One of My Favourite Guitars Ever
For those who like to read detailed, written reviews.
Another successful gig, handled in “Badass” style by the Fiesta Red, Squier Bullet, Hardtail Strat. This guitar never ceases to impress me. Let me sing it’s praises for a while and maybe you’ll start to appreciate just how much of a world-class guitar this budget instrument really can be with a little bit of work. I know because I gig with mine all the time.
Watch the video, read the review.
In fact it paid for itself in one gig. Now that is a return on investment if ever there was one!
I got this guitar in September 2018, brand-new on Ebay including shipping for £82 GBP (I suspect it may have been B-stock, but you’d never tell). I was “GAS’ing” for a Fiesta-Red 60s style Strat and was curious about trying a hardtail version. Also being on such a low budget, this guitar ticked every box.
Incredibly, the colour of this Strat is the nicest Fiesta Red I have ever seen on an import guitar. For Fender’s lowest price of entry, this is as close as you’ll get to a “real” Fiesta Red in my opinion.
Little did I know that this cheap, unsuspecting axe was about to take over as my number-one working guitar (for now at least).
However in my opinion, it does require an upgrade or two, but less than you might think.
Upgrades
I had plans to upgrade the bridge, tuning pegs and the pickups, so I’ll cover all that first.
New Bridge:
This, in my opinion is the one upgrade that is a must on the Bullet Hardtail. I’d say that the bridge upgrade I made has transformed this guitar from an excellent bang-for-buck axe into a dependable and wonderfully playable, professional instrument. The bridge I used was not expensive – a Göldo Hardtail ST Style from Thomann.
It was easy to install. The two outer screw holes (of three in total) need drilling as the bridge is slightly narrower than the original one (a bonus because it makes fitting replacement pick guards easier). The existing hole can be used for the centre screw, so it’s really easy to line up and get in the right place for drilling the new holes. The new bridge is just wide enough to cover the existing outer holes from the original bridge, so there are no visible scars with this upgrade.
The reason this bridge is so much better than the stock bridge is because of the saddles. Because the Bullet Hardtail is a top-loader, the underside of the stock saddles impede the path of the string from the back of the bridge to the top of the saddle. I found this caused an unwanted amount of vibration/rattling at the bridge, less than ideal tuning stability and likely an affect on overall tone and sustain.
Don’t get me wrong though, it still sounded good and played nicely enough, just not enough for me to rely on for regular gigging duties.
The saddles on the new bridge are ‘L’ shaped, which means they don’t touch the string anywhere behind the top of the saddle, so there are no opposing forces on the strings as they pass through the bridge, which I believe was the cause of the rattling on the stock bridge.
The result? Well it’s a night and day difference and the reason this guitar is now a definite “keeper”. This thing stays in tune!
New Tuning Pegs:
I would say that this is not as necessary an upgrade as the bridge, but if you have the budget I recommend it. The stock tuners were ok, but I had a set of “Kluson-style” tuners from a Squier Vintage Modified Strat waiting for the opportunity to be used. They drop right into the existing bushings of the Bullet headstock and of course, the screw holes need to be drilled for the back. This is easy to do as the tuners are already in place and you just need to ensure they are straight before drilling the small holes.
Again, luckily the new tuners cover the existing holes from the stock tuners except the holes at each of the far ends, which they half-cover. This makes this upgrade almost as unnoticeable as the bridge upgrade. I think the Squier “Kluson” tuners are as good as it gets after the genuine article, so I was lucky to have found them on Ebay in the past (I bought both sets that the seller had for sale).
Another good option for budget, Kluson style tuners are Wilkinson (although they are a bit stiff to turn). Thomann sell a set of vintage, Kluson-style tuners under their own “Harley Benton” brand, which I imagine are pretty decent as an affordable option.There are a lot of very cheap “Kluson style” tuners from china. Some may be ok, but many are not in my opinion because the centre hole going into the post is very shallow, making it difficult to get the string to hold securely when winding on new strings and also the posts are often loose and wobble.
Pickguard & Plastic Parts:
Some would argue that’s not much of an upgrade, but aesthetically it is a transformative one in my opinion. The stock white pickguard was never going to stay on my guitar. I really don’t like those thick, bevelled, 1-ply pickguards – especially in stark white.
I got a mint-green one for about £7 GBP on Ebay and it fits like a dream. It makes the guitar look more expensive too. In keeping with the pickguard change I had to change the knobs, switch tip and the pickup covers too. They are now cream. I had to find a set of pickup covers that all had the same 50mm spacing for reasons I’ll explain in the next paragraph. The new parts just make the guitar more beautiful bringing out the best in the Fiesta Red finish.
Pickups:
Like most players I had already decided to upgrade the pickups and wiring to a nice (but not too expensive) Alnico, vintage-voiced set before I’d even tried the stock pickups.
I was planning on getting a set of Tonerider Pure Vintage pickups, but I didn’t have the budget for them right away, which turned out to be a blessing because I discovered that I absolutely love the stock pickups. I have still made changes but they really are impressive considering the price of the guitar.
They remind me a little of the pickups that came in the Mexican Standard series. They appear to be made the same way with steel poles and two narrow ceramic bar magnets underneath either side of the poles. For all I know they could be the same pickups!
Of course not everyone will share my taste in tone, but be aware that these pickups sound very, very good indeed, especially with overdrive!
Versatile Pickups in more ways than one
It’s important to note something about these pickups if you plan on changing the covers to a different colour or if you want to experiment with wiring.
Apart from the middle pickup being RWRP, all three pickups are identical. They appear to be the same output, winding etc. and they are all the same 50mm pole spacing. Remember that you need a pickup cover set where all covers are 50mm spacing.
Wiring:
The reason the electronics have been completely changed is mainly because I wanted to modify the pickup choices as I do with all my Strats. Originally I rewired the guitar with the existing pots and switch and it was superb for the time I had it that way. I had it wired so that I could add the bridge pickup (using a blend knob) when in the neck position, so I could have neck+bridge together (my favourite setting for cleans). The stock pots on this guitar had a very nice, gradual taper to them, not normally what I associated with a guitar of this budget.
Now I have settled on a wiring scheme that you can see & hear demonstrated in the video, but this was easier to just get all new parts and start from scratch. I still went low-budget though and got a cheap import switch (3-way), two cheap A250k alpha pots (full size) and a 3-way rotary switch.
Now the guitar is wired 3-way like a Telecaster (which is basically all I use on stage to keep things simple) and the rotary switch allows me to add in the middle pickup and switch to middle only, so I get to keep all the original Strat settings plus two more, with my three favourite tones and only those tones on the main 3-way switch (which I call sport mode).
The bridge pickup has been replaced with an affordable Vanson ’57, Alnico II, PAF-style humbucker. I chose a neck pickup because I imagine it’s a bit brighter sounding than the bridge model, due to having less winds of wire on it and I wanted to stick with 250k pots. it seems to work well and it still adds plenty more meat to the tone than the single-coil bridge pickup. The stock middle and neck pickups remain… for now!
THE SOUNDS
Rather than trying to come up with wine-tasting terms to describe how this guitar sounds, I’ll let the video do that, so if you’re in the market for a Squier Bullet Hardtail Strat, good luck – I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, even if you don’t modify it.
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