Fender Squier 51

sunburst, maple neck. added a SH11 custom custom (big!), and a fender tele alnico, and tele deluxe "hat" knobs. looks nice.

Great value for the price. I wanted a cheap guitar to carry around and make some modifications. Very flexible guitar. The rotary selector is a cost saving and is not convenient. Plug it into good pedals and a Blues junior. Stock pick-ups are really better than the competition in that price bracket. Neck is surprisingly good,and playability is fair enough. I swapped the pick-ups for a SH11 and a tele alnico, and now it is a killer guitar.

Nice finish,nice sunburst colour. set up was ok, but as I fitted bigger strings it took time to set up, as the tuners and bridge are really crap. So is the tuning stability so you really must know how to fit strings properly. I drop a dose of grease under the string tree, and then the stability is ok.

it is a second or third guitar, a nice back-up but not a main axe as the tuning stability is not ensured. Electronics cavity is a mess, soldering might have been performed by lumberjacks, so problems may appear after a couple of months of use and shocks

played for 13 years, owned cheap and high-end guitars, this one is fair enough for the price, and very polyvalent; A beginner would love it, but an experienced player can also have fun with it. Great base for customising, even if the stocks features are good.

Strat body, tele neck, one single coil, one splittable humbucker, a push-pull volume knob and a 5-way switch knob. No tone control.

It sounds good, really. The neck pickup is bassy in a cool way in my opinion, very nice round cleans and almost PAF-like in overdrive (seriously, you can play have a sound close to AC/DC with it). The humbucker is awesome, it's worth the price of the guitar. High gain in humbucker mode, very naughty overdrive (more than my Gibson 498T at same OD level), metal and shred is totally ok with it but it shines even better in alt rock and punk in my opinion, a very unique sound. The split mode is really great, twangy and tele-like, nice cleans too and nasty single coil OD, a bit shrill though sometimes. Best position: neck and split HB toogether ??? the sound is awesome in clean and crunch!

I put a 10, great sound for very low bucks: what more do you want?! I'd record with it, very versatile with its 5 pickup positions.
Read bellow for the pickup set-up.

The finish is really great on mine (blonde with black pickguard). The paint job is awesome, even the pickup cavities are really nice and painted. The neck is perfectly adjusted to the body. The neck is awesome to play, pure heaven, really. It will have a nice patina in a few years too.

But, you MUST set-up your guitar. It has LOTs of potential but you can't expect Squier to do a great set-up job for this price. So first the pickups are not properly adjusted, you must unscrew the pickguard to access the screws for the single coil. As the guitar has no tone knob, you might want to adjust the pickups lower on the highs than on the lows. Once adjusted to your taste, you'll love its sound, guaranteed! Second, you must change the factory strings which are bad and set-up the action. DO NOT touch to the trussrod before you have lower the action, it's just stupid. Lower the action to your taste with the small allen screws on the bridge and only then touch the trussrod if there is still some buzzing on either part of the neck despite all your efforts. The frets might not be perfect though so check that before too. Mine were fine except on a small spot where one fret was higher and it muted the sound one fret higher. The tuners are fine, no problem with them if you know how to change a string properly.

The push-pull knob came lose after only a week, I had to glue it to be able to use the push-pull. Bad point for this.

10 for the finish and great neck, 5 for the action and set-up, so I put 7.

I have owned the '51 for 6 months now, seems rather solid, not have any problem so far. I would take it on stage. I don't like to give a rating for this category 'cause who knows.

Have not dealt with them. Won't dealt with them anyway (I'd just set it up by myself or buy a new '51).

Best quality for such a low price! Original guitar too, does not tend to imitate other big names, has its own personality which is great, and I think is why pro guitarists like it too. I play every style I like with it: blues, rock, hard rock, neo-classic rock, alternative, folk, indian/oriental stuff etc. Very versatile with the single coil and splittable humbucker.

For now, this guitar is plugged into an Epiphone Valve Jr. and sounds awesome with it in clean and crunch, which is for me another proof of its quality (class A amp with only a volume knob, yet the '51 shines into it). A great combo for a small jamming gear. For the price, you can buy another one if this one gets beaten up in the bands van or on stage, or even get stolen (who the f**ck would steal a 150$ guitar anyway? ??? well maybe those won't don't know its price but heard it on stage I guess). I would at least. Excellent guitar for a beginner too, and the pro will love it.

And lastly, don't listen to everyone telling you to change the pickups right away. Sorry, but these guys can't play if they need to do this to have a good sound. Learn to set-up your guitar guys! This axe is an excellent one for the price with all its features. It would still be a bargain for 100$ more too.

If Fender didn't sell to CBS in the 60's. This 51 is probly the type of guitars we would have seen coming from FENDER in the 60's. Great take on a Strat/Tele. Strat BODY, Tele, NECK, custom electronics and pick-ups. With a 51 P-Bass pick-guard that is way Cool! These are like the 55 CHEVYS or 63 COBRA's of the guitar world! Just a Great base to build a Great guitar, or play it like it is for INSTANT MOJO!

Incredable Tones, Very Very impressive sounds come from this Beast! Raw, Nasty, and just full of MOJO! Neck-single-coil[Ceramic] and a bridge humbucker [Alnico]. With a Three-Way Rotary, and a Push-Pull Volume control. This will give the 51, a bridge Humbucker or Single-Coil Tones. Middle could be Single/Humbucker or Single/Single Tones. The neck is Single coil tones PERIOD! So there are 5-posible tones on this baby with the bridge coil-tap! All of them are USABLE and sound great. Though this is a inexpensive guitar there is NO NEED to change pick-ups these sound Clear, Bright, Edgey, and Balenced. The to pups mix and blend together VERY WELL! Tones range between a Strat and Tele with a NASTY OD Humbucker Tone that could be used alone in the bridge. Electronics are decent on the 51 though simple. What else could you want?

Very Good, I am sure the consistancy varies from guitar to guitar. I looked for a 51 for a year. I could NOT find one that did not need fret-work. Finally I came across my Sunburst that the original owner did a fret-job on! The 51 plays awesome great LOW action, great fret-work, nice chunky neck! I have read complaints about the SADDLES/Bridge? The saddles on mine are done well. The adjusting screws are filed to fit the saddles with no extra sharp edges sticking out above the saddles! So resting your hand on the saddles/bridge is perfect! What elese could you want? The saddles DO NOT break strings and ONLY touch the strings on the VERY TOP of the saddles. This is perfect. They Do Not RATTLE! Theres TOO MUCH downward presure from the strings. I don't know what else you could possibly want from this Saddle/bridge unit. Its a Toploader and MUCH of the TONE on the 51 is DUE to this bridge! Anyway the neck joint fits perfect, The tuning machines work wonderfull, The two string trees NEED ATTENTION. I found a fault here. The E+B string tree needs to have the spacer ground down to HALF its size. You will get MUCH BETTER TONE on your E+B string with this done! The Body is BASSWOOD! Its a GREAT Tonewood that has been used for years. Especially in the 80's by Dean, Ibanez, Jackson and Fender TOO! Its a very good Tone wood especially with Humbuckers. But caution.....Basswood for a Hardwood could be on the SOFT side. So constantly taking screws out and back on WILL STRIP them in the body MUCH faster than ALDER ASH etc etc. The Two-Tone Sunburst finish on my 51 is well done and I believe the Poly finish on the 51's help firm up th Basswood. I haven't had the soft Basswood problems with my 51. As I said much has to do with this FINISH! The body is Three-piece. I do not know if Squire is selling two-piece 51's but i doubt it! More than likely 3-4 piece bodys. But They Good in Sunburst so Squire has the body piece's matched well, with the grain in the right directions!

Rock Solid.........Comes out of the FENDER STRAT/TELE mold. Will withstand a NUKE Attack!

I never use them?

Great Addition to ANY collection. Will give you a few Usable Tone's that you DO-NOT already have! For SMALL BUCKS! Just find one with a good NECK/Fret-job. That is THE KEY! From there you are on your way to playing /owning one of the COOLIST electrics built in years! Easy to say great bang for the buck! But this guitar has great TONES regardless of price!

some recommendations on squier 51 upgrades; replaced neck with lace holy grail strat pickup, very rich and full. Initially put split lace gold sensors on bridge, didn't work out. neither grit nor cut. then tried GFS hot nashville retrotron. Incredible sound change: rockabilly/country machine now, jangles like gretsch on chords, cuts through, with coil tapped more traditionally tele. the b and e strings have jangle, bite and clarity. if you're a country, folk, pop, rock - check out the GFS nashvilles. incredible. also had strings drilled through and GFS gotoh imitations put on. result is a dream.

still love this neck, whatever loose ground wires that come up with this have been cleaned up.

you can always afford a 3 pack.

n/a

if you want a very versatile, country guitar - which brings tele/gretsch togethe - try this combination, drill the body, holy grail in the neck, gfs hot nashville in bridge. incredible - some setzer, some pretenders, some james burton. holy grail means you get beautiful chord overtones on open strings, both full on and it rocks, tapped and both pickups and you've got a combination of rockabilly and tele spank. weird but it works.

made 2004.. ok lets just say that the dopes on here that run the squire 51 through a crappy amp will get some noise and dont know about good amps yet!!..i play through a princeton reverb tube amp amd a epiphone tube head to a 1x12 cab ..the guitar sounds really great crazy kurt cobain sound grungey as all hell i love the single coil and i am a humcker person..the pushpull nob is alot of fun to fool around with sounds great when you mix it up..tuners stay in tune the neck is nice and easy to play .

ok well i am a punk rocker at heart but i still play the blues sometimes..i really think this guitar is nice the sunburts tabbacco is really pretty .USE A GOOD AMP PERFERBLE TUBE with distion and you will be in rock and roll Heaven..at least use a small marshall amp

the guitar is really nice looking old P bass style...paint job is flawless...i really think the squire 51 is a great buy..

the hardware is good the tuners are really nice..the jack is a little loose after play same as my epiphone les paul..gig with it , practice with it its a really great guitar for the money hands down..

Tons of gear over the years been playing out live every week for years...i would buy this guitar again in a heart beat...for 150.00 humbcker and maple neck how can you beat it...

I won't repeat the features, they're all below...

It doesn't sound too bad. The pickups are better than I expected--though the humbucker really is rather bright.

Well, here's the rub. A lot of people have hyped this guitar, making it sound like the deal of the century. And it's true, it's well worth the money, and then some. But some of the hardware is genuinely garbage. The bridge saddles rattle horribly, the tuners are awful, the string trees are too high. Weirdly, the bridge is too far forward--in order to intonate, you have to pull back the low E as far as it will go--and the little trenches embossed in it where the saddle adjustment screws are supposed to go, are in some cases in completely the wrong place. BUT...there are two reasons to buy this thing, and those are the appearance (neat) and the neck. The neck is just lovely. Smooth, even, with nice narrow frets that feel wonderful. Also everything fits pretty tightly, and the butterscotch finish on mine is very, very nice. I'm replacing almost everything else, for fun, because I was looking for a good mod guitar. New bridge PU, new tuners, new saddles (Callaham), new pickguard. (The stock one is OK, but I like three- and four-layer ones.) I'm even planning to replace the decal with one in the style of an old Esquire, saying "SQUIER '51."

For all that, it seems pretty sturdy. The finish is thin, I think, but I like that. People say the strap buttons are weak, but I haven't noticed that...anyway, screw them in with glue, that will work well and has in the past for me. I'd gig without a backup, sure.

A 9 for value. I really like this thing...I feel like somebody designed a really great little guitar, then proceeded to mistreat it with cheap hardware and general ineptitude. But whoever made the neck knew what they were doing.

Not sure when it was made. Typical Squier 51 features

I play a wide variety of musical styles and I host a musicians night once a week for over eight years. The level of musicians that come and sit in range from young up and comers to local established pros to national and international artists that drop after they have finished a performance that they have come into town for as well as the occassional bedroom player. I wanted an playable inexpensive guitar that i could hand over to a visiting musician whom may have needed five or six shots of Jose Cuervo to get his nerve up and not worry if he dropped it or if it mysteriously disappeared. The Squier 51 seemed to fit the bill. As a matter of fact it was so good that I began to do the musicians night with the Sqier as the only guitar I would take to the gig and actually looked forward to playing it. My only issues were 1- single coil neck pick up was extremely noisey, 2- no tone knob, ands 3-cheap tuning machines. I replaced the single coil with a Bill Lawrence L-200 pick up and had my tech add a tone knob and replaced the cheap tuners with Grovers and now it is a players piece.

Beautiful guitar for the money. Upgrade the tuners and pots.

Never dealt with them.

I have been palying well over thirty years and have played almost every type of guitar there is and this is a great bargin. If it were stolen I would by another one immidiately

My Squire '51 was made in 2006 in Indonesia. It has 21 frets on it's maple neck and fingerboard and is finished in vintage blonde with a black scratchplate (cool colour).

It has one humbucker and one 'strat' single coil, however the humbucker can be split by way of a coil tap on the volume pot control. The other control pot looks like it might be a tone control, however it is actually a three way selector switch for different pick up configerations. The pick up's are alright for a guitar of this price (#120), and can always be upgraded at a later date (I think this guitar would be awesome with a Jeff Beck humbucker and a quality 'strat' single coil).

Body style is strat shape but the scratchplate looks like one from a 51 reissue precision bass (maybe this is where it gets it's name from?), and the neck is like a telecaster neck (C profile) witha tele headstock.

Bridge is a stop tailpiece with vintage style tuners, I may upgrade these later.

Although I've been playing on and off for 20 years, I've owned much more expensive guitars (ESP, Gordon Smith, Tex Mex Tele), and this guitar is a joy to play and quite unusual to look at. For the price it's a real steal and I would buy another.

The fret ends are a bit sharp and need sanding down with very fine sand paper, and I had to replace the screws on the jack socket as they seemed too small for the holes that were drilled for them. That said, and for the money, I don't really mind any of this, and when I've got sufficient funds avail, I intend to use this as a project guitar.

With my Peavey Audition 110 practice amp, it sounds fine, though the pick up's are a bit bright, that's to be expected at this price. There's basically five different sounds using the 3 way selector and the coil tap, but the humbucker on my old Tex Mex Tele was much more powerful so don't expect too much here.

I play a wide range of music (not gigging) excluding metal, but including things like RHCP and Green Day, to blues.

You'll eventually change the pick up's on this if you're serious.

Well set up from the factory, good action, but fret ends too sharp. Neck perfectly straight, with perfect string alignment (not like my old Tex Mex Tele).

Not tested (only 2 days old).

Not used.

I found a video review of this on www.dolphinstreet.com which was very useful and the tester showed all the sounds avail - a great help.

Basswood solid body Strat style; one piece maple neck Tele style with adjustment rod; bolt on neck with 4 screws; top loader chrome bridge with six saddles ; one bridge humbucker; one neck single coil strat pick up; 2 metal knobs control: Volume with Push/Pull to split the coil; and rotary 3 way pick up selector. No tone control per se. Mini grovers style tuners. Neck is not skinny or flat at all, rather round and chunky , although not a baseball bat; satin finish. Overall guitar weight is medium/light.

Great array of sounds because you have 6 different pus positions to play with. For some the guitar will sound thin. If you have a good amp, this guitar will sound great. I have played this guitar (with the stock features) on different vintage Fender amps, and the sound was just great. I have also used some pedals, like TS808, SD1 mod , Hot Cake and there was not one bad tone.
I bought mine (blonde/yellow with black pickguard) at Sam Ash; they have a choice between Black/W pickguard and a few sunburst/W pickguard. I noticed color variations between the blonde and sunburst models. A blonde was a 3 piece body see though finish, although mine was a solid color.

I am giving a 9 although I had to file the frets' edges, put new strings and do a minor set up. I do not believe these are major faults and overall this $140 guitar is wonderful. Neck is not glossy and plays well, frets are small vintage, easy to bend the 9s. My only point of real contention is the bridge : on a top load the strings will rattle under the saddle adjustment screw. I dont like this system, and I would change it. Some people have suggested drilling the body like on a tele and installing 6 ferrules; I do not think this improvement is called for on this guitar.
Also, I think a tusk nut (as opposed to plastic) would be a great improvement.
It should be noted that basswood is a soft wood; in other words srews may not say in solidly. Do not overtight the screws or you'll have to fix the new holes!
I tried 6 different Squier 51 at the retail store. The finish, action, playability and even sound differed between them. I chose the one with the best neck and pus; finish was secondary. For this reason, I would not buy without playing it.

The guitar is not built like a tank. I suggest to do some minor upgrades.

Its Fender.

Every player should own at leat one Squier 51! They play well and sound great. I own many vintage guitars and this $150 guitar is a lot of fun to play. I would not be surprised that Fender issue a Corona made model for $699 street price. In fact I will probably buy a second one and set it up for slide with different pus. I have been playing rock and blues since the Yardbirds recorded their first 45rpm ! I own lots of nice vintage gear but this Squier 51 is a fantastic value. Also, check the Fender forum; there is a Squier 51 section with some good info.

first this is a ONE PIECE MAPLE NECK not what the last reviewer said..the neck to me is worth the whole guitar although i love the body it weighs about 7 pounds basewood..it has a pushpull nob...the tuners are also sealed really good tuners ...the humbucker is really good and the single coil pick up sounds really good...sunburst finish is beautiful..the guitar is solid just like an american strat ..made in indonsia..this guitar is a realle guitar no starter toy like some of the squires out there...and you can mod it out if you want to...DONT BE FOOLED BUY THE PRICE OF THIS GUITAR IT IS SOLID!

sound is tele/ strat...it sounds really really good through my marshall amp....twangy telesound single coil strat sound...humbucker can get nasty grungy sound punk rock .....i play rock, punk, classic rock sex pistols ,stones violent femmes ..pixies...i like how versatile this guitar is ..nothing about this guitar i dislike..you can play anything on it with a good amp! get a decent 30 watt amp..and your ready to roll..this guitar it alot of fun to play!!

set up nice low action i lucked out ...no flaws on sunburst finish..nice wood on body no flaws..i want to change bridge but does not need to be changed its just my prefrence...

yes i would play this live ...if i was playing it out regular i would put strap locks on ..i have a fender strap it holds up well hasnt fallen off yet while im jamming...

been plaing guitar 25 years..and singing...if this guitar was lost id buy another in a heartbeat...favorite feature is the maple neck..ive always wanted a maple neck and this is great fun playing guitar...ive got 4 acoustics martins 1 yamaha ...3 electrics les paul,fender strat,and this baby! marshall amp...roland microcube..tons of mics ,tascam ,Pa.. all sorts of stuff to play with.. music is my heart and soul!