Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi, long time no see!

A couple of weeks ago I bought a chinese made Squire strat in a package with a little (10 W?) amp and a few extras. The idea was to use only the body, repaint it and equip it with various original Fender parts I have laying around. To my total astonishment the quality of this $150 guitar was absolutely stunning!!, action and set-up(which of course are adjustable), finish, hardware, general playability, sustain, you name , is totally up to par with my 8 times more expensive mexican strat, the sustain is even better! The only thing I have done was to change the pups for the original fenders I had, not because they were bad, bud to get the right sound for me. I will repaint the body in red (not fiesta....), but otherwise I just can't believe this kind of quality in such an extremely cheap instrument even if Fender owns the brand. Anyone else had the same experience with budget guitars?

Besides, the little amp sounds VERY good in it's clean mode with quite enough volume to make the neighbours call upon you. It actually has an almost valve amp sound. The dirty mode sucks though. With my good-old zoom 508 it produces a very acceptable Shadows sound for rehearsal and even for actual gigging if miked up!


Goran

I sure have, Goran! A bought a Chinese Squier Affinity Strat and amp package a little over three years ago. The amp isn't worth two dollars but the guitar is amazing bang for bucks! The pups, pots and switch are probably cheap and nasty but they work as they would on any MIJ, MIM or USA Strat. Brian Medway is staying with me at present so I pulled it out of the closet last night for the first time in a year or so for his evaluation and it passed with flying colours!!

I recently bought a Chinese Epiphone Les Paul Custom for $495 (which is remarkably cheap for Australia) and it's incredible as well.

The only thing I would say about the Squiers is try before you buy. They vary quite a bit in quality but you're bound to find one that is pretty much spot on.

I am glad to see a post from you Goran. A great topic too.

I have found many "Fenders" at budget prices to be quite excellent with regard to the neck and body of the instrument. Every once in a while there are terrific playing instruments that are supposedly at the low end.

The downside to these instruments is the hardware and it is easy to spend $350 getting the machine heads, pickups, pots and saddles to set it right. This can bounce the price right back to the Mexican Fenders.

It is really all about expectations at the end of the day. One thing is sure, a great guitarist can make a mediocre guitar shine.

I would love to hear the tone of your new stratocaster when you get it up to speed. How about a recording or two?

Yes. I sure will try to get time to do some test recording, at least during the upcoming holidays.

To my surprise I guess the little amp sounds very good with the burns-era numbers so I will
have a go at a few of those as well!

And as you say, I guess I (and others) can make almost any guitar sound as good as it's electronics will allow as
I dare say I'm very good at doing all needed set-up (providing that there is an adjustable truss rod
and adjustable saddles, of course)

I WILL do a couple of recordings soon!

Goran