Fender Squier 51

strat body with tele neck presician bass pickgaurd(i think).
humbucker in bridge with coil tap single coil for neck pickup
maple neck and fret board.

I play blues and hendrix stuff,this guitar has a very very clean unaltered tone,i have a 1994 fender strat and this guitars tone seems to be less muffled as my strats tone,but my strats tone is stronger and thicker,more in your face.the 51 does have a very nice tone though.

i got the guitar used,so i set it up with .13s.got really low nice playable action.and the neck seems thicker than my strats neck even though they are both c shaped necks,the neck is a very light color so im thinking about tinting it.

very durable guitar it will be used as a backup for my strat,or the opposite i want to gig this a couple times and see how it does,

never used it and probably wont need it

i really like the neck on it,the action is good,intonation is good.i really like the guitar alot,i will probably never sell it,maybe.

For a cheap guitar this has all you could want, different tones from the humbucker and single coil pickups, coil splitting, solid construction etc.

Mine sounds great, though it's been modded. But from what I've heard on youtube it sounds fine stock. I don't think people mod the 51 because it needs it but because the low price, quality construction and cool configuration make it a modders dream.

The 51's I have couldn't play better, buttery action, good feel and easy to play.

Built like a tank, worse that could happen is the usual finish chips and dings.

Fender is easy enough to deal with but I can't imagine why you'd need to call them about cheap guitar that's no longer in production.

Great value for the 51. Solid as a rock, both of mine have a one piece neck, crazy for a guitar that at one time sold new for as low as $99. Both of mine were bought used and had been modded but were still a great value at $165, you'd could buy a better guitar for that kind of money.

I'm not sure what year it was made. It was made in Indonesia. 21 Frets. 1 Volume knob, one 3 way pickup switch (the previous owner modded it).
Pickup configuration: S/H. The neck pickup is stock, I believe, and the bridge pickup is upgraded to a GFS Retrotone Humbucker. Maple neck, maple fretboard, basswood body. It has a strat style body. The bridge stop tail. The tuners are stock. The neck is relatively thin.

I like to play experimental type music, like post rock, shoegaze, but I also love to play surf rock and some blues. It is an incredible guitar for pretty much anything that requires a strat-like tone, with less noise and no tremolo arm. I play it through a Fender FM 212R (great amp!), my Big Muff, Boss ME 50 and several DOD pedals. It's surprisingly not noisy, even on the single coil neck pickup (I happen to enjoy noise, though). It has incredible sound ont he neck pickup, very fendery and strat-like. Slightly twangier in the neck. The GFS bridge pickup is surprisingly loud and toneful for a humbucker. Inbetween, it still sounds bright and bridgy.
I love the sound, it's incredible, it sounds generally as good ans my MIM Fender Strat- that's a shock, considering I have a Squier Strat and the case is completely different.

The action is excellent, it's pretty high, the way I live it. No fretbuzz.
The neck pickup is slightly low, maybe that's why it's so much more quiet than the bridge pickup. I kind of don't like that variance, it makes for unequal tone, but I bought this guitar used, so it was set up by the previous guy. Everything is properly routed.
No flaws, save for tiny dings and the volume knob is loose.

This guitar will definitely survive, I can tell. Feels amazing. The hardware looks like it will last, I need to get the tone knob glued in or something.
The finish is pretty durable. Strap buttons are solid. It's a dependable guitar, I would love to go on stage with it; as I said, I honestly see, in terms of quality, no difference between this and my Fender MIM Strat.

It can gig without backup for sure, but I would replace the tuners perhaps just in case, although they too are surprisingly durable. One necessary upgrade though is the nut, plastic squier nuts suck.

I wish I knew the year it was made. I have a Fender MIM Strat and I'm planning on buying a USA Strat deluxe or Jazzmaster sometime soon.
I love its strat blend with the tele look, makes for a very unique looking guitar. It has a beautiful sunburst finish, although if the pickguard was black it would look even better (it is white). I would definitely buy another one if it was stolen. I love the neck pickup and its slight slant, it gives it a fender mustang type sound- slightly twangier than a strat neck.

I wish it had a better nut, maybe a bone or L.S.R nut, and a floating tremolo- that would be incredible! I also wish the body was Alder, but this Basswood is incredibly vibrant and light, I have no problem with it.

I have a Squier Strat and in terms of quality it is nowhere near this guitar. I'd honestly say I'd prefer this gutiar over my MIM strat, and my MIM Strat is my baby.

Don't know what year - sold it a while ago. Changed nut, filed fret ends, sanded back of neck, otherwise stock.

Based on price, this is a ridiculously good sounding guitar. Like most, I purchased this on clear-out for less than the price of a good pedal. Again, rating factors in price paid. One pickup was way better than the other, can't remember which, but you could get better tone than any Mexican fender (save the Classic Player series) with that pickup.

Lousy, but you get what you pay for, and you get more tone than you pay for with this baby. Bridge needs to be replaced. Fret ends protruded. Intonation not set up from factory (some cheap guitars are set up, e.g. OLP). Plastic nut. Tuners not as bad as everyone says. loctite the shaft so they stay in the headstock. Tighten the screws on the ends a little, and not too bad. One rockin' stock pickup, on OK.

Bridge will rattle eventually no matter how much time you spend setting it up properly. Cheap Asian pig-iron low-tolerance machining. Again, you get what you pay for. Swap that out, and there's nothing really wrong with this guitar.

Never used it.

I've been playing acoustic for many years - lost track a long time ago. Electric for maybe five years. Great tone for the price. Some cheap upgrades and you could be happy with this guitar for a long time. I wouldn't buy another one as I'm mostly back to acoustic. Based on price plus upgrades, still great bang for the buck.

Body: basswood
Neck: maple, C-shape with polyurethane finish 21 medium jumbo Frets, hard-tail 6-saddle bridge,

1 single-coil Strat pickup (neck), 1 hot humbucking pickup (bridge)
3-position rotary selector Switch, push/pull coil selector Switch (on master volume pot)

Great finish - Sunburst

I have been playing since I was 7yo. I leaned classical and later rock, country, folk, blues. I stopped play for about 10 years, and sold my electric. Just decided to go back and play found this for $100 on e-bay. Great and flexible guitar. Rock, Blues, Jazz, anything. Sound is awesome. If you can find one snatch it up. The sound is awesome through either my premier amp or Fender GDEC.

Plenty of variety with the 5 selections of neck and bridge pickup, plus the advantage of coil cut on the humbucker. Stock pickups are great, though you could mod them easy enough.

Could have another pickup in the middle position but with the humbucker it is not a real issuer

Excellent condition for a used guitar. I hear the fit and finish varied, but from all I have read and seen, these are well made guitars.

Very reliable though I have not had it long. Definitely a gig guitar without backup. (You should always have a backup!)

Have never had to call.

This is a great guitar, and was highly under-rated. Squier 51's are probably more popular now than when they were in production. I will not be modding this one and found others who have also not modded or just given them a slight tweak, like upgrading the bridge or replacing one of the pickups.

Get one, play it for a while before you consider modding it.

Love this guitar.

Very meat and potatos guitar. 3 way rotary switch coil tapped humbucker in the bridge pickup and slant orientation single coil strat style pickup with a top laoding hardtail bridge. This was the stock configuration. Tele style neck 1 piece maple. I bought this guitar to mod out. Out of the box it's really good but very basic. Body was blonde polyeurathane finish. I refinished it same color but with nitrocellous. Black single ply pickguard.

Again I bought this to hot rod. Out of the box though it's really impressive sounding. Coil tap is strat sounding. Full humbucker is very bluesy lots of tonal varity even without a master tone. The neck pickup to me sounds somewhere between a strat and tele. Very nice sounding for a Squier. I was really impressed and saved the the electronics for a future project.

Well I don't expect anything to come out of the factory set up to my taste. Had some sharp fret edges, didn't take a lot to fix that. Frets are tall narrow frets still I like them.

I didn't really give it a chance. I completly modded mine out repaint, Got a vintage Seamour Duncan tele Pickup and coil tapped humbucker for it. Custom short tele style ashtray bridge 3 brass compensated saddles. As it is now, I'd put it against anything else out there in a test of endurance.

Don't know never used them.

This is a great modders guitar. I enjoyed working on it over the past 40 days. Stock they're really nice, it's different and will stand out. If you've got a collection and are looking for something that will stand out and be different pick one up if you can find them. These were the first among the vintage modified series so they're on par with Squier Standard seires, maybe better. I love this thing especially after modding.

Ok, don't know what year it was made because I bought it used, and with a replacement neck. I bought a stock 51 neck off ebay and swapped it on. I've had this guitar about 6 months now.

The rest of the features are more or less stock, except for a replacement humbucker in the bridge position. I only know this because the coil tap doesn't work, and when I took it to get it reconnected I was told the humbucker was 2-conductor instead of 4-conductor. Not sure if the neck pickup is stock or not.

The body is of the tobacco-burst variety. The pickguard is probably the stock one, but has been sprayed black, and the top half has been cut to be more or less strat-shaped. Looks odd, but really cool.

Apart from the neck, the only mod I have made is swapping off the knobs and putting on some Jaguar-style black ones.

The neck, despite the headstock, is NOT a Tele neck. This neck is chunky, like a baseball bat. Took some getting used to at first, but now I am used to it and really like it. The wood is nice maple, with a few birds-eyes scattered about.

In all, I have a unique, not-so-hot-rod of a guitar. I like it.

As for features, not much at all.

The guitar sounds AMAZING. I play with no effects, through a Marshall MG-10, with the contour set to 8. The humbucker (I have no idea what it is!) sounds really great. Mid-rangey, grunty, and strong, it sounds almost like a Les Paul-type grunt. Very full sound. I imagine it would sound great distorted, but I haven't tried it. Sounds good with the amp overdriven.

The neck pickup is totally different and equally impressive. It sounds like a strat. And I mean it REALLY sounds like a strat. Lots of pick attack, very clean, clucky and plucky. Just a beautiful clean sound.

Despite the lack of a tone control, neither pickup sounds overly trebly or harsh. But I still would like a tone control for the variety it offers.

But for what it is now, 10's all the way !

I have no idea about the factory setup. I had it professionally done, and it came out quite well. The action is a little higher than I would like, but everything else is spot-on.

For the strings, I have d'Addario strings, either 10-46 or 11-48. I don't remeber which.

I have to be careful adjusting the piickup heights, because if I bring them too close to the strings, they fall back into the route, which is a pain in the butt to correct. This is especially the case with the bridge pickup.

In all, no major flaws, just as long as I leave it alone.

The guitar would definitely stand up to live playing, even without a backup. But I'm sure no self-respecting working musician would gig without a backup.

The guitar seems very duarable, but I should change the pickup height adjustment screws for longer ones.

It's a Squier, they're built like mini-tanks.

No idea, I go to a luthier

I've been playing about 9 years, but have only gotten serious and made real progress in the past 9 months. I have already mentioned my amp, and I also own 3 other Squier guitars: an 07 Jagmaster, an 01 Affinity Tele, and an 08 Affinity Strat. The 51 is by far the best sounding of the bunch, but the neck is toughest to play.

If lost or stolen, I would definitely try to get another one of these, but would probably leave it more or less stock. I'd try to find a blonde.

I do wish it had a tone control, but that lack is also part of the guitars thrown-together charm.

In all, a pretty good guitar that oozes unique style and charm. She may not look like much, but the sound sure packs a punch...

Mine was made... Oh I haven't really bothered to check the serial number yet. I bought it off craigslist with the original strings still on her. She's got 21 frets. Basswood body, maple fingerboard. Push pull pot. Mine was sunburst with an AWFUL AWFUL bright white pickguard. The sunburst finish is beautiful. She's got a humbucker in the bridge and a single coil in the neck. Passive pickups. Both of them are pretty decent pickups for the price. It's a strat body with a tele neck. I don't really mind the bridge.

I play in the OSU jazz band and have a local gigging "rock" band. I have my 51' and a epi les paul (Hey, I'm a college student, I'm poor, maybe one day I'll be able to afford a Gibson. But it's the player, not the gear that counts anyways). I run her through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I've only swapped out the tubes to JJs. Beautiful Fender single coil sound. It's not noisy at all even at high volumes in gigs. She's got a pretty full single coil sound and a meaty bucker sound. There's TONS of variety you could do. I'm a huge Clapton fan so I play tons of blues but also jazz, pop, rock, etc. This guitar does it all. FOR ONLY 100 DOLLARS you couldn't ask for more.

The factory had the action pretty high. The pickups were perfect and the finish is BEAUTIFUL. Uh pickguard SUCKS. I changed to to the pearl deluxe pickguard from guitarfetish.com. It looks so nice. The neck is awesome and not too thin or thick. Although it's kinda weird... the neck seems to be slightly thicker as it progresses from bolt to tuners. The guitar needs to be adjusted and set up, but all guitars do. Even Gibson customs. Everyone has their own preferences.

She has withstood tons of gigging. Solid guitar. Hardware will last. Finish is thick and beautiful. Straps... uh put locks on if you're gigging. This is my main/backup guitar. I switch between 51' and LP depending on mood.

I would imagine it would suck. Go to your local tech. Never needed them yet.

I've been playing for years now and spent countless days in GC playing every guitar I could ever dream of owning. This stands up to the best of them. I would buy one if it got lost. Now that I've upgraded the pickguard it's perfect. I just wish it could make me breakfast.

Ordered two of these guitars in 2007.
NOS as its been discontinued for awhile.

#1 Black/White showed up with a one piece maple neck.
A gorgeous paint and neck and all hardware in immaculate shape.
Flawless I must admit.

#2 Sunburst showed with a 2 piece maple, curly maple top-piece on the neck. Very eye catching. And for this price! a gorgeous guitar.

I love the hardtail. The Fender-ish design is all here, really a fun guitar. Tele neck, Strat body, P-bass pickguard single ply.

Single in front, Hum in back, with split knob for the running the hum in seperate coil mode.


I prefer the 1.68 neck(US Standard Strat 2000 and on).
Gibson LesPaul lovers enjoy the tighter spaced strings.

The SQUIER 51 is 1.65", bigger than the Squier Strats at 1.61 and others. The Squier 51 is in the middle. C-shaped 9.5, very nice in my opinion.

1.65 the strings are a few thousandths closer together (near exact to the Gibson Les Paul's in general).

I notice it!! many players won't.

For $10 and some filing a new Strat nut will space the strings a bit more, but I'm too lazy most likely.(we're talking thousandths of an inch here!)




Its very different than my US Standard Stratocaster, but really a great guitar.

Thee neck was gorgeous to me. The sound of the humbucker was not my fav Humbucker. It had more of a Dimarzio sound, both the soft tone, LP with the flip switch between the Rythm and Treble.
Most people have their setting and it stays there. This has a great tone in the front and I leave it there 90% the time.

These are Standard pickups that can be changed out like any guitar.

Compared to many other guitars....I give this one a 10. Only because Sound is subjective. I hear and play $1800 guitars that suck. Some do, some don't...some have "your" vibe some don't.

Setup from the factory was ok. My US $1,000 Strat was re-setup when it arrived....so what's the beef?

People spend hundreds and hundreds fixing up expensive guitars, so out-of-box setup on this $100 guitar isn't an issue. It was fine.

As a gearhead, I played with the setup some using a tuner. All was well.

Put on new strings is all I had done. Wipe the guitar down....smiled.

Its been over 4 weeks no issues. Its a maple neck and basswood body. It appears to be a great guitar..

Live playing this guitar is probably as good as 80% of them. I won't say and haven't tested this out.

however you drop a $2500 LesPaul down the stairs at a gig and a $100 guitar....which one will depress you financially?
If your friend accidentally raises the guitar up and runs the headstock into the ceiling fan!! Which one will have a bigger financial depression attached?

This guitar is solid. The tuning pegs feel nice, its a good guitar. BAsswood is softer, there are expenisve guitars made of Basswood.

As I read it, Basswood is in between Alder(STrat) and the Mahogony (LesPauls).

For $100 this is a great guitar. Is a $3400 Les Paul better? It has some better wood and better chrome plating, maybe some nice pickups...it also costs $3300 MORE!!!!

So better is relevant. For a $100 I give this Squier 51 a 10.

No Idea?

Great Forums and Happy owners and Modders are available for this guitar.

30yrs of playing.
Mostly Home Recording/Hobby now...several earlier years live.
All kinds of tastes. I've had the full range of guitars.

The neck is important to me. Probably my #1 choice preference.
There is no right or wrong, necks are for a players choice.

My favorite is the 1.68, 9.5 rad, Satin finish, rolled edges found on the US STrat 2000 and to date (9/2/2007) and vintage yellowish color. Very specific.

Nothing to do with price or brand name.

And the Squier 51 has the 9.5, and the 1.65 is noticeable but ok.
The neck can be stained with shoe polish and rubbed down and it's beautiful.

The neg's is the frets are a bit rough on the edge, in my opinion.

but for $100...I feel guilty saying anything bad, as its as good and definaitely as fun as my $1000 Stratcaster.

The 51 has a Rare factor too, its discontinued, its got the Fender-ish vibe going, its cheap,

its a great deal at $100...an amazing deal.

My 2005 '51 feats:

- black BASSWOOD body / white '50s style pickguard (Strat)
- maple neck
- fixed bridge
- standard tuners
- standard 21-fret Tele neck
- HxS pickups
- pots: 1VOL (bridge coil tap) + 1 P-UP SWITCH

It is NOT a MIDI-ready 3-pickup dual-output piezo-bridge guitar, but it does something that I could rarely find in a MIDI-ready 3-pickup dual-output piezo-bridge guitar: perfectly nailed Fat Strat and Tele sounds, with a completely no-brainer approach. I'm a simple guy. It is a very SIMPLE yet powerful design for meat-and-potatoes players like me. It is just a guitar design that has really made me smile in a long time.

It is very clever in its raw way but some people will find the design too minimal. Well, if the MIDI-ready 3-pickup dual-output piezo-bridge guitar is ten... Go for eight.

Hence its crossover nature, it can be used for anything that is banged through a guitar now'days. I used it for modern metal - worked; funk/rock - worked; country-twang - worked; laying tracks in the studio - worked; onstage abuse - worked.

With careful settings of treble and presence (aye, this beast is BRIGHT) it sounds decent - and often better than its original elder Fender MIM brothers - through any piece from my amps. Tonewise I have no complains: basically, tone is in the fingers and the '51 is a nice playground for them. It is Strat when I want to sound like a Strat and it's Tele with an attitude. I'm a modder freak so it is quite odd that I have no desire to change pickups this time. They just sing well for me. Actually, I prefer it to stock Fenders because it does have some distinctive character beyond owning the tone of stereotypical Strats and Teles.

Downside: if you want to go onstage with this ax you MUST change bridge adjust screws. The original ones on mine were too small and they started to dance out when I started to dance in. Bigger screws - problem solved. With this little fix it can become your super lo-cost gig-axe that can take beats. Anyway, I have no desire to bang it around too much. It's such a nice simple old-fashioned little gal.

About rating... Well, it is definitely not your classy Music Man or Fender Custom Shop tone, but in the $100 category I can not pick a better axe. It is strictly subjective, but the ones that for me come close conisdering feel and vibe start about $600...

Fat ten here.

Right out of the box it was sooo perfect that I needed four hours of setup, re-screwing and worrying about with 20 years of practice as an axeman/techie. Well, shiny metal and plastic things were screwed loosely on the thing all over, oh yeah there was some foamy wrap rip-rap and there were six or some wires, too. I just got a screwdriver, took everything apart and put together with care, put on wires that deserve the term "STRING" and I live happily even after.

I wouldn't like the idea of being attacked with one in a dark street. It's... Solid.

Well, there is a big no-no for packing workers... But anyway, the CNC lathes were well programmed, the materials are pretty decent, fits are okay - just grab your tools to get high. Change the loose bridge height adjustment screws with bigger ones and get higher. Otherwise, it's a problem-free pupp. Deserves a seven.

It is absolutely okay, keeps tune well and tends not to fall apart in nasty conditions. After a proper setup you can go hunting with the little bastard. Attaching a bayonett or a scope might be a lil' challenging - but playing a setful of Yngwie Malmsteen solos are FAR MORE challenging, for ex.

The official dealer is a great guy here. The max rating is for him. Well, and for the fact that after a poolful amount of beer intake he can still play any note-perfect anything from anyone.

So, there are subjective things that drive you to make a choice. My car dealer is a huge Metallica fan, my boss loves Dream Theater, my dentist is a helluva Hammond organ player and a diehard John Lord fan... You get the idea.

I love to get cheap and rare guitars with character and upgrade them radically to fool people. My fav setup is my Warmoth LPS axe through a JD Hendrix Special wah and a juicy JCM900 SL-X. During the years (since '89, approx) I have gone through an amount of guitars, amps and gadgets. I sold most of them by now because I realised that I need only a 2-pickup guitar, a wah and a cranked tube amp sitting on a Celestion Greenbacked cab to make me smile so I invested the money coming from excess guitar gear in mic preamps, soundcards and microphones instead. Now I only have a couple of 2-pickup guitars, wahs and amps around: Warmoth LPS (stellar), Hohner L75 (pickup testbed, nice backup axe, with the best neck dimensions ever), luthier-made EVH (for Eddie's Eruption's sake), Essex E-6 (bad rare guitar with good tone), Squier '51 (you know), Marshall JCM800 50W (hot Marsh), Marshall JCM900 SL-X 50W (hotter Marsh), Selmer T'n'B (Beatles generator), Laney AOR Super Lead (praise Vinnie Moore), Diezel VH4S (the best amp emulation ever), Cry Babies, Klotz cables, Neutrik plugs, TLAudio and Focusrite preamps, Shure and Rode mics, Echo soundcards, M-Audio monitors, Mackie, Mitsubishi, Adidas... Okay, enuff.


The Squier '51 was the biggest surprise for me in years. I love this guitar just the way it is. I love its features and reliability for its ridiculously low price tag. I hate the fact that Squier stopped its production this year.

I would gladly steal one (or persuade someone to lose it any day). Well, if I had the attitude, of course.

The '51 is a simple, sweet looking, nice redneck girl: it won't show you everything for the first sight but once you get in touch, you get touched really naaaasty. In cases it's not the best looking classy girls from the best families are the best to funkeety-funk with.

Go dirty. It's good to wanton in a haybale with them gals. Don't bang for the buck. Bang for the bang. Get a '51.

(...and never let yourself be fooled by commercial masterminds...)

- Finish: two-tone-sunburst, nice job, one-ply pickguard
- Body: strat-style, Basswood (four Parts)
- Bridge: fixed, top-loader
- Neck: tele-style, 648mm, one-piece-maple (yeah really), frets look pretty jumbo to me, narrow C-shape
- Made in: Indonesia
- Frets: 21
- Controls: master volume (push/pull for coil tap), three-way pickup switch
- Pickups: SH, all passive

Be careful when you buy that guitar without actually seeing it, because I already had 51s in my hand that:
- had a glued on maple fingerboard instead of a one-piece
- had a single coil screwed into the pickguard not into the wood
- hab a completely crooked bridge

Were lucky with mine...

Suits perfectly for Blues, Rock or Hardrock, which I usually play. Am using it with a Crate GT65. Single-Coil is a bit noisier than the ones on my strat. Problem with this guitar is the divergence of the pickups and/or missing tone control. If I set up my amp right to suit the bridge humbucker then the neck single coil loses its life completely. Vice versa if I adjust the amp to make the single coil sound good than the humbucker is way to brittle and sounds like an egg slicer ;) They are just not balanced. The humbucker has to much power or the single coil has way to less. The difference of distortion level at the same amp settings are enormous. Because I like the humbucker better i'm gonna replace the single coil with something more powerfull. Single coil also has not the right blues sound. Not warm enough and at the same time treble's missing, too. Humbucker produces lots(!) of overtones... great lead pickup, could be a very little warmer. Coil tap is a cool feature - and if that fake single coil at the bridge sounds better than the real one at the neck than somethings wrong.

Just had to get it in tune it and make it intonate. One of the four bridge mounting screws is drilled veeery badly but you don't see it until you get close enough. Some of the adjusting screws interfere with the strings when the bridge is set up for intonation (have to cut two of'em). Nut is a pretty flimsy piece of plastic. Neck is nice (satin finish), fits even better into my hand than my strat's neck!

We'll see ;)

Four years warranty@soundland... has nothing to do with fender/squier.

Have now been playing for five years. Also got a squier strat. Its a really nice guitar. Better (at least to me) than a lot of way more expensive guitars and a neck to fall in love with! Would buy it again if stolen, but it's not so easy to find another almost-perfect one (warning@features).

Favourite features:
- paint job
- neck
- humbucker
- design
- controls, coil tap

Dislikes (that will get replaced):
- single coil
- nut
- bridge

this is the second one of these guitars i have bought.this one is the blonde one with the black pickguard.this one is just as good as my first one.that one i only used the neck.this one i plan on leaving mostly stock.

this guitar like the first one sounds very good.i am going to leave the stock pickups in this one.i use peavey transtube amps and this guitar sounds very good with them.i play rockabilly music and buddy holly is my biggest influence.this guitar fits these styles very well.

this guitar came out of the box set up very well.the fit and finish are excellent.this guitar has a one piece neck like the first one.some i have heared are two pieces but none of the ones i have seen have had a two piece neck.

i just got this guitar so i have no idea how it will survive.but i see no reason why it won't last for a very long time.

this guitar is a very good guitar.nuff said

Maple on maple neck - irritating. Why not just a one piece maple neck? Some reviewers here claim they have a single piece neck, and they very well might. One thing you can count on with budget guitars is inconsistent construction, materials and quality control. Shouldn't complain, though, for only $99. The Guitar Player magazine review says the body is alder, but Sam Ash, where I bought it, describes it as basewood, which is probably right considering where it was made (Indonesia). I seriously doubt its alder and wouldn't count on that. Its slightly thinner than a strat body.

The volume knob and pickup selector could use some kind of marker so you know where the volume is set and what pickup you're on. My pickup selector is set backwards, I think - you turn it toward the neck to select the humbucker. Should be the other way around.

The humbucker coil tap is a very cool feature and the main reason for buying this guitar.

As noted in other reviews, a cross between a strat and a tele. The humbucker can go from fender twang to ear-piercing bright to grungy crunch.

The single coil neck pickup is nondescript - not great, not bad, just ok. Works best in the middle position with the humbucker. I play it through a Vox AD30VT (modeling amp), and I find that this guitar really responds to the different amp settings for a lot of tonal variety - more so than a Les Paul copy I have.

I would describe the overall sound as "primal". Don't look here for subtle overtones, etc., like you get from a Fender strat or tele. Thats ok, though. Sounds great with 11 gauge strings for a no frills, low down blues sound. Of course, you can always change the pickups as others here have done, but the tone is unique and very useful as is.

Judging from other reviews, quality control seems to be all over the map. Maybe I lucked out, because my guitar was very well put together, right down to the intonation.

The fret edges are totally smooth. There was some grinding on the top of the frets when bending strings, but that went away after a few hours of playing - I guess I smoothed them out. The maple fretboard is perfectly meshed into the neck, but you can tell its a separate board from the difference in color. Overall the neck is very smooth and pleasing to hold. It even has some nice flame and Birdseye patterns.

The no-name tuners seem to work well as the guitar stays in tune. The black body is flawlessly finished, but looks ugly with the white pickgaurd, in my opinion. I plan to paint it black with a white border on the beveled edge. I had to adjust the truss rod, action, and intonation when I installed 11 gauge strings, but obviously that would have to be done on any guitar.

All in all, very good fit and finish. For the price, I give it a 9. I would give it a 10 if it were available in some different, cooler colors. The blond body with black pickguard looks great, but you can't find it, at least not new.

Seems very solid, but only time will tell...

Never used them.

I've only been playing a couple of years and I don't gig. My other guitars, including my son's, are a late 80's Japanese Fender strat, a Les Paul copy, and an Epiphone Flying V (GREAT action and sound. Highly recommend this guitar). The 51 compares favorably to all of them.

I've always wanted a Telecaster, but don't want one as bad now since this guitar produces those icy, twangy, crisp tones that the tele is famous for. I play them all through the VOX ad30vt, which I think is a very good sounding amp.

If it were stolen, I would definitely replace it. It's a steal for $99 and I should probably buy one or two more while I still can. I think they'll go up in price since they're so popular and no longer being made.

This thing is sort of the PT Cruiser of Fender guitars; it's "vintage" styled, but it's not a recreation of any one guitar. It's like "Fender's Greatest Hits." And thank you, Fender, for making it a fixed bridge.

The only styling cue that doesn't fit is the big ugly black humbucker; I'm planning on swapping it out for a chrome PAF that will look the part better.

I am in love with the neck pickup on this guitar, especially on a clean setting. It's that chimey Telecaster sound, which some people hate, but I adore. The humbucker sounds okay too, but it's a little "quacky" sometimes.

Mine is the sunburst finish, and it's got some good woodgrain on it. The finish is flawless. The intonation was off out of the box, but I as able to set it without a problem. Heavier strings help the buzz, and next time I'll go heavier still, to REALLY put some yank on the neck.

I found a couple crooked screws, and one stripped one on the bridge. The wood of the body is a little soft, so be careful, or be prepared to do the drill-and dowel trick.

The knobs WILL fall off. You can pull the coil-tap about three times before the volume knob comes off in your hand. Somewhere, I have a box o' guitar bits with a set-screw knob; I just have to find it.

It hasn't left my house yet, but so far, so good. Everything seems solid enough. I'd play out with it.

Haven't dealt with them at all. But I probably wouldn't, especially on a $99 guitar. I'll fix it myself if something goes wrong.

This is my third or fourth Squier guitar, and yeah, they're not quite as polished as the "real" Fenders. But they're a fraction of the price, and they're perfectly serviceable instruments. I'd like to see some nicer hardware and a better bridge pickup, but those things can be changed. The "bones" are there.

It's really too bad they quit making these. I may very well pick up another one used to customize. I keep picturing one in Surf Green, with a pearl pickguard and lipstick pickups...

Mine is black with a white pick guard, with the maple neck. Feels like an oak bough in your hands -- solid as a rock, and hard enough to be used as a self defense weapon. I consider this a feature (for the playing factor, not for acutally repelling attackers). Classic strat body, but with more of a mellow tele tone to it, a combo I like quite a bit. The pickups are nothing special, but come on, I paid $89 for it on sale at MF. I particularly like the humbucker/single coil option. True, there's a bit of edge to the sound, but only at certain settings. Otherwise, a very ringy, clear sound with good detail.

I admit it -- the electric is pretty much an experiment and a toy for me. I'm a masher, and for that purpose, this thing is phenomenal. Tone purists will probably turn up their nose at this thing, but I love the places where the dissonance comes out -- it's usually warm and buzzy, rather than harsh and edgy, although cranking the volume full can give you more edge than you probably want.

Finish is beatiful. As far as action and fit, well...

The setup was garbage from the factory -- you couldn't go five frets up without hearing obvious tone problems. Hey, I'd never set up a guitar before, so I got digging on the internet, pulled out the screwdrivers and hex keys, and went to work. I had a good time doing it, and now the guitar sounds great, but if that kind of thing isn't your bag, you might want to avoid the MF specials on this thing. Sure, it might come set up fine, but if it was like mine, it's going to take hours of fiddling to get it to sound right.

What this thing lacks in features and finesse, it makes up for in stockiness. I'm a rather big guy, and I don't know that if I hit a fit of on-stage rage, if I actually COULD smash this thing. The tuners could probably be a bit tighter, but everything else is rock solid. Very deep black finish that I'm not scared to play. Again, except for the strings, I can wail on this thing and not think twice about it. What a cheap electric should be, IMO.

No experience.

Look, if someone gave me a Gadeau in an even swap, it wouldn't take me a second to say yes. This isn't a finely tuned machine. But everything doesn't have to be perfect to have fun on it, and make some really wonderful music. You can play the '51 in a lot of styles without it holding you back in the slightest. No subtlety or finesse, but just a solid rock and roll guitar. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.

This guitar is a combination of strat and telecaster features. It trys for the best of both worlds and fails miserably on both counts.

There is nothing subtle in the sound indeed it is very harsh. It comes without a tone control, which normally I never use, however with this beast I would like to have used tone to take off a brittle top end.

This is where I am most disappointed with this guitar. The neck is rough and you need to file the fret edges to get some degree of comfort.
I adjusted the intonation to get open strings, harmonics and 12th fret notes the same, however the 2nd and 3rd fret notes were a mile out. I compared the fret spacings with that on my Mex Strat and they are quite different.
Changing chords on this guitar can render some horrible shocks.

It is made to normal Squier standard - adequate but not brilliant.

I have several guitars, ranging in quality. In my collection is Squier Affinity fat strat - it is far better than the Squier 51. It appears that Indonesian build is rubbish compared to any other Fender manufacturing base.
If you want a great guitar for about ??100 try a Richwood - they are real class.

You know the features. You got so much for so little money, but I don't consider them unecessary. If I wanted a strat, I'd buy a strat. If I wanted a tele, I'd buy a tele. This is it's own thing, but mixes in so many things AND the controls make it fun to play. The split coil is really effective--I was going to swap it out for a regular pot and just use the humbucker alone, but I like it stock.

This is a great sounding guitar. I own a nice Les Paul and a Jimi Hendrix tribute strat, so I feel like I have the bases covered. I've owned every American vintage model Fender you can think of and I always sell them because they all need a few upgrades, but I feel like upgrading ruins the vibe of buying a vintage reissue so I ditch them. This just sounds great and works. The neck pickup is very "stratty" in a good way. The split-coil bridge setting sounds like a weak tele, but cool. The humbucker alone is really effective. I will use this for slide or maybe for a dirty sounding garage rock/reverbed-out tone. Just think Bo Diddley, The Black Keys, or The Kinks. This will get you there, but do some quick setup adjustments.

The actions was high, so I lowered it. The fret edges are rough, so I will fix them. There's nothing fancy about this guitar and it's more than I expected for the money. Putting new strings on (at least 10's) is a must.

I will be nervous gigging with this because I worry about tuning issues. I may do some upgrades here and there, when I have extra money to tinker with this. I will try to just leave it stock and make it work. At most I'll put some reissue Kluson tuning pegs, new pickups and upgrade the pots--if I decide to gig with it. I think it's a good gigging guitar because you won't have to worry about it getting trashed or stolen.

I have been playing for too long. I've owned tons of guitars and sold tons of them along the way. I don't like to own a lot of gear, so I keep things that work or are fun to have around. I own a solid bassman ltd reissue, a few Fulltone pedals, and a few guitars. This is a keeper. I may change my mind, but it's nice to leave it on the stand so when people come over they can just knock it around and I don't mind it being a beater. It sounds good for recordings and mixes in well with other guitars on tracks. Find one, if you can. I looked all around L.A. and found a few left at Sam Ash for $99...better grab one soon.

Polyurethane body 'shell' over basswood, 3/4 thickness strat body, top load six saddle chrome hardtail bridge, one piece maple tele 25.5
neck, tele headstock, 9.5+ radius, almost med jumbo frets, cheap white nut, one coat sealer only. Neck sometimes two piece, can be birdseye fretboard, still wif skunkstripe. Comes with cardboard box, allen tools, serial numbers. Made mid 2004 thru late 2006, at Cort plant in Indonesia. 21 frets. 3-6 piece solid basswood body. Three way pup radial dial, coil tap, yields five settings; Volume but no tone control. Single coil neck, tappable HB in bridge, all passive.

Neck pup alone can be too bright, varies from guitar to guitar.
Blends of pups + HB alone, tapped + untapped, yields plenty of good sounds from Peavey Classic 50 2x12. Quietest in center position, with coil tapped (?) Pup output a little low for loud live music.
I don't shred or play cannibal metal, so I can't comment there.
No tone control means the pure pup sound can come straight through your amplifier. How often do you not have your tone control dimed?
The tone sort of takes care of itself as you turn the volume knob, which knob is push pull to handle coil tap.

at $ 100 street price, you must look at this guitar not quite as a kit, but as a guitar that may require some set up, and will definitely need intonation + screws tightened or upsized. In all but the clumsiest or most innocent hands, this guitar can be worked up with available tools to be a very good player, maybe a 400-500 $ guitar. Don't overtighten the tuners, which work fine, but refit kluson style for better function and appearance. Pickguards are not interchangeable always, many screw configurations. HB + ring can be mounted too far towards controls. Bridge needs work/ can be replaced.

Don't strip the urethane off this body, as the wood is dentable and not that pretty. Take the neck off and put some Deft on it, or you'll wear thru the sealer and get the dirt look. Buttons for straps have big screws, fine. This is probably your backup guitar at the gig. It is, except for what I've said above, as stout as the usual Fender tele or strat. It can be readily upgraded with hdwr, bridge or saddles, tuners, and be your main guitar.

Fender and Cort have been around for years. I'd personally be sheepish complaining about anything on a $100 guitar. This is a gift, and don't forget that.
The Fender guy on the phone in Corona was polite, but he knew basically less about this guitar than you did before you started reading the first entry here, or he wouldn't say. I don't mind.
Finally, this guitar was discontinued as of February, 2007, tho some can still be found in sunburst or black in unopened boxes. Wxcept for achived reviews FMIC website's been swept clean.

I have ten of these things, Scout's Honor. I've got other stuff I love, too many to mention, and this cost twenty five percent of my next cheapest guitar, and yet I don't feel let down in any way when I'm playing one of these. This guitar is really not to be 'wasted' on beginnners or the uninspired, it just needs your loving attention to be fully set up. I don't like giving tens, but because of the ridiculous and unmatched price/value relationship, I give it a

This is an update to my previous post, see below. not the easiest pickup change but easier than most. The screamin demon (lead,HB) fit perfect. but the lead on the classic stack(neck, SC) was kinda short and I had to add to the white wire. There are adjustment screws for the neck pickup,which is a body mount pickup, save and re-use these or you'll have a mess trying to pickguard mount this pickup with the short wire length."i understand now..sensei..." re-use the foam adjustment pad also. no routing necesary...Hooray!

pickup and string replacement...$200, better sounding squire...priceless. strung it up with the 11's and went right into some VHII...it's choicey.

stiffened the neck, adjusted the saddles...all is good.

Well now I have a $300 squier '51. I feel alot better about the sound and playability...it Rocks. I've spent alot more money on failed projects. So it's really is great when one works out for a change.

And alas, I get to do the $99 review of this guitar. and I took the time thistime to place it under the correct manufacturers site. Squire's I believe...should be listed under Squire. Not fender squire, Renault made my Nissan but the insurance company says Nissan... any how out of the box eevrything looked great, nice strat type body with a adjustable stop tailpiece, satin finished maple tele neck with diecast tuners, p-bass control set with a push pull volume(coiltap) and a three way rotary position knob in the tone postition. a real good solid basswood body feel. some standard fender pickups , a humbucker and a single coil in the neck.21 frets... made in Indonesia

Hears where the boar eats the cabbage...anything that activates my tinitus(tin ear) ain't the greatest.been playing 26 years and prefer metal/classic rock/ country. haven't done a setup on it yet for the 11's, and it came strung with 9's so I'll try to be fair. I've only run it through my Cube60 and A/B'd it with my junebug custom strat w/ kinmans, and a thinline tele w/dimarzios,(did not adjust eq during comparing) it had a thin sound without doing any EQing, kind of tinny in comparison but, I believe a setup with the 11's and some adjutments could get some of the shrill out of it. I also haven't played it through a stack.it get's a little noisy with effects and that always means...pickup changeout time. it plays great otherwise, setup was okay out of the box and overall for $99 I'm happy.

All of it was better than I can do, I build and do laquer finishes, but you can't beat a nice poly coat done right. Unfortunatelly, and take note: there is no pickup adjustment for the neck single coil. If you decide to replace it you may need to rout the cavity and add adjustment screw holes through the pick guard. the standard pickup height seems pretty good for the ware. every thing else is just fine.

I'm sure this guitar can take a beating upfront. I've been playing squires since 1986, and I still have them all. The newer ones concern me though with the wire gauges,pots, switches and solder, but I haven't had a failure yet.(i have a new Obey tele and an Obey strat '06 purchases played 3-4 hours a week, no mods, no probs) this beast is getting an electrical overhaul...pup's, switches, wires, jack and pots. but that's my doing. for the Earl Shreib price of $99...I have no fear. I'd gig it in a heartbeat.

never dealt with squier/fender on guitars.

Hey 26 years ago I wish this guitar was around...of course for $99. my first guitar was an epiphone genesis, made in Taiwan, cost $200. took it in to get restrung and found out the neck was cracked. $400 later I had a jumbo refretted 18 pound log that I suffered with for 5 years...till I got my first squire. I have alot of very high dollar equipment and guitars. I just like the simplicity of gigging with good quality stuff, low cost,good sounding. so if the beer bottles start flying I can defend myself and not cry. If it were lost or stolen I'd probably be pissed, more over the labor and $200 dollars worth of pickups(screamin' demon and classic strat plus) I'm about to install. Squire makes new guitars everyday so I'd find a replacement, and start over...26 years ago I think if it was available, I'd definately have to replace it...or buy the fender Lead II...ah the memories. hey it's a good guitar. Rock on

TV yellow model, has no tone contol, has 3 way selector & coil tap. Nice c-shaped neck in maple w/maple fretboard. 1 s/c, 1 hb. would like tone control, especially since my valve jr head doesnt have 1.

Very nice blues guitar for the money with a wide variety of tones. I had a $300 Ibanez that did not sound as good & wasn't as versatile. Single coils is very nice, especially at low volume. HB is a little bitey & bright, but is beefy as well. An amp or pedal w/a tone cotrol would take out some of the bite. Action is a little high out of the box & intonation needs set, but most axes are like that, aren't they? May not even mess w/action as it is not way high & I play open tuned slide occasionally. I can't see Carlos Santana on stage with one of these, but for a shi**y player like me, its all you could ask four for 99 bucks! Rating is based on price/performance ratio.

Action was a little high, but well within the playable range. Frets could be a little smoother but that will take all of 10 minutes. Overall, very good for what it is.

I dont see this as a touring musicians main axe. It would make a decent backup (believe it or not) especially with better quality tuners installed. Seems very solid - for what it is (remember 99 bucks). Its good enough as is for a hack like me.

No opinion about "squire" by fender. I bought from MF & their customer support is very good.

At this price, there is no reason to not own an electric guitar if you want one.

Lots written about this guitar already... no need to list again. I recently bought a Tele Squire affinity series ($169), replaced the electronics, filed the frets, finished the neck, and was impressed at how good a cheap guitar could sound. Got me psyched to buy another cheap guitar and I noticed the '51 on sale at MF for $99. To my surprise, the '51 is a much higher quality guitar than the Tele Affinity (made in China). Neck is higher quality, overall quality is just superior, and it cost less (go figure).

Like others, I bought this guitar as a "project" guitar (it's only $99 so if I screw it up, no big deal). My plan: change out the pickups (I have good ones not in use, so I wouldn't have to buy new ones), rout out the control cavity to fit a tele control plate, install tele vol and tone pots and selector switch, trim back the pickguard and kabaam... great sounding guitar with not much money spent. I take the guitar out of the box and start playing it and to my amazement... it sounds great! I've thrown my plans out the window. Stock pickups are excellent. I think eliminating the tone control gives this guitar alot of its character. Also surprisingly, the neck and bridge pickups are fairly well balanced (very rare in a guitar with a sing + hum setup). I have also fallen in love with the ability to split the coil on the HB to get the single coil functionality.

Unlike my recently purchased Squire Tele Affinity, which looks great but sounds pretty bad without modifications, and which was set up terribly (not even an attempt to intonate correctly, frets unfinished and sharp, etc), this guitar was set up perfectly (or nearly so) right out of the cardboard box!! Just change the strings and go! I did notice some discoloration on the fretboard after not much playing time. Probably due to neck not being finished (perhaps some sealer but not much else). I've just finished doing some minor fret filing and putting a coat of polyurethane on the fretboard. I will probably not put any on the bottom of the neck, because the neck feels sleek and fast as is. Just want to protect the fretboard. People have said the $99 price is worth it for the neck alone and I would agree.

?? I don't have a good feel for the push-pull pot (reliability should be good) or especially the rotary selector. It's very functional, but not sure if it will hold up.

Unknown. Puchased from MF. Easy to talk to a phone sales rep, but I've not had much luck talking with a knowledgable support person (not sure they even exist). Ordering a guitar on the internet is great for convenience but otherwise risky. MF has a 30-day no questions asked return policy, so if there were any flaws I was prepared to send it back. Fortunately, it's perfect.

Great... I'd buy another if I could find any legitamite excuse to do so (I already have way too many guitars!). This guitar is light and the wood really resonates nicely when played (unlike my Am Standard Tele which is good quality but much heavier and not lively). This guitar even sounds good unplugged! MF said this model is being discontinued, so I would highly recommend to buy one while you still can. The butterscotch version with black pickguard was totally sold, so I opted for the sunburst, which also looks pretty good.

Body Basswood
Neck Maple, C-Shape,
(Polyurethane Finish)
Fingerboard Maple, 9.5??? Radius (241 mm)
No. of Frets 21 Medium Jumbo
Pickups 1 Single-Coil Strat?? Pickup (Neck),
1 Hot Humbucking Pickup (Bridge)
Controls Master Volume, 3-Position Rotary Pickup Selector Switch
Pickup Switching Push/Pull Coil Selector Switch (On Master Volume Pot), 3-Position Rotary Pickup Selector Switch, (In Place of Tone Control)
Bridge Hard-tail 6-Saddle Bridge
Machine Heads Standard Die-Cast Tuners
Hardware Chrome
Pickguard 1-Ply White
Scale Length 25.5??? (648 mm)
Width at Nut 1.650??? (42 mm)
Unique Features Telecaster?? Headstock,
Vintage Tinted Neck,
1-Ply White ???51 Style Pickguard,
Chrome ???51 Control Plate,
Knurled Chrome Dome Control Knobs,
Dot Position Inlays

This is the best $100 guitar that I've ever played.

I can get a nice humbucker sound, tele bridge sound, out of phase strat sound, strat neck position sound. It's a really versitile guitar. The pickups are slightly noisy when you switch the humbucker into single coil mode.

On a regular scale of 1-10, I would give the action a 6 (this means comparing it to a $1000 strat).

Comparing it to any other guitar priced at $400 or less, it's a 9.

I'm judging this guitar within the realm of affordable guitars, therefore I give it a 9.

It's solid as a rock. The tuners and hardware are as nice as an MIM.

I have 2 MIM Fenders and 2 PRS guitars. My wife bought this guitar for me to teach my 10 year old son.

This is a great student guitar and I've recorded a couple songs with it. If you need a guitar for a kid or a "fun" guitar for an established musician, this is a really nice buy. I've played for 32 years and I own 6 Martins, 1 Larrivee, 1 Gibson resonator and all my electrics. The 51 is a fun little guitar. If you are into modding, this would be a gem.

this is a update on the squire 51.the stock guitar was very good but i only saved the neck from mine.i ordered a american standard strat body and put this neck on it very good fit.i got a fender custom shop pearloid pickguard and some fender custom shop vintage pickups.the body is white.i put a ghoto tremolo on it.now i have a very cool custom fender guitar that cost me about 500.00 to build.the squire 51 is worth buying just for the neck alone.this guitar is all fender parts except the tremolo.you can't buy a fender new like this for this low price.all parts i bought new.this is my favorite guitar now.

I knew the neck was not a high glossy finish and did not expect it to be but I ordered the blone with black pickguard and was a little let down cause I thought it would be glossy instead of matt finish. Body is painted well and I really like the pick ups and coil tap switch.

It sounds like I wish my strat sounded. In fact the darn thing that cost me only $100 sounds better than most guitars I've ever owned and I have owned some nice ones. The back humbucker gives you a great drive sound like a Les Paul kind of and you can use the coil tap for a strat bridge pick up sound or my favorite it right in the middle with both back humbucker and single coil together just sounds wonderful. No tone knob but you won't miss it. It can sound sharp and percussive or more round and mellow. I am blown away.

OK so I get this guitar in the mail and discover there are a few screws on the pick guard that are kinda in crooked but get this...There was a screw in the jack plate that did not go in all the way and the head was stripped out. I removed it with a pair of pliers and found that the screw was a half inch long. I am surprised that kind of flaw went unnoticed at the factory but I guess a few will slip by now and then. I replaced it.
I had to set the neck a little and the intonation and the action was way off. You must know the basics of how to set a guitar up or pay to have it done. Once you do that it plays like a dream. It's worth the work you need to put into it.

I think the knobs seem a little loose and the bridge could be replaced but over all it seems like a fine guitar. I would have no problem using this as a main guitar and would not be afraid of the other boys making fun of me for playing a Squire.

Don't Know

Well I've had several different guitars over some 25 years of playing guitar and I liked this one so much I bought another one in black. I don't know why I felt the need to buy the same guitar in a different color. I guess I am so impressed with the first one that I will like having 2 and if I want to get rid of one it would make a terrific Christmas present for any guitar playing friend. But I doubt I'll be giving either one up anytime soon. At $100 a pop it would not be out of the question to buy all three color options and modify them in what ever funky ways you desire. I imagine there is a lot of that going on. These little jems are going to be favored classics in the future.

satin natural neck and fingerboard, lacquered body
Strat body, Tele neck, Tele style knobs and knob location
Individual string height and intonation bridge
Made c. 2006
One vol knob with push/pull for splitting the bridge pickup
One 3-way pickup selector knob

Can get hot sound, Tele sound, Strat sound
Pretty darn good quality stock pickups

The manufacturer should have done lots better on the final steps of production, and the guitar was not "set up" at all. The bridge plate screws and strap peg screw were not tightened, the bridge post strings heights were not evenly set and were Very high (and I LIKE high), intonation not set, truss rod had no tension so neck relief was way off, plastic flash in grooves of the nut needed dressing off, rubbing compound left on fingerboard and headstock. If a beginner had received this guitar, he wouldn't know it needed setting up and would be very disillusioned. The guitar now plays great, and it sounds very good too; the pickups are very decent. The pickup selector and the push/pull knob on the vol pot really do give a wide variety of useable tones. No tone knob: fine with me!

Sturdy, well made. Sometimes the pots, jacks, and switches are cheap on imports. This was made in Indonesia. Time will tell.

no clue. Never used it.

Playing for 40+ years. I own Gibsons, Ricks, Fenders, Dan-Os guitars, and about 30 amps. Don't perform out much anymore tho'...
Great deal, worth the 100$ I paid brand new! even with the flaws! I'd buy another if my dog would let me!!

The finish is laquer paint; mine is the natural/amber color. The boy is Strat-like, while the headstock is Tele. The bride is standard Fender-fare with each saddle being adjustable forward and backward as well as height-wise. There are 2 passive pickups - a Strat-like single coil in the neck and an uncovered humbuck in the bridge. There is no tone control per se, but there is a volume control that also functions as a coil split for the humbucker and a 3 position knob to switch between Bridge, B/N, and Neck pickups. With the coil split, you get 5 different tones.

Mine was made in Indonesia. I think the body is basswood, but the neck is maple as is the fretboard. There is a string tree on the headstock for the high E/B strings.

21 frets, I believe.

This guitar is very good for any style, except possibly jazz unless you like the Strat single coil sound. I remember that when it first arrived, I thought to myself, man I wasih I had this when I was gigging in my classic rock cover band!

I outfitted this guitar with a Roland GK3 pickup mounted to the body in front of the bridge and use it for my synth guitar as well. Works perfectly for that and with the color scheme of the guitar, it looks like the synth pickup belongs on it.

The tone can be bright to medium shades of dark, but in the absence of a tone control on the guitar, you must use the amp's tone controls to tweak to taste since the inherent tonal quality of this guitar is on the bright side.

Unlike a Strat, there is no positions 2 and 4 for quack; this guitar is much mroe akin to a Tele, tonally speaking.

Action was right-on except for G-string, whihc I had to raise some. I also had to reset intontation due to changing to a dif gauge of strings. Everything else was great.

I don't gig anymroe, but I wouldn't hesitate to sue this guitar live.

Haven't needed customer support.

Fantastic value for a $99 guitar! In fact, the best under-$100 gutiar I have ever bought! Every bit as nice as MIM Strat whihc costs 4x as much.

Basswood body
2-Tone sunburst
C-shaped maple neck
Maple fingerboard with 9-1/2" radius
25-1/2" scale length
21 medium-jumbo frets
1.650" nut width
Chrome hardware
Die-cast tuners
Hardtail 6-saddle bridge
One-ply pickguard
Single-coil Strat pickup (neck)
Hot humbucking pickup (bridge)
3-position rotary selector switch (on master tone pot)
Push/pull coil selector switch (on master volume pot)

Giving the guitar a 9 for features, because there is no tone controls, which would have been nice. Otherwise many nice features in this axe.

I play just about any type of music. Oddly enough the types I play most are death metal and alt-country-rock. I bought this guitar primarily for the alt-country stuff. With the pickup combinations and the coil selector you can emulate strat and tele tones. The humbucker is quite hot (although a bit noisy as well), and does a fine job for grittier overdrive, and even does well for death metal. With some good overdrive, I can grab pinch harmonics very easily, comparable to dimarzios and seymour duncans I have had in the past. It has the typical fender sound, bright, but still full enough to suit my taste. Overall I think this guitar provides a nice sonic profile with many possibilities.

The action is nice and it is a very playable guitar. However, this is where some of the shortcuts were obviously taken. The intonation is a little out, although not as bad as many higher priced guitars I have seen. The screws on the saddle are excessively long. A few of the pickguard screws seem to be jammed in on an angle, as if the holes didn't line up. The guitar is lacking in craftsmanship, but hey it's a low cost guitar. Still for the money it would be hard to beat. Out of the lower cost range guitars I tried, this was the best, until reaching the $299 mark, so at $100 I believe this axe can hold its own. Giving a 8 because of the obvious issues that could have been easily avoided.

This guitar is solid. I would depend on it as much as any guitar.

NA

I have been playing for 15+ years. I have owned a Gibson, Ibanez, Schecter, and other guitars in the past. I have been focusing on other instruments lately and sold all my other electric guitars (to finance a pedal steel guitar), so I bought this one just to have around the house so I can occasionally work out an idea on the 6 string. It serves that purpose very well, and would even make a decent gigging guitar if you're on a budget. The pickguard is fugly... way too big - it takes away from an otherwise nice looking guitar.

Rating this guitar 9 overall. For the money it is an excellent value. It would be an awesome beginner guitar, and is even fine for more advanced players to have as a practice guitar. You could gig or record with it if needed, but most serious players are going to prefer quieter pickups and a tone control knob (and something prettier to look at).

Black Finish Vintage 51. Strat Body, Tele neck, you know the rest.

I play just about everything but jazz, with an emphasis on blues then rock and rock and roll. Have a bunch of different amps, Fender, Univox, Crate, sounds great through all of them. If you are a fender player, or like the Fender sound, this guitar should be standard issue. I've been playing 30 years now and have paid more for guitars I didn't like half as much. Soundwise, if I wanted fat and dripping, I'd buy a Les Paul. When I first got this guitar, I thought the humbucker with both coils in was the single coil. It's that bright and articulate. Great easy harmonics, good sustain, clear, tight crunch. I'm a single coil guy but I have to say, I like this humbucker a lot. If there is any weak spot, it is in the fact that it is light on the bottom and mid, (for a humbucker) and though not muddy, the sound separation of each note while chording is not as distinct as individual notes picked. Rolling down the volume does fatten it a little. The neck pickup does not sound like a good strat to me, it sounds like a caricature of a strat pickup. It's quacky and bright, but lacks the depth or fullness of a good strat single coil. It's more chimey, than bell-like. It's better than the 90's Korean Squier strat pickups, many of the Affinits strats I've heard, and better sounding than the MIM Strat pickups, but it is not up to snuff with stock Am Std. pickups. But hey, at almost one 10th the price, you likely will not notice. You'll be too busy thinking, I can't believe I got this guitar for 99 bucks!

I actually got my guitar used before they lowered the price to 99.00, so it was set up pretty good already. I'd seen the new ones in the stores and they all look great for the money. Swap out the tinny 9-42's though. Even new players will notice the difference of going to a heavier gauge string. The only thing I don't like is that this one does have fret ends which could use more filing. The neck itself is great if you like 'em a little chunky. If you have small hands, and you are a new player, you'll prefer the smaller Squier Affinity tele necks. I've got a 51 neck on another guitar and the frets are great on it, so that's more to consistency than anything else. Cheap plastic nut, but hey it works. The tuners are actually betther than I would expect on a 99 guitar. I have no problem with them dropping out of tune.

Everything seems solid as a rock, with the exception of the pull knob which seems to have loose tolerances. Other than that, I can't imagine not depending on it.

Not needed any.

The bottom line on this guitar is I'm not going to wait for it to get stolen, I'm thinking about buying a couple more just because they have great looks and they are such a great value. I chose this guitar for the price and the good reviews I had heard. At this price, you can afford to mod it: I've already added a 3 ply bwb pickguard, Fender Schaller Chrome Satin Locking Tuners, Fender LSR Roller Nut, Am. Std. String Trees, black Schaller strap locks. A Kahler, Schaller, or aftermarket hardtail bridge with roller saddles, and added mass to add even more resonance and tone is in the works, as well as a SD JB hubucker in the bridge, and SD Cool Rail in the neck. If I don't like the seymour duncan pickups any more than the originals, I won't sweat it. Run, don't walk. Do not hesitate to get this guitar. Whether a seasoned professional or a new student, you can't go wrong for the money. It really is a fantastic value.

this guitar is built very well.the 2 tone sunburst finish is flawless.the body is basswood but mine is heavier than i thought it would be.the wood grain on the front of mine looks really good.i think they might put a vaneer on the front of the sunburst ones because the grain doesn.t look like basswood.the back looks like basswood grain.this guitar has a one piece maple neck there is no separete fingerboard.this neck is very thick.the fret job was perfect no sharp fret ends and all the frets where level and finished corectly.this guitar has something sttrange abought it.the trussrod nut is not metric but sae (standard). the neck is worth the money by itsself.this guitar has a strat neck pickup and a humbucker in the bridge .

this guitar sounds very good with the stock pickups.the coil tap and rotary switch give a lot of different sounds.the pickups are not the best ive've heared.but they are very good for such a cheap guitar.they sound more than useable to me so i won't be changing mine.chane the strings when you get yours and it sounds much better.the stock strings are not bad strins mine where just corroded new out of the box.i like a heaveier guage any way.i play rockabilly music and buddy holly is my favorite guitarist.this guitar fits his sound very well.you can also sound like eddie cochran,bo diddley. link wray,duane eddy and the list goes on.the humbucker gives you that great chuck berry sound.

the fit and finish on this guitar are incredable for this price.the neck pocket was very tight.like i said before the frets where perfect.no shap fretts no high frets.this guitar was set up right out of the box very well.the intonation was right on.the neck had a little more relief than i like but was easily adjusted.this necks trussrod adjusted like butter.i like my necks with almost no neck relief and this neck was easy to get this way with no fret buzzing anywere on the fret board.the only flaw i found on the whole guitar were a couple finish flaws on the back of the neck they look like blisters in the finish.you can't feel them while playing and seem like they will fade away after playing for a while.this neck is worth the price by itself.i don't no why but this neck doen't have a metric trussrod it has a american trussrod nut s.a.e (standard).i was told by a fender freak friend that the neck was problably made in the usa.he told me that if the parts like a neck don't meet fenders high standards for there american guitars ie finish flaws or flaws in the wood they will just send them over to there asian plants to be used on there cheaper brands.no use in destroying a perfectly good neck.makes sense.the nut on this neck was also cut perfectly.

this guitar should whithstand live playing very well.i would add straplocks wich i have added to mine.i have a set of graphtech saddles on order which i think will make the guitar even more gig worthy.replace the string trees with graphtech ones also.the rest of the guitar is fine.the finish on the body of mine is very thick and should last for years.the finish on the neck is not quite as thick but should last a long time.the neck finish on mine reminds me of the finish on the mexican strats and some of the american guitars.i bought this guitar as a backup for my main guitar which is a usa made mordecki strat.mike mordecki is a local guitar builder who makes great guitars.if it were a big gig i would never play without a backup.but if it's just a little gettogether i don't think it would be a problem.i mean look at any of my idols like buddy holly. chuck berry, eddy cochran or any of the gtreat blues players none of then needed backup guitars enough said.i'm going to give this guitar an 8 in this catagory with the stock parts a 10 with the new ones.

never had to deal with them.

i've been playing for over 20 years. i have owned many guitars from fender, gibson,music man,and many other american makers.i can't say this guitar is as good as any of those but it is not far behind.it just blows my mind you can get so much guitar for so little money.i paid 120.00 with a gigbag for this little gem.just amazing.if this guitar cost 4 times this amount it would still be a great deal.ive bought guitars that cost a lot more than this that weren't half as good as this guitar.if fender decides to build a mexican or american version of this guitar i can't see it being much better.this guitar reminds me of the u.s.a and japanese made bullet guitars of the 1980's with the strat style body and telecaster neck.

Features? Single and humbucker...doesn't get any better. The push pull pot doesn't make a huge tonal difference, but does add a little pop. I can't quit playing this thing! Put new strings...then amazing. The blonde w/ black pickgaurd...gorgeous. My Les Paul won't even speak to me anymore. She's been catchin' me cheatin.

Great for any style. I plugged it in, turned the radio on, and played for hours. It covers all solid body sounds. Good sustain. The pickups are hot, but not too hot where you can't crank it up and jam in a small room without major feedback. I can't wait to throw on some add-ons. Perfect guitar for adding better parts, even though it sounds great now. Blown away for $99!!!

Action needed a bit of adjustment, no biggie. Don't see any flaws, but hey it's a vintage so who cares if there is. I've been wanting a tele blonde, but I'm so poor I can't even pay attention, so figured $99, I'll give 'er a shot. I wouldn't sell it for more than I paid. I'm stoked.

Don't know yet...but i played her for 3 1/2 hrs last night and she seemed pretty solid. Seems well built. Tuners stayed tight.

Don't know. But i figure for 99 bucks I don't care if they hang up on me when I call.

I've been playing an Epi LP for four years (actually sounds better than gibsons i've played)...I love everything about it, but I've been wanting something in the Fender category for a while. I couldn't choose what, so I thought I would start with a cheapy for the feel. The reviews are all correct. A+ Sounds fantastic. I would buy one before they are gone. Ebay or Musiciansfriend.

When MF blew these out a $99.00 I pulled the trigger on a vintage Blond body, black pick guard, maple neck model.The guitar has a 21 fret tele style neck with vintage frets. A Strat style single coil in the neck position and a humbucker in the bridge position with a push/pull coil tap on the volume pot. The p/up selector is a rotory 3 way. No tone controls.

I bought this because it can be modded without fear of butchering a high end guitar. After listening to the guitar going through tube and ss amps, I'm leaving mine stock for now. The humbucker is hot so the dirty crowd will like it. The neck p/up is very Stratty sounding, good for blues solos. Noise level is not perfect but no more than any other single coil.Humbucker is quiet.

This guitar came with a flawless body and one small ding on the back of the neck. The fit is good with both p/ups lining up under the strings properly.Bridge is a cheapo along with saddles but function ok

I would (and will) use this guitar to jam/gig with.

Fender backed guitar

I v'e been at it for over 40 years, own several high end guitars, some midrange guitars and some custom builds. I would recomend this guitar for a beginner because of it's smaller neck and decent playability.You could do a lot worse for 3 times the money.

Yep, got them things jes like that there other fella wrote.

Sounds like one of them thar electric gui-tars...kinda purty ifn ya askn.

Hadta giver a tune up, after that, she jes purred.

A raccoon done chewed on it a might. Wuz still able to play my favrite truckin song "18 wheels is moran you got"

Now whut am I gonna ask some city fella about?

Been playing the gui-tar longs I can recollect. I reckon I love this gui-tar, at least as much as I can love some wood and wires.

guitar is nicely finished in glossy polyurethane..neck is matte..body is strat style, with contoured back, bridge is fixed strat style..tuners are sealed gotoh style..the neck on this one is kind of chunky..i like it..made in indonesia..if i am deciphering the serial # correctly it is a 2005 model..maple neck/fingerboard..basswood ? body ..volume -push/pull phase and pickup selector knobs..no tone control..but...LOTS of tone

as frank zappa so aptly put it..wowie zowie baby you're so neat...the sound is simply put..GREAT...single coil strat PUP in the neck is glassy and clean..hb at bridge is slammin'...in between to my ear is more single coil sounding, but could be how i have the pup's balanced..push pull knob seems to add / detract bass..also..major tone change with volume knob roll off..seems to get a bit bassier...which on some guitars is a detraction, but on this guitar..IT WORKS...very full sound, with a dramatic range..i love the blues, but pay the bills playing a little bit of everything..i am running it straight through a riv 55/112 at gigs..at home, i play it through a very old blonde fender bassman, with 2 x 12 jensen, and also run my emery super baby throught the bassman cab..also like this thing through my little zinky smokie amp...one of my buddy's uses a line 6 and has one of these..it sounds great through that..another buddy has one, and plays through various fenders, silvertones, and other exotics, and it sounds great in every amp...REALLY

i was late on the bandwagon..all my friends had these guitar and tried to convince me to get one..i couldn't get past that name on the headstock 'SQUIER'..golly..don't know why..the guitar i got is finished perfectly..no flaws..neck = perfect...body =perfect..one slight problem..one or two of the height adjustment screws on the saddles vibrate loose...might fix it with elmers which shouldn't bugger things up...i lowered the saddles and tightened the truss rod..it plays to my specifications and i have no complaints..i'll be a prick..9 for the loose saddle screws

i have played fender, musicman, g&l guitars for years...you can through them in the air..try and catch them and miss...you can flip on the ground like stevie ray...you can probably decapitate an unwanted household intruder...how the heck can you mess up a fender guitar..they are built like tanks..oh yeah..this one is an indonesian squier..well ...it is just as solid as any fender i ever had

i have had excellent results with fender service..i have heard stories about people that did not have good results..maybe they didn't approach things from the correct angle

bought it on ebay..brand spankin' new..in the original shipping box, but with the addition of a nicely padded gretsch gig bag and a brand new fender E tuner...quirky, but cool...paid 99.99 delivered to my door..if you don't get one, and you can afford the yard..well, my friend...imho, that would be a bad move...you can take it anywhere, use it for any application, be it country, gospel, soul, r&b, blues, rock, heavy metal, jazz...if you can think of it, this guitar has no limitations

Strat body, Tele neck, Vintage Blonde with black '51 P-Bass style pickguard, 1 Humbucker w/ coil tap, 1 single coil, 1 volume knob, hardtail bridge. Pretty unique in the features department, but docking off a point for lack of tone knob. No big deal though.

I bought this guitar on a whim when I heard that the price dropped to $100 and they were being discontinued. I always liked the way they looked when they came out but the price made me think they might be a little cheap.

So I drive to Sam Ash to try one out. I was really surprised at the tone I was getting from this cheap $100 Squier. Running through a Vox Valvetronix AD30VT (the same amp I own), I sat there and played with all the different pickup combinations and was getting some amazing sounds. The humbucker is pretty powerful and has a lot of character, but isn't so hot that it just sounds like white noise. It produced a very smooth, saturated crunch which I was pleased with. I was able to get a lot of good clean tones as well, especially with the coil tap on the humbucker. Lots of Strat-like sounds, which was good because I was looking for something with a little more versatility. Very very pleased with the sounds I'm getting. Again, I'm docking a point for no tone knob, but the thing sounds damn good anyway.

As expected, it wasn't set up too well out of the box. I'll probably do a full set up today when I'm not busy. Action was a little high. Might want to ask the guitar clerk to bring you multiple '51s from the back room; the first one he brought out for me had a sizeable crack right by the neck joint as well as some finish flaws on the backside. I wasn't about to buy something brand new with flaws like that. The next one he got me was in pristine condition out of the box.

Seems pretty sturdy so far. I've always felt like Fenders (and Squiers, especially) were sort of durable in this respect. I'll probably drop it a lot and accidentally yank cables out and such but I bet it will still play like a million bucks. The finish is a beautiful vintage blonde; this guitar looks a lot like an old Les Paul Junior Special or something. Think TV yellow only slightly lighter. I think I could rely on this guitar... although I would probably never rely completely on one single guitar. :P

Well, Sam Ash has a 30-day money back guarantee so if it breaks in the next month I won't lose any sleep. I'm guessing that dealing with Squier should I have a problem will probably be a pain.

Been playing 9 years now. Also own a 2005 Les Paul Junior, a 2002 Telecaster and an old 1995 mutant Ibanez strat copy. Honestly, I was getting pretty bored with all my other gear and this guitar made playing a little bit more exciting again. And it was dirt cheap! I love the color, and it sounds great. This guitar just has a good vibe. I'd probably just by another one if this was lost or stolen because they're so damn cheap, although they'll probably be slightly harder to find now that they're being discontinued. This is a great cheap guitar, and from what I've read online is apparently great for modding.

You probably know the features already, so I'll move onto what you really want to read.

This guitar suits me like no other I've owned. I play mostly blues and classic rock and I can't get enough of this one. I have several amps I play this particular guitar through. I have a '65 Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue, VOX VR30, and VOX Pathfinder 10. It sounds best through the VOX VR30, but in the Deluxe's defense, it's gonna take some knob tweaking. I dialed up the sound I wanted right away with the VR30. The Pathfinder is just a small practice amp. I've gotten a great mix of Chicago Blues & British Blues with this combo. Very cool. I was very pleased with the stock pickups, however I will change them out. I'm not in a real hurry to do this, but I'm definitely going to go with Fender's new '68 Hendrix Tribute strat pickup in the neck. I will most likely go with a Gibson '57 type Humbucker in the bridge. The coil tap feature is pretty sweet on this one. You can get a nice array of sound. When you "tap" the bucker for single coil, its slightly hotter than a regular Strat bridge pickup and not as bright as a Tele. There is some hum, but you can't hear it when playing so who cares. Didn't seem to both Jimi too much. I'm giving this a "9" only because I'm gonna change the pickups.

Well, Squiers are notorious for being CRAP as far as action, fit, and setup goes. Another surprise for me here. It was ok at the store, but all I had to do was change the strings and I was good to go. Intonation was great as well. I tried some new strings on this as well. I read in last months Guitar Player magazine that Warren Haynes sometimes uses GHS Boomers and I can see why. They sound great, they break in easily, and their inexpensive.

The guitar is very well built. I'm looking to start playing out again and I would definitely take it out for gigs. I probably would gig with it without a backup, but I recommend it. You just never know.

N/A

I've been playing about 12 years now, and I've owned about 20 guitars. Most were Strats and this is the best one. Plays great, sounds great, feels great. I love everything about this guitar. I love the Tele neck, Strat body, and pups. The fact that it has one single coil and one humbucker allows you to get the most out of the guitar. The fact that you can tap the bucker only adds to its great features. I would definitely replace it if lost. I'm already thinking about getting another one because they are so cheap. I got mine for $79 at Guitar Center.

I got the blonde on blonde model with the black pickguard: splitable humbuck back pup & single-coil stratish front pup; rotary pup selector; volume pot; top-loading bridge; sealed tuners.

Back pup sounds somewhere between a strat and tele pup, favoring the tele. Actually, the humbuck back pup sounds remarkably like an esquire pup in the bypass position: quite versatile on its own. The coil-tapped back pup sounds kinda like a strat pup, but with more bite, but not necessarily in a good way. Don't really like the front pup. The whole thing is kinda noisy and could use a coat or two of sheilding paint. The range of sounds runs from bright top end with ballsy bottom using both pups to ice-pick highs. I'm not crazy about the sound, but it's great for the price point of only $99.

This thing is solid like a rock. Hardware's not bad. Recorded my new CD with it last weekend and the low E kept going out of tune, since I tracked in the control room, which got kinda warm due to the outboard gear and amps heating up. I was using 8s, which probably contributed, since the tuners seem okay for economy models. The bridge is the same as on my Squire Bullet Special and works well, unless you break strings frequently, since it's kinda painful changing them with this contraption. The finish on the body is really nice. The neck finish, or lack thereof, takes some getting used to. It's the kind of chunky neck you want to love, but just never clicks. The nut is okay, since I play slide exclusively and like it kinda high. I had to buff the frets with steel wool for quite a spell to get it smooth enough to play. The hardware seems okay, unless you gig a lot.

Looks pretty rugged and roadworthy.

For $99 - pluuuuuuuuuze!

A functional, versatile entry level guitar, with potential for modding. A great buy for beginner to advanced alike. I'm loayl to my Squire Bullet Special, which I use for touring, rehearsing, and recording. But I really dig the humbucker in the 51 - it's worth the $99 price of the guitar alone. I plan on replacing the humbucker in the Bullet Special with the 51 humbucker, since it sound sooooooo good! I just ordered another Bullet Special, since I like the stock pup, so I'll have both.

Anyhoo, you really need to buy the 51 today - it's a great little guitar!

There's enough info I won't repeat. All you have control wise is a three way selector knob and a volume control with push pull to split bridge humbucker. No tone control... But I haven't found that a big issue, you have five different choices (plus all the other effects and amp features) so live with it.

I bought this thinking I was getting a Tele neck on a strat body...despite the look, that isn't what you are getting. Its a tele headstock, but the neck is fatish strat to my notion (I have owned a dozen real tele's this is unlike any of them). So that disappointed me, was hoping for thinish tele neck. But I still like the guitar.

First thing to do when you get this guitar is cut the lousy strings off and put a good set of 10's or higher on it. I wasted an hour try to set intonation with the originals...junk. When you cut the strings off you may also find as I did that the nuts on the tuners are loose and they are moving around...ahh that's why it wouldn't stay in tune! Then set intonation....

Then you will get a big surprize...this baby produces some nice sounds. The humbucker solo is good nd the two single coil setting is very pleasing. Much better sound than normal for this price point. I like the rotary switch..its quiet. Not a lot of tonal variety, but enough.

This one was made in Indonesia so I didn't expect much. The blonde color with black pickguard is actually very attractive and the finish surprised me again. The set up was lousy, partly due to bad strings, loose tuners mentioned above. But whole setup needed to be done, then it played nicely. The neck is fat and flat. Not my taste, it is a barre chord neck. The bridge is terrible, when you get the intonation right, the adjustment screws hit the strings and will cause them to break...two choices: 1) grind off screw ends (or use shorter screws) or 2) do what they should have, convert to string through the body (like a tele). But again considering price...a bargain.

It cost $99! Durable? Well I'd say way beyond what one should expect particularly with a few mods. I bought it as a touy to experiment with...its great for that

No experience and I'm sure my mods will quickly void any warranty.

I'm 60 and been playing since I was 14. I've owned just about everything, play lots of Tele, various Gibsons from an extensive collection, and several PRS's. I'm a guitarholic. I buy lot's of inexpensive toys...this is one. Incredible for the price, I'd use it on a gig with a back up (my 52 Tele)...I play lot's places where don't want to use your studio guitars.

I've always considered putting a nice Tele neck on a hardtail strat body with some nice pickups...at first glance that's what this appears to be; but its not. They had a good idea, but got cheap in execution. I'll play it a while, but she'll wind up on ebay and I'll build what they should have done.

If you are looking for an interesting guitar for a bargain price...this is still a ten. But with a little more thought (or modification) it could be a killer.

blonde with black pickguard, strat body type, telecaster neck (standard, not affinity), 21 med jumbo frets, radius is supposed to be 9.5 but feels flatter than that. made in indonesia. 1 humbucker with coil tap and one single coil strat pickup in the neck position. basswood body, solid maple neck with skunkstripe. maple fretboard but all one piece. one volume knob which when pulled out, engages coil tap on humbucker and one 3-way rotary switch to select pickup\combinations including combining tapped hb with neck pup. i gave it only an 8 on features because its not exactly made up of high class parts and features though they sound wonderful and look fine. the rotary pickup selector is kinda strange but you get used to using it really quick. and would rather have a toggle for tapping but what do you want for 99 bucks?

this thing actually sounds wonderful! i use it with a peavey\behringer half stack and with an ibanez practice amp. sometimes i use my korg toneworks processor but actually it sounds pretty good without it. it is very quiet no matter how youre using it as far a buzzing or humming even at insane volume. the pickups are amazingly clear and strong for cheepies and i dont think they need changed unless youre going for a super dimebag distortion or something. the different combinations of pickups make it go anywhere from strat to sg. not very tele sounding to me. it really has more of that signature strat sound that many people should find very appealing but full-on distortion through the humbucker is very crunchy, clear and full bodied without the muddy sound of crappy pickups. it is hard to believe for the price how decent it sounds

from the factory the neck had WAY too much relief in it but it comes with allen wrenches to adjust truss and saddles but you will want to get out the trusty old machinist scale to set string height once you get your relief set. intonation was spot-on except the high E string. all the frets were level (i checked with proper tooling) and fairly well dressed. no scratchy frets, not too bad of fret-ends and no dead spots that i can find yet, maybe i got one of the better ones? the finish is level and surprisingly nice for the price and no loose screws or hardware. i gave it only an 8 in this department because the fret ends can be felt but i have paid a lot more and got worse honestly. and by the way it has the better tuners, not the affinity series crappos that dont hold tune

it may not be fender but it is from the same family and is as solid as one. the hardware may or may not last, depends on how much abuse you plan on giving it, just like anything. the finish is polyurethane so it will take a hammering before you chip it. i dont think any strap buttons are solid so get straplocks even for this, once you own it, you wont want to drop it. as far as dependability, i dont care if you spend 3000 dollars or 99, things happen dont gig it without a backup, thats just stupid but i think if you take care of this little dude it will treat you good. by the way the night i got it, i gigged it for 5 or 6 hours straight! also it pretty much stayed in tune and i am a HEAVY string bender and gave the knobs a workout too experimenting and figuring out what i can get from this thing. i just couldn't believe how well it sounded and played for the money

i wouldnt know but musicians friend is awesome with customer support so buy it from them. i would know i have spent a ton of money with them and have had to make a couple returns.

i have been playing for 19 years now and have owned some pretty cool stuff. i play mostly rock, classic rock, blues, hard rock and am very picky with my tone. if this is your style you may like the '51 even though it is a bit funny looking. the only one with a black pickguard will be the blonde, the others have white and it is cheap looking. you know what youre buying when you buy a squier but man this instrument is just different somehow, in a better way. like i said maybe i just got lucky and got an exception to the rule but man im glad i did. i wouldnt say i wish i had 3 of them but if it got stolen i would replace it unquestionably. take a chance on it, if youre reading this youre already interested.

Maple tele neck on basswood strat body, 1 single coil and 1 splittable humbucker. I got mine as a sunburst with a white single ply p/g. Look cool - sounds good. Hardtail bridge, push/pull volume to split the humbucker and a rotary p/u selector instead of a tone.

When I received this guitar in the mail I was really surprised that it was set up as well as it was for a factory job. I usuall don't play with such thin strings but it felt and sounded great. I play blues and blues rock and use tube amps only (Rivera, Fender). I have been a guitar snob for years and until recently would not have even bought anything made overseas. This little guy is just damn sweet! The thhing that really grabbed me was the humbucker. I use Strats almost exclusively and have for many years. I hadn't used a humbucker for a long time. The guitar is articulate and the guys in my band thought that it sounded amazing and were a little bit miffed the other night when I didn't take it to the gig. It's that cool!

No the actiion is slightly higher than I like and the strings a on the thin side but it is still very easy to play. The finishh is a little rought in one spot but I have a $1000 guitar that has a finish flaw and I'm not exactly careful so no worries for me.

I don't think that this will be an issue. I break stuff all of the time and we just put it back together. I typically gig with more than one guitar and it looks good in photos! ;-)

I have never had to deal with Fender as a consumer. I don't thihnk that it would be a problem though.

I have played for 28 yers and I wish that the 'cheap' guitars in the good old days were as nice as this. I spent 103 bucks including shipping and can't say I was ripped off in any way. The neck is worth what I paid for it. I have some pedals that cost more than this guitar but I can take this thing anywhere with me, plug in and have a great time. My other gear includes 2 customized Strats, a Vintage Silvertone, a Larivee Acoustic and a mess of pedals Boutique and mass produced. I have a bunch of Rivera gear, a vintage Fender Tremolux and a small Epiphone amp(another great value!)

I wuld have to say that this is a must buy and you can modify it and not feel guilty or just shut up and play it. It is what it is. You don't get a $1000 or a custom guitar here but it is solid as sounds good and I think after I tweek it to my specs, I'll be playing it a bunch more.

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!