Hi everyone, I finally bought my 1st electric guitar this past June after years of waiting. With all the kids out of college it's my turn to catch up on some fun. I bought an American standard and am loving it! I want to learn how to do my own set up and parts changes, things of that nature. Basically I want to tinker with it and tweak it. But I don't want to learn on this beautiful instrument and ruin it. I have thought of buying a Squire from craigs list to experiment on first. Are Squires close enough to the American strats to benefit from this?

Well, Squiers have the same setup and measurements. A perfect guitar to learn tweaking your axes.
You can't go wrong with a Squier, it would be my first choice for that if I was a beginner!

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

You can find a used Squier for about a c note to do your testing and surgery with.

For a little more you can find a used MIM Standard Strat.

Good luck!

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

An old beater Squier would be good to learn on. That and a good book, one of the first to get is Dan Erlewine's - How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great!

Don't forget to check out YouTube for video's on repairs, setups. etc...

Congratulation on a great guitar purchase. You will enjoy it for many years. Don't worry you can't screw it up that bad.

Hi marty55 and welcome to the forum!
I understand your apprehension and as mentioned above, a Squier is a good place to learn, but also keep in mind that the Strat design is condusive to tinkering and tweaking. As long as you exercise common sense care, follow the Strat setup guide, and don't do anything drastic with the truss rod, you should be good to go!

Cheers!
BM

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This is the Blues. Are you listening?

I learned how to set up my Am Standard strat by tinkering with an old Rogue strat, which used to be a low line of Squier. The only difference in it's design (aside from cheaper everything), is the lack of a micro-tilt neck, which gave me the chance to learn the antiquated art of neck shimming as well.

I'd not bother buying a new one to tinker on, just about any cheap strat copy at a pawn shop or craigslist will do.
(Squier, Hondo, Crate, Etc. Maybe even a Starcaster.)

I wanna do the same. I have expensive guitars and my one friend makes fun of me for not knowing how to do a set up. I always tell him it's too much money to play around with. So I endorse this idea greatly

I agree that it would be beneficial to practice on an old guitar first. Here is a link that will help as well. http://www.fender.com/support/articles/ ... etup-guide

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head