The Ultimate BUDGET Guitar! - Low Cost Upgrades That Make a HUGE Difference!

welcome back to the channel you guys I hope you're having a great day today for this week's video what we're gonna do is take our ultra budget $100 Stratocaster copy and what we're going to do is do some low-cost high-return mods so we're going to try to not spend a lot of money but really transform the way this guitar feels and sounds let's get started [Music] now if you guys want to know more about the stock instrument itself and how it compares up against some of my more expensive strats check out last week's video where I do like a full rundown of every aspect good and bad about this you know budget guitar so I'll link to that above check out that video if you missed it other than that let's get started on the mods all right you guys mod number one is going to be replacing this tram system it looks pretty bad and I think for not a lot of money we can upgrade this so I'm going to give you guys a couple options that I've used in the past to replace six screw systems but we're gonna go with the budget option because we want to keep this all you know under 200 bucks the guitar was a hundred bucks let's add another hundred bucks or so to upgrade this guitar to really make a big difference for not a lot of money so anyway what we're gonna do is just clip our ground wire and we're gonna have to resolder and maybe get a longer one anyway so we're gonna take that off the trim and then just loosen the claw screws here alright now that the cloth screw is back backed off we should be able to just pull them off yep there we go awesome so what I'm gonna do is just take the whole claw off remove all these screws because we're gonna replace it with something a little better now obviously our strategy has six screws holding the trim down very common on sort of lower end guitars so what we're gonna do is talk about a couple different options for replacement now option one for replacing a six screw saddle is the Bladerunner awesome system holts tune really well has great sustain and feels awesome on the bar so a huge upgrade unfortunately it's out of our price range for this video option number two is the Vega trim so it has again four screws of the six so you don't have to permanently mod your guitar and it's a very responsive system really small so you can actually bend it up you can see it's actually shallower than the route so you can really crank it up or go all the way down so really responsive again it's out of our price range but if you're looking for something great it's an awesome system now all its are if you spend $100 on a guitar you're probably not going to want to 150 to 250 dollars just for a new trim system so we're gonna go with something a little bit more practical now in the end here's what I decided to go with this is a stock used made in Mexico trim system so six screws so it should bolt right up and cross my fingers on that one but you get bent steel saddles which is really nice you get a huge block on this one this one's labeled PW 29 on the block and on the plate so I don't know if that's going to help anybody but that's what its labeled and with everybody upgrading their six screw trim systems these should be easy and plentiful to find online all right so let's start by removing the six screws now when you compare the differences between the block size and the plate size it's pretty laughable if you look at the plate especially where it bends up and you attach the saddles here on both trim systems the stock made in Mexico one is like twice the thickness it's a huge difference so here's the the stock in do classic and then here is the meet in Mexico so the plate itself is way thicker and then of course the block is like three times the mass so the big question is will the fender made in Mexico trim mount right up to the six screws on the Indio classic well let's find out absolutely it's a perfect fit now here's something else to consider this screw came with the Indio classic and you can see it's got threading all the way up to the head and that's really probably what was causing binding when I was diving all the way down if you know the trim system sitting on that threading it's gonna bind when you bomb and of course this screw here is a much better option where it's got sort of like the smooth top portions so that the trim can really sit against and and really not bind you know as you use it so we're going to use the appropriate screws I think that's gonna make a big difference as well all right let's attach our brand new trim system here we go now to finish off our budget trim upgrade I went into my bag of hardware and found a new claw from a project in the past I'm not sure where it came from but it feels better than the stock one and then we've got three springs from an American trim system so the spring rate on these are nice and soft but precise so I think that's going to make a big difference and then of course we got the big block which is awesome and as you can see the body on this India classic is full they're like full width so this stock trim block does not stick out past so it's not like an infinity with a thinner body so that was nice to know so it's a full thickness 1 in 3 quarter strap body so all the stock fender parts looks like they're gonna fit perfectly all right modification number one is in the books the bent steel saddles with the fender branding and of course that thick trim plate and massive block really transform the way this guitar looks I think it's going to play a little bit better too in terms of tuning stability once I get it all tweaked anyway so I can't imagine you know I used trim system off a Mexican strat costing more than like 20 or 30 bucks especially if it's used so anyway that I think is gonna be a huge upgrade for this guitar now if you saw last week's video I think you know I want to upgrade the electronics and the pickups I thought they sounded pretty good but I think something a little higher quality will give you know the assurance that it's gonna last long term so if money was no object I definitely would go with the old obsidian wire solderless kit again I've used these guys on a ton of builds I'll link to it in the video description it's going to be out of the price range for this particular mod but it makes what swapping super easy because there's no soldering so love that kit but it's out of our price range for today's build now the stock parts on this baby are pretty much equivalent to a squire so we don't want to waste our time putting Squier parts in here it's gonna be a waste of time and money American parts are definitely off the table too expensive even the used ones so I think the sweet spot again are going to be made in Mexico parts and if you can find them used even better now I disconnected that ground wire so I can pull it right out this time and as you guys can see it's all unbranded kind of like really low-budget parts so what we're getting to do is unsolder these two wires from the output jack right there and then I'm going to compare this up against our new pit guard so as I mentioned previously I think used made in Mexico parts are really gonna be the sweet spot for this mod so here we go we've got a full used made in Mexico pickguard with shielding on it made in Mexico pickups full-size pots and of course the rotary fender switch there we go so there it is and then in comparison to the Indio classic we don't get shielding small dime sized unbranded pots rectangle switch and of course those cheaper style pickups so I think the main Mexico part is going to be a huge upgrade so we're gonna slap it in and of course everybody with a made in Mexico guitar wants to upgrade to American parts or Seymour Duncan's or something like that so there should be lots of these out here out you know that you can find on eBay or Amazon used now as you guys can see it's a swimming pool route on the Indio classic which is awesome so if you guys wanted to use a humbucker single single or two humbuckers or humbucker single humbucker it's all ready to rock which is actually pretty cool and of course it's got these deeper routed channels here so there you go it's ready to go for those long screws required for a humbucker you shouldn't have to you know drill mod anything all you need is the appropriate pick guard and you'd be ready to rock all right so let's take our made in Mexico pick guard and slap it into the Indio classic here we go oh shoot it's so close you guys okay so we've run into our first problem right here it does not slip past the trim so it's sitting on top of the tram we can't shift the tram at all oh that's so close though okay so we've got two options first of all what we could do is just take it my Dremel tool and take like an eighth of an inch off this neck pocket right here or the neck cutout and then slip it underneath the finger board that'll enable us to slide forward you know whatever Nathan inch here and I think that would give us enough clearance so that's definitely one option that we could do it would all be hidden even if you know it's not a perfect job it will all be hidden underneath the fingerboard here as you guys can see it slides up under because it's got the 22nd fret and a little bit of that so that would all be hidden so it definitely could do that the other option is just simply to swap parts which is really easy to do you don't have to unsolder anything all you have to do is pop the knobs and switches out unscrew them unscrew the pickups and put our made in Mexico parts in this stock guard so no problems either way we can make it work I just need to decide what I want to do all right just for fun I think I'm gonna try to use my Dremel so I'm just gonna take a marker here just so I know I don't go too too far and put about an eighth of an inch all the way along and then I'll grab my Dremel take the pickguard back that far and see if that gives us enough clearance all right I'll be back all right you guys I am back and as you can see I've removed some of the material from the neck pocket on the pickguard let's try it out I think it's gonna work this time if I can tuck those wires up there we go so nice fit on the pickguard now I would recommend just swapping the parts over to the stock guard because obviously we had to use the dremel tool and not all the holes are lining up there's three or four holes that line up and then a few that don't so you're gonna so I'm gonna have to do some drilling so I'm just doing that for fun obviously it's a much better idea just to swap the parts into the stock guard bolted in and off you go all right so what I'm going to do is anchor the pickguard down using the holes that line up and then go in behind with the drill and drill out the rest of the holes so that we can anchor the pickguard nice and firmly alright now that we've got everything ready to rock what we need to do is solder in our ground wire on the back of the trim claw here and then two wires to the output Jack so three connections we need to solder up other than that she'll be ready to go okay and finally let's do our output jack here there we go all right you guys we're making some great progress here so we've got our output jacks soldered up we've got the ground wire soldered up so we can grab our screws we're gonna attach the pickguard and the output jack and away we go okay we're doing great so far we've got our trim system bolted right up no problems there pickguard didn't quite fit but if you use the stock picard you'd be totally fine so we've got our made in Mexico pots which is pickguard and pickups so I think that's gonna sound awesome I think that's gonna be a big upgrade what we need to move on next and really what is most important about this guitar is getting new tuning machines I think the rest of the parts probably would be okay definitely we upgraded them but the tuning machines have to go they're really bad all right you guys now here's our tuning machines I need to pull them apart and see if they're a ten millimeter hole because what I have here is a giant bag of leftover Fender tuning machines so there's probably two or three sets in there so we're gonna try to make that work now on the back side I can tell we're gonna have to do something because these are all retained with sort of like angle brackets and screws along there so if I find a set of tuning machines that I think will just drop in without any modifications check in the video description I'll try to track down a set and you guys that way it's just gonna be like a bolt on affair because the Fender tuning machines will not just bolt on without modification because they have these two retaining pins so that stops the tuning machine from twisting and holds it perfectly still so we're gonna have to do some modifications to get these fender tuning machines onto this guitar so step one let's just remove all the screws holding the tuning machines in place just a small Phillips head screw and off we go now with the screws removed off the back all we need to do is take our socket and remove the nut so let's do that and the tuning machine should drop right out all right so here's the moment of truth let's see if our Fender tuning machine is going to fit yes perfect so these are ten mil holes which means a lot of aftermarket tuning machines will fit now if we were going for a high-end build something like these hip shot tuners would be awesome they come with these universal mounting plates so they cover up any old holes and just give a really clean look likewise the graphtec ratio tuners I've used on a few builds they're absolutely fantastic as well unfortunately both of these sets are out of our budget okay well we have our headstock clean I'm gonna take the indio classic off the headstock mostly because I don't like the font of the indio and classic is basically admitting that you ripped off a classic design so I'm gonna take that off obviously that's personal choice but here we go I'm gonna use 150 grit just to kind of take it down and then smooth it out with some lighter grit so after about thirty seconds we basically have it fully removed it's really easy to do and now what I want to do is just sort of even it out make sure it's all about the same and then I'll move to some lighter gray Shh now I'll just buff it out with little steel wool there we go in two minutes we have a perfectly clean and beautiful headstock all right you guys it's time to install our fender tuning machines now these obviously are not gonna bolt right up which is a shame but we're gonna try to make do because this is a budget build we're just going to be using used parts and what's on hand so I am gonna have to take some wood filler and fill in the old screw holes which is a pain in the butt but that's okay so what I'm gonna try to do is line up these tuning machines tighten them with the top nut collars and hopefully it's going to leave some indentations in the headstock that way I'll know exactly where to drill for the two pins all right you guys what we want to do is tighten up the tuning machines just ever so slightly so that they can still be moved because we're gonna need to straighten them and line them up and then I'm gonna cinch them down once they're straight and hopefully they'll leave those indentation marks so we need our straightedge for sure yeah although they're closed they weren't quite right and a straightedge is really the only way to do it to make sure because you don't want to screw this one up you want this to be like perfect that is looking really good okay so what I'm going to do is tighten them a little bit further on the front because they will shift again and then check and then I'm gonna do moves my final tightening so here we go I'm just gonna cinch them down a little bit more just so that they don't really shift easily okay and then let's double check with our straightedge again so we'll flip her over grab our straightedge and there's been a little bit of shifting not too bad that actually looks really good there we go okay so what we're gonna do now do our final tightening and hopefully those two pins will leave a mark and then we'll do our drilling I have to say that worked fantastically well I can see exactly where I need to drill for those two pins that were really really good I was a little skeptical but man there you go we've got all the spots we need to drill and you know the tuning machines are gonna be exactly straight now it feels absolutely amazing to have proper fender tuning machines on here very very pumped about that that's going to make an absolutely huge difference to the guitar so there we go so there's other mods I'd like to do but for now I think what we're going to do is string it up and do some before and after because I recorded some before clips obviously so we could test out some of these mods and see what the differences are [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so here are my final thoughts on the old India classic well first of all adding about a hundred bucks more of used fender hardware really did make a huge difference in terms of the playing experience so normally you know the six screw trim system from Fender I would get rid of it but you know adding it to our hundred dollar guitar really did make a positive difference so it feels a lot better to play I think the American Springs helped in the back there too and just everything feels more precise and the pickups hey I've been using them for years I like them they're high output and usually high hum but that's just part and parcel of those pickups and of course the fender tuning machines turned out so awesome it worked really well to install them I wasn't sure how that was going to go I'm very very happy that they're here so strings are still breaking in but I think it sounds great and it's still well well below like a used made in Mexico at least here where I live Mexican Standard like the old model a really good deal is like 350 bucks more likely 400 to 450 and we are well well below that so definitely higher quality now than a stock squire for both the same price and well below made in Mexico with all the same parts I hope you guys enjoyed this mod video hopefully it gave you guys some ideas of what you can do to your entry-level guitars to take them up to that next level without spending a ton of cash if you guys enjoy content like this be sure to subscribe to the channel by clicking right here the rest of my information will be in the video description or on the screen right now you can check out the t-shirt store the tab store other than that have an awesome week you guys we'll see you next time with a new video

Channel: Darrell Braun Guitar

Views: 1,262,791

Keywords: cheap guitar pickups, darrell braun, guitar pickups, best strat pickups, best tele pickups, best jazz pickups, best pickups for blues, best pickups for metal, guitar comparison, american standard vs american professional strat, stratocaster vs telecaster, cheap vs expensive, cheap vs expensive guitars, cheap vs expensive pickups, best cheap guitar, cheap electric guitar, cheap acoustic guitar, indio classic guitar, cheap vs expensive guitar, electric guitar mods

Id: oE71INVjGng

Length: 19min 55sec (1195 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 05 2019