NuGD - Nice Treasure Find

[jklemm18]

I recently had a cervical fusion surgery and have been housebound for the last two weeks. I can finally get out of the house and my wife was kind enough to take me to my local guitar shop for a field trip. I was killing time in the amp room where they usually have a bunch of guitars kind of tucked away that aren't on the man floor. I spotted a good looking black tele with a Duncan Designed HB in the neck position. I am always looking for a good find so I pulled it down and there was no indication of the series on the head stock. I flipped it over and it said craft in India. Not being an expert, I am not familiar with any Squier Teles crafted India so I ran the serial number and it came back that it was a Vintage Modified from 2007. I was really surprised because this was in better shape than many new floor model guitars I have seen other than some dust and finger prints. A little further googling led me to a listing on Reverb for over twice what the shop had it tagged at. Well figured for less than two bills I could take her home and worst case return it if I find any issues. Well ive been searching more and more for info on this model and have found that they were a good model for the time and the Duncan Designed pickups are based on the Jazz Humbucker and stacked single coil. Well if you read this far, you figured I am keeping it, it plays well above its pedigree and honestly when I find a diamond in the rough like this it makes me question the money I have tied up into my 70th anniversary Esquire. So anyone with any more info on this SH Vintage Modified model would be welcome to chime in, The only upgrade I want to make for sure is the tuners so if you know of a drop in set that would be great.

 

[68Telebass]

Sweet!!!!

The early “Vintage Modified” Squier models had some great ideas! It was sort of like the “Paranormal” (Should have…) or the “Pawnshop” (could have…) series recently. That HB in neck sounds like a great find!

Some of those are going up in value- they aren’t making any more of em.

 

[ricardo1912]

The vintage modified series were really good guitars. I had a couple of the custom ii teles and they were v well made with great necks and pickups. Wish I'd kept them

 

[jklemm18]

The neck is what really sold me. It is billed as a c shape but honestly it is chunky like my anniversary Esquire. Definitely thicker than the CV tele necks. Also I a sucker for gloss. I know it’s not everyone’s favorite but I love a well done gloss neck.

 

[Dana Rudd]

Congrats @jklemm18 HNGD. Enjoy it.
Wishing you the best on your recovery.

 

[jklemm18]

Thanks for the kind words Dana. On the bright side, I am getting a lot of playing time in and can say that it is good rest as I heal.
on another note, does anyone know of a set of drop in tuners for these. I would like to do a swap but would rather not have to drill or ream. Thanks

 

[kiwi blue]

Some-one may know, but your best bet is probably to take one tuner off and measure the hole diameter. Also take note of the pattern of the screw holes.

 

[JDRNoPro]

Congrats on your great "find" and best wishes for a speedy recovery!

 

[jklemm18]

Congrats on your great "find" and best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Thanks JD. Really enjoying it and I dot know how they get away with these necks on such a "budget" guitar! I thought initially that I would for sure need to do the tuners but in a weeks she hasn't moved a cent. I am also going to take my time with the pickups. The duncan designed actually sound pretty good. I may do a wiring harness upgrade from Gunstreet or 920d custom if anyone has any experience with them that would be helpful as well as I want to do the same in my CV Jazzmaster. Thanks in advance.

 

[Skyhook]

I recently had a cervical fusion surgery and have been housebound for the last two weeks. I can finally get out of the house and my wife was kind enough to take me to my local guitar shop for a field trip. I was killing time in the amp room where they usually have a bunch of guitars kind of tucked away that aren't on the man floor. I spotted a good looking black tele with a Duncan Designed HB in the neck position. I am always looking for a good find so I pulled it down and there was no indication of the series on the head stock. I flipped it over and it said craft in India. Not being an expert, I am not familiar with any Squier Teles crafted India so I ran the serial number and it came back that it was a Vintage Modified from 2007. I was really surprised because this was in better shape than many new floor model guitars I have seen other than some dust and finger prints. A little further googling led me to a listing on Reverb for over twice what the shop had it tagged at. Well figured for less than two bills I could take her home and worst case return it if I find any issues. Well ive been searching more and more for info on this model and have found that they were a good model for the time and the Duncan Designed pickups are based on the Jazz Humbucker and stacked single coil. Well if you read this far, you figured I am keeping it, it plays well above its pedigree and honestly when I find a diamond in the rough like this it makes me question the money I have tied up into my 70th anniversary Esquire. So anyone with any more info on this SH Vintage Modified model would be welcome to chime in, The only upgrade I want to make for sure is the tuners so if you know of a drop in set that would be great.

Happy NGD!
But remember... if you NGD without pictures, an innocent Tele somewhere loses its twang!
(still time to correct this, is what I'm saying )

 

[Fendereedo]

Congratulations, and hngd to you.

 

[bgmacaw]

The only upgrade I want to make for sure is the tuners so if you know of a drop in set that would be great.

Probably unnecessary with this guitar unless there's damage to the tuners. 10mm is the typical size on most Squiers but measure to be sure.

 

[Telecaster582]

What is a NUGD? New ugly guitar day? (I'm just kidding, but seriously what does that mean)

 

[johnnylaw]

No photos?
Rather suspicious, don’t you think?

 

[richiek65]

I have a Made in India Vintage Modified Squier Tele, it came with 3 x Duncan designed pickups: Tele bridge, Strat middle, Firebird neck. I've gotten rid of the middle pickup and upgraded the others to Texas Special and Gibson Firebird (ceramic i think) and its an absolute beast. I made some hardware changes too in readiness for a Bigsby once I get some decent drilling equipment.

 

[jfgesquire]

Mine is the SSH, not the SH, but similarly Made in India. The VMs use typical Squier Asian pin placement for the tuners. So unfortunately if you want to use tuners like for MIA or MIM, you'll need to locate two new pin holes on the back of the headstock. There are templates available.

The tuners Fender uses for the Performer series, aka the ClassicGear, have a different pin placement than the VM, but they look the part for a Vintage Modified and work well. Made by Ping.

Before modifying the Modified:





After:

 

[gimmeatele]

Love hearing about a nice find, enjoy

 

[FSRCustomTeleHHGT]

Fender briefly had Squiers made in India in the late 1980s, and then not again until around 2007, and again only briefly. I never paid attention to the Teles, but there was a VM Stratocaster made of Indian cedar that I could never quite pull the trigger on that was really well-received. Whatever factory in India made those VMs did a great job on the necks, apparently. Here's the pair of VM Tele's with DD humbuckers in the neck from the 2007 Squier catalog:

Also, if you are looking for locking tuners, Hipshot has a set that come with their "universal mounting plate" (UMP) that don't require drilling new holes in the headstock as they don't use screw or alignment pins.

 

[richiek65]

Thanks for the kind words Dana. On the bright side, I am getting a lot of playing time in and can say that it is good rest as I heal.
on another note, does anyone know of a set of drop in tuners for these. I would like to do a swap but would rather not have to drill or ream. Thanks

Have a look at my earlier post with the Indian Squier

I used Gotoh locking tuners, they dropped straight in, i just had to drill the tiny hole for the lock screw for each tuner, shaft holes were slightly oversized but the advice I got from this forum suggested that was a non issue, which has worked out to be the case

 

[richiek65]

Fender briefly had Squiers made in India in the late 1980s, and then not again until around 2007, and again only briefly. I never paid attention to the Teles, but there was a VM Stratocaster made of Indian cedar that I could never quite pull the trigger on that was really well-received. Whatever factory in India made those VMs did a great job on the necks, apparently. Here's the pair of VM Tele's with DD humbuckers in the neck from the 2007 Squier catalog:
View attachment 998355

Also, if you are looking for locking tuners, Hipshot has a set that come with their "universal mounting plate" (UMP) that don't require drilling new holes in the headstock as they don't use screw or alignment pins.

The SSH was the model that became my post #15