GrumpyRocker

I've just completed my little Squier Bullet project. I've used this cheapo Strat to learn the basics of guitar modification as it's not something I've really done before. I'm quite happy with the resulting cheap yet good sounding guitar.

It was a regular SSS guitar when I bought it. I replaced with the pickguard with one that's cut for a humbucker and the bridge. The pickups are all from IronGear - two single coil Pig Iron models with a Rolling Mill humbucker.

The trem is a Wilkinson model with the solid steel block - this along with the addition of a graphite nut have worked wonders for tone and tuning.

So that's that done. No really major work - I've not had to modify the wood as thankfully Squier had already routed the body for a HSS pickup layout already. I'm not going to go further with a new neck or tuners of anything like that. But I'm very happy with the result.

For the guitarist keen on replacing pickups on their electric guitar there are a wealth of choices. Well known names such as Seymour Duncan and EMG are hugely popular with musicians looking to improve their instruments.

However many of this pickups can be very expensive and if you're working on a budget, or trying to improve a cheap stock guitar these pups can seem like overkill. Is it really worth putting £200 of active pickups in a £100 guitar?

What's needed in cases such as these is a range of pickups that vastly improve on the tone of cheap stock pickups yet at the same time doesn't break the bank. Such pickups do exist and some of the best are made by IronGear.

In my review of the Peavey Vypyr 75 I pointed out that to get the full functionality of the amplifier you would need one of the two Sanpera pedals. The larger and more feature rich version - the Sanpera II - is the feature of this review.

The pedal board is housed in a sturdy metal chassis that feels like it could cope with some hard gigging. The two expression pedals also feel tough and all the foot switches are solid. It certainly seems a sturdier system than one might imagine at this pricepoint and the build belies the slight silliness of the design.

While the Vypyr allows you to store and recall 12 presets, adding the Sanpera II opens that up to 400 presets. The Sanpera also opens up the functionality of the looper and gies you pedal control over volume, pitch shift and wah.

The looper functionality is somewhat disappointing but Peavey has promised to address this in the next firmware update for the amp. The problem is that the loop always play back too loud, even almost muting it via the volume pedal while recording is not ideal. This isn't an actual problem with the Sanpera II though, and the pedal controls for recording/play and stop/reset work perfectly well.

So to do the other pedals which allow you to change the delay tap tempo, move memory banks up and down, and choose from one to four presets in each bank. Pushing forward on the volume pedal allows you to enter tuner mode. The other pedal is initially inactive but pressing down on it enables the wah, or pitch shifter if that's what you've selected via the amp effects section.