Squier Cyclone revival (finished!)

luciguci · Post by **luciguci** » Wed Jan 23, 2019 9:09 pm

Back in 2011 when Squier Cyclones were reissued, I got one as a gift from my dad. After some time, I decided to modify it, but unfortunately I was also kind of a dipshit and didnt know what I was doing, so I ended up mutilating my pickguard to pieces and covered it up with duct tape, and the cavity inside didnt fare well either. For years, I just had this mutilated and forgotten project sitting in my closet collecting dust. My girlfriend has been helping me clear out a lot of stuff I dont need anymore and I came across my Cyclone again, still almost perfectly in tune. I decided I was gonna fix it up again, for real this time, so after a few hours weighing my decisions, I settled on what I wanted for it. This morning, I ordered the parts that I needed.

Here's a semi mockup of what I'm gonna do

I ordered a Vintage 59 bridge pickup in white and a Lil Killer strat sized humbucker in white from GFS, with a Kwikplug wiring harness because I dont have a soldering iron anymore, some Jaguar knobs, and a red tort pickguard from Reverb for like only 18 bucks. I'm really thankful that i found a tort pickguard, because otherwise I'd have to shell out like 3 times as much money for a custom guard, and that was really like, a major point that was stopping me from fixing this guitar up years ago.

Anyways, I'll keep this updated as things arrive and tasks are done. First order of business is cleaning off any duct tape gunk from the body and control plate, and wiping the dust off from the bridge and tuners.

EDIT: fixed mockup with improved mockup

jagsonic · Post by **jagsonic** » Thu Jan 24, 2019 8:33 am

Cool project. I really like cyclones and "roselandish" red on red...

luciguci · Post by **luciguci** » Thu Jan 24, 2019 9:47 am

The seller i ordered the pickguard from already printed out a shipping label, and the other seller messaged me to tell me that he'll be shipping the knobs out tomorrow! Love it when orders have a quick turnaround like that. I can't remember how long GFS takes to process their orders, but hopefully i can have that ship soon enough. Had a friend recently revamp herself a janky old affinity Tele that someone played knifey finger on and it took her just short of two weeks to receive her pickups and hardware. She's actually part of the reason why I started this project, after seeing her telecaster turn out so nice, and being satisfied with the help I gave her. I recommended GFS and the Vintage 59 pickups to her based on what she wanted and she was happy with it.

TL;DR pickguard got a shipping label, knobs shipping tomorrow, will probably get my GFS order a week after my birthday based on a friend's recent guitar project. Also, wiped down and scraped of any duct tape residue I could find and cleaned the dust out from under the saddles and around the tuning heads. Guitar is as sparkly clean as can possibly be now, left only with the scrapes and dents from my juvenile attempts to modify it years ago.

...Thinking that maybe i should've ordered a new nut while I was at it, now that I'm thinking about it. Oh well, I can deal with that at a later time.

luciguci · Post by **luciguci** » Thu Jan 24, 2019 8:39 pm

UNPRECEDENTED GOOD NEWS, USPS trackers have updated this morning with the following news:

- pickups and harness arriving this saturday
- mustang/jaguar/jazz bass knobs arriving on my birthday on the 28th

pickguard has yet to ship but if it ships today, should also arrive around my birthday. very exciting news for me, the rebirth of my cyclone is coming soon
EDIT: pickguard is also shipped, arriving on the 28th! I'll unfortunately be gone most of the day at Disneyland with my girlfriend, but plan to leave for home around 7 pm and get everything assembled.

jagsonic · Post by **jagsonic** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 2:28 pm

don't forget taking pictures for us

luciguci · Post by **luciguci** » Sat Jan 26, 2019 8:02 am

I know I've been posting a lot but I was putting on a new set of strings to get them stretched out and ready for playing once i install everything else when I remembered I have a cheap soundhole pickup i got from GFS a couple years ago, so I put it into the space i had cut out in the middle of my old pickguard and tried it out. Doesnt sound half bad! Might end up putting this pickup in something else as a noisy garage rock-y guitar.

Here's a little demo of what that sounds like.

(also by pure chance and eyeballing, the bridge was already intonated for a set of 10s after i had removed every saddle and wiped out the dust from underneath and put them back on, which was an incredible discovery)

luciguci · Post by **luciguci** » Sat Jan 26, 2019 11:15 pm

No images today, nothing interesting yet, but I did come across some issues.

Pickups and harness arrived today, so after a little difficulty installing the Lil Killer (which comes with the weirdest fucking choice of screws ive ever seen for a pickup, they look like theyre meant for a pickguard) i was able to get them in the guitar, on the old pickguard. Unfortunately, the "universal" harness that GFS sells is anything but. The toggle switch lead is super short, and only reaches halfway to the actual hole in the pickguard for the toggle. Also unfortunately, the control cavity in the Cyclone is just a little bit too small to fit the volume pot and reach the screwholes to mount the control plate. After having a minor anxiety freak out, I removed the pots from the plate and just let them hang loose and plugged into the jack, because I still want to test the pickups.

The pickups sound great, thankfully. I really enjoy the Vintage 59 humbucker, not so sold on the Lil Killer, but I can live with it; especially since I found out that even though theyre Kwikplug pickups, they still come with a bare wire lead that can be soldered into a standard guitar harness, so if I ever decide to part with it and get a different pickup, I can sell it to anyone. Also, the fact that I can unplug my pickups to work on the harness separately is really neat, really nice if you've taken the time to figure out the proper pickup height and dont want to touch it.

Anyways, I'll post back in here when I've got the toggle switch and control cavity situation sorted out, which hopefully I can get done before the end of the month. My dad will take the harness with him to work on Tuesday to splice a longer wire onto the toggle switch , and I'll look for the dremel tool later and clean out the cavity a little bit myself.

luciguci · Post by **luciguci** » Sun Jan 27, 2019 2:25 am

I wanted to get a good listen to what the pickups sound like, as well as figure out proper pickup heights, so i figured out a temporary solution

I stuffed the pots in between the pickups and put the switch in place, and since the output jack was just hanging out, i plugged it in and then taped the cable to the body to keep it from tearing out violently with a wrong move. Here's a demo of the new pickups, playing this through my Vox Pathfinder 15R, bass and treble at noon. I really like how it sounds, and am determined to get this guitar done soon. Pickguard and knobs are in LA at the sorting center now, and I'll install the pickups later that night. Hopefully, this should all be over by Wednesday.

luciguci · Post by **luciguci** » Wed Jan 30, 2019 11:06 am

It's finished! It took me a few hours of tweaking to get things right (and then play around with it for fun) but it's basically done. Really glad to have this done, it feels really nice to play, and the Vintage '59 humbucker sounds really nice. the Lil Killer is nothing much to write home about, but it fits will with the bridge pickup. Now for my next project, which is to find some spots to install some guitar hangers to keep my guitars safe.

compared to how this began

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Wed Jan 30, 2019 11:13 am

That looks great. Good job.

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Wed Jan 30, 2019 11:38 am

BearBoy wrote:That looks great. Good job.

+1

theshadowofseattle · Post by **theshadowofseattle** » Thu Jan 31, 2019 1:42 am

d i g g i n g i t

luciguci · Post by **luciguci** » Thu Jan 31, 2019 9:16 am

daftsupernova wrote:the Lil Killer is nothing much to write home about

i changed my mind, this pickup rules actually. it's nice and clear and not muddy at all, and even just down at 6k, it sounds great with dirt. really complements the 59 well. my only complaint is the weird ass fucking huge countersunk mounting screws they send these out with. so fucking big that i had to file out both the pickguard hole and the pickup holes with a file to get them to fit, and even then they barely fit in my pickguard and ended up threading the pickguard holes, so thankfully i was able to get the pickup mounted at just the right height without need to adjust it. they even show these exact screws on the website, so its not just like a shipping mistake, they fully just have every Lil Killer shipped out with these weird fuckers. oh well, too late to look back now. shit is permanently in here and they sound good.

i almost considered recording a demo but it still sounds the same as the last one. maybe i'll record a better demo later, a final demo, but right now i just wanna play this thing.

oh yeah, one last thing; I put some blue thread lock around the output jack, since I noticed it was having some issues and coming loose, and i remembered that being a problem when I first had this thing too. It seems to be holding up pretty well for now, so that's a relief. I'm gonna look out for an extra tension spring somewhere, maybe pick some up at GC when i go back to buy that boss phaser i saw. also gonna want a new backplate, since I can't seem to find my old one and im tired of accidentally scraping on the springs already.

jagsonic · Post by **jagsonic** » Thu Jan 31, 2019 10:11 am

Oh yeah, really love this guitar! Well done!!!

Your thread made me taking my cyclone to bandpractise last night and it.... failed. Some fail in the switch only allowed me to play the neckpickup. I will take some time to this problem...

kingkiller · Post by **kingkiller** » Thu Jan 31, 2019 3:09 pm

Looks fuckin awesome. I have a Lil Killer in my bridge position in my Tele that I made into an Esquire and I quite like it. I have to resolder it as it worked before I left it at my old band mates house and when I got it back the wiring was shot, but it wasnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t great work to begin with.

BillClay · Post by **BillClay** » Thu Jan 31, 2019 9:58 pm

Just echoing the compliments, glad you're getting it to make sounds you like and red + tort is the god-tier combo

Post by **dots** » Thu Jan 31, 2019 10:22 pm

great work, i bet that thing shreds!

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Fri Feb 01, 2019 12:21 am

That looks so great!

luciguci · Post by **luciguci** » Fri Feb 01, 2019 12:30 am

Thanks everyone! I just ordered some new tremolo springs and a backplate, should be arriving on Sunday. Gonna lock down the tremolo hard as fuck with all five springs.

luciguci · Post by **luciguci** » Mon Feb 04, 2019 7:18 pm

They came in yesterday, the tort backplate is a touch darker than the pickguard, but it doesnt really matter, since it'll be up against me anyways. All five springs are in, the tremolo is locked down tight. Oh, and the plate holes only matched up to two corners at a time, so i just put new holes in, and now it looks nice and secure.