Squier Deluxe Hot Rails Stratocaster

Got this guitar for my first serious guitar in the beginning of a awesome collection.
Got it last year (2008) made in 2007.
22 frets
Basswood Body
5-way switch
Volume, Tone x2
3 Duncan Hotrail Single Coil size Humbuckers
Black Finish
Rosewood Fretboard.

Lots of cool features but the only thing that makes it a 7 instead of a 5. Is purely because of the awesome Duncan Pickups, and black pot controllers. Other than that its your straight old boring strat squier.

Personally I played every gig I had with this baby (because I didnt have a choice) and it came out with some solid sounds. Nice fat juicy chunky sound...due to the duncan pickups.I play a lot of Funk, Pop, Jazz, Blues and when it comes it sound its quite versatile.
Problems are running it through my Boss-V Wah made a awful sound when on clean because the duncans just picked up everything and bending that frequency wave just didn't go well.
Its the kind of guitar where I would'nt get it in hopes of replicating that strat tone. It sounds like a Epiphone...real heavy rock sound that will just nail a distortion tone like the best thing to come around since sliced bread.

So

Yes for Rock, Punk, Distortion
No for clean blues, twang, and Funk

Gets a 8 because if thats the music I wanted to play...this guitar would have been a great buy

Overall the guitar came pretty well set up. Chrome finishes looked droolable. Everything has a great level at first glance, but over time things started to get more and more noticable once the excitment is gone.

The neck humbucker started to raise by itself due to slipping screws. The Bridge humbucker started to fall by itself
The Nut is abit out of place due to lack of respect while manufacturing.
And that God Dam fender bridge that drives me insane is like any other strat bridge that has ever been created. It floats. The saddles go uneven meaning the intination goes off and tuning changes.
Horrible fenders
Comon boys get that shit right!

Paint finish is brilliant. Neck is decent to solo on but is quite fat to be honest so no shredding. Strummer would suit it

Look for a squire its alright. But no way this thing would survive a good long life of full time gigging. The screws have unwound on the pickups and those fender pots start to annoy me for some reason after afew months.
I would not depend on it being to great to have for a long time but a great beginner.
after 6 months of owning this fellow I found every time I restrung it or re-tuned it the G saddle/string always went out of place or out of tune. So now I shelved it for a nice Gretsch hollowbody electromatic.

For a squier its getting better. Its obvious that there trying to build a reputation following in the footsteps of Epiphone and stop procecing crap and actually start making good beginner guitars...pfft good luck. But this guitar although not being great is afew baby steps in the right direction for making some great gear.
the finish is what entices buyers and laughs at them later on when the looks start to fade. It feels like I bought a cheap Bullet and just put in 3 of the hottest pickups a guitar manufacturer has to offer.
So its got kick with balls but still the main problem is...ITS A SQUIER.
I kick myself now saying "if i just saved another $200 dollars I could have bought an actual Fender and at least lived abit longer than this thing.
Im finding it Had to give this guitar more than a 5 because im a Gretsch Hollow body fan now...and this was the guitar that has converted me. But still i've had this guitar for awhile and it has lasted in playable backup condition.
So if your a rookie hard core fender strat boy then get this baby to maybe sway your opinions of what Squier has to offer, and start going for something with a better bridge.

It was made not too long ago, did not check the serial. I think somewhere in 2007.
22 medium jumbo frets, 5-way selector switch, 3 Duncan Design HR-101 Hot Rails, so you could say H-H-H configuration, 1 vol and 2 tone knobs.
Maple C-shape neck with a polyurethane finish and a Rosewood fretboard, Basswood body.
I bought it with the nice white finish, it looks stylish, especially with the black pickups and knobs.
It has a 'Synchronous Twin-Pivot Tremolo' it looks oldschool but it goes boath up and down and it reminds just a bit of a wilkinson-style trem.
Standard die-cast tuners.
Comes with 3 tools, 1 for the neck, 1 for the bridge, and 1 for the trem-height.
Large ???60s Style Headstock.
Gold and Black Squier Logo.

I mainly play metal and hardrock, mostly from around the 80's, I play some blues too every now and then.
I use this with my Ibanez (Soundwave 25) Bass amp in combination with my Digitech Hot Head. (The bass is still my main-instrument.)
Well, it's a strat with hotrails, so offcourse don't expect normal strat-sounds, this sounds very bright like any humbucker guitar on bridge pickup, to nice and warm on the neck pickup.
It has the variety you expect of a guitar with 3 hums, quite a lot.
The sound is offcourse not as brilliant as normale SD Hot Rails, but they're better then normal Squier's, just good enough for me too not have to upgrade them in the near future, maybe if I would ever use it onstage.
I love the sound, it has a basswood body and 3 hot rails, at first I wanted to go for something with a mahogany body but that's just too heavy for my crappy back.

The setup was quite decent, not perfect, neck was straight, action could have been just a little lower, but some people might like it this way.
I think very little guitars under ???300 are nicely set up in the factory, the setup just depends on the shop in most cases.
If I return in a year they'll set it up for me, but I might just do it myself.
Nothing to complain about.

Everything seems nice and sturdy. Remember this is the Deluxe series from squier, it's not some crappy Affinity (altho some affinity's seem to be acceptable, some actually have wood) so its pretty nicely built.
It would definitely withstand live playing. Everything looks like it should last for a very long time.
Strat-strap buttons are always crap, so I immediately replaced them by straplocks.
I'd definitely use it without a backup and without worrying, but I'm a bass player, so I probably won't use it onstage.
I just don't really love that the trem goes boath ways, if I want to palmmute I often hit the bridge, but it's pretty sensitive, sometimes I use the trem just by palmmuting, but I can just put the trem all the way to the body or put an extra string in the trem.

Never dealth with them, if something breaks i'll bring it back to the store, i'm a good customer there so they'll fix it.
I wonder how good it will be at a brand like squier, asian companies don't always seem to be too good with that.

I've been playing for somewhere around 3 years now. I have an Ibanez SW25 bass amp, a Digitech Hot Head, a Farida Precision Bass, a Cort Curbow 4 fretless.
I used to have a guitar before I started playing bass, I traded it with the amp for my first bass with this bass amp. (Had a Ibanez RG321 and a Crate G160XL and the Hot Head)
If I had the chance I might have chosen the old-school trem, but this one isn't a problem, for the rest i Love it.
It's a white strat with hotrails, what more could I ask for? I was never a strat-fan but when they came stock with SD-designed hot rails, I didn't have to think about it for very long.
If it were stolen or lost, i'd buy it again if I had the money.
I compared this with some Ibanez guitars in the same price class (SA and RG models), but I wanted something just a bit more traditional but that could take on some heavy music, this is it!
For the price, around 280 euro's, you get a very stylish looking Deluxe Strat with pretty good Hot Rails, seems like a sweet deal to me.