New Guitar Day: Squier 51

I'm a sucker for Fender.  It's annoying.

Super Annoying
I had been been looking for a new guitar to write about - something surprisingly inexpensive, but with reasonable quality.  As fun as it would be the review another $1000+ guitar, I'm not independently wealthy.

I had a problem though: Prices across Kijiji were (and still are) somewhere between ridiculous and insane, and I wasn't having much luck finding a $250 Made in Mexico Stratocaster and Telecasters, or even a reasonably priced Classic Vibe, to say nothing of $250 Epi Les Pauls.

My target list was pretty sparse - a couple of Ibanez (an RG350 and a SA160) around the $250 mark was pretty much about as good as it was getting - and frankly neither of those at that price is "good enough". I decided to wait and continue to keep an eye out, throwing out a few low ball offers on some pieces just in case there was some desperation out there.

I eventually came across the above pictured Squier 51.  The owner was listing it as unplayed. Apparently the plastic was still on both the bridge pickup and the pickguard.  Two things immediately grabbed me.  First, the vintage blond finish, a favorite of mine.  I was surprised that I could clearly make out some sort of grain on the Kijiji pictures.  Second, that this guitar was string through body. This would mean fewer opportunities for cheap tremolo hardware to turn the sound into a collections of plinks and plunks.


I had some reservations  This thing was a low end Squier, so despite a good looking finish, the neck and components could be suspect.  What's more, the asking price seemed high, but the dry spell combined with being a sucker for Fender kicked in.  I made what I thought was a fair offer.

This may seem like too much considering the first run of these guitars were getting blown out in Guitar Centers south of the border for less than a $100, but at this point I didn't care much.  This example was part of the newer run, the tell being that is is string through body as opposed to a trem system.

I'm not saying that this justified a price 2/3rds of MSRP before tax, but maybe I am. Again, I'm a sucker for Fender stuff.

Vintage white?  Check

Strat shape, Tele string through, minimalist Tele-bass controls?

So much cool for so little scratch...

The seller accepted the offer, and after much back and forth, we eventually decided that the most mutually convenient place to meet was to have him drop it off to my office mid-day.  Score.  I didn't have to go out of my way.

As for the $200, I'm glad I spent it.  Once the guitar was home, I took some 2000 grit paper to the neck to remove minor rough spots, and I ended up being pretty pleased with the feel.  The body is thinner than a standard Fender (1.5 vs 1.75 I think), but I think it's just one more thing that gives this oddball guitar the character it has.

I'll have to admit that I hate the headstock decal though.  I'm no Squier snob - My Jaguar is a Squier and I've never once thought to replace the logo.  The all black, bargain basement treatment this one gets is pretty disappointing though.  While I'm no fan of replacing Squier logos with fake Fender ones, this one might just be a great opportunity to do something a little more personal.

As for the rest of the good and the bad, I'll cover that in the next post.






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