Squier CV 60's Project...

Silentwiz · #1 12-23-2010, 11:25 AM

This "project" started with a Squier CVC tele. For those that have been thinking about an inexpensive solid body guitar -- I cannot say enough wonderful things about this instrument. My only minor complaint involves the weight of the guitar -- which is relatively heavy as compared to other solid bodies. I believe this has to do with the wood.

Anyway, I was so impressed with the CVC tele, that I bought a CV 60's Stratocaster, a Warmoth tortoise pickguard (custom as you'll see below), a Seymour Duncan Alnico Pro II neck humbucker, some replacement vintage fender tone/volume knobs and a set of George Benson Thomastik Flatwould 12's.

The result is pictured below ... through my ZT Lunchbox, this amp is a lightweight sweet playing JAZZ MACHINE!!! I am blown away with the cost, tone and playability of this fine instrument. From my other thread, you may know that I have an Acoustic Image CodaR on the way, which will add a new dimension to the tone here -- but for the time being, I am just blown away at how nice of an instrument this is.

...and to make the deal even sweeter, I have an untouched loaded pickup/pickguard that I put on ebay to offset the costs. Stoked!

BigDaddyLoveHandles · #2 12-23-2010, 11:28 AM

Nice! I love one pickup "reverse Esquire" solid bodies. It drives non-jazz guys crazy, "now just how do you expect to twang without a bridge pickup, boy?"

Silentwiz · #3 12-23-2010, 11:29 AM

Haha -- no twang here. I can't stand single coil hum. This guitar is meant to do one thing -- generate a versatile clean jazz tone!

oldane · #4 12-23-2010, 01:16 PM

We seem to have similar ideas.

A couple of years ago I assembled a mahogany "strat" from Warmoth parts and a pickguard/HCC pickup assembly from Vintage Vibe (Pete Biltoft). Very sweet and clear sounding guitar. Despite the single coil PU, it's well shielded. Pete Biltoft shielded the PU and the pickguard, and I covered the PU cavity with copper foil, so there is in fact more hum from my Gibson 175 with PAFs than from this one.

Twang or not - the funny thing is that this single HCC pickup is so sensitive to picking positions that it will in fact twang if picked the right way. It will also "quack" like the inbetween switch positions on regular Strats when picked a little closer to the bridge than the PU. When picked right over th PU it has the sweetest singing tone.

I like Strats a lot. They are ergonomic and comfortable and they are easily customizable due to their modular concept.

hamburg113 · #5 05-03-2011, 10:34 AM

Hi

This topic help me a lot in developing my project. I will contribute more when I finished it.

If you want to get more materials that related to this topic, you can visit: CV free

Best regards.

mr. beaumont · #6 05-03-2011, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldane

We seem to have similar ideas.

A couple of years ago I assembled a mahogany "strat" from Warmoth parts and a pickguard/HCC pickup assembly from Vintage Vibe (Pete Biltoft). Very sweet and clear sounding guitar. Despite the single coil PU, it's well shielded. Pete Biltoft shielded the PU and the pickguard, and I covered the PU cavity with copper foil, so there is in fact more hum from my Gibson 175 with PAFs than from this one.

Twang or not - the funny thing is that this single HCC pickup is so sensitive to picking positions that it will in fact twang if picked the right way. It will also "quack" like the inbetween switch positions on regular Strats when picked a little closer to the bridge than the PU. When picked right over th PU it has the sweetest singing tone.

I like Strats a lot. They are ergonomic and comfortable and they are easily customizable due to their modular concept.

That is ridiculously badass.

Al_F · #7 05-03-2011, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigDaddyLoveHandles

Nice! I love one pickup "reverse Esquire" solid bodies. It drives non-jazz guys crazy, "now just how do you expect to twang without a bridge pickup, boy?"

Ha,ha, I admit this was my 1st thought on seeing the picture.

Davidh · #8 05-05-2011, 08:21 AM

This forum gave me the confidence to put together my strat-a-like. This is my first solid body guitar. It holds in tune (I hard-tailed it which evidently helps) and there are no feedback or hum issues at all.
I didn't do a thorough shielding job, but the PU wiring is fabric-covered which I think helps. The jack imput is well shielded, as is the pickguard.

It has Squier parts, mostly older bits from 20 years ago or so sourced from Ebay. The old Squier chrome is heavy and good quality. I don't know what the new Squier chrome is like but would imagine perhaps not as heavy?
The body is ply, heavy but there again, it won't break into three bits if I drop it.
The neck is nicely-figured maple with a rosewood fretboard and a skunk stripe in the back. It has Casey on the head - is it Casey? I paid very little for it, the truss-rod works, and it's a nice piece of wood so I'm happy.
The pots are Alpha's, and the standard PUs are no-names and came with the pickguard from Axes-R-Us (I kid you not) here in the UK. The nut is delrin and came with the neck. The machine heads are about the cheapest available, they also came with the neck - they seem to work fine.

I had a blast building this thing - learned to solder, dress frets, and a bit about intonation too.

Thanks guys

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