Are Squier guitars as good as Fender ones?

If they are as good, why don%26#39;t people buy the Squier one instead?

If they are not, what%26#39;s the difference?

Answers:

It depends, how much are you going to spend.

A Squier is a mass-produced Fender body. They generally have cheaper parts (bridge, electronics, and tuners) and often use more than one piece of wood in the design or may use cheaper woods than the Alder and Ash of the Fender (such as basswood). The top-of-the-line Squier (around $250+) is generally a good beginner guitar, though it will have trade-offs (The Squier deluxe Hot Rails has decent pick-ups, but is made from basswood instead of alder, for instance) .

The bottom-of-the-line Fender (starting around $400) is about as good a guitar as the top-of-the-line Squier, though it doesn%26#39;t make as many trade-offs. All the bodies are Alder or Swamp Ash, the hardware is more standardized and likely a higher quality. The mid range and up Fenders ($700+) are where you start running into the better quality.

The bottom line is to try them out. The Squier in particular seems to have a wide variance of quality, so listen to the guitar itself before making a purchase.

You can also opt for a "Super-Strat". The classic Fender shape, but from ESP, Jackson (owned by Fender), etc. These will tend to have better hardware and electronics than a comparably priced Fender.

SInce this is the second question about guitars recently I%26#39;m going to assume you%26#39;re in the market and make a couple of suggestions: