Played Crafted in China Squier Strat Live -Report

Dudes, I played a Squier live last night and it was fabulous. Yes, re-read that previous sentence.

Our drummer bought a used one of FB Marketplace for $125US for his granddaughter and brought it out for me to look at it, I had told him I’d do a setup on it for him. We take a break from playing and he shows it to me. I have no idea who produced it but they did an excellent job. All I know was it said “Crafted in China” in script on the back of the headstock.

Three piece alder body with a very Fender standard poly burst.
Rosewood fretboard, nice frets well finished and polished. Fret ends were, dare I say – perfect.
Back of the neck had a volute which was really cool! It was also sporting a little figuring in the maple. Nice finish, not too flat, not too glossy. It was hot and humid and I didn’t stick to it.
Tuners- meh, not Sperzels but adequate and it stayed in tune. Maybe a hint of backlash.
Nut was perfect and smooth.
Bridge was non-descript but appeared well-built. (Making a Strat bridge isn’t exactly rocket science.)
Overall feel was really, really nice. The neck profile and edges were super comfortable.

Me being me I just plugged it in and played the rest of the night with it. So this is a real-world, live playing report in a band scenario from a working musician.

It was freakin’ GREAT! The pickups had a really nice vintage vibe going. A little bit low on output but clear and did what Strat pickups should. The 2 and 4 positions really sounded about perfect so I’m guessing the middle pup was RW. It took the dirt well and stayed defined with the OD on.

How Good? I offered him money for it on the spot. No deal though.

After sifting through many standard Strats and not finding one and instead buying the PRS John Mayer’s (liking them so far but having to fix little QC issues on them) I would have to grudgingly admit that this Squier was superior to any of the Corona Strats I tried. Which also just goes to show how far FMIC has their head stuffed right now. When a cheap low-cost region import is noticeably better than a “Corona” Strat at 6 times the price something ain’t right.

In the past I have handled Squiers that were basically unplayable, but this one rivaled or exceeded the Cortek Squiers which were pretty darned good instruments IMHO and really great finds if you can score one.

All IMHO, YMMV.
Chuck

Very cool, and a terrific report, Chuck. I have maintained for the past couple of years that both Squier and Epiphone are out-shining their "premium" siblings. My Squier 40th Anniversary Gold Edition Telecaster is every bit as good as my Fender branded ones. Epiphone has some nice models that aren't simply Gibson knock-offs (Sheraton, Zephyr, Crestwood, Wilshire) at price points that won't make most people swallow hard. Their 150th Anniversary Original Models are well worth a look! Many acoustic guitar players I read on other forums prefer the Epiphone Hummingbird over the Gibson! And at $449, it's quite the bargain!


Squier's Sonic™ Stratocasters at $199 for one of three different models also shows how the "little brother" is moving into the "everyday player" space. And I'm all for it!

A friend used to bring his kids' Squier Strats to rehearsals. One was a cheap Affinity that sounded really, really nice! I really liked that guitar. The other was a slightly higher price model and it sounded horrible.