Hey forum members, first post here.

I've been playing for about 18 years now and I started out on a very strange guitar. It's a Squire Strat, although, it's not like any Squire I've ever seen. It's made in Mexico, and the Squire logo is tiny and black, not large and silver as most I've seen are. I was wondering if anyone knows what exactly this thing is because for years I've been debating weather or not to upgrade/sell this guitar.
Here is a picture of the guitar's headstock.



My second question is probably more feasible. I'm looking into new guitars and am looking to downgrade the amount of guitars I own. I feel I only need about two or three electrics and one acoustic. One guitar for every purpose right Lately, I've been shying away from metal and getting more into what I like to call "Dark Alternative Indie Hard Rock" I know, I hate genre classifications as well, but that's the best way I can describe what it sounds like. I want a very versatile guitar.

My ideal guitar would have locking nut, a locking bridge (floyd style?), HSS configuration and most importantly, a THIN, COMFORTABLE NECK. Can anyone point me in the right direction on which of the hundreds of Strat models would likely be up my alley? The neck question is of utmost importance as I feel like you have to be in touch so to speak with your neck in order to feel inspired and play well. I DO have tiny hands and am a tiny guy so the neck feel is very important to me.

Thanks!

Fender was moving Squier production around in the mid-1990s and for a brief while did in fact make the "Squier Series" in their factory in Mexico. This guitar is one from that point in time (I think that lasted about a year/year-and-a-half or so); the serial number would put it in the 1995-1996 time frame.

Now as for a Floyd-equipped Strat - Fender doesn't do many of them; not sure if the neck would be thin enough for you but there is the Standard Strat HSS Floyd Rose and the the Blacktop Strat HH Floyd Rose (I know you're looking for HSS but I believe the Blacktops might have a thinner neck and you can always change out the pickups); beyond that you'll need to look to other brands - Ibanez and ESP are noted for really thin necks.

If you can find one of the old Japanese Strats with a Floyd and a DiMarzio humbucker in the bridge, you're onto a winner. They are mental.

_________________
'01 American Deluxe HSS Strat.
'87 Japan HSS Strat.
'11 Custom Shop FMT HSS Strat.

"Without music, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines and dates by which bills must be paid."

the humbuckers in the HH blacktop floyd rose strat are coil tapped, so you can get some single coil tones from it. i was checking them out, the pickup selections are :

5-Position Blade:
Position 1. Full Bridge Pickup,
Position 2. Two Inside Single Coils,
Position 3. Both Full Humbucking Pickups,
Position 4. Outer Neck Single Coil,
Position 5. Full Neck Pickup

neck shape im pretty sure is same as a std MIM strat, which i would hazard as being the most common fender do, so a good chance it will be similar to your squier. though the only way to really know what you want is to go try them out.

there is also a HSH version of the blacktop strat, but it doesnt have a FR bridge.

Nice, I did not know that the HH's were coil tapped/split. That's pretty nice feature. I thought they had a three way switch!

I'll definitely look into that as well. Thanks for all the info guys, I'll probably look into purchasing once i can find a store that actually has some of these guitars. Guitar Center typically doesn't have properly setup guitars and good luck finding a specific Fender to play on top of it all.. One store near me does have some vintage strats and tele's to jam on so I might make my way out there one of these weekends.