New Squier Fiesta Red Strat

[Bluesnote]

I'm kinda thinking of going down that road myself with my Squier Bullet which sounds and plays brilliantly but the trem lets it down sadly.
I'm thinking for all it cost in the first place, a good system would be well worthy of the extra outlay

[Martyn]

Martyn,
I have just put a full size Steel Trem Block in the 'Biffy' Strat, & installed a new set of strings (10s) in it. It sounds great, & a lot fuller in tone. A lot of that may well be the new higher guage strings, but having a Steel block in which the Trem arm doesn't wobble loose is great. I got the block from a guitarist friend of mine who ordered it made from some guy that actually makes them himself, but I don't know him personally. The important thing seems to be to get the right measurements & screw threads, otherwise you have problems. The essential part for me was getting the right screw thread in the Trem arm socket, so that the existing arm would screw in OK. On the whole I am very pleased with the 'Biffy' purchase, especially the value for money with this excellent quality instrument.

Tony.

Hi Tony,
I just tried one in my local guitar shop, taking my mex strat along to make direct comparisons. We plugged into a small Epiphone valve amp with no reverb or added luxuries like echoes and my initial observations were that mine sounded slightly better, an opinion shared by others looking on. The Bullet 9s fitted to the Squier didn't help as they were a tad thin-sounding (mine had Elixir Nanoweb 10s at the time) and the merest pressure just behind the overly high, prominent frets instantly made the notes go sharp - the guys in the shop said that could be sorted with 10s and other adjustments but I'm not sure how 'adjustments' would prevent this obvious sharpening effect without filing down the frets significantly.
The control knobs were very stiff to turn and the trem was rather cheap looking and hard to operate, the arm also rattled about in its threaded socket when in the correct position to hold it. Turning it further stopped the looseness but it was then facing the bottom end of the guitar, which wasn't much use and this looseness of fit seemed disappointing on a new guitar.
Cosmetically, it was excellent but my instincts were to leave it where it was, albeit I didn't have time to carry out longer examination or testing. Maybe it wasn't a good example and others are better but the overall impression didn't offer much encouragement, sad to say. If yours isn't suffering from these problems, following your modifications, that's great and I'd be interested to hear any recordings you make using it.
Sorry it's such a negative report.
Cheers,
Martyn

[RUSSET]

Hi Martyn,
Sorry to hear you had a 'not-so-good' experience of the 'Biffy' Strat. I did mention the problem with the 'Nasty' trem cheap block, & this seems par for the course with most Far East Squiers. They seem to build strictly to the budget, & the trem block always suffers in the process. I already new that would be the case before I bought mine. As regards problems with the frets, I don't find that at all. You will find that the shop staff have probably not bothered to set up the guitar, but, just taken it out of the box & stuck it on the wall. When mine came, I had to ease the screw tension on the trem unit by loosening the two screws in the back cavity, as the trem bridge had been locked down tight, flat against the body. I also found the six bridge screws at the front of the base plate to be rather loose, & needed tightening, especially the two outside ones. These are both delicate balancing adjustments which are essential to setting a Strat up to your own personal preferences, & making it work as it should for you.

Regards, Tony.

[Martyn]

Hi Martyn,
Sorry to hear you had a 'not-so-good' experience of the 'Biffy' Strat. I did mention the problem with the 'Nasty' trem cheap block, & this seems par for the course with most Far East Squiers. They seem to build strictly to the budget, & the trem block always suffers in the process. I already new that would be the case before I bought mine. As regards problems with the frets, I don't find that at all. You will find that the shop staff have probably not bothered to set up the guitar, but, just taken it out of the box & stuck it on the wall. When mine came, I had to ease the screw tension on the trem unit by loosening the two screws in the back cavity, as the trem bridge had been locked down tight, flat against the body. I also found the six bridge screws at the front of the base plate to be rather loose, & needed tightening, especially the two outside ones. These are both delicate balancing adjustments which are essential to setting a Strat up to your own personal preferences, & making it work as it should for you.

Regards, Tony.

Hi Tony,
I'm sure you're right. They'd transferred the guitar from Torquay to their Plymouth shop just for me to try it and I doubt anyone had even thought about , or had the time to set it up properly in the short period since its delivery, which is no doubt why they mentioned adjusting things for a better setup.
I don't know what I was expecting - maybe in my mind I imagined it would sound completely different from my guitar and the fact it didn't - even allowing for the setup issues, seemed rather disappointing. I suppose that for £250 or thereabouts on the net, I'm asking a lot hoping it will sound way better than a £400 mex or £800 US one, but we all like to think we've found a great bargain and no doubt everyone else trawling through the eBay listings is hoping for exactly the same thing. And that's why it always pays to try before you buy - something you usually can't do on eBay .
But with the mods you're been carrying out on your strat I'll be interested to hear how you rate it after all your work.

Kind regards,
Martyn

[Bluesnote]

I got my Squier Bullet straight out the box in the shop, tried it and bought it. It was'nt set up properly but I just knew after playing it that I could get it playing a lot better with a bit of tweaking here and there, actually it was a big bit of tweaking but its playing great now for just around 70 quid.
Maybe I got a lucky one I dont know but it sounds and plays just the way I want for my needs anyway.
I dare say, were I playing again in a band like I was years ago, I'd probably concider getting a good Fender to do the job, but for home use and recording it does just fine.
I never noticed til you mentioned it about the high frets. Maybe I dont press down too hard to finger the notes but if I try, I get the change of pitch you mentioned because of the frets maybe needing another file next string change. I've been used to classical and flamenco instruments in the last few years so I suppose I learned to have a lighter touch on the fingerboard on the electric due to my hands being stronger now. If that makes any sense
This is the first negative response to the Biffy I've heard to date. I never tried one but I imagine it'd be a lot better than the bullet I bought.
They do need 10 guage strings though. I put Gibson 10's vintage issue and they sound and play great, I also tried Dean Markleys as the shop was out of stock of the Gibsons at the time of the next string change and they sound absolute crap by comparison.
I cant wait to get them off and back to Gibson. They give a warmer sound I find

[RUSSET]

Hi Martyn & Hugh,
Sadly my PC knowledge is limited to pressing the keys, & I haven't got the wit or the kit to make my own recordings & post them. I make up for that by gigging with my band 'Shindig', who play mainly '60s music around the West Midlands, including a few Shads & Ventures tunes. I do appreciate that a guitar is a very personal thing to each individual, & you have to choose the instrument that actually suits you. The idea of the Squier 'Classic Vibe' series, according to the review in 'Guitarist' mag was, to bring back a bit of vibe of the renowned early '80s Squier 'JV' series that were made in Japan. Although I would not say that they have quite the superb quality of that exceptional range of instruments. They certainly seem to be one of the very best of what comes out of China under the Squier logo these days, & to be fair, for what you get at the price, it is very good. If the Mex Strat works for you, stick with it. I have two Mex 'Classic Player' series guitars, & am well aware of the superb value for money that they give. I would almost compare them in quality to the Fender USA Vintage Reissue range, & they cost about 1/3rd of the price. In the end, I guess, you get what you pay for. In the above case you get 90% of the quality for 1/3rd of the price.
I suppose that with most guitars these days, manufacturers are trying to appeal to the youngsters, & tend to apply modern features to guitars. Hence the Medium-Jumbo Fret size & the 9.5" fingerboard radius, which isn't quite what we would class as 'Vintage'.
Regards to you both & Merry Xmas & a Happy NY,
Tony.