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Reloved Squier Bullet Strat 002 part 2

981 views · Published 28 June 2014 · 18:31 · Indexed 25 September 2026

Channel: Sam Deeks · 2014 · Comedy

If you're watching this video, it's because you bought this 'Re-loved' electric guitar. We take cast-off, unloved and often unplayable electric guitars and, with some love and attention, turn them into guitars we want to play and know you will too. In this series of videos, I'm doing a basic 'set up' on your Squier Bullet Strat.

This Squier Bullet Strat is the basic black budget strat bought in a kit (with lead, amplified and tuner) by many parents for their kids to learn on. It's the most popular starter-guitar out there. It's a little lighter (and thinner in the body) than the Squier non-Bullet Strat and has different tuners as well. Otherwise, it's all very similar. Your guitar has had the basic pickguard and electrics replaced with a Trev Wilkinson-loaded pickguard and that's good news. Wilkinson-designed guitars, pickups and parts are very high quality and highly respected.

Almost all of these basic Squier Strat guitars come out of the factory in what I would call an 'unplayable' condition. The neck relief isn't set properly, the action is usually too high and the intonation isn't set. Even worse, the nut is often badly finished with the string slots the wrong height. This means that a guitar perfectly tuned on the open strings sounds like cr*p as soon as you fret a basic open chord. It's unbelievable how bad it can be. The overall result is a guitar that is so hard to play that many people want to get shot of it and find something better or give up playing altogether.

The reality is that there's nothing essentially wrong with these guitars that can't be put right with a little time and know-how. It's not rocket-science but you do need to know what you're doing and to do it in the right order. Once you've done this work, you'll find you have a beautifully set up instrument that's a pleasure to play. And when it's like that, you want to play more; you feel better about your playing and you play better. Each of these guitars that I've set up I now want to keep, because they play so well. But the point is to sell them to YOU - so you can enjoy learning on a guitar you want to keep.

The basic set up I'm doing on your guitar in this video (in several parts) is as follows:

• All-over guitar check & electrics
• Removing old strings
• Checking the frets for level
• Masking the fretboard and levelling the frets
• Crowning the frets
• Polishing the frets
• Checking the nut and slots
• Re-stringing the guitar with new strings
• Setting neck relief
• Setting the action
• Setting intonation for each string

I'm taking a common-sense, low-tech approach to all of this so that next time YOU buy a second hand guitar a) you'll know how to assess what's right and wrong with it and how it will play and b) you'll be able to take it home and set it up yourself.

Reloved Squier Bullet Strat 002 part 2

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