Initial Review of the Squier '51

skyydogg01

skyydogg01

Active member
As most of you know, I stumbled on a Squier '51 from MF for dirt cheap. After receiving the guitar DOA and some investigation, I replaced the volume pot with one that actually works. here is my Harmony-central style review. I will not, however, post this on HC. Enjoy

Features:
25.5" scale
21 fret maple neck/maple fretboard
Basswood body/sunburst finish
top loading hardtail bridge
single coil neck pickup
humbucker bridge pickup
500k CTS volume pot (now anyway, push/pull removed because I don't need it where I'm going)
3 way rotary switch

sound:
Here's where it gets good. The stock pickups are suprisingly good. the humbucker is nice and full with no hum. took everything I threw at it like a champ. the neck single was nice too. played real nice with my bad monkey and my blues junior. nice and clear with some chime to it. a bit bright considering only one 500k pot and no tone but that will be alleviated shortly. (the surprise is coming, which is why I'm not posting pics yet)

Action, Fit, & finish:
finish was nice. a couple of raisin shaped knots in the body wood but I don't care because it makes the guitar unique. the body is really thin, like 1 to 1.25 inches thick. Had some scratches on the back near the jack but that may have been me when I was changing the pot ... I may have slid the guitar on the table I was working on but I don't remember. the neck is nice too. my first maple board that doesn't feel like the other maples i've played. neck is kinda thick and well rounded. My ESP has more of a V contour compared to this one but it fits my hand nicely. No finish problems with the neck at all. Action was a little bit high for my liking but i'm not to worried because it plays very well.

Reliability/Durability:
Again, another surprise. this thing is built really well. the body is thin and the volume pot did not work upon arrival but $6 and 30 minutes later and it's all good now. from the looks of it, it won't fall apart in the middle of a gig.

Overall:
Very nice guitar!!! i should have jumped on this one a while ago. should have bought 2 or 3, honestly.
 
Re: Initial Review of the Squier '51

...mine was pretty much standard strat width in terms of the body... 1" seems ridiculously thin. Even my Mustang isn't 1" thin, nor are the 90s Fender/Squier Duo Sonics... which are ridiculously thin.

Still if it sounds decent then hell yeah, why not :D Get the push pull back on :laugh2:

(...is it blonde?)

I would replace the pickup knob with a chickenhead so you could actually tell what position the pickups are in.
 
Re: Initial Review of the Squier '51

danglybanger said:
...mine was pretty much standard strat width in terms of the body... 1" seems ridiculously thin. Even my Mustang isn't 1" thin, nor are the 90s Fender/Squier Duo Sonics... which are ridiculously thin.

Still if it sounds decent then hell yeah, why not :D Get the push pull back on :laugh2:

(...is it blonde?)

I would replace the pickup knob with a chickenhead so you could actually tell what position the pickups are in.
Click to expand...

yeah, I'm gonna have to put a caliper on it to see exactly how thick it is. no, it's the burst. didn't like the blonde. actually, this was their last one.

as far as the push/pull, I won't need it (more to come on that one)
the pickup switch, I may just change it to a DP3T mini
 
Re: Initial Review of the Squier '51

My '51 seems to be about 1 9/16" hard to measure with a tape measure with the rounded corners. Mine has shorts in the volume pot AND the selector, sometimes when using either one of them the sound goes out, I just have to wiggle them to get it working again. It's something I want to fix when I get around to putting a Duncan Performer Buck Shot into it, but my lack of soldering skill is holding me back. Putting that pickup into my strat copy plywood guitar was a small nightmare. But I like the sound of this guitar so far. I wish I had a good high gain, Marshall-style amp to play it through. One thing I don't like is the 9 1/2" neck radius, it's too rounded. I thought about returning it but for only $100 I decided it was worth keeping.
 
Re: Initial Review of the Squier '51

They're the best!

It's my go-to axe these days.

It gets better as time goes on - the volume knob is a powerful tool to take some of the treble out of the bucker and bridge tapped.

I was hell bent on putting a higher output pickup in the bridge but I have done a lot of playing and a lot of recording with this axe in the past few months and I have really learned to love the bridge pickup - I mostly use it tapped though, and I'm not willing to lose the great tone of single+single it puts out.

The neck single coil sounds Strattier than my Strat!
 
Re: Initial Review of the Squier '51

Who would think it's a nice guitar...?!

Glad to hear it, bro. Get another while you can, it's discontinued.
 
Re: Initial Review of the Squier '51

LSP said:
Who would think it's a nice guitar...?!

Glad to hear it, bro. Get another while you can, it's discontinued.
Click to expand...

I think it's a nice guitar. If they cost $400 I'd still get one. It has a better neck than most MIM Stratocasters I've played.

Yeah, the Vintage Blonde finish is pretty highly sought after over on the Squier '51 Modders Forum - apparently it's the most scarce / first discontinued or something.
 
Re: Initial Review of the Squier '51

HotSEXJ said:
I think it's a nice guitar. If they cost $400 I'd still get one. It has a better neck than most MIM Stratocasters I've played.

Yeah, the Vintage Blonde finish is pretty highly sought after over on the Squier '51 Modders Forum - apparently it's the most scarce / first discontinued or something.
Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong, I believe it's a pretty good guitar ;)
 
Re: Initial Review of the Squier '51

They're a pretty cool little guitar. I have one lying right next to me at the moment.
 
Re: Initial Review of the Squier '51

I love my burst '51 enough to wish I'd purchased a blonde w/black pickguard to go with it! :)
 
Re: Initial Review of the Squier '51

I bought one of these about a year ago, just to make it into a Keef style 5 string/open G tuning. I didn't care for the pickups, replaced the neck pu with an SD lil '59 for strat (actually, a bridge pu) the original humbucker is still in the bridge, put I'm planning to put an alnico 2 mag in it to warm it up a bit.
The Squire 51 does just what I bought it for- and it really gets the Keef tone now, but I really don't usually care for Fender Guitars, but for the money, it's a great buy.
 
Re: Initial Review of the Squier '51

I don't know how, but my '51 (with a solo Retrotron Liverpool wired series-parallel-split) has been my main electric since I bought it. I planned on it just being a cheap, fun little project, but damn if it hasn't become the instrument I reach for first.
 
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