Squier California Series Strat

my first electric guitar was a locally made stratocaster type guitar. duno much about guitars back then as i was only 12 or 13 years old. so i grew attached to the strat's features. main reason why i fell inlove with this type of guitar and so i bought me one, squier california series strat.

it was made in indonesia (i think), came with a crappy cable and the usual alen wrenches for the action and fretboard adjustments.

i play indie rock/progressive rock kinda style (u'dub's mostly) but i do play ballads and pop weekly in church. i use it as my main guitar on stage and off. i had my old strat repainted 3 times and from sunburst it is now colored green-yellow (crap paint job i did myself) so yeah, dat was my back up guitar. i changed the pu on my first guitar from its stock to fender noiseless pu - it sounds much brighter and more is realy noiseless! tried switching from the squier's PU with the fender noiseless but i changed it back again. i guess i wanted a bit of "trash"and raw noise from the stock pick ups on the squire.. all pick up position sounds great depending on the song. i use it with my Zoom gfx5 BTW and pluged into a peavey bandit 112 most of the time..

action was a bit high. had to tweak with it overnight for myself... i adjusted the sadle springs ??ause i replaced the stock strings (.009) to .010 d adario. mainly because they are more durable. raised the pick ups a bit too just enough so that they dont touch with any of the strings when i bend them. tuning pegs wer great, got no problem there. i had to adjust the intonation though. and yeah, low E string is SSSOOOO hard to adjust for its intonation!!!

its totally dependable once you've redone it with your playing requirements. but i always gig with the squier with my trusty old strat always at the hood of my car for back up purposes.

never needed support on anything. im all hand on on my things always!!!

ive been playing for more than 10 years now and ive owned 5 acoustic guitars and a strat and this is my new addition this squier strat.
i just love the shape of the strat above any other guitar bodies commercialized.. and the headstock looks great as well. strats are versatile guitars, may it be rock or ballad or pop or RNB or blues style of music, it surely has the looks to go with it. i achieve my tones mainly by tweaking on my gfx5.. i sometimes hear a humbacker sound from my single coils!!!

Finish: Sunburst (Beautiful Finish)
Body style: Strat
Neck: Maple
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Included Accessories: Crappy Cable
What year was it made? 2005
Where was is made? China
How many frets? 21 Medium Jumbo Frets
Which controls are given? Volume, Tone 1, Tone 2, 5-way selector
Pickup configuration? SSS (Standard)I changed for a HSS
Body: Alder

I like to play mainly classic and modern rock
I use it in a 25w Randall Amp (Great Brand)
The sound of the bridge was OK at first but then I wanted more of a rock sound so I replaced it with a Seymour Duncan JB Model Humbucker. It sounds great

The guitar was set up at the factory pretty go for a chinese guitar, but the bridge was to high so I had it lowered which really helped.
But everything was fine and good quality.

I use this guitar for live playing a I fing it is great
I think it would last a while and trust it with a backup.

N/A Never needed costomer support. Must be a good sign

Great guitar, recommed it to any one not wanting to spent to much money. The Seymour Duncan is great and to me it sonds perfect

California Series (China)
Body: Agathis wood
Neck: 21 frets maple
3 ply pick-guard
Pickups: 3 single coil (stock)
5 way switch selector
Finish: Arctic White
it came with a free crappy guitar cable

i play modern and classic rock, but i dabble into other types of music every now and then. i am using a 20w yamaha amplifier and a behringer OD100. as expected, i am getting a lot of noise on the 1,3 and 5 position on my strat. but positions 2 and 4 work just fine. i am planning to upgrade the pickups though coz they tend to get a little muddy. the guitar's clean sound is pretty decent. it sounds better than my friend's washburn n2. but the overdriven sound leaves much to be desired

the action was low right out of the box, and there was a lot of fret buzz, so i had to raise it a bit. i also adjusted the pickup height a little bit, which was just a simple task. i had the electronics rewired - so instead of having a 5 way switch, i now have 9 different sounds. i used the dan armstrong mod (just google it in case ur interested) coz it uses the stock parts of the guitar. i also changed the strings with .010's (i think it came with .008 gauge strings) and i blocked the tremolo with a piece of wood so now i have a hardtail strat :) the latter modification may sound simple but it drastically improved the guitar's response. after all the modifications, i can honestly say that i got my money's worth

this guitar can withstand live playing. it has decent hardware, the tuners are pretty stable. it rarely goes out of tune. but i'm having a hard time intonating the low e string. it seems like it just won't intonate no matter what adjustments i make. the arctic white finish is beautiful, but i would have preferred olympic white though. strap buttons are stable, just make sure you don't use a crappy guitar strap. i can definitely depend on this guitar during gigs even without backup

i have never tried contacting support, so i can't give an opinion on this one

i have been playing on/off for 15 years. before i bought an electric, i owned around 4 acoustic guitars. i am actually thinking of buying another squier strat (sunburst with rosewood fretboard and black pick guard) and install fender texas specials in them. it will be kind of an srv imitation, hehehe :) i bought this guitar coz its cheap and i think it will be good enough for me to learn on. maybe after a few years, i'll buy one of those fender signature guitars (eric johnson or malmsteen maybe). this is a great guitar for beginners. but if ur not, buying this strat will probably disappoint you.

Finish: Sunburst.

Bridge style: Trem, which I never use. Stop-tale would be a bit better.

Any included accessories?: I bought it with a Korg Tuner and a Legend gig bag. That gig bag fell apart withing a few months. Legend is a piece of crap!

My guitar was made in China in 2005.

24 Frets

Two tone, 1 volume pot

S/S/S configuration. Fat Strat might have been a bit better.

Swamp ash body (I assume) with mapel neck and rosewood fingureboard.

Here I am a few months down the track, having played this guitar in a bit more then in my previous review.

I play in a rock/hard rock/post-grunge band, and this guitar... doesn't sound like our rhythem guitarist's Epiphone Les Paul 100. It is a little twangy for my taste, but if blues and and jazz and stuff is your thing, then go for it.

It has three pickups, naturaly, which I find is pretty awesome. Lots of different sounds, so it owns the Epi Les Paul in that reguard :D

At the moment I play it through my bros Marshall VS65r. Very nice sounds coming from there, but I'm going to buy a Line 6 Spider II 112 at the end of the year.

'How well was the guitar set-up at the factory?'

Omigosh this guitar is crap as anything from the factory! I had a guy set it up, and now it's great it stays in tune, intonation is great now. Lol, until I reread that review, I forgot all about the wacky nut angle. You don't notice it, and if you buy one it probably will be different.

The pickups probably need to be changed, they sell for about $10 US on MusiciansFriend, so they must be CRAP!

Buzzing on the E, A, and D strings sucks a bit, but you can't notice when it's plugged in.

Factory set-up I would rate at 3. Now, I rate it at about 8. Big change, huh?

I have some problems with loose pots, and loose jack, which really bugs me. I do gig with it, because it's my only guitar :D. Strap buttons are really solid for a Chinese guitar.

N/A, though it is Fender, after all :D

My next electric will be a Paul Reed Smith. That suits my style a whole lot more than the twangy Squier Strat.

Pretty comfortable, I love it. Playes better then the Epi, but the Epi sounds a lot better for rock.

Well this is basicaly a toned down [no pun intended]Fender Stratocaster, so it has all the right features. Three pickups is awsome, so I can get many different sounds, allthough for Heavy Rock I prefer the bridge pickup. The head on this guitar looks way better then on the Affinity Series Strats, because it is the more recent style.

Well I recon it doesn't sound too bad. Not as good as a real Fender of course. I mainly play Rock/Heavy Rock, and all those people who reckon humbuckers are better for rock, well that's as may be coz my strat works just fine.

I got the guitar not set up, and it was crap for month until I got a huy to fix it, and it's pretty good now. The nut was on a crazy angle though, but not too bad. I got it in sunburst, and that's all pretty good there.

Well as long as it stays in tune, it's pretty good. But if it's even just a little out of tune it sounds very bad.

N/A

Well if it was stolen or lost I'd go buy an Epiphone, or a Mexican Fender. It'd pretty good at an entry level, and is good for the price, but seriously, go for something better.