Music UK Review (1984) Title Picture: Squier '62 vintage Stratocaster.
FENDER SQUIER '57 Strat [RRP £273 inc. VAT]
Since their launch, the Japanese-made Fender Squiers have been one of the guitar success stories of the past ten years. Of course, price probably plays the largest part in the overwhelming popularity of the Squiers - but, by common consent, they are reckoned to be extremely fine guitars in their own right. How well do they stand up against American-made samples though? that's one of the questions which seems to be perpetually on eveyone's mind.
Our Squier Strat was a 1957 replica. There are two 'Vintages' available - a rosewood fingerboard version, based on a 1962 U.S.- made model, and a 1957 type, with a maple neck. Which you opt for will depend on the type of fingerboard you prefer, and opinions differ widely on this. We chose a maple necked model , for no particular reason, although our Squier came in the 'Fiesta Red' shade which has just become available (This colour was available in June 83!?? P.R.) - and very tasty it looks too!
It's certainly hard to tell the Squier apart from the genuine American-made article. It features the small, vintage type headstock, and about the only givaway that your not holding a genuine Fender is the legend on the headstock which has 'Squier' writ large, and 'Fender' very small. Apart from that could you tell the difference visually? the answer would have to be 'no'.
Experienced Strat users might question the Squier's weight though. The Squier is heavier than the real vintage Fender, possibly because the makers are using Japanese wood, as opposed to the original's alder body. This increased weight might, in theory, enphasise mid/bass frequencies, whereas a lighter wood could be said to do better on highs - mind you, this is all pure theory, and nothing that cannot be compensated for by pickups and other factors.
In fact the Squier's pickups are the only things on the guitar that do come from the U.S.A. - which rather tends to bear out Dan Smith, Fender guitar chief's long held view that he dosen't rate Japanese pickups too highly. If he did, presumably, he'd let the contracted manufacturers of these Squiers source their own pickups. As it is, they are imported from the U.S.A. and fitted at the production stage.
Mechanically, and in the finishing departments, our Squier was really first rate. There's no doubt that the Japanese manufacturers of these guitars had got this sample very right indeed. The maple neck was a one piece type, the fretting looked like the genuine article and the fit on the four bolt neck was excellent. Likewise, the hardware was superb - the bridge could have been a genuine Fender one, were it not for the fact that one knew it to be a 'copy', and the tremolo mechanisim looked identicle to the Fender Strat type which we've all used at some time or another and which nearly every other maker has tried to copy at some stage.
On the 'feel' side, the Squier was tremendously convincing. The neck was fast, with that typical flattened radius/profile which makes Strats so pleasant to handle, and the fretting accuracy was first class. Really it's hard to see what the difference between one of these Japanese-made models and an American one could be, from the feel or finishing departments. Everything on the Squier worked perfectly - machines, tremolo, controls - the lot.
Playing the Squier is equally rewarding. Whether you like maple necks or not is a personal thing - in fact we're split on this on the mag, some of us like rosewood, some of us maple, and that's fairly typical of the way it goes. It's hard to describe the differences - maple's harder to the touch, maybe faster as it's varnished, possibly gives a somewhat harder sound - on the other hand, rosewood, with a softer feel, appeals to an equal number of players. You'd just have to try both types and make your mind up from a personal viewpoint.
One thing where the the Squier is, possibly, annoyingly traditional is in the pickup selector, which is of the original Strat three position type. Later Strats have a five way selector, so that the famous 'in-between' setting is obtained by just lodging the selector knob in the second setting from bottom. In the past you had to rather carefully wedge the control on the edge of the first two settings, and the Squier's lever, being a traditional type, means that you have to resort to this dodge. It's no problem, really (guitarists have been doing this for years) it's just not quite as covenient as the later designed selector system. From a tonal point of view, about the only way that you could really tell the Squier from the genuine 1957 Strat would be to put the two side by side. The imposibility with doing that, of course, is that any 1957 Strat today would have undergone many years of use and wouldn't sound now like it did when it came out of it's box, brand new. Any comparison would, thus be quite meaningless.Possibly a judgment could be made against one of the 1957 'vintage' American-made Strats which you can get, and here we'd expect that there would be a subtle difference in sound - maybe a few more highs, possibly a somewhat stronger sustain - but qualities which it would be virtually impossible to pick out unless you had the two side by side. .
We found our 57 Squier Strat to be everything that street rumour has them to be - made to an excellent standard, fast to play, looking just like the 'real thing' and virtually indistinguishable from it, at least in terms of the current U.S. produced models - what differences there are probably being reckoned in subtleties which could be catered for by your amp, strings or style. Overall, we have to say that the Squier seems as impresive to us today as it did when it was first launched.
Many readers who own these guitars have written to us, telling us how happy they've been with them, and weve never been reluctant to advise friends and readers to go ahead and buy one when they've contacted us (sometimes with a feeling that there has to be a catch, somewhere).
There is no catch in the squier range - they strike us as first class guitars, excellent value for money and worthy of any players consideration, from the beginner to the pro. Does it matter that a guitar is made in Japan, as opposed to Fullerton, U.S.A ? Not to us - a guitar is a guitar and whatever Fender have had to do to get the price to an affordable level is fine by us.
If a basic Strat appeals, then check the Squier series out, you won't regret it - it's excellent value!
