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Post subject: Squier Bulletstrat advice
Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 12:15 pm
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Hello all. I'm stepping up from an acoustic guitar after a few years! The guitar I have now is 36 or so inches and I was wondering. Should I get a full sized or mini Squier? My arms have no problem with my current guitar.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Bulletstrat advice
Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 1:01 pm
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I vote for a full size guitar. The minis are fun, but they are IMHO gimmicks.
And, since you've played acoustic, you probably will find the full size electric easier to play than your previous guitar.

One important thing: which ever guitar you choose, be sure it's set up right - that's the key factor in how a guitar plays.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Bulletstrat advice
Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 12:39 pm
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jmattis wrote:
I vote for a full size guitar. The minis are fun, but they are IMHO gimmicks.
And, since you've played acoustic, you probably will find the full size electric easier to play than your previous guitar.

One important thing: which ever guitar you choose, be sure it's set up right - that's the key factor in how a guitar plays.



+1

The mini Strats are fun...they kind of look cool on stage too...but you'll probably be better of with a full size electric. Assuming your acoustic is full size, then you shouldn't have any problem.


...and +1 on the setup too. One of the biggest issues with inexpensive guitars isn't that they're "cheap", it's that most younger/newer players don't know they need setups occasionally. Acoustics are generally pretty "plug and play" (give or take the occasional truss rod adjustment), however electrics tend to need some period maintenance to keep them at their peek performance.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Bulletstrat advice
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 2:10 pm
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Full sized and properly set up.

Seems wrong to pay $150 for a new guitar then another $75 - $100 to have it set up but that just seems to be the way it is unless you can do yourself. Or buy used - cheaper and likely to have already been set up by previous owner.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Bulletstrat advice
Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 12:08 pm
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I bought a used Squire bullet strat about a week ago. I tried a few guitars in the store but I liked the look and price of this one. But it sounded horrible. The guy at the store took it to the back room. He said he was going to play with it. When he brought it back after 5-10 minutes it sounded good. Real good. Using an electronic tuner (instead of my ear) the open strings and the 12th fret were both in tune. I knew about setting up electric guitars in that I had heard you can do it. I've adjusted the neck and bridgh height on my accoustics but that was pretty simple. I didn't have the option to adjust string length to change the length of the string which I assume is how you get the 12th fret in tune when the open string is in tune. Anyway, I am very happy with this new, used guitar. I also wonder if the previous user sold it or traded it because it didn't sound just right. I'm telling this story to echo the other comments about having a guitar set up. In my case it took a guitar that sounded terrible even to my ear and made a very nice guitar. I walked into this store on impulse to start playing again and I wanted an electric. I wanted less expensive but a reasonably nice guitar. I walked out of there with exactly what I wanted due to the set up of the guitar.

Jack


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Post subject: Re: Squier Bulletstrat advice
Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 12:58 pm
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Jack H. wrote:
I bought a used Squire bullet strat about a week ago. I tried a few guitars in the store but I liked the look and price of this one. But it sounded horrible. The guy at the store took it to the back room. He said he was going to play with it. When he brought it back after 5-10 minutes it sounded good. Real good. Using an electronic tuner (instead of my ear) the open strings and the 12th fret were both in tune. I knew about setting up electric guitars in that I had heard you can do it. I've adjusted the neck and bridgh height on my accoustics but that was pretty simple. I didn't have the option to adjust string length to change the length of the string which I assume is how you get the 12th fret in tune when the open string is in tune. Anyway, I am very happy with this new, used guitar. I also wonder if the previous user sold it or traded it because it didn't sound just right. I'm telling this story to echo the other comments about having a guitar set up. In my case it took a guitar that sounded terrible even to my ear and made a very nice guitar. I walked into this store on impulse to start playing again and I wanted an electric. I wanted less expensive but a reasonably nice guitar. I walked out of there with exactly what I wanted due to the set up of the guitar.

Jack


The phenomenon to which you are referring is called "intonation"...essentially the "guitar being in tune with itself". You are absolutely correct in that this is accomplished by correctly adjusting the scale length of each string by moving the saddles until the 12'th fret harmonic is in tune with the 12th fret. It's generally a good idea to check this each time you change strings. Since I obviously wasn't there to see, hear or play the guitar you mention, it's also possible the tech adjusted pickup height as well...another thing that can contribute to an electric guitar sounding "terrible". Other things that would also be considered as part of a proper setup would included truss rod adjustments (neck relief) and if so equipped, tension adjustments to the tremolo as well and in the case of changing string gauge (say going from .009's to .010's) have the nut correctly refiled as well.

The simple fact of the matter is that I've seen more "cheap" instruments that have issues due to setup more than anything else...it's almost scary how many necks I've seen that are bowed like a banana all because the owner didn't know you have to adjust the truss rod occasionally. The sad thing here is that this gives many people the unfortunate illusion that an inexpensive guitar is a "bad" guitar, when more often that not, that's not the case.

BTW...for those interested in learning more, right here at Fender.com is a great place to start! If you browse through the website, you'll find some really good info, articles and tips for keeping your Strats and Teles (inexpensive or otherwise) in peak condition! And no...I don't work for Fender. I just own a lot of Strats :-)

Anyways, enjoy that Bullet! I've had a couple (now sold due to "over population" down in my studio, LOL) and both were very decent little bangers for the money.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Bulletstrat advice
Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 2:01 pm
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lomitus wrote:
Jack H. wrote:
I bought a used Squire bullet strat about a week ago. I tried a few guitars in the store but I liked the look and price of this one. But it sounded horrible. The guy at the store took it to the back room. He said he was going to play with it. When he brought it back after 5-10 minutes it sounded good. Real good. Using an electronic tuner (instead of my ear) the open strings and the 12th fret were both in tune. I knew about setting up electric guitars in that I had heard you can do it. I've adjusted the neck and bridgh height on my accoustics but that was pretty simple. I didn't have the option to adjust string length to change the length of the string which I assume is how you get the 12th fret in tune when the open string is in tune. Anyway, I am very happy with this new, used guitar. I also wonder if the previous user sold it or traded it because it didn't sound just right. I'm telling this story to echo the other comments about having a guitar set up. In my case it took a guitar that sounded terrible even to my ear and made a very nice guitar. I walked into this store on impulse to start playing again and I wanted an electric. I wanted less expensive but a reasonably nice guitar. I walked out of there with exactly what I wanted due to the set up of the guitar.

Jack


The phenomenon to which you are referring is called "intonation"...essentially the "guitar being in tune with itself". You are absolutely correct in that this is accomplished by correctly adjusting the scale length of each string by moving the saddles until the 12'th fret harmonic is in tune with the 12th fret. It's generally a good idea to check this each time you change strings. Since I obviously wasn't there to see, hear or play the guitar you mention, it's also possible the tech adjusted pickup height as well...another thing that can contribute to an electric guitar sounding "terrible". Other things that would also be considered as part of a proper setup would included truss rod adjustments (neck relief) and if so equipped, tension adjustments to the tremolo as well and in the case of changing string gauge (say going from .009's to .010's) have the nut correctly refiled as well.

The simple fact of the matter is that I've seen more "cheap" instruments that have issues due to setup more than anything else...it's almost scary how many necks I've seen that are bowed like a banana all because the owner didn't know you have to adjust the truss rod occasionally. The sad thing here is that this gives many people the unfortunate illusion that an inexpensive guitar is a "bad" guitar, when more often that not, that's not the case.

BTW...for those interested in learning more, right here at Fender.com is a great place to start! If you browse through the website, you'll find some really good info, articles and tips for keeping your Strats and Teles (inexpensive or otherwise) in peak condition! And no...I don't work for Fender. I just own a lot of Strats :-)

Anyways, enjoy that Bullet! I've had a couple (now sold due to "over population" down in my studio, LOL) and both were very decent little bangers for the money.



Thanks for the reply Lomitus. I do want to learn how to take care of this and any guitar I have. I'll be checking out the Fender site. It still amazes me how much info is available at our fingertips these days. I think I'll be happy with this Squire for quite some time. I do appreciate the benefits of more expensive guitars as well as other hobbies. But in most cases to get the benefits of the better and sometimes much more expensive tools I need to have the ability to get the benefits. I'm old enough now to try to force myself to remember the person is more important than the tool. A skilled artist can get decent (and great) performance from decent tools and also get greater performance from great tools. But the unskilled (beginner) artist won't benefit at all by getting the high dollar tools right away. Of course this is a very generic philosophy which will vary from person to person. Thanks again and take care.

Jack


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