Saturday, March 8, 2014

REVIEW: FENDER SQUIER STRATOCASTER VINTAGE MODIFIED '70 (WITH SAMPLES)


Hello an welcome to this week's article!
Today we're going to talk about an interesting low budget guitar: The Squier Stratocaster Vintage Modified '70, released in 2013.
Squier, as we all know, is a musical instrument brand owned by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, and with this name they release instruments of the Fender roster aimed to the lower price area: pickups and mechanics are less expensive and woods are less valuable to make the price more affordable, but the playability is still quite good.
This brand is especially good for beginner guitarists that needs an affordable instrument with a quality standard guaranteed from a top brand, and that's why Squier guitars are usually preferred to unautorized Fender clones, even if cheaper: this brand tries to recreate in detail an authentic Fender experience, and this model, the Vintage Modified '70, is a good example.

This made-in-indonesia model recreates some of the characteristics of '70s Stratocasters: the big headstock (bigger than the current production), the glossy neck, which is maple but with a "vintage" look, and the six joints tremolo, while the current models features only two.
This bridge creates also a bit more space (2mm) between the strings than the modern one.
This model is called "Modified", though, because the original '70s guitar had a very thick neck with a radius of 7", (which means very round, which is good for playing chords but, especially for today's standards, it's quite unconfortable for playing solos), while this one has a radius of 9,5", a little more flat and versatile.
Some of these are built in the Cort Guitars and Samick Guitars factories, and this can be seen on the serial number (if there is an S it's Samick, if there is a C or a SC it's Cort).


In the second picture you can see the three Duncan Designed pickups, while in the last pic the guitar shows an humbucker (I have mounted a Seymour Duncan Distortion, with coil tap, to give to this guitar a bit more versatility).

My judgement is very positive, I have even used this guitar in recording the Wisteria album "8-Bit Nightmare", which you can hear here (this is the cover of The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby):




Specs taken from the Fender Website:

Body Material: Basswood
Body Finish: Gloss Polyester
Neck Material: Maple
Neck Finish: Gloss Polyurethane
Neck Shape: "C" Shape
Scale Length: 25.5" (64.8 cm)
Fingerboard: Maple
Fingerboard Radius: 9.5" (241 mm)
Number of Frets: 21
Fret Size: Medium Jumbo
Nut Width: 1.650" (42 mm)
Position Inlays: Black or White Dot
Middle Pickup: Duncan Designed™ SC-101 Single-Coil
Neck Pickup: Duncan Designed™ SC-101N Single-Coil
Controls: Master Volume, Tone 1. (Neck Pickup), Tone 2. (Middle Pickup)
Pickup Switching: 5-Position Blade: Position 1. Bridge Pickup, Position 2. Bridge and Middle Pickup, Position 3. Middle Pickup, Position 4. Middle and Neck Pickup, Position 5. Neck Pickup
Bridge: 6-Saddle Vintage-Style Synchronized Tremolo
Tremolo Arm Handle: Vintage-Style Tremolo Arm
Tuning Machines: Vintage-Style




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