Vintage Modified Strat Review

Squier’s Vintage Modified Strat guitar incorporates the best of classic Fender® styling and some flashy finishes.

Features:	8.5
Sound:	9
Action:	7.5
Reliability:	8.5
Impression:	8.5
Overall rating:	8.4
Users rating:	7.1
Comments:	15

Featured review by: unregistered, on july 16, 2009

Price paid: $ 290

Features: My guitar was made in India last year(2008). Have 21 medium jumbo frets. Have maple neck and rosewood fretboard. Mine is in Metallic Red finish. Pickups are 3 Duncan Design SC-101 single coils. Have Vintage style synchronous tremolo bridge. No accessories included.

Unique features:
Vintage Style Tremolo,
Custom Pickguards by Color,
Gold and Black Squier Logo,
Engraved Neckplate,
White Plastic Parts,
Dot Position Inlays // 9

Sound: I play mostly blues, heavy rock, pop rock to metal. I run it through a Fender Pro Junior. It suits perfectly my style. And according to other reviews from other websites, this is the closest Squier Strat to a Fender Mexican Strat when it comes to the finish, sound and features. This guitar is good for blues to hard rock and can do good for metal also. // 10

Action, Fit & Finish: The guitar was setup perfectly. The action was setup according to my needs. The guitar doesn't have any flaws. My only claim is that it doesn't include any accessories but overall it is a very nice guitar. The pickguard is nice. It is not heavy nor light. Its weight is just average like most of the strats. // 9

Reliability & Durability: The finish will last for years. Maybe best if you try to replace the tuners with locking tuners. And it will withstand Live playing because I have already tried that during my recital at the auditorium at my school. I will use it with a backup in case of broken strings. // 10

Impression: Overall, this is a good guitar for the price. As I said, it matched The Music I play. If it were stolen or lost, definitely I will buy a new one. I love the finish especially the color of the pickguard, it matched the color of the body. What I only hate is that it doesn't have any accessories.I wish Fender make all of their strats with locking tuners and also strap locks, not just cheap strap buttons. // 9

overall: 7.4

Reviewed by: SquierLolz, on july 21, 2009

Price paid: € 330

Purchased from: Local Store

Features: This Squier, Made in 2007 in Indonesia, Is quite the nice one. The finish is called "Gun Metal Grey" Which is Basicly a Metallic Grey. It's H-S-S With Duncan Designed Pickups, The singles are hum-cancelling. The control set-up is 1 Volume and 2 Tone knobs, The Volume is a Master volume. The bottom Tone knob controls the middle single coil and the middle Tone knob controls the neck single coil, this means there is no tone control over the bridge. For me not a big deal but for some it may be.

It's made of Indian Cedar wood which is not exactly the best tonewood there is. The neck is maple, Mine has a little bit of flame too it. It has a rosewood fretboard with 21 medium-jumbo frets. It has a Vintage style 6 screw Strat trem which is very unstable so I blocked it off. // 8

Sound: I myself play a lot of metal but I also like to play some rock and blues from time to time. For metal I let my Squier rest on it's stand, It can handle it beautyfully, but I prefer my Ibanez for this stuff. For rock and blues my Squier gets a lot of playtime, it's simply made for it.

I'm gonna talk about every pickup one-by-one.

Bridge: this Duncan Designed Humbucker is VERY bright, It's best to roll of some treble using it. A tone control for this pickup would be nice.

Middle: this Single coil has lower output then the one installed in the neck, I switched it around because I like low output in the neck for a smooth and warm sound, which this pickup handles quite well while retaining the Strat Twang.

Neck: Higher output then the middle, Sounds brighter and more snappier also, I chose to put this pickup in the middle for some bright funk-twang. // 8

Action, Fit & Finish: The Factory set up on this guitar was alright, The action was pretty high but that was easily fixed with the allen key provided with the guitar. It intonates well and the frets are level.

The finish is Thick, but by playing and gigging it wore away where my arm rests on the body, but i have pretty agressive sweat.

The neck pocket is Tight, I once took the neck off and had to apply some force to get it back in. // 6

Reliability & Durability: Will this guitar play Live gigs? Yes, Just make sure that the input jack doesn't come loose and it doesn't fall off the strap. It's pretty dependable but I won't gig without a backup, Simply because a string break is in a small corner. Like I said before, The finish is good enough but will wear over-time. // 7

Impression: For what I play it's an alright match, Not the best but it handles everything wel. I've been playing for 3 and a half years now and have owned this guitar for the last 2 of 'm, I own 3 other guitars but still find myself picking this one up regulary. What I wish I had asked before I got it? "can I have two of these?"

It's simply a comfortable guitar with not too fancy looks. I compared it to a Squier VM Jagmaster and an Epiphone G-400, This one played better then both of them.

I wish it had a tone control for the bridge but that's all really. // 8

Comments

[cws92]

I had a Squire in the early '90's and it sounded good when it stayed in tune (not often).

[I am punk "BF"]

it looks nice

[bagpipemetal]

For some reason People hate Squiers when their actually very good for their price.

[doive]

I love that it features "white plastic parts" - i wasn't going to buy one until i saw it had these!

[edgeyyz]

bagpipemetal wrote:

For some reason People hate Squiers when their actually very good for their price.

Some of them are, but most of them are garbage. They're only good as beginning guitars. Their basses are a lot better than their guitars quality-wise.

[Seref]

Squiers are a good investment if you are just starting and it is your first electric guitar. Anything else would be a waste and the money would be better spent elsewhere. But they are pretty decent guitars for the price.

[DavidsonTFP]

I have a Squier and it's junk. it'll be the last time I ever drink Captain Morgan and take my Dean ML X to a local pawn shop.

[Mr.brownstone93]

I have this guitar in 3 tone sunburst, I didn't like most squiers I tryed, but this one plays like a mexican strat. It has one of the most bluesy tones I've heart from a strat

[saint_berzerker]

There's no sense in buying a Squire anymore. Back 15-20 years ago that's all there was for beginners. But...it is good that they make them with Basswood instead of plywood like the one I used to have. Guitars have gotten so cheap, price-wise now, you can save a couple hundred more and get a real player.

[KurdtStaley]

yeah i have the same model, same finish as the one reviewed red with red mother of pearl pick guard. I think the sound quality is pretty damn good, and i don't have any real problems with it going out of tune. if i tune it and play for two hours, it might falter a little, but it definitely won't be very noticeable. Nothing will detune to a half step, not even close to that.

i think the tone is pretty decent. probably about the same as a mexican strat. i think people are pretty full of shit, egotistical losers who automatically assume that any expensive guitar is far superior in tone to a cheaper one. that's not really the case. why would something be better assembled in the US? because then you have piece of shit lazy ass US citizens assembling it? baahahahaahahah i bet the sweat shops in south east asia make better shit. i'm being kind of sarcastic, but the people of india are definetly more competent than spoiled lazy american's.

anyways just my two cents, def a great value guitar.

but ugh would someone like to explain the reasoning behind an american guitar having better tone? I'd love to hear it... unless the electronics are different, or it has other parts that are better quality i guarantee there is no difference from the shit produced here to the stuff coming from else where. aside from maybe shipping, but if it's not damaged when you buy it, then obviously it didn't get hurt at all from shipping it.

I think there's just a placebo effect where people connotate price with quality when it's in fact not true. Fender's robbing all the egotistical losers blind while they pay $2000 when they could get an identical model for $500.

[retka]

I agree that expensive guitars aren't always a good deal. I just picked up an Sx Custom Handmade Vintage Series Stratocaster. It was only $200 used.

The body of the guitar has great tone and rivals that of a mid-priced Fender Strat. The pickups are decent but I will eventually end up replacing them with something from the "Fender Custom Shop" line. Plus the guitar has a very nice Licensed Floyd Rose tremelo with locking nut.

Anyway point being, you can achieve a great sound and tone by just being smart, not purchasing the first guitar you see, and being open to the idea that "Yes, those small and cheaper brands like Sx, Squire, Epiphone, etc. are not as cheap as you think they are." With a little tweaking, that "kid guitar" can sound perfect just by upgrading electronics and such.

[hellswarrior93]

that is one nice strat

[rancidryan]

Unique features:
Vintage Style Tremolo,
Custom Pickguards by Color,
Gold and Black Squier Logo,
Engraved Neckplate,
White Plastic Parts,
Dot Position Inlays /

i have never seen another guitar with these features like EVER!

[IXGibsonXI]

they're nice guitars but they never stay in tune and theyre kinda beginner guitars. and for almost 300$?! thats dumb, you can save up like 100 more and get a really good guitar

[limpidgreen345]

rancidryan wrote:

Unique features:
Vintage Style Tremolo,
Custom Pickguards by Color,
Gold and Black Squier Logo,
Engraved Neckplate,
White Plastic Parts,
Dot Position Inlays /

i have never seen another guitar with these features like EVER!

What makes this one special is that you can also attach up to six thin metal wires to the front of the guitar.