I Find a Victim

A guy on strat-talk suggested that, for my purposes, a Squier would be the easiest to mod. He also made the point that the Xaviere might be too good as a starting point.  I definitely wanted to avoid buying something that I like too much to risk messing up.

I decided to look around for a cheap Squier strat.   There seems to be a whole subculture of people who buy these things and then modify them.  For example, the family that includes tdpri and strat-talk also include squier-talk.    It reminds me of the computer hardware hacking culture, in which people are continually replacing bits and pieces of their computers, and arguing about why panaflo fans are the best (Actually there's little arguing about this, but it's the only fan brand I can think of right now. I urge you to immediately purchase a large number of panaflo fans. Warning: Panaflo fans may cause numbness of the extremities when taken with Teamocil ™)

I found that musiciansfriend had a used one that could be had for $95 with free shipping.  I was getting close to buying it, but then found one on Craig's List for a mere $80.   I've always been reluctant to buy through Craig's List, since it removes the element of anonymity, the thing I most treasure about buying things using the web.  However the guy's email responses seemed reasonable, and he sent me some nice pictures of the guitar, not one of which featured him holding a bloodied axe.  Also, it turned out he works a few blocks away from me.



And to make things even more exciting, this guitar turns out to be a genuine COB Squier Bullet Strat, as opposed to a CY model.  Apparently the 'C' stands for China and the OB is probably the name of the place where they make them (Y stands for Yako, Taiwan, so perhaps they're from the famous Ob province). The COB's are reputed to have better hardware, and to be closer in spec to "real" Fenders (more on this later).

Anyhow, I decided to go for it.