Anyone who knows anything about Squire guitars knows that they make excellent products just as good as Fender and in some case better than Fender.
In order understand how this whole thing got turned around you need to know some facts and a little bit of history about how manufacturing and marketing works.
Leo Fender revolutionised guitar making by introducing the methods of mass production. Standardisation of components and the division of labour into simple tasks.
So what is a standard and why do we need them?
The dictionary explains it as:-
Standard definition
"A level of quality or attainment. Similar quality level grade degree worth calibre merit excellence"
Or
"Something used as a measure, norm, or model in comparative evaluations.
Often used or accepted as normal or average. usual, typical, stock, customary, expected, established, set, fixed."
Why would anyone want a standard? Well it gives the public a sense of consistency, continuity and assurance. Imagine if every Mcdonalds you visited did their own thing?
This Squire Standard Stratocaster was a reissue based on the 1962 strat spefications.
Standard Stratocaster Specification.
Body: Full size solid hard wood body (Alder or Ash)
Neck: Maple C Shape
Scale: 25.5"
Width 1 3/4" inch thick body is the standard stratocaster size
Neck width: 42mm (Neck made by Atlansia Guitars)
Fretboard Radius; 9.5"
Fretboard: Rosewood 22 frets (rolled edges)
Position Inlays: Perloid Dots
Ceramic pickups? (to be confirmed on disassembly)
Snowman routing? (to be confirmed on disassembly)
Tuners: Wilkinson Deluxe Kluson (work well and stay in tune)
Safety feature tuning pegs
Pickguard: 8 hole vintage, single ply,
This Strat weighs 8.5 pounds full size alder body (Strats vary in weight depending on density of wood used)
Vintage 8 screw pickguard
Vintage floating bridge tremolo arm (vibrato)
Trem block full size (Zinc)
5 way switch, tone control on the bridge pickup.(A 62' strat would have a 3 way switch)
This Strat's single coil pickups output ohms
Neck 7.3
Middle 7.8
Bridge 8.6
Staggered pole pieces on the pickups
This Standard Stratocaster was made in 1996 in the Yako (pronounced Ya-Geh) plant in the Republic of China and they make great instruments to this day. Neck made by Atlansia Guitars.
Why did I put this Standard Stratocaster specification together? It was very difficult to nail down the original specs set out by Leo Fender as the company has changed hands a few times but by comparing two Standard Stratocasters from the same era made in different countries I came to this result.
Fender changed the name of the Standard Stratocaster to the Professional Stratocaster.
If you want a standard stratocaster based on the original specs then look for a 1996 Squire Stratocaster.
Here is the current offering from Squire on Amazon. You can support the channel by using this link.
https://amzn.to/3yUrDPq
Thanks for reading and watching.
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