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King Loudness « Cool fat strat »
Published on 12/30/11 at 08:44The Squier Vintage Modified Fat Strat is another design that is based on a "modified" guitar. For many years people took their Fender Strats and put humbuckers in the bridge position to fatten up the tone for rock music. This guitar pays homage to that in a modern and affordable format. It's got an Indian Cedro body, a maple neck with rosewood fretboard and 21 frets, standard chrome tuners, a 6 screw fulcrum tremolo unit and three Duncan Designed pickups. Two are single coils, and in the bridge there is a hotter humbucker, reminiscent of the hotter pickups that were installed in many Strats in the seventies and eighties. It's basically like a typical Strat that's had a high output humbucker installed in the bridge position for some real raunch, much like was done back in the day.
UTILIZATION
The design of this guitar is reasonably ergonomic. I found this model to be a bit heavier weight wise than I would've liked or expected in a Strat, so it might not be my first choice for a live guitar. That being said the contouring is a nice thing to have, and the neck has a good satin finish. The fret ends could use a little work, but they weren't as bad as some of the other Squiers I've tried. The upper fret access is as good as it's going to get for an unaltered 4 bolt neck joint.
SOUNDS
The tones out of this guitar were pretty cool. The pickups Squier are getting from Duncan seem to be hit or miss, but this guitar makes good use of them. The single coils are nice and jangly sounding as a Fender should be. The neck pickup in particular has a nice bell-like chime to it that I found really excelled through a clean amplifier. The stock humbucker is definitely hotter than the other pickups and works best when used with a bit of drive for classic or hard rock tones. It has a nice bite to it and is surprising given the price. Overall I think the guitar is great sounding but leans towards sounding better for drive tones just because of the humbucker that is used here.
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I think the Squier Vintage Modified Fat Strat is a great deal for someone looking for a reasonably priced fat strat that can really rock for not a lot of cash. The gun metal finish is really cool, the feel is nice and slick, and the tones have a lot of punch to them. The quality control isn't 100% up to par, but with a bit of minor work setup wise, you could have yourself a truly cool tricked out Strat that would really scream.
UTILIZATION
The design of this guitar is reasonably ergonomic. I found this model to be a bit heavier weight wise than I would've liked or expected in a Strat, so it might not be my first choice for a live guitar. That being said the contouring is a nice thing to have, and the neck has a good satin finish. The fret ends could use a little work, but they weren't as bad as some of the other Squiers I've tried. The upper fret access is as good as it's going to get for an unaltered 4 bolt neck joint.
SOUNDS
The tones out of this guitar were pretty cool. The pickups Squier are getting from Duncan seem to be hit or miss, but this guitar makes good use of them. The single coils are nice and jangly sounding as a Fender should be. The neck pickup in particular has a nice bell-like chime to it that I found really excelled through a clean amplifier. The stock humbucker is definitely hotter than the other pickups and works best when used with a bit of drive for classic or hard rock tones. It has a nice bite to it and is surprising given the price. Overall I think the guitar is great sounding but leans towards sounding better for drive tones just because of the humbucker that is used here.
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I think the Squier Vintage Modified Fat Strat is a great deal for someone looking for a reasonably priced fat strat that can really rock for not a lot of cash. The gun metal finish is really cool, the feel is nice and slick, and the tones have a lot of punch to them. The quality control isn't 100% up to par, but with a bit of minor work setup wise, you could have yourself a truly cool tricked out Strat that would really scream.