Look Who it Was Random video

'Riks' Strat copy set up

695 views · Published 12 September 2018 · 4:30:47 · Indexed 27 September 2026

Channel: Sam Deeks · 2018 · Howto & Style

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Dave sent me this very basic Strat copy to do whatever I could to it to improve it. On the one hand, there's nothing about it that can't be made to play well. On the other this video gives a pretty good example of how much time / effort a 'very budget' guitar requires to make play well vs. a 'decent budget' (like a Squier). 

Everything on this was seriously budget; Dave disliked the tuners and wanted them changed; the action was too high etc etc. And it was light. Taking it apart showed why it was so light; partly because it was made of basswood but also because a large chunk of wood was missing from the electrics cavity. 

I did a first set up on this guitar - replacing the original tuners with a set of Squier tuners and ran into another 'very budget' problem: an oddly low 12th fret which revealed itself after my first levelling efforts. This caused chokes on big bends high up and - being me - I couldn't leave it at that. At the same time, I wasn't happy with the replacement tuners so ordered some more. 

Once I was able to replace the tuners and do another full fret level, the guitar settled down to play well but you can see from the duration of this video (bearing in mind about 45 mins of really boring stuff is left out) that it took way longer than a typical Squier set up might take. 

You 'win' some and you 'lose' some as far as time spent goes; but the main thing is to end up with a guitar that the customer is happy with - as is the case here :-)

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