As an old Strat guy myself I'd say that one is an '03 and probably a Mexican made Strat. The absolute best Strats came out of Mexico I have a few myself including the 80's GK Roland ready and it is phenomenal.
Hey, yeah I’m a Strat guy too and I’ve had about 5 or 6 Squier Strats at this point. You could be right about it being 03, but what led me to think it was a little older was the Squier tuning machines, the lack of a Squier logo on the backplate and the full thickness body all lead me to think that it is a little earlier. But it is such a mess trying to date these things that I won’t argue too much at all. Maybe if I took the neck off there might be something in there that would tell me but if the necks are nice and snug I don’t like loosening them unnecessarily.
@@danneutel yep I agree, I didn't think to look at the tuning machines. Recently though I have seen videos on TH-cam about to put "brands" on the headstock. So yeah we have to be very careful these days. I wish there was a better way to date these guitars too. Ovation has a site where can actually look up your serial number, that's how I found out my Applause was made between 1977 and 1978.
@@impressiveprogressive7343 Fender does have a serial number checker on their website, but the serial number on this Squier is just printed on sticker and not really readable anymore - also leading me to think this is a very early 2000s model. I might be totally wrong about this, but I’m under the impression that in the late 90s (96 or 97) Fender wanted to reorganize and achieve better consistency with the Squier line. One of the things they did was collect up all existing Squier parts in all their warehouses, bring them together in one place (China) and slap them together with Squier labels painted on. So between 1998 and 2003 you could get any combination of parts until they ran out and started building more a specific and consistent product in the mid 2000s. It makes fun to buy them, but also makes it really hard to figure anything out because you could have the same name (SE, Affinity, Bullet) with completely different specs and parts. But this might just be internet legend and I might be wrong about this.
@@danneutel well I know the Mexican made Fenders and Squiers were really good I wonder why they chose to go to China? Cheaper labor I would think. I still prefer the Mexico made ones. I have to go home now and check my serial number on my strategy. Can't wait to see what it says. I am thinking mid to late 80s
Well I did look mine up, it's not as old as I thought, that's still a good thing. While it didn't give me an exact date it just said 1998 -2006. It's all good though it's a great strat made in Mexico it has an Alder body, rosewood finger board, Maple neck. Poly finish. The action is so nice the strings are low on the fret board with no buzzing. Fret are clean and smooth. Probably one of my most prized guitars in my collection. Considering there's a 12 string Japanese built Terada dreadnought circa 1974 and a 1977/78 applause round back and an epihone ET285 Bass circa 1973 it's in really good company. They just don't make them like they used to do they? As a matter of fact mine looks exactly like the one you have in this video. except my head stock labels are "Fender Stratocaster". Happy playing!
![The Perfect Stratocaster Trem / Vibrato Setup [Floating, Flat Or Blocked?]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PjVXWyUGpwc/mqdefault.jpg)
Nice! Great job!
Thanks! I couldn't have done it without you guys.
awesome build,I have a Squire single humbucker I'm going to upgrade like this! thanks for sharing,have great day!
Good luck! If I can do it anyone can.
As an old Strat guy myself I'd say that one is an '03 and probably a Mexican made Strat. The absolute best Strats came out of Mexico I have a few myself including the 80's GK Roland ready and it is phenomenal.
Hey, yeah I’m a Strat guy too and I’ve had about 5 or 6 Squier Strats at this point. You could be right about it being 03, but what led me to think it was a little older was the Squier tuning machines, the lack of a Squier logo on the backplate and the full thickness body all lead me to think that it is a little earlier. But it is such a mess trying to date these things that I won’t argue too much at all. Maybe if I took the neck off there might be something in there that would tell me but if the necks are nice and snug I don’t like loosening them unnecessarily.
@@danneutel yep I agree, I didn't think to look at the tuning machines.
Recently though I have seen videos on TH-cam about to put "brands" on the headstock. So yeah we have to be very careful these days.
I wish there was a better way to date these guitars too. Ovation has a site where can actually look up your serial number, that's how I found out my Applause was made between 1977 and 1978.
@@impressiveprogressive7343 Fender does have a serial number checker on their website, but the serial number on this Squier is just printed on sticker and not really readable anymore - also leading me to think this is a very early 2000s model.
I might be totally wrong about this, but I’m under the impression that in the late 90s (96 or 97) Fender wanted to reorganize and achieve better consistency with the Squier line. One of the things they did was collect up all existing Squier parts in all their warehouses, bring them together in one place (China) and slap them together with Squier labels painted on. So between 1998 and 2003 you could get any combination of parts until they ran out and started building more a specific and consistent product in the mid 2000s.
It makes fun to buy them, but also makes it really hard to figure anything out because you could have the same name (SE, Affinity, Bullet) with completely different specs and parts. But this might just be internet legend and I might be wrong about this.
@@danneutel well I know the Mexican made Fenders and Squiers were really good I wonder why they chose to go to China? Cheaper labor I would think.
I still prefer the Mexico made ones.
I have to go home now and check my serial number on my strategy. Can't wait to see what it says. I am thinking mid to late 80s
Well I did look mine up, it's not as old as I thought, that's still a good thing. While it didn't give me an exact date it just said 1998 -2006.
It's all good though it's a great strat made in Mexico it has an Alder body, rosewood finger board, Maple neck. Poly finish.
The action is so nice the strings are low on the fret board with no buzzing. Fret are clean and smooth.
Probably one of my most prized guitars in my collection. Considering there's a 12 string Japanese built Terada dreadnought circa 1974 and a 1977/78 applause round back and an epihone ET285 Bass circa 1973 it's in really good company.
They just don't make them like they used to do they?
As a matter of fact mine looks exactly like the one you have in this video. except my head stock labels are "Fender Stratocaster". Happy playing!