All user reviews for the Fender Stratocaster [1965-1984]

I got this guitar a looooong time ago when I was 6 or 7 and didn't know what was good. I needed a new guitar, I had one, but 1 isn't enough, pretty bad choice I made when I think about it, which I am older and very much experienced and know what sounds good and what is good, and a Squire is not good at all!!!

Wow, don't EVER buy one of these, unless you have a show to play and need a junky guitar to SMASH! They are only good for smashing, they even smash like garbage, but it is always fun to smash guitars! Even for a beginner, you will sound bad as a beginner, but don't make yourself sound even worse by buying a Squire Strat!!! The only thing I like about it is the tremolo. I have a bunch of guitars, Les Pauls, a few Fender Strats and Teles, every JS guitar, and 2 PRS's! My JS's have the locking trems., they are great, the Squire has the junky tremolo, I go crazy with it, break every string, go whammy crazy!!! Then, I end up smashing it!!! I do rip the junky tremolo apart though, when it is used like how I destroy it, it just comes right off!!! The neck snaps too easily, ruins the fun!!!

EVERYTHING!!! The worst pickups!!! The switches and knobs go out very quickly!!! Junk! Junk! Junk! The worst guitar!!! I am sure there are even worse guitars, but this is one of the worst I have ever played!!! The neck snaps too quickly, it ruins the fun too quickly!! You can't be a serious guitarist with a Squire!!!

I won't even fill this in, I will fill up pages on how much a Squire is absolute trash!!! They even break like cheap junk!!!

You can't be takin seriously with a Squire, only fun to smash or destroy!!! Beginners, you will sound bad as a beginner, but don't make yourself sound even worse by getting any Squire guitars!!! I would rate it a -5 if possible, gotta give it a 1, even though it deserves negatives!!!!! But a one for kinda fun to smash on stage!!!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I wanted a guitar with the sound of a stratocaster with a cool color and unbeatable action.I bought this guitar at portland music at beaverton.I paid 1329.00 for it. It came with a tweed case

Ilove the superb playability,fast action.Ilove the sound.It is excellent for the blues. The finish is flawless.Iwill not REGRET THIS CHOICE ONE BIT.

I'm sorry there is nothing wrong with mine?

I WOULD GIVE MY GUITAR A FOUR STAR RATING FOR CONSTRUCTION AND QUALITY.

IF I MADE AS MUCH MONEY AS YNGWIE, I'D OWN A STRING OF THEM

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I was interested in playing the electric guitar alot, i really wanted to learn the electric guitar so i could join a band and become a musician so as a beginner, i was looking for a cheap guitar to start with. I purchased my guitar from Argis and got a great deal for a beginner, it was 200 pounds from Argos included was a lead, a strap, a learners book, CD and VCR and amp.

I liked the look of the guitar, it looked like an old guitar, not in a second hand way it looked 'traditional' like a classic guitar. It isnt too heavy, its pretty light weight. The sound is below average in my oppinion, i think thats what lets the guitar down.

The strings never stay in tune or in place, they always loosen and you always have to retune them. For a beginner this is ok but for a regular band user, this will be really annoying. If you pluck a string a little heavy, the string will vibrate and produce a vibrating noise which isnt very impressive if you are playing infront of an audience.

The guitar has been made pretty well, it could be a little bit lighter. The body is real smooth and the edges are defined well. The shape makes it look like a real classic guitar. The tone changer makes the sound distorted and crackling like and the tuning coils are not sturdy enough and can move out of place if you are moving the guitar fast.

I would advise a beginner to purchase this guitar, but with a better quality amplifier as if you use a less than average amplifier, the sound and tone will be very off putting. The guitar is great for the price and is handy for a beginner. I would advise a person to tune the guitar every day too make sure that they get the ebst tune iof sound.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

i bought this guitar and long and mcQuade for about 400 dollars that with tax in came with the hole nine yards of a starter guitar i started playing guitar about 2 years ago and the guitar is still holding up

This guitar can take a beating it has a beautiful maple neck coverd in rose would. the pick-ups could be better but they are really easy to adjust. no problems with switches or knobs, And the sound is aswome i say its a great deal for a strat for afordable too. that amp the comes with it is a 12 watt fender amp with everything aswome sound.

things i dont like about hmmm... well the pick ups like i said before and screws are hard to replace if you lose them. the input tends to loosen up alot and the wood always gets striped if you play loud from the sound waves frrom the amp on high.

this guitar is built solid. besides wood stripping but then again i also play around with it alot. this guitar is very light unlike gibson whoa i tried those out before crazy



i suggest you should defanetly get this guitar if you are a new comer and later on when you get better just upgrade like i did or buy a new one


This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought a rather fetching 3 tone sunburst squier stratocaster in a starter pack from Sound Control in Birminham, UK. It cost roughly £200, withsaid guitar, a small 10w practice amp, 3 free picks, a tutorial cd and video.

It looks soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sweet.

The first one I got, the tremolo arm cross threaded, and no humbucker, like my mates Fender...

On my new, current one... excellent.

It rules, and I learnt my first solo (AC/DC's You Shook Me All Night Long' on it. 4th position pickup selection sounds best. So I took it back and got it replaced with a newer guitar with a better action and unbelievably good fretboard..? I upgraded! For free!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought this guitar, dig this, at a yard sale for 20 bucks. It was a mess, scuffed up and very dirty, as if it had sat in a damp dusty place for a long time.

I prefer the Squire strats, particularly the Indonesian ones, over the american and Mexican ones, simply because the american and Mexican made ones are of inconsistant quality, and I have never seen an american strat that was either easy to set up or held a setup once you did it. This strat has a rock hard neck that keeps its shape. I set it up twice, once when I cleaned it up (it looks new now, just needed cleaned and buffed out) and then again a couple weeks later (which is how I always set guitars up, if the truss rod needs much adjusting). I set the strings lower than on any strat I have seen, and it does not fret out anywhere. For some reason, it is hard to set american strats up with low action, they tend to have this weird buzz that does not really sound like fret buzz at the 5th -12 fret on the 6th string. This one does not do that, and the fretwork is excellent, I generally need to level and dress the frets on most guitars I aquire. Not this time, or for that matter, with any of the Korean guitars I have bought. They just seem to know how to put frets in right across the water. The only thing I might change on this guitar is the pickguard, which is nice, but only 1 ply, I would like to put a mother- of-toiletseat one on it. The electronics are great, nice and quiet considering it is single coils, and they have that nice strat tone. they are a little hotter and have a little fatter tone than most strats I have played. Hot AND tonal is hard to find.
Also, the tuners are well made, they look like gotohs, and gotohs are the best I have used as far as durability and tuning. gotohs have a high tuning ration, which makes the tuning more precise. Changing strings however, can be a bitch without a winder, being as the ration is higher and you have to turn it more times per wind. big deal. what you get in accuracy is more than what you give up in the tedium of changing the strings.

If I had paid 250 for this guitar, I would still be happy with it. I have been playing for going on 40 years, and this thing is a gem. It sounds right, it plays right, and, impossible for a strat, it stays in tune, all the time. I pick it up and play it, even if the studio has been cold over night, the guitar holds it's tune. THAT is rare.

It is typical strat construction, the body is somewhat heavy for a strat, which, I prefer heavy guitars, they are denser wood and sustain a little better. The fretboard is maple, not sure of what the other woods are, but whatever they are, they are the right choice, they have good tone, and the neck is as steady as if it was made of steel. I have an old framus with a laminated neck that is impossible to change shape, and this neck seems to be like that, it never changes.

I am amazed at the superior quality of guitars in general coming from the far and near east. They must have fantastic quality control, you seldom see a korean, indonesian, chinese or especially japanese guitar that is not precise and well made, and, they are all IDENTICAL, they seem to be all stamped out of a mold made of granite or something, I mean, they are all so close it amazes me. You can pick up ten identical american made guitars up, and every one is different. Not so with those made overseas, I can't figure it out.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought this guitar in Winnipeg, Manitoba at St. Johns Music (Yamaha). I paid about $320 Canadian for it. It was my first guitar.

The sound is great. The tuning knobs are easy to use and are stylish. The 3 pickups work great. The look of the guitar is great but not original :P. 21 frets of goodness. The bridge and saddles are great. The look of the head is not original again but i like it alot. The finish is great! I have a really nice red colour it looks soooo good.

The input hole has a nut on it that always comes loose... but thats normal for guitars that have the same style. The pickup changer knob comes loose pretty easy but not too loose. There was a little bit of buzzing when i first got but when i played around with the saddles a bit it went away sounding great.

The quality of this guitar is great and its durable. I dont think they lacked on the construction in any areas...

Bottom line this guitar is great for pros and amateurs. It is easy and fun to play. Alot better than the Squier P-Bass lol that thing is a piece.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought a fender guitar from my sister where she got it i dont know. I dont know much about it but i think its a japanese. the serial number is E+6 digits or E5+5 digits i dont know! this guitar is awsome. It has huge jumbo frets 2 fender single coils and a double in the back. it sounds amazing and i would sugest it to anyone willing to play a fender. I paid $200 for the guitar 2 pedals a bag, a strap and straplocks.

The guitar is amazing solid and sounds beautiful through my fender stage deluxe 90 amp. It is a great guitar and i havnt had a problem yet.

I dont like the bridge the ste up is a pain. its kinda like a floating bridge and it just makes tuning my guitar a pain. i dont like tha wammy bar and i also dont like the fact that i dont know much about it and i dont know how to find out.

I`m not too sure of the unit itself and what its constructed of because like i said i dont know much about it. Its a metallic green/silver. looks awsome and it could never be replaced with anything else it just has a feel to it!

Fender guitars are awsome and I hope someone could e mail me if you have any info to help me out here. my e-mail Is
chet_f8@hotmail.com
thanx and keep on playin

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I got this guitar at Jasper Music in jasper Indiana. I think i payed about 400 bucks for it and a Champ 15 amp that came with the guitar. I got ripped off because this thing is a piece of crap. The reason i am submiting this review is because no one esle should get ripped of with this hunck of crap.

Ha Ha Ha, like something about a Squier. Who would like something about a Squire?

I dought that they have enough on this web page for me to list all the things i dont like about this guitar, so i'll just keep it short. The pickups buzz louder than a jet engin. The volume knob is preaty much an on/off switch because the volume dosn't change frome 2-9 or so. The tone knobs are basically just there, taking up space because they dont do anything. The pickup switch is just taking up space also because, there is no difference in tonal qualities between the two extemes. This guitar has 3 pickups but only needs one because they dont sound any different. The thing has absolutly no sustane. To play any rock you must keep picking the strings untill your hand falls off. The sound is horrible. A piece on twine tied around both ends of a 2x4 with a microphone duct-taped in the middle would sound better. If
you blew hard on the wammy bar it would probably go out of tune. Saurry that was about as short as i could possibly make the list of dislikes

The constructon is better than the sound but ultimatly crap. If you touch the wammy bar i think it might fall off. I am supprised this thing didn't fall appart as soon as i took it out of the box. I have seen guitars in the toy ile in wallmart that looked more sturdy.

No offense to any Squire owners but you couldn't find a bigger log of crap in a Wallmart restroom. I am subbmitting this review in hopes that knowone else will make the same mistake i did of buying something like this. Trust me just save your money for a little longer and buy a quality guitar that you will be proud of. If there was a choice of giving this guitar a rating of below 1 i would do it.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I was walking though my neighbourhood when i saw that a guy down the road was having some kind of garage sale. I had a look and saw he was selling a strat! This was in standard form and in good condition. But this wasn't any old strat according to the owner. This was a guitar signed by some weird rock player i had never heard of and he was asking $600 for it. I said to him i aint payin 600 for some shitty strat, he asked me if i was questioning his authority so i poked him the eye. He looked pretty pissed so i decided to split, not empty handed though, i managed to take it before he could open his eye again! As i ran i fell over and dropped the strat. Shit! I picked it up and took it home hoping it was alright.

When i got home i plugged it in to my amp. I had an amp but no guitar? No i had Les Paul custom before but it suked after i threw it out of the window in a blind rage. The Fender sang to me then i got pissed of coz its volume switch wouldnt budge. I pulled it off in a sort of "turn you mutha fuka!" I then went from bad to worse by dropping again on the floor. I piked it up and yes it woz screwed ladies and gentlemen.

It was pretty damn nice for the first minute of its short life with me. But because it didnt withstand my accident prone mishaps, this guitar is a worthless lump of shit that i shitted out last week.

Can i just say a guitar that shatters into little pieces on tiny impact should be pissed on set alite and used as a satanic weapon of war.

Its short lived experience with me sucked!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought this guitar about 8 months ago from Music-Go-Round for 104 dollars with tax. never owning an electric i decided to make a small investment first.

The Price, for a hundred bucks i dont think i could have gotten a better deal on a brand new guitar. The quality is better than i expected for one hundred dollars and the color is nice. I havent had any problems with it, no adjustments needed to be made, the tremelo was perfect and it has nice action, it could use a little adjustment but its not worth the hassle. Its also pretty light compared to all the guitars my friends play. Plugged in it sounds decent both distorted and clean.

THe knob where i plug my chord in constantly becomes loose and needs to be tightened. THats the only real complaint i have.

Construction seems pretty sound. The quality is about on par for the price. It does feel cheap. A hundred dollar guitar isnt going to feel like a Fender or Gibson. The Reynolds has yet to let me down so far. Nothing has broken and the sound isn't bad. The strings seem to stay in tune fairly well, it usually takes some beating to get them out of tune, everythign seems pretty tight except for the chord plug in. Its held up quite nicely, i haven't been super carefull with it either so its taken some beating.

If your looking to just start up with a guitar, or want to play an electric but dont want to make any big investment you cant really go wrong with this guitar. Just dont come in expecting to buy something that can compete with a higher end model. You cant really expect to get anything more than a basic guitar for one hundred dollars. All in all the Reynolds knows its role and gets the job done and once you move on to bigger and better things you can smash it. I give it a five for a beginner guitar. I'm not comparing it to higher end guitars.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com