I want this guitar

I'm sure it's similar to a lot of other fenders but its so pretty. I played a paisley telecaster when I did work experience in 94 and I've had a soft spot for one since. Then I see the Telecaster TL69-SPL JRD...... What do need to sell....

Missed

I've just missed a squire strat on gum tree, it would have made a nice e flat guitar.

rolled edges

OK so all your posh guitars have lovely rounded edges to there fret boards and my squire had fairly sharp edges. Had the important word is had till I took a pic and took the edge off them.

It does now feel a lot nicer which brings new into an interesting point. Why wasn't it done in the first place. I suspect because it would have cost time in labour to do it and if it was to nice it would be competition for fenders liver stuff.

I mentioned I'm sure in previous posts that I thought the fret board wood was a little soft and the easy way I was able to round the edges with a purple tortex pic does some what reinforce that theory.

Is this straightening the neck

I had noticed that the neck on me trusty squire was mode of softer wood than I expected particularly the fret board which has sustained many nail marks and some unexplained dents slash gouges. I'm not expecting top quality wood but I think hanging is straightening the neck. Some times I pick her up and she is a little buzzyer. A little pressure applied to the neck and back to normal.

I kept my charvel model 2 hung like this for ages as well and not experienced any issues.

I feel i need to talk pod

In a house even 50 solid state watts is a lot. 95 watts of valve doesn't even get going. An amp not running at its potential is a strangled amp. It needs to be set free. I've only tried to set my big amp free once and the rest of the band complained and the sound engineer said I was louder than the pa and I had to turn it down. The power amp was only on 3 so who knows where it could have gone. And with the cab it weighed over 150 lb. And 2 guitars and a bag of pedals. If I'm ever gigging again I taking my pod. Which incidentally will emulate my big amp.

If I'm honest I wanted mesa boogie rectifier. They were to new to be available second hand and to expensive new. So I get what I get. Then I hear a Soldano who had an amp in budget at the time but the money was spent. Then I heard an Orange rockaverb and I knew I had the wrong amp maybe. My set up has flexibility by I use 2 sounds. Argghghgh and silence. So four channels can be a waste.  What I really want is quite toppy very smooth powerful over driven sound. Marshal for me are to crunchy and at that point I hadn't met compression. After all the noise I borrowed a Pod 2 but no manual. I never normally say read the manual put for the pod god you do. I didn't know about the cab settings and for effect trawling and the second set of amp voices.

The pod is a weapon. I need to let you know that its a weapon. You can spend hours just playing notes and making new sounds with it. You can match your sound to what you playing along with (which is mostly what I do now). I don't feel that I can go on for paragraphs about the pod but I can say that its got ever effect other than a wah (which you can get with a chip change and a pedal and besides I have a wah and you can plug it straight in and asking as your happy with it in the beginning of your signal chain) and more amps than you can shake a stick at and it sounds like what its emulating.

After reading the manual I saw that it will emulate a mesa mk 2 which is sort of whats I have an a soldano. Its ticking all my boxes. After reading the manual it advises on how to connect your amp to your amp. My Laney linebacker from 1984 from a dog to something else. Turn the speaker simulation off and its there. No lack luster solid state over drive its sounding like a valve a amp. No reverb well why would u a touch of compression to bring the high notes in line job done.

   Hmm foot pedal time.

OK if you have read my previous posts I like to be a bit negative and thus post is no exception. The tuner on the pod is rubbish. I tried to check the internation on the squire and it was having none if it. I've also got a boss tu 2. Stick that in the signal path job done and you can use it as a kill switch.

Non guitar related

I hate trains. I only wish I was sober enough to drive.

Rocksmith 2014 coming soon. Its going to rock.

As promised a pic of the action

I tried to get a pic of the squire neck and its about 3mm at the tenth fret.  There is a hint of buz but for a cheap guitar its amazing. I'm tempted by one of the Chinese fenders now.

I do like the Squire

I feel in my initial post I was maybe a little down on my squire and that not where I want to be. For years I went after the super strat, hum buckers and a Floyd (that I would never use) and those guitars came with their own special blend of tuning stability. I’m not one for alternate tuning and messing round retuning so I’ve had my Ibanez (from which the Seymour came) set to b to b and that wasn’t in tune for more than a minute. To this I have said enough is enough and looked for a simpler solution.

In these times of mortgages and car payments payment USA or even Mexican Fender is out of reach of the snap purchase so I find myself at Squires door.  A guitar purchased unseen on ebay can always been a risk. I had never played and squire tele (though I have played US, Mexicans and a lovely paisley Japanese tele in the past) so i am aware of the basics but Condition and general neck staginess etc was all a worry and I was not let down by what had ended up as unwanted axe.

I quickly found and affinity for the guitar, its simplicity and my own lack of care for it helped it find its way into my living room and thus more extensive playing. I get very worried about the condition of other guitars. One was so unused when I purchased it (at 10 years old a closet classic) that I am fearful of playing it and thus damaging it that it spends most of its life in a case.  So I find my Squire in my hands and I feel liberated. I no longer worry about chipping it or the dog eating it so I play it. Well I Rocksmith it. For those unaware of this marvel of modern technology its Guitar Hero with a real guitar. If you don’t know what guitar hero is I can’t help you.  To me it’s a work horse. If I was in the studio id probably uses another guitar but in the living room the Squire is king. It’s simple ergonomic enough ( they tried harder with the Stratocaster and ended up with nice body cuts but a volume control on the wrong place. It’s too close to the strings to I play and turn the volume down) simple with a fixed bridge so no trem to fiddle with. The action is amazing its really low, I’ll try to post a pic of this but for a cheap guitar it’s amazing. I have a guitar made in Nashville that could only dream of having and action this now.  

Hole for the pick up.

About the tele

I picked it up about a year ago as we now have a dog and I didn't want the dog to eat some of my other guitars. £75 from eBay and it is what it is and thats a cheap Chinese squire. It sounded very thin and I did look at a seymore single coil and in the end took a hum bucker out of an ibanez I don't play. £6 gotoh copy bridge and another £6 spent on a chisel it fits. Sounds a load fatter. Still it went out of tune a lot set of gotoh tuners fixed that. £40 thanks to Lee at crains for a spot of discount. The new bridge had the option for a string through body set up and as the squire didn't have that option I had to make some holes for the strings to go through under the internation screws. Time passed and I got board so I drilled through the body with fathers spiller drill. Not quite straight but meh. £3 for some string ferros from ebay bit of drilling to the rear of the body and more strings and well hmmm..... Its now a bit bright. I'm not sure it was never set up from the factory as a string though because the wood is wrong for that sort of set up pass. The jury is out on that mod. Next-I don't like the edge of the fret board IMO its a bit sharp so I might pull all the frets out round the edge of the board and install some massive frets. Only thing stopping me is I need the tools to finish the frets. 

Axe pics