The MIM Classic Player 50s and 60s Strats have 2 point trems.

John

The Korean Lite Ash has a 2-point as well.

I already stood corrected. Many of those guitars are not commonly found in music stores around here. Guitar Center around here carries the basic MIM Standards and a couple Deluxe strats (Roadhouse/Players/Lonestar). Most of their strats are MIA's (standard, deluxe, highway 1, and special).... I'm sure Motor City Guitar might have them since they have more guitars then all 4 Metro Detroit Guitar Center's combined!

_________________
"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


facebook.com/313DBC

The Classic Vibe Tele sounds and plays great. For a cheap guitar, If you buy one of those you are getting way more than your money's worth. Nice Guitars.

how close are squier necks to the real deal in terms of feel? i guess if they both have a 9.5" radius and modern "c shape" they are pretty close? the same? i'm kinda wanting to get the real fender feel just to know what all the others are trying to be. i have never owned a real fender... i know i like a slim neck and a traditional radius. i wonder if i can buy a proper fender neck on it's own?

I've just got to add my $.02 worth in here.

First for the sake of fairness let me say that I do think it may depend a lot on "region" as to which Guitar Center...or music store in general, carries what. If a product sells, you keep it on the shelves and if it doesn't sell, you stop carrying it (or at least carry less).

Now personally, the Cleveland Guitar Center I can say first hand has always had plenty of those "mid-level" Squiers...in fact there's where I had gotten my '08 Squire Standard from new (very lovely guitar BTW...for the $200 I payed, she really is quite exceptional!). Yes, it's a fairly large store and they do have plenty of "Strat Packs", plenty of MIM's, a few Americans and certainly many other brands as well. On average however I would roughly say that anytime I've walked in my local CG, they'd usually have 6 or 8 Bullets, a few Affinities, certainly 3 or 4 Squier Standards, maybe 1 or 2 CV's (I have yet to see that CV 50's Strat there...I'd love to try one!), etc., etc.. Of course being a "Super Store" with other departments, they usually have guitars litter'd about the place as well. Here lately there's been a lot of Laguna's over by the strings and pedals department but you can usually count on at least 1 Squier Strat and more often then not, a Standard.

So when you say "Many of those guitars are not commonly found in music stores around here" I believe you in regards to the around here part of that. In general though I can't really say it's true of the larger music stores here in North East Ohio at all...2 Guitar Center's and 1 Sam Ash, not to mention many smaller ones, the big stores usually do have a little bit of something. From time to time they may run special promotions where they'll be say pushing Gibsons over Fenders...and as such their inventories may be "bulked up" a bit on the product they're pushing that month, but over all they usually do have a good range and selection (and it goes without saying that they can order just about anything...-if- you get the right sales person that is!).

Now I will say that things have been really changing recently around here in regards to the smaller vendors. Ok...one of my gripes with Guitar Center is simply economy...whenever a Guitar Center opens somewhere, a lot of smaller vendors -do- go out of business. Regardless, I've been in and out of a lot of local smaller shops over the past couple of months and things really do seem to vary from store to store however I've noticed that most of the smaller Fender authorized shops seem to be carrying less Fender these days. The one local shop for almost the past year hasn't had any "new" Fender guitars or amps in at all...a couple of used Squiers on the wall but that was it. About two weeks ago I was up there and they now have 6 or 8 little Fender amps in (mostly Frontman 25's) and in their display case (one of those big wood and glass cases you'd use to show off an antique or something of historical value), they had -1- Fender American Special. Oh...yea...they had also gotten in 4 packs of Fender strings...2 of which I bought because they haven't had -any- Fender strings in for over a year.

Another (fairly) local place here in NE Ohio...a bit larger than some small shops but not nearly as big as GC or Sam Ash, they had like 2 MIM's (one of which was used), except for the SRV sig and the -1- Am Dlx behind the counter, I don't think they had -any- Americans (not even the new Specials), etc.. They did however have a rather wide range of Squiers...both Teles and Strats and I have to admit that I was a bit impressed with the selection...my first real close look at some of those CV's and some of them were very nice indeed. I think they may have had 2 or 3 Strat Packs up by the cash register...they are after all still a mom and pop store. Actually I'd say that a good 1/4 of their display inventory was those mid range Squiers. Logic would seem to dictate that they must be selling well otherwise they'd be carrying something else (and this is an older family owned business that has been around for -a lot- of years and has managed to actually compete with GC and Sam Ash). In other words, I'm sure these people know what they're doing and I'd bet they're making a fair enough profit.

On the other hand, I've also seem some formerly great stores slowly turn in to little more than jokes over the years. Cleveland Music for example, once a really decent local music shop (and where my wife bought my '96 MIM for me), any more if it weren't for the band rentals, they'd probably be out of business completely. And the once local legend "DeForie's Music" (I won't mention why they used to be legendary...) last time I was in there, I think they had maybe 15 or 20 -cheap- and/or used electrics and acoustics and that was it. Mostly stuff like "Indiana" Strat copies. Not a single decent amp in the place. Very very sad. This same store once had a wall of some truly vintage classics. No more...

I'm sorry but I have to agree with Yogi in that you've used some broad generalizations there. What it all comes down to is that it's a business and a "good" business is going to cater to their local market whenever they can. As such when you have a large chain of stores such as Guitar Center, while many of them do tend to carry very similar inventories as a general rule, that doesn't mean that all of the stores are going to be the same. And obviously this doesn't even cover catalog and internet sales of those instruments. In other words, in regards to them not being common, don't assume that just because you've never seen many of them that they must not be popular or whatever...they're very decent guitars, they're readily available in most larger US cities and they do apparently sell a lot of them otherwise a company like Fender/Squier simply wouldn't be selling them for long.


To the OP...based on what you said you were looking for, unless you really want a guitar synth (which granted is -very- cool IMHO), my suggestion would be to buy the specific parts that you want either on Ebay or aftermarket and simply build your own. Best way to get -exactly- what you want...without having to fork out a bundle for Custom Shop that is..is just get the parts that you want and put them together yourself. That way -you- get what -you- want. One of the reasons why I'm sure a few of us like to build our own . Nothing wrong with a good Partscaster...at least not in my book!

Peace,
Jim

I can also say I enjoyed a '95 Korean Squier which I wish I never let go and a friend just bought a '87 MIJ Squier. Those were great guitars in feel, tone, and playability.

There is also a terrific online lesson guy in Cananda who believes in low cost guitars making the musician. www.dolphinstreet.com he gives a lot of reviews with audio and video clips on guitars, amps, and pedals. Well worth looking into.

I didn't mean to knock squier, but the finer details are missing from some of them. Level and smooth frets, pickguards, and electronics are not as great of quality as some other Fender guitars. I can say the quality is comparable to a Fender Highway 1. I played a couple of those and I must say I'd rather play a standard MIM then a Highway 1.

There's even a really good professional blues musician known as Monster Mike Welch who lists an Affinity Series Squier in his arsonal. So there are good guitars out there no matter what the headstock label says...

_________________
"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


facebook.com/313DBC

It really depends on which models you are comparing. The thing is if something is billed as a satin finished 9.5 radius with a C shape it is generally going to fit in your hand the same, but a lot of other finishing details come in to play such as fret work, rolled edges etc. Some Squiers generally that have as nice finishing details as some of the Fenders. However the higher end ones do. You can buy a Fender neck by itself, but you are almost better off getting a custom neck from Warmoth for what some people charge for them.

i've done the parts caster guitar thing and yeah it works. i'm forever moving pickups too. i kinda just wanted a "in the fender ballpark" strat as i have had a big cheque come my way, finally! i just had a gibson les paul double cut faded and it is pretty ok for the lowest end gibbo. i kinda wanted to give the real fender a go. a mexican would be fine for me. the hendrix white/ maple fretboard, blackmore 70's ash strat have been a long wanted little dream guitar.

keep the suggestions coming! what do you guys make of the fender strat specials?

I believe all the MIM's have 21 Fret necks and the old style multi screw trems.

If you must have 22 frets and 2 pivot trem, MIM is not what you want.

_________________
"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"