Fender Bullet Owners Club

Here is my E7 for comparison. Note the location of the bridge/trem pivot screws on this model compared to the E9. My E strings pass right over the pivot screws, they are not in the corners of the bridge plate like on the E9. However, the E9 arrangement is probably better for function and longevity. The E7 setup uses only the small wood screw shown at right in the 3rd photo, which has a rounded groove just below the head for the plate to pivot in. The lateral string loading on these screws enlarges the holes in the body, an issue I will soon address on this guitar. If anyone has the Fender/Squier specs for setting up this early type of trem, please post them here. Everybody with these guitars seems to deck the trem and use it as a hardtail.

 

I'll add that the necks are indeed fantastic, they have the full size block, but also have some quality issues that may require attention, as might be expected on a low end guitar.

 

Hey guys,

I wondered if I could pick your brains. I'm having some issues with the saddles on my bullet and wondered if any of you had tips on upgrading them at all?

The height screws keep spinning out and on my lowest string when they do this I get a really annoying buzz until they're retightened. I've tried a few things, gluing them etc but can't seem to fix it for longer than a couple gigs.

Anyone got any advice?

 

I use loctite thread lock on the saddle height screws on my guitars (try loctite 243 ), this is not just a problem with the bullet, I get it with one of my telecasters.

Unfortunately it is common on the bullets with the alloy guard, I think there must be more vibration caused via the metal guard, with the relatively long intonation screws causing more movement, some are worse than others, if you use drop tuning it will probably be more of an issue, due to lower frequency vibration.

You could try changing the saddles for tele saddles or standard modern strat/tele saddles, but you may have an issue with intonation if you use shorter screws, but worth a try if you have time.

I use a standard bullet live & that one does not have the problem, others I own do, its down to how tight the screw thread is within the saddle & there appear to be very slight differences & that applies to all guitar saddles, not just the bullet.

I hope the loctite can fix your problem, let us know how you get on.

 

Thanks Cuscus, I've used Loctite before, or rather my local tech has done for me, and it worked for a while but unfortunately due to me level of sweat (I've even managed to **** the electrics on another guitar because of this) when playing live it doesn't last forever so figured it was worth seeing if there was another solution.

It seems as though it's just the case with this sort of bridge set up (I have a standard bullet with the metal guard) so I'll just have to make the most of it.

I'm also drop tuned, and like you pointed out, that won't be helping it, but again I guess i'll just have to get used to it! Back to the Loctite it is!

 

Hello everybody!! I'm the lucky owner of a 1986 Squier bullet made in Japan, very pretty guitar!! Great conditions for a 30 years old guitar, unfortunately no original case!

 

I have a question for you Bullet owners,........
The owners of the E series Dan Smith era Bullets from about 81 to 83......... Who also have some knowledge about the Lead I, II, or III series,...........
Both of these were Strat shaped (or Tele shaped) but were smaller than the standard Strat bodies.

My question is....... Were they the same bodies? Did the later Lead bodies that used a separate bridge, use the same bridge as the Bullet? And, were the pick guard shapes the same? They both used the 3rd hole in the pick guard for the input jack..... The Lead series had Volume and Tone, and push buttons for the pickups...,. The Bullets had small switches in about the same location under the volume and tone switches......... Seems they may have both used the same type of fiber pickup bobbins at one point........ Did they both use the overwound pickups?

There seem to be some similarities that overlap some of the iterations of these,...,.and I can't find any info that wouldn't make me think Fender was using the same parts to make these........

I have more projects than parts...,. (And sense) and could use some help.

Thanks

 

Hello, greetings from the Bullet owners club.
To answer your question, no the bodies are not the same on the Fender Bullet & Fender Lead, the bullet bodies are smaller & thinner, this was one of the cost saving measures that enabled Fender to market them at a reasonable price. The Bullet bodies are 1 5/8 inches thick, the Lead seires bodies are the standard Fender 1 3/4 inches thick, the Lead series also have body contours, the Bullet bodies are slab.

The bridge on both is similar, the plate is the same but the saddles are different, the Bullet had the same saddles as a Dan Smith era hard tail strat, the Lead series had the solid oblong block type.

The pickguards are a totally different shape, the 2nd version strat shaped bullet S2, S3, H2 used 2 types of guard, one a 3 ply wbw, the other a single ply white with an embossed logo on the lower bout ie S2, S3, H2.

Most Bullets used the standard plastic bobbin part No 016730, some had the red bobbins, but I have not seen any with standard grey fibre bobbins, the Bullets never had hot or X1 pickups, they are vintage wound to around 5.5 - 6 ohms.

In a nut shell the guitars were totally different, I hope this answers your questions.

Check these pics out :

Fender Bullet Guard under a Fender Lead guard



Fender Lead :



Fender Bullet :

 

The Fender Lead Series NEVER had "push buttons" only heavy-duty toggle switches.

 

Wow! Imagine that, right off the bat I hear from someone who actually knows what I've been trying to find for about 4 months........ Thanks cuscus!

Uhhhhh yeah Lead2 fan....... The PB switches are on the Bullet, the toggles are on the Lead.......

I'm trying to work on one of each at the same time...... I get confused.

The bullet I'm doing is a piece of junk to everyone else.,..., but when I saw it, I was reminded of my dad's plastering planks......... I knew I just had to get this. I'll put some vintage type pups in it, but I think I'm going to have to cut a clear pick guard for it....... (cloth wiring.....).

Anyone know where I can find a pickguard template?

 

I remember when I first got my bullet and went through this whole forum I found a template someone had made which I quickly grabbed and saved in my files, here it is for you now.

Apologies but I can't remember who made them, but credit goes to them.

 

Yep - I realised that you got some of the info round the wrong way, but I knew what you meant !

WD do pickguards for the Fender Bullet, they are quite reasonable, they only do them for the S3 ( 3 single coils ) or H2 ( 2 humbuckers ), clear acrylic available for both, here is the link - http://www.wdmusic.com/guards_guitar_fender_bullets.html

The beauty of a new project like this, is that you can go anywhere with that body pickup wise, 2 P.90's would also fit in there.

I can send you a card template of any of the guards if you want, I have also got a 2 x P.90 guard made up for a project, PM me if you want any more info.

 

Thanks much liamoneout! That is exactly what I needed....
Now to decide..... do I go with bwb three ply.... or white..... or since it's not a restoration, maybe a cream pearl.....

 

WHOA! Now there's wrench in the thinking gears! P90's.....
I've been fascinated with p90's for a while now...... At one point I had a 58 Gretsch with a pair of p90 s. ..... had a unique sound but I couldn't keep it.... too big an investment for what I needed at the time..... but a different story.....
What do they sound like in the solid body? Did you put them in one Cuscus?

 

A 58 Gretsch - I bet that was a great guitar !

I put a pair of seymour duncan antiquity P.90's in a Fender Mustang/Les Paul Gold Top hybrid project, they sounded very good, unfortunately the people that made the body, got the scale length on the guitar wrong, so I never got to using it properly & shelved the project for a rainy day.

Out of that, I got to thinking about a bullet project with P.90's, I have not got round to doing that yet, I have an acid yellow bullet deluxe body (tele shape) & a neck to fit, with a carbon fibre 2 x P.90 guard ready to go, looking forward to that one, when I have time, I just like the idea of a different single coil look & sound.

 

Well, I guess I'm part of the club now, I bought an '81 a couple of weeks ago, and then a single hum bucker '83 popped up at a price I couldn't pass up. These are crap pictures without strings on them:





The '81 is at the shop getting a washer on the truss rod, and the '83 is in my lap right now. What a great playing guitar. The hum bucker sounds great, actually. I didn't know what to expect.

Great guitars.

 

Welcome
Larry Mal

Two shining examples of these quite unique guitars, they get a lot of flack from some guitar purists around the internet, mostly from players that have never even played one, got to say they are not for everyone, but all of us here think they are great.

 

Great score, Larry Mal!