) and tone 1 as a tone control for only neck and bridge. I dont have a tele and was thinking this would get me near for now.

I'm gonna see if the 9s grow on me, then slap on 10s. We will see how that goes!

 

[kweefthief]

I’d try it out first and do a proper setup on it. Use some F-One or some fret board oil or conditioner- that will darken it up as it will be pretty dry. Check your frets to see if they need any work. On my Jazzmaster, I smoothed out the slightly gritty frets with #0000 steel wool or 1000 or 2000 grit and I filed and buffed the ends as they were sticking out ever so slightly, but enough for me to notice. Just my 2¢.

Edit: most good pickups are around 200 for a set. That’s basically what you paid for the guitar
<— red Strat lol.

I’ve played my CV Tele as-is for the last 5 years and it plays great after I set it up. I’m only now updating the electronics on it.

I dont have any fret tools except for some polishing sheets so hopefully they arent to pokey one mine! Luckily I do have f-one . About the pickups, youre right. Spending the cost of the guitar on pickups seems a little silly when there probably wont be that big of a difference. Would probably be better off changing cabs or speakers for a different sound...or pedals mwahahah.

 

[Joben Magooch]

I also see people talking abt the trem block. I have no personal experience but I don't feel like they would make a noticeable difference in sound. Maybe its a feel thing?

What wiring scheme are you going with, if you dont mind sharing? I was thinking about something like blender on tone 2 for the bridge/neck (can't decide) and tone 1 as a tone control for only neck and bridge. I dont have a tele and was thinking this would get me near for now.

I'm gonna see if the 9s grow on me, then slap on 10s. We will see how that goes!

At the moment I'm planning on a fairly "standard" scheme but with a push-pull pot for "7-way" wiring. More or less the same as the regular 5-way wiring (Neck, Neck+Middle, Middle, Middle+Bridge, Bridge) but also allows for the option of Neck+Bridge and Neck+Middle+Bridge.
It's also my understanding that while traditional strat wiring has the bridge pickup wired without a tone control, it seems like a lot of modern strats do have the tone control going to the bridge - that's how this one arrived for me (I assume it's factory, as before everything seemed brand new/untouched) with Tone 1 going to Neck and Middle and Tone 2 to the Bridge. I will probably keep that configuration there.
Only other tweak might be to play with a treble bleed. I wasn't super happy with my Jazzmaster's sound recently so actually had just ordered dozens of components just to try out different treble bleed and tone cap values so should have no shortage of options to test out in the Strat too.

 

[Joben Magooch]

I spent a couple more hours playing around last night and looking things over a bit more closely, here are just a few further observations/etc.

1. The fretboard was rather dry, although I think this is fairly typical of any new instrument a lot of times these days. It oiled up nicely and looks a bit nicer now. Laurel can be hit or miss sometimes but I generally I feel like recent Fenders/Squiers with Laurel FBs usually look pretty decent. It's a bit lighter than true rosewood but nothing too egregious IMO. I'm okay with it for now although may try to darken it up a bit down the line if it bugs me.

2. The fretwork in general is pretty good. They're well-filed without much noticeable issues like high spots, sharp ends, poor crowns, etc. That said they could definitely use a good polishing, they're a bit "scratchy" in places rather than being totally smooth and it looks like in a couple of spots there is either some oxidation or even finish overspray needing removed. The "bones" of the fretwork are solid, just needs cleaned up a bit.

3. The tuners are a little on the stiff side. It's nothing major and frankly I'd rather have them be a bit stiff rather than loose/slop but if you're being really picky it might be noticeable.

4. The action is a bit high although I suspect this is somewhat on me - restrung with my 11s so I'm sure that pulled the neck a bit more and I haven't taken the time to adjust the truss rod and do a full setup yet. It felt pretty nice on 9s so I'm guessing it's just due to the added tension and should clean right up.

5. If I'm being REALLY picky, the pickup switch is also a little stiffer than I'd like, and doesn't have as firm of detents in each position as I might prefer. Still, in terms of sound/noise/etc everything sounds just fine.

That's kind of my fine-toothed comb criticisms/observations. Overall I am still SUPER pleased. I think it plays really nice, the pickups sound great to me, and I'm finding it to just be a really inspiring instrument. Honestly at the moment I'm finding myself feeling not like "This is a good instrument *for the money*" but rather just simply... "This is a really good instrument"

 

[KR Sound]

Have you seen the 7-way “Gilmour Mod” that uses a SPDT switch in between the Vol and first Tone pots instead of a push-pull?

 

[KR Sound]

I spent a couple more hours playing around last night and looking things over a bit more closely, here are just a few further observations/etc.

1. The fretboard was rather dry, although I think this is fairly typical of any new instrument a lot of times these days. It oiled up nicely and looks a bit nicer now. Laurel can be hit or miss sometimes but I generally I feel like recent Fenders/Squiers with Laurel FBs usually look pretty decent. It's a bit lighter than true rosewood but nothing too egregious IMO. I'm okay with it for now although may try to darken it up a bit down the line if it bugs me.

2. The fretwork in general is pretty good. They're well-filed without much noticeable issues like high spots, sharp ends, poor crowns, etc. That said they could definitely use a good polishing, they're a bit "scratchy" in places rather than being totally smooth and it looks like in a couple of spots there is either some oxidation or even finish overspray needing removed. The "bones" of the fretwork are solid, just needs cleaned up a bit.

3. The tuners are a little on the stiff side. It's nothing major and frankly I'd rather have them be a bit stiff rather than loose/slop but if you're being really picky it might be noticeable.

4. The action is a bit high although I suspect this is somewhat on me - restrung with my 11s so I'm sure that pulled the neck a bit more and I haven't taken the time to adjust the truss rod and do a full setup yet. It felt pretty nice on 9s so I'm guessing it's just due to the added tension and should clean right up.

5. If I'm being REALLY picky, the pickup switch is also a little stiffer than I'd like, and doesn't have as firm of detents in each position as I might prefer. Still, in terms of sound/noise/etc everything sounds just fine.

That's kind of my fine-toothed comb criticisms/observations. Overall I am still SUPER pleased. I think it plays really nice, the pickups sound great to me, and I'm finding it to just be a really inspiring instrument. Honestly at the moment I'm finding myself feeling not like "This is a good instrument *for the money*" but rather just simply... "This is a really good instrument"

That’s pretty much my takeaway of Classic Vibes also. Great value and great instruments. Those switches will loosen up and become a bit “mushy” over time. I just replaced the controls in my Tele and you can see the different style typically used here compared to the new OAK Grigsby one:

 

[Joben Magooch]

Have you seen the 7-way “Gilmour Mod” that uses a SPDT switch in between the Vol and first Tone pots instead of a push-pull?

I have! I think so, anyways...as I understand it they're ultimately doing the same things? I have seen some diagrams with where the switch adds in the neck and others with the bridge, but ultimately getting the same seven settings either way...
I quite like how they did it on the Gilmour sig strats. The switch is recessed a bit and really discrete/out of the way. I'm not sure exactly how to accomplish similar myself... I guess maybe just some spacers between the pickguard and switch? Hadn't thought of that at the time...went with push-pull just to keep a cleaner / more traditional look!

That’s pretty much my takeaway of Classic Vibes also. Great value and great instruments. Those switches will loosen up and become a bit “mushy” over time. I just replaced the controls in my Tele and you can see the different style typically used here compared to the new OAK Grigsby one:

View attachment 37056

View attachment 37057

Ah yeah. I kinda figured it would be one of those enclosed-style switches. Nice to see that it's stock with full-size pots tho! Good call on the angled switch plate. I got one of those as well quite some time ago and can't imagine going back, haha.

I guess ultimately for me...I've heard it said before that one of the hallmarks of a good/great instrument is not so much that it is perfect out of the box but rather that it simply has the ability/capacity to be set up well.

I guess perhaps the simplest way for me to look at it...When you buy a guitar you're paying for both the parts/workmanship/construction, the "bones" of it... but also paying for the attention to detail, the "care," how much time has been spent tweaking and setting up the instrument. And so then there is a bit of a spectrum.

Ultra-cheap or very low-end stuff generally has both bad "bones" and also won't have been shown much TLC, much attention to detail, much time given to setup and whatnot. Pretty much just cranked off the line as fast as possible for as little as possible. And a lot of times these instruments are just tough to get to a good place. There's some where you can spend just HOURS working on (and investing cash in parts and such) and short of replacing just about everything you're going to have a hard time ending up with a good instrument. Honestly I think this was the case with a lot of Squiers ~15-20 years ago which I suspect is still souring the perception of the brand for many. Of course you save lots of money this way.

On the opposite end with high-end instruments it's not just good bones, good construction, but also that they've put in the time and man-hours to get it to a really nice place. You're not paying just for the quality materials but also for the craftsmanship and skill and attention that went into putting it together nicely and getting it set up to play great. Of course this comes at a cost as labor/time isn't cheap either!

And I think the CVs tend to fall somewhere in the middle. They have really good "bones" but in order to keep the cost down I suspect there is simply less time given to setup and "tuning" and such. They can still get there with a little bit of work but that cost-reduction has to come somewhere and I'd guess that in part it's coming by way of reducing the man-hours spent on each instrument.

I'd wager that if you took a "raw" freshly built Classic Vibe guitar - no setup work done or anything like that - and gave it to one of Fender's Custom Shop techs and told him "spend as much time/energy/effort setting this guitar up as you would a Custom Shop model" - and then took a freshly built Custom Shop guitar and sent it down to the Squier factory and told the tech "Spend as much time/energy/effort setting this guitar up as you would a typical Squier"....I'd bet that the CV set up by the Custom Shop tech would SMOKE the Custom Shop set up by the Squier tech.

 

[MichaelW]

I would say unless you purchased them as a "purpose driven" purchase. (Reference my CV Jazzmaster threads NGD and NPD)
I'd get it well set up (or do it yourself) and play it for a while before swapping things out.

I've spent many decades modding and upgrading guitars and I kinda know where I will want upgrades so if I bought a CV Strat I already know what I'd upgrade. (Kinda like my CV Jazzmaster).

But since you have two of them and not real sure what needs to be upgraded, then play them a while. The "bones" of a great guitar are all there already. Decent pickups, functional controls. Probably will need a fret polish at a minimum or a full dress/level/polish to make it play like buttah.

Then maybe go divergent paths with the two guitars. Make one with hotter overwound pickups, one with vintage output pickups for instance.

 

[Joben Magooch]

Oh yeah. Don't get me wrong...most of it is just "wants" rather than needs. I can't help myself... Always end up changing things around and fiddling with my guitars even if they really don't need it. I should probably just practice more

Truthfully my initial plan was to pick up a really cheap Affinity series and throw some money at upgrades but when you can get a CV for an Affinity price...well, couldn't pass that up, haha.

Second (red) is set to arrive tomorrow. At the moment the plan is to compare the two...if one is noticeably better then I'll keep it and sell the other. If they're more or less the same I'll probably list both for sale and just keep whichever one doesn't sell. I thought about keeping both (and still may, haha) but now find myself wanting to try and snag another bass instead.... So it goes

 

[MichaelW]

Well I have no qualms throwing a set of expensive pickups into a cheap guitar. And do that pretty often. (heh reference my Strat Build thread).
My Lollars should be arriving today wooohooo! It's the end result and sum total of the parts that I'm looking at. I know it makes some people a bit uneasy about spending more for the pickups than the guitar itself, but I look at it from a different perspective, the money you saved by NOT buying a Mexican made Strat and making a pickup swap anyway can be invested in a set of top tier pickups.

That said, you don't HAVE to spend $300 for a good set of pickups. There are so many excellent options out there, many from Fender directly.
There's a lot of the less expensive sets that sound awesome. Like the Tex Mex set for instance, sound great, very affordable.

I'm not sure who Squier is using to OEM their pickups these days but back when the CVs were made in China they used OEM ToneRiders, which were excellent pickups.

 

[kweefthief]

I think this will be the wiring I'm gonna test out. Being able to blend from position 1 and 5 seems cool! My initial excitement to mod the guitar has calmed down tbh. The only thing I'm probably gonna mess with is the cap value and sanding the neck a little. Not to bare wood, just to reduce some gloss.

I feel silly jumping the gun since I haven't even received it yet

Edit:
Do I need to get a different pot for the blender knob like a no load or something?

 

[Joben Magooch]

I'm not sure who Squier is using to OEM their pickups these days but back when the CVs were made in China they used OEM ToneRiders, which were excellent pickups.

I'm curious who's the OEM for some of the Fender-branded aftermarket parts you can get nowadays too.
They've got some Fender-branded potentiometers that look (and feel) just like CTS, switches that look just like Oak-Grigsby, etc but tend to be marginally cheaper than those "on-brand" versions.

 

[KR Sound]

I think this will be the wiring I'm gonna test out. Being able to blend from position 1 and 5 seems cool! My initial excitement to mod the guitar has calmed down tbh. The only thing I'm probably gonna mess with is the cap value and sanding the neck a little. Not to bare wood, just to reduce some gloss.

I feel silly jumping the gun since I haven't even received it yet

Edit:
Do I need to get a different pot for the blender knob like a no load or something?

Just a 250 for the blend. It’s either all the way up or turned all the way down.

 

[MichaelW]

I'm curious who's the OEM for some of the Fender-branded aftermarket parts you can get nowadays too.
They've got some Fender-branded potentiometers that look (and feel) just like CTS, switches that look just like Oak-Grigsby, etc but tend to be marginally cheaper than those "on-brand" versions.

I've got some Fender branded pots and they look and feel like CTS to me. But you're right, sometimes the Fender branded stuff can be had for a bit cheaper especially on Amazon. I used almost all Fender "Road Worn" hardware on the red Strat build and it was all cheaper than buying Gotoh stuff.

 

[ITG6]

I have an older (2010) CV tele (blonde 50's with the alnico 3 magnet pickups) that hasn't been touched other than a setup. Out of all my guitars, its the one I pick up first nearly every time, and the least expensive. I love that guitar.

I have the same guitar and its absolutely one of my favorites.

I did a few minor mods - 4 way switch, saddles, knobs, etc. but none of those were really necessary.

 

[MichaelW]

I have the same guitar and its absolutely one of my favorites.

I did a few minor mods - 4 way switch, saddles, knobs, etc. but none of those were really necessary.

Those older CV were made in China and used Alder for the bodies. There are some folks in the Squeir-Talk forum that wax poetic of the good old days when Classic Vibe line was made in China instead of Indonesia . I've generally found that while I "prefer" alder, I hear no sonic difference with the Nato and Pine that they using in the CV's today. One of those old alder CV bodies is basis of my Sunburst Strat (Although it's been heavily modified, only the body is still the Squier). And the Nato body of my Tele Thinline is one from the Indonesian Tele (also heavily modified, only the body is from the Squier). My Jazzmaster is a current production CV with a lot of mods too. But my 60's CV Jazz Bass is more or less stock. I have only upgraded the wiring and control pots, everything else is stock and it sounds great.