Squier Paranormal Series Offset Tele Upgrade

Consensus on KZbin seems to be that the Squier product coming from China is quite good, particularly for the money. I see the Classic Vibe series being suggested as a great guitar from beginning up to a back up in case your main guitar has an issue. At the $399 price tag, (all pricing Dec. 2020), Classic Vibe guitars hit the mark well. Build quality is good, electronics are fair to good. Only minor improvements are needed for a more "serious" musician.
Then comes the Paranormal series. Fender has been doing some pretty cool stuff over the last few years. You can find all sorts of "mash-ups" of different model Fender instruments,... and they are being offered in the Squier line as well as the Made in Mexico and U.S. product.
We've decided to do some upgrades on my son Zac's Paranormal series Offset Tele. With just a little set up, It played well, sounded pretty good,... all around pretty solid. Digging a little deeper you'll find the input jack and electronics to be inexpensive versions of classic designs. You could say the quality of these components were as to be expected.
Although I already had the parts we needed, except for the saddles, I figure the parts could be upgraded to "high end", as used in this upgrade, for as little as $250. All in $650,... not cheap, but U.S. built money either. I guess it's all about what it's worth to the owner of the instrument.
I hope you enjoy these videos and even get some useful info out of them.
Please Like and Subscribe so I know if its worth putting these videos out.
-Cheers

[@sidestyle05]

The best feature of this model is that the body is routed for an SSH setup. It's begging to be modded

[@jbourke33]

I’ve got one of these guitars that I’m also using as a mod platform. I love it. So far I’ve changed the bridge plate and saddles (6 individual brass), changed the neck pickup to a custom firebird pickup, added shielding, changed out all the electronics with a Mad Hatter solderless system with a 4-way switch (series & parallel) and push-pull to coil split the firebird pickup, and added a kill switch to the control plate between the knobs. My frets needed a fair amount of work. One thing I’d really like to do at some point is change the neck. The stock neck seems really narrow to me - the high e string is too easy to pull off the side of the neck. That may have something to do with my poor technique as a beginner, but it’s not a problem on my other guitars. I’m worried that it’s such a unique guitar that getting a replacement neck to match will be difficult.

[@chriscarrillo967]

love the look of these guitars, your description of them is exactly correct... feels like they need some upgrades from purchase to really hit it out the park. overall, regardless of setup or sound, the appearance of guitars is always important to me and attracts me first over the former options. that being said these are very pretty guitars, along with the cabronita teles. thanks for the vid

[@connorchambless7062]

Great build! I have this same guitar and will be building it too!

[@jimmyjames2022]

Fun teardown video. Pups sounds great! Interesting that there's center rout stock here as well if you want to make a Paranormal Nashville Tele.

[@charlescampbell9267]

I’ve noticed Fender does that a lot. Even the Esquire has a neck pickup route. It’s nice to have options. Thanks for the comment.

[@JedrekVRoscoe]

Might I suggest adding a Freeway selector switch for only $47.95 from Stew Mac? It gives you 6 pickup positions instead of 3, and you’d never even know it was on there. Look it up, it doubles your tones for cheap!

[@charlescampbell6167]

I’ve heard of these. Great idea.

[@WillemdaGuide]

Very cool, I love these guitars and upgraded mine too, putted EMG Tele pickups in it so didn't borther the shielding but went for the same saddle upgrade as you. Also ea new stringtree to increase tuning stability and all this makes it a killer guitar. I pretty much prefer it over my USA standard offset Tele....

[@JedidiahBertram]

This video was really great! I ordered one of these a couple weeks ago, considering doing a similar build.

[@mitcharney1]

The only drawback on upgrades is that it's almost impossible to recover cost of upgrades if you decide to sell.

[@charlescampbell9267]

Understood. I made sure to cleanly remove the old parts so they could easily be reinstalled if need be. I’m pretty sure he’s gonna keep this one. It came out nicely. Thanks for the comment.

[@spottedsaint957]

From what I saw in this video, the upgrades were pretty much reversible. I don't think that much money would be lost if he decided to sell. When the time comes to sell it just try to put everything back the way, with the exception of the shielding tape.

[@mattt180]

That cuts both ways though if you ever want to get a good guitar for cheap

[@nightpandas7178]

Well just only buy guitars you're going to keep

[@JohnAdams-xc5yk]

They sell a guitar here in the Philippines that is similar but with p90 pickups, they are made from popular, does anyone know what the Squire body wood is, the one here in Asia sells for a little over $100

[@Frank-in-NY]

Nice upgrade! The guitar is a beauty, May I ask what size strings did you end up using? Great job on this, appreciate seeing the process on getting this project done.

[@danbuter]

This is really cool!

[@Arcade1959]

Why did you put brass bridges ? Are your new microphones alnico 2 or 5 ? We can't hear well in your video

[@liu373]

The shape of my neck is so thin that my high e string is bending over the fredboard all the time. Is that common for that guitar or is it building mistake?

[@charlescampbell9267]

It seems to be very common that the “e” strings, low and or high will be very close to the edge of the fretboard. I like to see if the string spacing looks even on either side. Usually, I’ll find that the neck may need just a little shift upward, toward the low E. Loosen the screws a touch, shift a little, check, then retighten. I hope this helps.

[@johnhowe4079]

Would you sell the old ones? What are the resistances?

[@svenblau]

Didn't know Ben Kingsley is an guitar expert :D

[@888jimm]

Woody Harlson ?😂

[@jdoodah]

Hey, great video. Im really hoping someone might help, I really want to replace my neck. Will a traditional tele style neck fit this model? Thanks so much, I'm really stuck, waiting to pull the trigger on a lovely roasted one

[@matthejl8]

Do you know if the bridge plate is the same size as a regular telecaster? I want one that doesnt have the side walls and is just flat.

[@farmpunk_dan]

I just put a four screw gotoh six saddle bridge on mine and it fits great!

[@Jake24378]

Do you know if any six saddle bridge upgrades for this?

[@farmpunk_dan]

The gotoh one fits great!

[@snuffelsuf]

I think upgrades really don't change things

[@j-pastel-yellow]

it depends on what you upgrade to. if you buy the cheapest parts you can find, you’re just making a lateral move, and you’re not improving anything. higher end components will make the guitar play and sound better. but all that doesn’t matter if it’s being played by a bad player. the first upgrade anyone should make is buying lessons.

[@snuffelsuf]

@@j-pastel-yellow THATS QUITE INCORRECT..iM SORRY TO INFORM YOU

[@ryanhursh6322]

@@snuffelsuf First you said “I think” and then you followed up with “I’m sorry to inform you”. So do you think or do you know? And if you do know, then you should back up the “inform” part with some information. It would be a far more useful comment then. As much as we all like to think are opinions are objective (including myself), characteristics of sound are A. Potentially unnoticed depending on one’s ear health and the aging process and B. Very subjective because we are all drawn to different sonic elements.

[@snuffelsuf]

​@@ryanhursh6322 .. you can read.. Congratulations...blah blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda.. Please stop

[@ryanhursh6322]

@@snuffelsuf You slow in the head or something?