Fender Squier '51

With the humbucker splitting and what not, it had different sound options. Most sucked though.

Sounds good, with both pups on and the humbucker split, sounded "hendrixy". At least that's what other people told me. I guess I'd agree. Sounds okay, didn't like any other settings, that was the only pup setting that sounded good. I guess for that one good sound I give it a high rating.

The first one I had I ended up giving away. The second one was horrid. Action sucked, but no biggie, cuz that can be fixed. What was really bad was that the neck swelled or shrunk with the seasons. My good guitar never did that. The 51 got so bad at times that If i pulled the high e string off the neck, it would catch under the frets and just stay put. The body was better though, otherwise it would get a 1.

I would not use this ever on stage unless I replaced the tuners and the neck wasn't shrunk. I found that it was playable during the summer months. So I would only play it during the summer and with good tuners.

Well I am actually really glad I had this guitar. It was actually given to me as a gift and I was able to take it to a music store and trade it straight up for a crybaby 535 chrome with an ac adapter, so that was a good deal for me. No more buying crappy guitars thinking that I can mod them when I am not skilled in that area. lol At least now I have a sweet looking chrome pedal that I use every time I play.

if you own one you no the features . if not you can find them on this site easy enough.unless it has been modded and if you did not do the mod good luck! only down side not realy no tone controle o well no biggie

wonderfull!!!!!! the sound is great at 3 or 4 times the price .i myself own 14 guitars .some of the best fender and gibson have to offer as well as cheaper models. the sound is on par with guitars iv paied well over 1ooo.oo bucks for.blues rock country alt it is suted well for all. cant say that about most guitars.i play all kinds

i own 2 51ns blond and burst .both are perfect dead nuts buitefull guitars.quick board!!!!!!! maple 1 piece neck on both are ausome.wish my les paul had this neck .enough said.please set up your guitar or have it done on all guitars not just cheap ones

gig with it you wont b disapointed. built like a ship stays in tune good out of the box.

dont no

been playen bout 26 or 27 years so it took a while be for i would make a opinion on any guitar . much less a squier .i found my burst in a pawn shop looken for a beater trust me this is not a beater guitar .that was the first 51 i owned .that changed my mind about the 51 . i wish it said fender on the head stock it disurves it much moor than some of the fenders i own. the blond is o my god good looken dripping vintage vibe and sound .if you dont own one get one if you do get another and mod it . i like the stock sound though

Slab wood strat style body with a maple / maple tele style neck, 21 frets. One single coil and one humbucker wired though a coil tap volume with a rotary three way switch. Generic sealed tuners and top loading hard tail strat bridge. Nice mix of everything I like about teles and strats.

So, the pickups are weak and a little thin but they are chimey and clean. I would say there's room for improvement, but I wouldn't rip the pups out right away. The stock pickups are actually pretty well matched and there are some interesting sounds unique to this setup. Very versatile without just being a strat or tele clone. It just lacks the depth and character of a nicer set of pups. If you don't want to spend as much on that as you did the guitar, just leave it alone.

Ugh. That's all I can say about how these came out of the box. And I should mention I've seen a fair number of these for sale used with the original "adjustments". Like that last one I bought. Had to adjust intonation, shim the neck, adjust the truss rod, adjust saddle height and put graphite on the nut. With all that though, the parts are good and if you can put some TLC in, you've got a deal. Frets are good for a sub $500 instrument and the finish looks nice.

Total tank. My last one had been abused by a previous owner, and after some elbow grease, looks nice again. If you had to gig without a backup, you could do a lot worse. Fixed bridge means no tuning issues, simple electronics means plug in and go.

No official support for this one, but there's a huge group of players in online forums specific to this guitar

Pickups and stock setup lack excitement, but I sold my first one and almost immediately wished I hadn't. I had to get another one of courseWith some tweaking it's a competent and reliable tool.

I BOUGHT 2 OF THESE WHEN THEY WERE STILL OUT THERE FOR SALE NEW. NOW, BEFORE I GET GOING LET ME SAY I'VE OWNED HUNDREDS OF GUITARS OVER THE 39 YEARS I'VE BEEN PLAYING, AND LOT'S OF 'EM HAVE BEEN VERY COOL VINTAGE FENDERS, GIBSONS, PLUS LOT'S OF REISSUE TYPES AND MODDED THEM WITH S.D. P/UPS ETC. ETC. THE SQUIER '51 WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST GUITARS I'VE OWNED IE:THE NECK SHAPE, PICKUPS, ALMOST EVERYTHING I CAN THINK OF...WHY THE HECK DID THEY STOP MAKING 'EM?
PRICE POINT ETC. THIS ONE WAS A REAL WINNER, WERE THEY NOT SELLING WELL? WHAT? WHAT?
I REALIZE THEY PROBABLY WERE'NT GREAT MONEY MAKERS CONSIDERING THE PRICE PRODUCED TOO LITTLE PROFIT, BUT YOU'D THINK FENDER WOULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING. MAYBE THEY WERE PRODUCED AS A LOSS LEADER TO GET BEGINNERS AND NON-FENDER PLAYERS STARTED ON THEY'RE PRODUCTS.

IF ANYONE KNOWS THE STORY BEHIND THE DEMISE OF THESE GREAT LIL' BARGAINS... PLEASE POST!
I THINK THE FUTURE WILL TREAT THESE THE SAME WAY IT DID THE OLD LES PAUL JR.S, FIREBIRD 1'S & MELODY MAKERS.
I HOPE SO, THEY CERTAINLY DESERVE IT!

AMAZING SOUND AND INNOVATION FOR A GUITAR IN THIS PRICE POINT

THE NECK ON ONE OF MINE WAS WARPED AND THE TRUSS ROD WAS ABOUT AT THE END OF IT'S ADJUSTMENT POINT. FRETS A LITTLE ROUGH ON THE ENDS ...BUT COME ON WERE TALKIN' $120 BUCKS HERE...
SOME BASIC INTON.AND ACTION ADJUSTMENT AT THE BRIDGE BUT NOTHING YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TO TO DO ON ANY GUITAR REGARDLESS OF PRICE.

BUT ONCE AGAIN...$120 BUCKS
ONE OF THE SOLDIER JOINTS WAS A LITTLE LOSE BUT EASILY FIXED
BUT ONCE AGAIN...$120 BUCKS
ALL THAT CONSIDERED WHAT A DEAL!

READ FIRST PARAGRAPH

- Black finish, basswood Strat body, Tele neck, white '51 Precision Bass style pick guard and control plate, Tele vol./tone knobs.
- Hardtail bridge.
- Satin finished maple neck/fret board, 25 1/2" scale, 21 med. frets.
- Squire tuners.
- One volume knob (has push pull pot for coil split), and one 3-way position pickup selector knob.
- Bridge humbucker and strat neck pickup.

I'm 27, and I play "vintage" blues/rock, 60's-70's hard rock, psycedellic, and traditional blues style music. The music I play has the utmost scrutiny based on absolute vintage tone. I bought the first production-run of this guitar when they first came out in late-2004. I saw a Guitar Player review on the Squire '51 and thought that it looked really cool/unique, and the price was dirt cheap, so I decided to buy one. And since that time, this little wonder has just about ruled the roost! That is quite an accomplishment considering the vintatge gear I own that it's up against: a 1965 SG Standard, 1968 SG Standard w/$300 custom wound Wolftone Marshall Head PU's, 1966 Gibson Firebird I w/P-90's, and a 1966 Fender Mustang for slide work. When I bought this guitar I thought I would swap it out with some wicked custom PU's, but not so. I plugged it in and this guitar surprised the hell out of me! I knew I had something good when the first time I played this guitar in a club, some guy came up to be and offered me $500 for my guitar! This thing is all about the bridge humbucker for me, (more on the neck PU in a minute). It has a delicious amount of woody bark, power and zing that is fantastic through a Top Boost AC-30. Roll back the vol. control while pushing this thing through a 50W Marshall and there is an organic, tactile quality that is so hard to find on non-vintage guitars, but this guitar nails it! One other great tone is through my friend's 1969 200W Marshall Major (he lives in the woods). This guitar served up cut, slice, and seriously nasty, explosive, gut wrenching tone. Lay down your best lick and behold the nuclear fallout! This thing can kick ass and taking names. Since there is no tone control, the humbucker can tear your head off with the guitar's vol. all the way up, but turn the vol. down a little bit and the tone settles beautifully. The vol. control also has a the best tonal sweep I've heard on ANY guitar. Crank the hell out of a Marshall, then turn the vol. knob all the way down to "1" or even below, and the tone stays the EXACT same, just at really low volume without ANY roll off in treble or tone. Nothing! I haven't heard that in ANY guitar regardless of price. The coil tap feature can be good for a drop from humbucker mode to single coil without a terrible loss in the humbucker's sound quality, but the humbucker is where it's at. The middle positions can be good for clanky pop style sounds or for slippery slide tones. The strat style neck PU is not as good as the bridge tones, but are still good and usable. You can get decent Robin Trower/SRV smoky and dusky tones for good laid back blues soloing. There is also a good amount of percussive punch to single notes that can sustain forever with the right amp.

Set up from the factory was fairly good considering it was a first production-run guitar. Some complaints would be; slight prickliness on a few fret ends, the bridge needed minor hight & radius adjustments, and the strat neck PU does'nt have hight adjustment screws. The overall fit and finish is very surprising; the neck contour is extremely comfortable, going from a soft-v at the nut to slim & round near the heel, the satin finished maple neck also feels amazing, the black paint is impeccablly gem like in appearance and doesn't feel too thickly applied, all parts are solidly fastened, there aren't any gaps between the pickguard, the chrome control plate or the bridge, and the neck joint and pickguard area is extremely tight, no gaps whatsoever, you can't even slip a piece of paper into the neck pocket!

Structurally this guitar is as giggable as any high end Fender I've ever played, with note to a couple things though; the supplied tuners are cheap and are a good candidate for replacement, and as good as the volume pot is, it feels a little light duty (hope I never have to replace it).

My favorite feature is that humbucker. I'm tellin' ya', if Leo Fender had been the one who invented the PAF, this is what his would have sounded like. The only feature I wish this guitar had is a tone control. I'm thinking of buying another one and installing a 16 position ToneStyler tone pot for even more flexibility. Bottom line; if you're looking for vintage lead humbucking tones, steal one from your mother if you have to. I've been playing for 15 years and some of my vintage gear has changed from time to time, but this guitar will stay with me to my grave! I think I'll start hoarding these babies!

Everyone know the pickup config and controls. Black finish. The last one left at my GC (59.00 Memorial Day event!). I chucked the pickguard, slapped a Batman emblem on it, re-strung w/ 11's. Fret edges were a tad rough (not as bad as everyone else says), cleaned 'em up a little and went straight to a gig. Neck alone is nicer than on my Deluxe Power Strat.

'Bucker screams through my Vox AD50VT, very SRV-ish on the neck, nice Tele vibe with the bucker split and middle position. I may drop in a 70's Duncan Strat p/u I have just for grins and see what happens. For what you get for your $ I wish they had 2 of 'em, woulda bought 4 if I could have. A tad harsh but a slight rolloff on the vol takes care of that. I play covers and use this for our dropped -D stuff with high gain amp models and it kills!

Set up fairly well (i used to work at that GC, I am guessing this was straight out of the box, but had been on the floor for a while), but action height was perfect no buzz after the 11's. Did I mention the neck is worth 3 times what I paid for the whole thing.

Seems like a tank. I beat the hell out of it w/ minimal tuning issues.

59 + tax? Holy Moley! I would replace it in a heartbeat (I doubt we will find any for that price again, probably will increase in value collector-wise, I understand they have been discontinued.

Amazing. Its truly like 6 freakin guitars in 1

The tone and tonal range out of this guitar is just insane. I have 6 other guitars and since this one arrived I cant seem to play anything else.

For under $250. Thats alot of fun.

Needed to have the intonation set. No sharp frets, all good.

Solid as a rock it would appear.

Havent used it yet so ill give them the benefit of the doubt.

The features and playability of this guitar do not in any way matchup with its price point. I know why Fender discontinued them was because they probably were'nt profitable enough and its a unique guitar. Perfect cross between Telecaster and Stratocaster.

The Coil Tap was a brillian addition. Easily plays as good as any of my $600-800 guitars but costs less than 1/3 the price. My prediction, these will be on Ebay for $350-400 each by 2009.

Got this one with a black finish, white p-bass pickguard, strat body and a maple tele neck. It's a hard tail with 21 frets a great sounding S/H pickup set, with push pull volume and tone, with a three way knob pickup selector. It was love at first sight!

I like to tinker in rock,garage, surf, hard rock, metal, and wherever else my mood takes me, and this thing is good for whatever I throw at it! Through my fender ultra chorus, it can play with a tele style grit on clean, or you can turn the knob to play soft blues. The high notes soar on this thing! I love hearing the different tonal possibilities through the axe!

I bought a floor model, so I bought it in great playing shape, and it was new at the time so I must have been the 3rd or 4th person to try it out. I haven't needed to adjust anything yet, so far, so good.

I actually would think the guitar can stand up to gigging. The finish was yet to have shown any chipping after a good 2 years, the buttons never came loose, but I'm not the giiging player. I would definitely have a backup, actually, a second '51 for the price!

No need

I've been playing rock, blues, and metal for 6 years. I was looking for a tele sound, a strat sound, a humbucker sound, and a good range of tones. I got all of it in one shot without burning a hole through my pocket. It's a no brainer!

a late model sunburst ,bought just a few weeks ago from Fret Music on Ebay.no mods needed

the sound suits me perfectly as I play country ,electric and acoustic style blues and spome soft jazz .I use a Marshall ministack or a peavey backstage and sometimes a Danelecto reverb pedal .I like to play clean ,no overdrive .
I love the sound this guitar makes especially on single coil tap .though there is no tone control its very responsive to style and I find the lack of a tone control no problem ..It has a real fender tone.gets agreat Hank Marvin tone on reverb .I used to own a JV strat and this guitar sounds like a cross between a tele and a strat .I prefer it to my Aerodyne Tele.unbelievably the AERODYNE HAS MORE BUZZY FRETS,THOUGH STILL A LOVELY GUITAR

Amazingly ,no problems at all .I took the guitar out of the box ,plugged it in and it was perfect .,no intonation problems ,no buzz and all in tune .no bad fret work and a dream like neck .This is the guitar I always dreamed of owning and my wife and daughter immediatly told me I played better and sounded far better on it .it really does vibe .I was expecting crap and got an angel.Typical noisy pickups but of course ...its a fender and thats what it shoul;d say on the headstock .I've played Fenders that deserved the name far less.

replaced the srap buttons with Schaller locking Finish is Poly but not oversure its really possible to tell the difference sound wise.no-one would respray a vintage Fender with Poly but horses for courses . Nitro never really dries .it just keeps movin .My gigging days are over but it looks like it would last .You should always have a backup electric on any gig .

never tried it ,I should imagine useless.

played pre Beatles in UK school bands then went acoustic before stopping playing for 18 odd years,then joined a local country band but cannot stand brits in cowboy hats so stopped again until last year.I have improved vastly and should have stuck with it but the life on the road in the 60's wasnt all it was cracked up to be and neither were the girls,all......totally boring .now regained my voice and practicing jazz.great fun

Features have been covered by other reviewers. I got the blonde finish with the black pickguard and pickups--nice look!

This guitar has a great range of tones, all very clear and bright. I love the sound of the neck pickup for clean pop and blues sounds--sounds great with a touch of chorus, some delay, and a little reverb. The neck humbucker can sound annoyingly sharp without some bottom to the tone, but it has a lot of character for classic rock sounds; it has caused me to revisit a few Hendrix tunes, where I'm finding a lot of inspiration. (I use it with my Line 6 Spider 112 on the "Crunch" setting.)

As others have noted, these guitars tend to come without anything close to a proper set-up, which makes it problematic to purchase them online instead of from a reputable retailer. To make mine play in tune with decent action, I had to tweak the truss rod, adjust the intonation at the bridge, lower the bridge, file down the string slots in the nut, tighten the tuners and string trees (and just about everything else), and adjust the pickup heights (you have to remove the pickguard to adjust the neck pickup, which is a little irksome). A novice who doesn't know how to do these things would probably feel very disillusioned! I also noted some rough edges on some of the frets, which is a common malady in southeast-Asian Squiers, but not bad enough to make me break out the file. Otherwise, the finish on the body and neck is fine.

For $100, you can't really go wrong. My experience with Squiers has been that you get 90% of what you get with a top-line Fender, but at 20% (10% in the case of the '51) of the price. As an avid hobbyist, I probably won't ever feel compelled to pay the extra 80% to get the incremental 10% in features and quality. I care a lot about value, which is why I like Squiers, and my '51 stands right up there with my Squier II Strat and my Affinity Tele.