by cockroach » 09 Nov 2009, 11:43
Hi Hugh,
I'm over in another part of the Commonwealth, in South Australia.
I owned and used a red Squier Bullet Strat (Chinese built)for about 2-3 years , until I sold it to another chap in our small local Shads club group a few months ago, as he wanted an electric solidbody.
I used it regularly for gigs and rehearsals, jamming , parties etc. - playing rock, country, Shads and Ventures material, and I even did a JAZZ gig with it- great jazz tone from the neck pickup! I paid AUS $169 for it (about 85 pounds sterling) new, then used it for the first time at a New Year's Eve gig the same evening!
Excellent neck, good tone, used with 11-49 strings with a wound .20 third string. New ones are still only about AUS$199 here in a choice of colours.
A very good affordable guitar- OK, you could replace pickups, bridge, tuners etc- but they work very well in stock standard form.
For my main guitar, I currently use a Squier Affinity Telecaster(also Chinese built) used with 10-48 strings with a plain third- which is astoundingly good and true to the classic Tele tones- but it certainly did cost more than the Squier Bullet Strat at the time- I paid AUS $275 a couple of years ago, but they are AUS$399 nowadays. Once again, I bought it on a Saturday afternoon, and gigged with it at a cafe the next day!
Retail prices are probably just a function of economies of scale I think- the Strat types are far more numerous/popular, although theTelecaster style appears to be more trendy at the moment...