Squier Cyclone with some mod ideas.....

[Sollophonic]

Recently picked up this Squier Cyclone for a steal of a price, and have been playing it for a while to see whether it needs modding, and if so what into.

Changed the strings, lowered the action and put some black knobs on. The switch tip is missing, but other than that it is virtually mint

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Love the neck, but needs a new nut with widened string spacing. This will be the first job.

Needs an arm for the vibrato, but as I don't use these much its not a priority.

Really like the neck pickup, nice and plummy, but the humbucker is pretty nasty, very harsh and one-dimensional.

I had thought of putting this spare Squier 51 HB in there, but I already have two '51s so that will make it too much like them

What I am thinking of doing at the moment is doing a Musicmaster or a Bronco style conversion, but keeping the original pickups and pickguard to return it to its original condition should I want to.

I had a Musicmaster years ago, it was my first real gigging guitar, and many players used these and Broncos and Bullets as they were a cheap way of having a Fender guitar. Many indie/punky/new wave bands were driven by the budget Fenders in the early 1980s.

I loved my Musicmaster, and modded it and wore it out, and I also used to borrow another bands guitarists Bronco as a spare, and he often used mine.

They are fetching silly prices today, these plywood bodied budget Fenders, so I was thinking that this (better built IMO) Cyclone would be a good one to rekindle a bit of nostalgia.

So I am thinking along the lines of this;-

Single pickup, probably a Hotrail or even the nice existing one with a black cover.

New red torty pickguard.

New black back plate.

What I am torn between is whether to make it into a Musicmaster with the pickup in the front slot, or maybe make it more Bronco-like and move the pickup further back.
I don't really want to go the Mustang route as although I like them, I also have a few twin pickup guitars, and I love single pickup ones like Jnrs and Esquires. Plus making it more like a Bronco, will be a bit more faithful to the fact that like the aforementioned, the Cyclone is equipped with a vibrato.

Hmmmmmm

Anyone got any pics of an unmodded Bronco or Musicmaster that I can get some inspiration from?

 

[C1993]

I'm curious to see what you come up with. I have one in sunburst and love it. The neck IS excellent and it's just a great little guitar for the money.

 

[Strat62]

If it were me, I'd get a better humbucker for the bridge, and coil tap it with a push/pull for single coil tones. That can sound good, especially when combined with the neck SC. What sounds even better is an HSS setup. Get another Strat pickup and put it in the center position. IMO, an HSS setup sounds as good or better than an HSH layout. Taking out the bridge pup and going with just a neck pup will severely limit it's usefullness AFAIC

 

[hartwell]

I put a Seymour Duncan prails in mine - lots of wiring options!

 

[Sollophonic]

The swimming pool rout is going to help with this one.

I plan to take off the old PG and pickups, wire in the Hotrail and screw it in to the body with springs, then string it up and play it a bit. I plan to move the pickup to different locations to find the optimum place for it to be a single banger.

Then I will make up the pickguard and slot accordingly.

If I want to make it into a two pickup I can do at a later date.

Plus if I keep the old pickups and PG, I can return it to stock if needed to

I promise I'll post pics

 

[Sollophonic]

It looks like this now

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[Sasz]

That looks very stylish - simple and elegant.

What does the rails pickup sound like there? Is it a full on humbucker tone, or does it keep a little bit of single-coiliness compared with a full size HB?

 

[Sollophonic]

That looks very stylish - simple and elegant.

What does the rails pickup sound like there? Is it a full on humbucker tone, or does it keep a little bit of single-coiliness compared with a full size HB?

The latter really, it sounds like a nice thick single coil. In fact I would liken it to a couple of single coils wired in series.

 

[dtermined2play]

Looks very nice Sollophonic.

 

[syrynx]

Thanks very much for the picture.

That looks very stylish - simple and elegant.

My feelings, exactly.

I plan to move the pickup to different locations to find the optimum place for it to be a single banger.

It appears to me that you ended up with it in the stock neck location, or very close to it. Is that in fact the case? I ask because, to my ears, it would be very hard to improve upon the stock location of the stock neck pickup of my Squier '51.

Is the angle of the Cyclone's neck pickup the same as the angle of the '51's? And did you keep the Hotrails at the same angle, or change it a little?

 

[Dan R]

Seems like this opens possibilities to some cool mods on those guitars. I'd be tempted to put a mini humbucker in the middle of the PG. Or a lipstick pickup. Cool mod, Sollophonic.

Dan R