Fender Squier 51

I've been playing guitar for only a few months, so I'll try to keep this as objective as possible. Most of the features have already been discussed by other reviewers, but it's probably worth mentioning a few things regarding this particular guitar.

The fretboard is a separate piece of glued-on maple rather than the neck being made from a single piece of wood. The fretboard is birdseye maple, which was a really nice surprise.

I ordered the yellow model, and mine came with the black pickguard. The neck finish is satin, verging on flat; the body is gloss.

The strings as shipped were .009 - .042. It came with allen wrenches for the truss rod and bridge height adjustment screws.

I'm giving it a 10 in this category for having features as advertised and for the bonus of the birdseye maple.

I wanted a guitar with a really bright sound, and this one certainly has it, even on the humbucker.

The strings it came with were not usable, so I changed them right away to a D'Addario XL110 (.010 - .046) set. The new strings sound fine on most settings and the guitar is still marginally brighter sounding than my Yamaha Pacifica 412 (SSH Strat knockoff), but the sound just isn't different enough, now. I expect the tone will calm down further as the strings age, and I want the twang back, so I'll switch back to .009s once I put some more polyurethane on the neck (more on that below).

Also worth mentioning, in split-coil mode it really sounds lifeless -- not much in the way of overtones -- with the new strings. I adjusted the bridge pickup higher (3/64" from the strings when fretted at the 12th fret), which helps. Humbucker mode retains a lot of character, in my opinion.

For reference, I (am learning to) play fingerstyle, bare fingers. My amp is a Roland Cube 30, but mainly I use a little Danelectro headphone amp so as not to scare the pets and piss off the neighbors.

Points off in this category are for the anemic sound in split-coil mode.

Fit & Finish:
The satin neck finish feels great, but it's very thin, so I'm going to thicken it up with a few more coats of polyurethane to avoid wearing through.

The neck has the typical walnut strip on the back that covers the truss rod. The grain in the walnut strip is unfilled (i.e. the pores are open) for a length of about 5" along the back behind frets 2-5, and you can feel the roughness with your thumb.

A coarse glob of finish (I think) was stuck to the fretboard, but I was able to scrape it off without leaving a mark. There was a small ding (maybe 1/16" across) on the right side of the peghead.

The finish on the body is nice and glossy and doesn't have any surface defects, but dark smudges (wood grain, possibly) show though in a couple of spots, as one or two other reviewers have mentioned.

Here's a strange deal: The bridge and bridge pickup are rotated slightly clockwise from where they should be. It's probably only a few degrees and doesn't seem to affect anything, but it's noticeable anyway. Now that I look at pictures of this guitar on the Squier Web site, the flaw shows up there as well.

The basswood body is really soft and the screws will strip if you use even normal force. You get to where the screw feels like it's just starting to bottom, and it starts stripping. I used a small jeweler's screwdriver to remove and attach the pickguard, because anything larger felt risky.

The neck pickup is mounted in such a way that it will tilt frontward or rearward if the screw holes in the pickup cavity aren't correctly located with respect to the opening in the pickguard. Mine tilts frontward slightly.

As I mentioned above, the strings weren't usable. They were tarnished and rough, but more importantly (and bizarrely), it looks like they just used a second high E string instead of a proper B string; high E and B were both .009s (measured with a dial caliper).

Action:
My attitude is that as long as relief, action, intonation, and pickup height can be set within normal limits (and they are, on mine), the guitar deserves full credit. I will say that relief was adjusted higher than necessary (.027 at the 8th fret), but that's what the truss rod wrench is for. I set it to .010 at the 8th fret, with action set at 5/64" on all strings at the 12th fret; nothing buzzes with normal playing.

The neck has no twist that I can see. With the strings removed and the neck set as straight as I can get it, there's less than .002 height difference between any two frets. The frets are polished and smooth.

For the money it probably deserves a higher score.

I don't feel capable of commenting on this, since I haven't played that long. I am a woodworker, and my impression of the neck is that a thicker finish is needed in the long run.

I'm hoping this won't be necessary.

Bang for the buck is a legitimate consideration here, and this is a great guitar for the money. I bought it because it looks great, like nothing else I've seen. I justified it by telling myself I wanted something with a brighter sound than my other two guitars, a Squier Chambered Tele (configured more like a Les Paul, though: all mahogany, set neck, two covered humbuckers, 24.75" scale) and the Yamaha Pacifica 412 I mentioned above.

But really, I love its uniqueness, unusual controls, retro color scheme, TeleStrat styling. Despite all the problems I've listed, nothing makes me regret buying it.

Basically , a blend between a Telecaster and a Stratocaster. Read the other posts below.

It suits my music style.. 70's / 80's..

Frets were not "too" bad as other people here have posted. file the ends a bit is they bother you. The maple neck is really nice.. always thought that maple was better then rosewood.

Everything to me seems "rock solid" the only thing that bothers me.. is the push / pull knob.. who knows when that will wing out.. maybe it won't.

have had to call them.

This guitar is AWESOME. To get a tele / strat / jag / mustang ?hybrid? like this, is just awesome.. This is the guitar I play out with. I ?do not? view this guitar as a ?beginner? guitar.. Why would you even ?think? about buying a real $1000 strat or les paul when you can buy this? This guitar plays live as equally records well.

This review is mainly to share a simple mod that can greatly improve the sound of this axe for blues and slide players: Drop a vintage tele neck into the slot where the strat pup sits. I put in a GFS I07 classic TC alnico; it's low output but warm and well defined, and the chrome cover (pretty!) does a nice shielding job, so you can use more volume and gain on the amp. To balance the pickups I had to lower the VERY hot bridge HB, and goodness, its range and definition improved noticeably. The new pup cost me $21 with shipping, and soldering two leads is a snap. The three single coil configs now sound distinct and have character, running from woody to knife-edge. The HB combinations are OK if nobody in the room knows the difference. 9 for the singles, 6 for the HB averages 8 in cheap guitar heaven.

Working on this guitar reminded me of its failings. A lot of the wood screws strip easy, and the push-pull pot is already starting to make undesirable noises. If you change the HB make sure you get one with a ring, because the ring on the 51 won't fit many pups. Someone further down said the axe is worth changing the bridge saddles, and I do find the stock ones more and more annoying -- cheap, loose screws that promise a lifetime of adjustment.

DO NOT trust the stock tuners, even tightened. Until I change them I won't dare use this axe to record, let alone on a gig, with or without backup. They don't hold tune for ONE SONG, and I don't smash the strings. That's a major failing, and that's why I downrated the axe since my last review.

Playing 40 years and much of it in front of other people, own seven other guitars and a half-dozen amps, from Microcube to vintage Bassman 100. With the new pickup I'd rate the guitar a solid 9 for classic (Delta, Chicago) slide -- it's got that greasy vintage wail nailed. For everything else I do (a wide spectrum)... it's a 6. A-B it with a premium axe (like my Reverends!) and the difference is clear. I'll give it an 8 because even with another $21 in it, it cost $171 new, and it sounds like a pricier git than what I've invested in it... but to play out, there's $50 in tuners and some change for saddles and pots coming up soon. Will I spend it? You bet. Would I replace it? Not before checking what else is out there used for $250-300... like the stuff Greg Bennett is doing for Samick. It's fun making an axe over, and it's nice when the result is unique, but it's time you don't spend playing.

Mine is the snot-yellow/green coloured version with the black pickguard. Paintjob is very good. Excellent vintage vibe going on! All the controls/woods etc. have been mentioned before, all is very good value for the money. I got sold on the looks of this thing.

Very versatile little guitar for pocketmoney, marvelous!

Its a nice little bright allrounder, half-decent woods and hardware, it does a lot of sounds quite well. But not brilliant. I use it with a Marshall 5210 and Marshall reverb 75, with some Korg and Tech 21 effects, but the sound hasn't got a lot of depth to it. Very useable though. Lots of variety in the sounds, rather clever controls, nicely designed. It benefits from heavier strings, I use GHS 0-10.

Now here it comes, I bought mine mail order...big mistake! Never buy a guitar that you haven't played/inspected before buying, I know that now. Quite a few rusty pickguard screws, 2 screws on the bridge were rusty as well. But.. the fret-ends were the main obstacle. Sharp edges all the way down the neck. Took hours of filing/sanding, dicking around to get them up to scratch. Absolutely shite! And the nut was very badly cut as well, that needed sorting out. As well as the intonation and action, but that's normal. All in all not very good, but hey, why do you think it costs only 145 Euro? Because they lavish a lot of care on these guitars? I don't think so. You have to be prepared to work on these things, or shell out extra cash to get a repairman to do it for you. It does come with 2 allen keys for bridge and truss adjustment, which is thoughtful. Beware!

It looks solid enough, won't break on ya. The push/pull pot won't last though, thats for sure. But thats easily replaced should the need arise. Make sure you have a good look at all the soldering joints as well, just in case.

Never dealt with Fender, but I have a good warranty from the retailers I bought it from.

Playing 15 years, own a Squier tele and a Gibson 1979 The Paul, superb guitar. For the money the '51 is hard to beat, great looks , decent materials, but shoddy finishing on mine. Which is just bad luck I suppose, but I can sort out guitars myself, which helps. Its fine now and I'm very happy with it. Its an obvious upgrading guitar, and Im sure a pickup upgrade would help. Im tempted to stick 2 Fender chrome-covered humbuckers in mine, if I can find some for reasonable money. It would look and sound fantastic for sure.

made 2004 indonesia guitar ive had korean, mex, american strats and teles
all i can say is belive the hype on this guitar forget is a squire if you have a problem with that,,i dont at all...to old to care about what a headstock says as long as the neck feels good and it sound good...and this guitar has both those features ...it has a single coil pick up and a nasty hot humbucker! i think the body is made of basewood its light and the guitar sounds good even unpluged,,
i got the sunburst man it looks a so much better that the photos on the web its a realle beauty...

well i play all stuff mostly rock and old school punk ...it gos where you want it to... humbuckers are GREAT on this guitar im useing a marshall 30 watt amp i cant wait to try it out on my friends fender reverb tube amp.....i really thought id have to change the pickups but man im not kidding they are great...just change strings on the guitar it caomes with pretty bad strings thats the only thing...

set up perfect...this guitar looks really really good! not a flaw on this sunburst baby....the neck is so damm nice on it ive been playing my epi les paul for the last year and i thought that was a perfect neck for me but i really love this neck its not my old 1987 strat plus neck but it is pretty damm nice and fast playing smooth to..i sold my strat 2 years ago bought a les paul that i love but i had to buy this because i read reviews and it is so cheap i was blown away when i got it i never thought it would look so good and play so well for so little money...

im gonna freak everbody out but i am going to play this at a show next week ...i think after everyone sees how nice it is, squires gonna sell alot more 51s... i may change tuners out but thats about it it stays in tune but i like locking tuners..buy one im not kidding its a great guitar !!

since the pretenders first album thats how long ive been a crazy rock n roll freak... i have alot of gear,if this guitar was lost or something i would 100 percent buy another one in fact im thinking of buying the blonde and black one in a couple of weeks from musicians friend...

features have been handeled... not really anything left to say. Lotsa cool gizmos for a stripped down price. I dig it.

So I bought this thing on a whim. $150... no big deal if I had to rip it up and do some fancy upgrades. I pretty much play various forms of metal, punk, hardcore and whatever combinations you can think of so I need a guitar that will give me good low end with cutting highs. My setup is guitar --> dunlop crybaby ---> Big muff ---> guitar research T64rs head (loop: Line 6 chorus, Line 6 delay, Line 6 compressor)----> Behringer cab loaded with Jensen and celestion speakers. This guitar has very good low end and a very diverse tonal pallet via the coil tapping and 3 way switch. Cleans are sparkly and clear... would be nice to have a tone knob to shape them a bit though. When it comes to distortion it doesnt have as much bite as I prefer but is quite good for chunky palm muting. I will most likely end up swapping out the stock p'ups to a jb in the bridge and a mini 59 in the neck. I have that combo in two other guitars and it does the job quite nicely. But considering this guitar only cost me about $150 I have nothing to complain about on this

okey dokey this is the part where I get to rant a bit. Ok, I own alot of guitars and yes... this was a low end instrument and I dont expect the highest quality in ths category but dear god I have paid half the price for guitars with better setup and fretwork that this. Action was obscenely high and the first time i ran my hand down the neck I cut myself several times on the frets. In my opinion this is whilly unacceptable. granted in terms of instruments the cost isnt much but when you considering Im paying quite a bit of my hard earned money on this I expect better than this. Especially when you consider that with no training and minimal tools I was able to correct these issues in about an hour or so. Seriously for a big name like fender this should not be a problem at all. Everything else was ok but this is some of the most shoddy fretwork I have seen in my life.

The thing is a ^%$#@! tank.

I have learned that dealing with customer support is generally not worth the trouble. I did send an angry email to them regarding their quality control about a month ago and I have not yet heard back... that is not a very good sign.

ok this thing is cool if you are up for some heavy fretwork. other than that issue I really like this thing. I probably would buy another one if it were stolen. Good guitar for the price. In about 8 1/2 years of playing and having gone through about 20 guitars in that time this by far had the worst setup of any of them. This is something that all guitarists really should know how to fix though.

if you're serious enough to purchase a guitar, you're serious enough to look at the specifications.

overall, it's limited, since it's a telecaster.

very trebly. it has so much trebly that it got so annoying for me and i had to refund it to buy an esp which has more bass. it is quite quiet and since there are only 3 rotation switches you don't have much tone to choose from. besides the high treble which you need to lower your treble on your amp to get a decent sound, it's okay.

nice action and finish for the price. the pickguard is cheap, since it's not 3-ply wood. the pickups are much like any other telecaster pickups. the guitar comes with vintage fender strings, which is probably the best feature, since the strings are so rich. the strap buttons come loose, so if you're gigging, you better watch out. straplocks won't work, because i tried, the strap buttons just keep unscrewing themselves the more i stand to play. very annoying, but what can you expect for something under $200?

live playing? maybe if you sit down, but you should seriously get those strap buttons fixed before you plan to show off your cheap guitar. for normal rock bands, i'd highly recommend a back up or possibly use this as your back up? i don't understand why anyone would use a squier to gig anyway though.

yeah, i refunded it and it was a no hassle refund.

long and mcquade, good job.

i have fenders, esps, and some factory acoustic. if it was lost or stolen i'd buy something else. i wish the strap buttons and pickguard were higher quality.

it's a great guitar for beginners though. if you're starting out, you can either buy a start pak, or purchase this and a cheap amp. it's a good deal for the price, but it's not for someone who gigs and records.

I opted for the Sunburst finish. The wood in some models i noticed werent as beautiful as the one i selected. White Pickguard (Changed to red tortise), single coil + humbucker config,. Push/ Pull coil tap. Fixed stratocaster bridge (Converted to a telecaster string through body.)

I happened to like how the stock pickups sound. I play alot of ambiotic/ synth stlye stuff, so i just need clarity. No electrical issues, wiring was all well done.

Factory setup was about what you would expect. Shoddy string job, and a crappy shine. No loose or damaged frets, straight neck. Finish was absolutly gorgeous. The sunburst finish bleeds vintage, as does the rest of this guitar. I like the feel of the tele neck on the strat body, so this was nice to see done from factory.

Will withstand damn near a nuclear holocaust...or at least a well played jamm session. i trust it for gigging so no worries there. Squire has made a wonderful upgrade to their quality department latley. Beautiful things comming from them.

no need

Everything an indie rocker could ever want. ( with tweaking its anything anyone would ever want....except maybeone who is in need of a floating trem...but then again, i think black may suit you better as well.)

Made in 2005 in Indonesia. It has 22 frets. A solid strat body. Controls are volume with push/pull coil tap on bridge humbucker. There is no tone control, but a rotary pickup selector switch instead. S/H configuration. With stock Squier pickups I am presuming. Basswood body, with vintage blonde finish. Strat body style with hardtail bridge. Good quality sealed tuners. 25.5" scale with medium jumbo frets. Great C profile neck with spot on finish. Two allen keys provided.

This guitar suits any style, and has a wide tonal variation. I play through a Peavey Bandit 65 amp with a Digitech RP80 effects unit. You can get a good rock sound from the bridge humbucker, or a bright strat or tele sound with the coil tap. It is a more bluesy tele sound from the neck single coil. There is a very wide range of sounds, everything between a tele and a strat, with a nice Fender-like tone.

This has good action and intonation. Don't think the seller even set it up. I must be one of the lucky ones! Good height on bridge humbucker, which is still adjustable. The neck single coil could do to be higher, but there is no adjustment available. I am not to bothered as I use mostly the bridge pickup anyway. Excellent vintage blonde finish but with matt black single ply pickguard. Would prefer if it came with perhaps a 3 ply gloss pickguard. No visible routing under pickguard. Only flaw is small slightly blue streak on back, probably the grain coming through, but hey, its on the back!

I would gig this. Everything about it is solid, and the finish seems durable, but I am not going to chuck it around to find out! The bottom strap button was slightly loose, but nothing a screwdriver couldn't fix. I played it for 2 hours solid when I got it, and it kept its pitch well. I would always gig with a backup, cos you can't rely on strings not breaking, which isn't the guitars fault!

Haven't a clue. Hopefully not required!

I can never usually be bothered with this sort of thing, but I am so astounded at the value for money I have got here, that I felt I just had to!
I have been playing for 17 years. I currently own this, a cheap strat copy which I converted to an EVH frankenstrat, a Stagg Les Paul Custom, a Tanglewood TW68 (Lennon copy) and a cheapo ancient Spanish classical. I have never owned genuine Fenders or Gibsons etc. cos I refuse to pay the price just for the name. I have a friend with a Fender Strat, and another with a Fender Tele, and with the 51 I can just about match their sounds. I asked everything I wanted to know before I bought this, and whilst a lot of people say try a few in the shop and pick a good one, I got mine off the web, so I must have just been lucky. I even managed to get the black pickguard (apparently all of playrecord's blonde 51's have a black pickguard). Some out there have a white one! How awful! Black plastic shortage at the factory?
I would definitely get another one if it were lost or stolen. I love the vintage colour and styling, and the coil tap feature. Not a big lover of the neck pickup, but I rarely am on any guitar. When deciding what to go for, I compared it to the Squier Tele Customs, both pickup models (twin humbuckers or Duncan designed P90 style.) I chose this because of the vintage looks and the tonal variation. I don't wish it had anything else because for me, I love the simplicity of it all!
Finally, can't believe this only cost #100! For me it is of professional quality, with a nice finish and decent hardware. The neck must be the majority of the cost because it is just perfect!
If you can get one like mine, I would recommend it to professionals and amateurs. Particularly for beginners, this would be a fantastic guitar to start with. There are a lot of other beginners guitars out there which cost a lot more but are nowhere near as good as this!
Buy one today!

Asian made,stratbody, tele neck,bridge humbucker, singlecoil neck, 3-way switch, volume push/pull to split the humbucker,topload hardtail bridge,no-name tuners,and a single-ply 51 p-bass shaped pickguard.
the body is a yellow poly-coat finish that doesn't look all that vintage and probably takes alot of the good tone away. But I'll leave it alone. Its probably covering some mismatched butcher block laminating. I speak from experience, Never strip the paint off if you can't already see the grain. Just relic it and have Fun.

I'll be honest I've done alot of mods to this
but thats why I bought it in the first place.
I saw alot of potential in this guitar . I liked the way it was made with the tele neck and the strat body being routed for a full size humbucker and single coil neck and the hardtail-bridge.
It suits alot of different styles of music.
THATS WHAT MAKES THIS AN AWSOME BEGINNERS GUITAR!
or a really killer Arkasas-fits-em-all coverband ax.
I hated the original pickups and changed them the first month I had it. Seymore Duncans- JB bridge and Lil 59 neck HB that splits with the push/pull. This allows you to have.
strat neck blues while split
jazz neck humbucker not split
full on humbucker for rock /bridge position
split the humbucker for great tele twang /bridge position
double humbucker in the middle not split is great for metal when distorted.
and a dead on country tele sound when split in the middle position.
With the original pickups this gets an average rating.
With the Duncans I'll give it an 8

It was playable when I bought it.
The first thing I did was changed the saddles and the string trees to Graphtech and hit the nut hard with BigBends Nut sauce.
I took the neck off and stripped the poly off and sanded the neck joint smooth to get a better fit.
Lets face it, YOU BOUGHT A $150 GUITAR. That was made in a sweatshop.
Its needs a little work.
OK,alot of work if you want it to play through any thing better than a Crate. and have decent tone.
I did all the reset up myself.

Who cares?
If it breaks I'll take off the good parts, pitch it, and buy a new one.

Never dealt with them

I've been playing since Led Zepplin was still making records.
I've owned alot of gear over the years Beginners guitars, intermediate guitars and a few pro-level guitars.
I think Guitar Player magazine was right on the money.
It's a Great bang for the buck.
Its a good beginner. A good beater. A good customizer.
And the best bargin I've seen out there.
I've had mine almost a year now and I leave on stand plugged in so it gets played on a regular basis (I leave my good ones in thier cases)And it sounds and plays great.
If you want one-get one.
I wish fender made this with an ash body, Duncan pickups,and a Nitro finish. But they would charge over $1000. so that would screw everything up.
Oh well, just play and enjoy it.
Good luck