Fender Squier Bullet

[aunchaki]

Originally Posted by Jimo

Wow, these guys are really on top of this----I have never had a company communicate with me this way especially on just a couple of hundred bucks!
Fender is aware of the problem and Sweetwater is going to replace the guitars when they get the fixed versions in.

I've found dealing with Sweetwater to be a great experience. I have my own sales guy, who calls me after I get an order to see that it's all OK. Great, old-school customer service.

[Jimo]

Sweetwaters guitar tech just called to explain what was going on...talk about customer service........cheers!-----JIMO

[pchilson]

Originally Posted by Jimo

Sweetwaters guitar tech just called to explain what was going on...talk about customer service........cheers!-----JIMO

Did he give any details how this happened?
Com'on, whadiddy say, whadiddy say...

Are they gonna make you send the "defect" back or do a field destroy? hehe

[Jimo]

That not ALL of them are messed up and that they have a couple of black ones that are OK----They are going to send me the good ones when they come in and send me a postage paid sticker to Fed X the old ones back to the store. I like the "field destroy" idea but I don't think they will go for it ---------------------cheers!------JIMO

[superchicken_VI]

Originally Posted by Rob DiStefano

Outta three Bullet necks, two can be slightly adjusted with a flat blade screwdriver, the third won't budge.

Slightly adjusted, huh? That sounds like not enough for me to put 11s on. I'll wait for them to get "corrected". I really want a pink one.

[Bill]

Exactly what should I or should I not see on one of the defective ones? I bought a hard tail in December, and now you got me wondering.

[Jimo]

This only affects the NEW bullets---strats with trem-----(as far as I know)--look at the truss rod nut---if you see a hex patern that an allen wrench will fit in---you are golden---these have a round, not hex center......JIMO

[TELE_BLUES]

Well my dapne blue strat will be here on mon.UPS lost my first one then when i reordered they were back ordered.I'll be gettin to the party kinda late so i'll have alot of catchin up to do.

[Rob DiStefano]

Originally Posted by TELE_BLUES

Well my dapne blue strat will be here on mon.UPS lost my first one then when i reordered they were back ordered.I'll be gettin to the party kinda late so i'll have alot of catchin up to do.

Make SURE to check the truss rod nut

[TELE_BLUES]

I'll be sure to check the truss rod out.If it's a stinker i'll bolt it on a body my friend has at his shop,he wants to use it as a sign and bolt one of the other necks i have hanging around on it.

[martino]

I stumbeled across one of these at guitar center and think it is a good
starting point!
Having big fat fingers (clubs realy) I am a neck swaper so this is perfect
guitar kit just add 1-3/4 nut width neck some keystones, block the trem
and boom done!

Hope the price holds I have too meney projects going on for right now.

[TELE_BLUES]

Well my daphne blue squier showed up at my door yesterday.After the first one was lost by ups and then i had to wait through a backorder.My first impression is a very good guitar for not much cash.The fit and finish is almost flawless,no fret sprout and the neck is straight,good thing because it has the rounded truss rod nut.How the hell do these pass any kind of inspection with that big of a defect,someone from fender somewhere must have caught this and just blew it off.The first time the neck gives me any trouble it's going to end up as a draft beer tap handle.The neck and bridge line up perfectly no overhanging strings.The p.u.'s were better than i expected and you could make a weak (very weak)case to leave them in,but i have a used mint green pickguard someone butchered for a tele bridge p.u. i'll load it with 2 strat p.u.'s from an american standard and a nocaster tele bridge p.u. ,that should be fun.I have been looking for a cheap daphne blues strat for a while so this fit the bill perfectly.The only gripe is the truss rod nut,so things are'nt so bad for $99.00 shipped

[davesg]

After reading this thread, these seem like a good deal for a low price. But I am wondering how do the bullits compare to the affinity series? Are they better, or just a good deal for the money? I have an affinity that I really like, is the bullit better?

[guitbusy]

Originally Posted by thaus

Hey, that's me!(I hope.....) I am stoked to be getting a DiStefano modded guitar. I sent you an email Rob concerning the darkness of the rosewood neck......maybe I can ask here as well since your answer may interest others. I think the Pink body cries out for something very very dark, and I have noticed that a lot of recent Fender rosewood has been on the lighter side as far as colour. Is it possible to tint the rosewood darker to get a richer and darker look?

Thanks again for taking this on and I can't wait for my shell pink bullet strat......

I use Old English Dark Wood Scratch remover and that tints the wood darker and seems to do a good job of conditioning the rosewood. You could also use an ebony stain from Stewmac http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Finishin...ard_Stain.html

[aunchaki]

Originally Posted by davesg

I am wondering how do the bullits compare to the affinity series?

The Bullet is a student guitar, lower on the food chain than the Affinity (which is a budget guitar). They're pretty similar. Still, I'd go for an Affinity, if given the choice.

[Rob DiStefano]

Originally Posted by davesg

After reading this thread, these seem like a good deal for a low price. But I am wondering how do the bullits compare to the affinity series? Are they better, or just a good deal for the money? I have an affinity that I really like, is the bullit better?

IMO, they CAN be all good. I've had more than a few of each flavor. I really like the white Bullet body - it's got a flawless vintage white polyU paint job and I just kept the body and swapped most everything else out. The body rout cavities are cut well enuf, the neck pocket floor was kinda rough - nothing that a layer of epoxy and a touch up with a top bearing bit router didn't fix perfectly.

[JKSteger]

I pulled the trigger and ordered a Squire Bullet from MF yesterday, before I read this thread. I sure hope it doesn't have the rounded truss rod nut. I've got a set of RioGrande pickups, Gotoh trem, Wilkerson EZ-Lok tuners, Graphite nut and rolling string trees waiting to go into it when it gets here!

I'm hoping all of the spare parts that I have laying around will make this little guitar sound really sweet. Funny thing was I bought it more for the neck than anything else when I placed the order but I think I will have a little fun with this thing if I don't have to send it back due to the truss rod thing.

Jeremy

[Guido]

Hi:
Gonna get one for my girlfriends grand-daughter. She wants PINK

[Meowy]

These do look enticing. Can anyone post how the pickups are routed. I'm hoping it might be swimming pool (universal) routed.

[DustyJr]

Has anyone gotten one of these in the last few days? How was the truss nut?

[Kid Klash]

Hi guys - new poster here, long time lurker.

I ordered one of the daphne blue Bullet Strats from Sweetwater last November, and it finally arrived towards the end of January (it was backordered). I guess I was lucky, as the truss rod nut was fine. I was amazed with how nice this little Strat was stock, but being the adventurous type, I decided to take it apart, and make kind of a 1960 Strat replica out of it.

After dissassembling the guitar, I stripped the satin finish from the maple part of the neck, filled the stock tuner mounting screw holes and the D-G string tree screw hole, drilled out the tuner shaft holes to 11/32" so that a set of Wilkinson "Kluson" style tuners and press-in sleeves would fit, sanded everything smooth, then tinted it with Fender amber from Reranch. Then I applied probably in the neighborhood of 40-50 coats of clear gloss lacquer, followed by wet-sanding, more wet-sanding, then hand polishing the maple parts of the neck to get it up to the final gloss. When that was done, I installed a set of Wikinson "Kluson" style tuners and sleeves that I got from GFS.

When that was done, I replaced the original white plastic nut with a pre-slotted GraphTech Strat nut, shimming the "fat string" end .020 with a piece of rosewood veneer to match the string height of my other Strats.

I tried several different pickguard colors... the tortoise shell PG looked nice, but my local GC only had two of them, and they were both so warped that they were unusable. So next I tried a white pearl PG from the same GC, but they looked too yellow. Next I tried a mint green PG, but it really clashed with the Daphne Blue body, so I wound up using the stock white single ply PG. It actually looks the best, and I believe is what a 1960 Strat originally came with. The added bonus was that the stock trem cover matches the pickguard, and because the Bullet trem cover is a slightly different size and has a different screw hole layout compared to my MIA and MIM Strats, I didn't need to make a new one.

For pickups, I decided to try a set of the GFS closeout cream color overwound single coil Strat pups ($18 for a set of three!), and went with a cream knob set. I like the sound of these inexpensive pups too - hotter than vintage, but they still have the "quack" and "chime" character of regular Strat pups through my Tremolux, and they really scream through my Marshall half stack.

The stock six screw vintage trem is actually very good, so I kept it, but swapped out the original saddles for a set of GraphTech Stringsavers... I use the trems on my Strats, so the GraphTech nut and saddles help keep it in tune, and also keep me from breaking so many strings. ;)

I replaced the neck plate with a blank chrome replacement, and had the serial number stamped into the replacement by a local metal fabricator.

Then I went to the local craft store and bought a roll of copper foil to shield the body cavity. The shielding turned out great, resulting in the quietest Strat I own. As a side note, it looked like the body cavity was shielded with a carbon-based conductive paint, but decided to use copper anyway.

It's reassembled now, and restrung, intonated, dialed in, and sounds
great! It took longer than I thought it would (dinking around with different pickguards!), but I wasn't in a hurry, and wanted it to come out really well.

I've attached a couple photos of it that I took on our patio Sunday for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy.

[pchilson]

Kid Klash, hey nice job on that Bullet. I think black would look trick on that daphne...

[JKSteger]

My Bullet came in last week and the truss nut was fine on mine!

[Kid Klash]

Originally Posted by JKSteger

My Bullet came in last week and the truss nut was fine on mine!

Great! Looks like they've finally got a handle on the problem.

As a side note, I'm guessing that they had an over-enthusiastic assembler at the factory putting the necks together. My stock tuners had marks on the knobs that looked like they used a metal power winder without padding to crank up the string tension.

I'm thinking about buying another one... this time, maybe fiesta red...

For $100, these have to be the deal of the century.

[Kid Klash]

Originally Posted by pchilson

Kid Klash, hey nice job on that Bullet. I think black would look trick on that daphne...

Thanks! Yeah... black pickguard to go with the black Graphtech saddles and nut...

*wheels turning in melon*

[Kid Klash]

To those that are interested in the body thickness, I put my calipers on some of my Strats today, and this is what I found :

Squier Bullet MIC Strat (my daphne blue one with trem) : 1. 690" thick.
Late 70's MIA swamp ash Strat : 1.770" thick.
early 90's MIM alder Strat : 1.840" thick.

I took my modded daphne blue Bullet Strat and my red modded MIM Strat to rehearsal today, and wound up playing the Bullet most of the time. I love that thing!

[MaskedRider]

Hey guys,I ordered a Bullet from Musicians Friend yesterday and then I read this thread.Should I be worried about getting one with a stripped truss rod?

[Rob DiStefano]

Originally Posted by MaskedRider

Hey guys,I ordered a Bullet from Musicians Friend yesterday and then I read this thread.Should I be worried about getting one with a stripped truss rod?

In a word, yes.

[MaskedRider]

Dang it!Oh well,MF has a good return policy if it is a problem.

[MaskedRider]

Are they Shell Pink?Or Playboy Pink?

[Bill]

Wow, hot guitar!

[thaus]

Originally Posted by MaskedRider

Are they Shell Pink?Or Playboy Pink?

They're 'pepto' pink........very hot pink colour not shell pink! I love mine which was set-up perfectly by Mr. DiStefano but I am going to refinish into a shell pink colour. Great guitar though..........

[MaskedRider]

Originally Posted by thaus

They're 'pepto' pink........very hot pink colour not shell pink! I love mine which was set-up perfectly by Mr. DiStefano but I am going to refinish into a shell pink colour. Great guitar though..........

Cool,I saw another Pink one that was almost a Shell Pink cool.Maybe it was from a different factory.

I got my Brown Sunburst today.Wow!It plays great and the stock pickups sound alot better than I was expecting.The trussrod works fine but it was hard to find the hex nut at first because it is set deep in the hole.

[Kid Klash]

Originally Posted by MaskedRider

Cool,I saw another Pink one that was almost a Shell Pink cool.Maybe it was from a different factory.

I got my Brown Sunburst today.Wow!It plays great and the stock pickups sound alot better than I was expecting.The trussrod works fine but it was hard to find the hex nut at first because it is set deep in the hole.

Congrats man!!!

[MaskedRider]

Thank's Kid!I'm really happy with the Bullet.I have another one on order!

[MaskedRider]

Check out this youtube vid(not mine)recorded with a straight out ot the box Squier Bullet Strat.



Hmm,maybe I should get another one in Arctic White?They have them for under $85 at Music 123(until 4/11 when you use the discount code 80rocks).

[rhh7]

Since I respect Rob's opinion so highly, I held off on a Rondo...very difficult, but I did it.

Anyway, today I got this guitar in dead mint condition:


Local dealer sold it brand new in 2004, original owner just traded it in...lightly used, neck appears brand new...perfect truss rod!

According to the serial number, mine was crafted in Indonesia by Samick in 2004...sticker on the back of the neck says "Model Bullet-Special/IBM"

Maple neck, rosewood fretboard, 21 medium frets, single humbucker, volume knob, toploading bridge, hard tail strat...sweet and simple...

The neck is the identical width at the nut as my Avril Lavigne Telecaster, also made in Indonesia...I measure them at 1.6875"...it is not quite as thick as the Telecaster, but not thin either...

Took it home and played it through my small tube amp...love it!

[Kid Klash]

Originally Posted by rhh7

Since I respect Rob's opinion so highly, I held off on a Rondo...very difficult, but I did it.

Anyway, today I got this guitar in dead mint condition:


Local dealer sold it brand new in 2004, original owner just traded it in...lightly used, neck appears brand new...perfect truss rod!

According to the serial number, mine was crafted in Indonesia by Samick in 2004...sticker on the back of the neck says "Model Bullet-Special/IBM"

Maple neck, rosewood fretboard, 21 medium frets, single humbucker, volume knob, toploading bridge, hard tail strat...sweet and simple...

The neck is the identical width at the nut as my Avril Lavigne Telecaster, also made in Indonesia...I measure them at 1.6875"...it is not quite as thick as the Telecaster, but not thin either...

Took it home and played it through my small tube amp...love it!

Congrats man! Not to be nosey, but what did she set you back?

I bought my second Bullet Strat a few weeks back; sunburst finish, with trem. It's really a sweet guitar, and I'm getting ready to start modding it. Got it htrough Music123 with a 15% discount code and free shipping, so it cost me $84.65 delivered to my door.

[Rob DiStefano]

I just got another Bullet in 'burst, and of course with my luck the truss nut is totally hosed - that makes my bad Bullet track record three in row. No problem, just finished an SRO-FAT neck with staggered tuners and awaiting a set of L200's .........

[DADGAD]

Originally Posted by Rob DiStefano

I just got another Bullet in 'burst, and of course with my luck the truss nut is totally hosed - that makes my bad Bullet track record three in row. {snip}.........

Bummer. Kid Klash's daphne blue was building up G.A.S. pressure.