MiM Fender strat vs upgraded Squier strat

Yorkie · September 2023

Good shout about QC, but as I normally buy second hand that gets somewhat diluted. Most of my guitars are Made in China, "upgraded" in England.

I've been eyeing a MiM strat in the last couple of days. The Fender website says it has "Standard Single-Coil Strat®" and vintage sized frets. But the frets look rather large on the pictures (?). And the pickups might be ceramic. Seller says they are hot, and the pole pieces seem to follow fretboard radius (I though staggered pole pieces were a good thing to have on strat pups?).

CavemanGrogg · September 2023

Yorkie said:

Good shout about QC, but as I normally buy second hand that gets somewhat diluted. Most of my guitars are Made in China, "upgraded" in England.

I've been eyeing a MiM strat in the last couple of days. The Fender website says it has "Standard Single-Coil Strat®" and vintage sized frets. But the frets look rather large on the pictures (?). And the pickups might be ceramic. Seller says they are hot, and the pole pieces seem to follow fretboard radius (I though staggered pole pieces were a good thing to have on strat pups?).

If you get the serial number you can get the exact specs of the guitar from Fender's serial number checker, though it's not 100% accurate, one of mine that I looked up shows my guitar, however the specs state it is 3 single coils instead of HSS, and the image that Fender shows you for the serial number is of a HSS Strat, which incidentally is a MIM Strat that came stock with locking tuners and rolled fretboard edges.

Yorkie · September 2023

CavemanGrogg said:

Yorkie said:

Good shout about QC, but as I normally buy second hand that gets somewhat diluted. Most of my guitars are Made in China, "upgraded" in England.

I've been eyeing a MiM strat in the last couple of days. The Fender website says it has "Standard Single-Coil Strat®" and vintage sized frets. But the frets look rather large on the pictures (?). And the pickups might be ceramic. Seller says they are hot, and the pole pieces seem to follow fretboard radius (I though staggered pole pieces were a good thing to have on strat pups?).

If you get the serial number you can get the exact specs of the guitar from Fender's serial number checker, though it's not 100% accurate, one of mine that I looked up shows my guitar, however the specs state it is 3 single coils instead of HSS.

That's what I've done. It says it has "Standard Single-Coil Strat®". Fuck knows what those are.

CavemanGrogg · September 2023

Yorkie said:

CavemanGrogg said:

Yorkie said:

Good shout about QC, but as I normally buy second hand that gets somewhat diluted. Most of my guitars are Made in China, "upgraded" in England.

I've been eyeing a MiM strat in the last couple of days. The Fender website says it has "Standard Single-Coil Strat®" and vintage sized frets. But the frets look rather large on the pictures (?). And the pickups might be ceramic. Seller says they are hot, and the pole pieces seem to follow fretboard radius (I though staggered pole pieces were a good thing to have on strat pups?).

If you get the serial number you can get the exact specs of the guitar from Fender's serial number checker, though it's not 100% accurate, one of mine that I looked up shows my guitar, however the specs state it is 3 single coils instead of HSS.

That's what I've done. It says it has "Standard Single-Coil Strat®". Fuck knows what those are.

That is interesting, I have no idea what ''Standard Single-Coil Strat®'' pickups are, nor what Fender mean by it - I've been trying to find out for a few hours now, it's also an issue I'm having with the MIM Fender that I ran the serial number for through Fender's serial number checker that I'm considering selling next, as mentioned the serial number checker shows photos of a HSS Strat, but the specs on the page says it's a SSS Strat, and give the specs for the 3 single coils, which are correct for the middle and neck pickup but not the bridge one, which according to some documents I received with the guitar the bridge pickup should be a ''Fender Hot Rod Humbucker'', but can I find any information regarding the ''Fender Hot Rod Humbucker'', hell no, I'm at the stage now where I'm going to email Fender about it, to see if they will give me more information about the bridge pickup.

Yorkie · September 2023

I started rewiring my Squier strat while my kids were busy playing video games last night but ran out of time. No idea how long this will take me, so I’ve pulled the trigger on the fairly priced MiM strat I had been eyeing.

NGD coming soon: 2008 standard Strat in black, Fender locking tuners (I’ve also got the original ones in a bag), maple neck and fingerboard… all for £290.

Jon

Snap · September 2023

@Yorkie ;
good gas, that will be nice

chrisj1602 · September 2023

Classic Vibe Squiers are very good, but MIM Fender are better in my experience. I’ve had a a couple of Squier CVs and a fair few MIM Classic Series, Classic Player, Vintera and Road Worn.

There’s some good deals to be had if you shop around, my brother in law got just got a Baja Tele for £400 off eBay, and my latest MIM purchase is the below Classic 60s Tele which was also £400 with Bare Knuckle pickups, again off eBay.

Yorkie · September 2023

I can’t do a full NGD yet because, having generated an interesting discussion here, I feel like I need to go through the internals and compare it to my (rather nice) early 2000s Squier strat.

Some preliminary thoughts: feels nicer, more physically balanced, the neck is extremely comfortable, and the pickups sound warm and almost Hi-Fi. Pretty sure they’re ceramic. My homemade Orange Squeezer is very sensitive to input volume and these pickups send it into compression effortlessly. What the heck do I do now with the Squier?

Yorkie · October 2023

Coming back to this. I want to change the pickguard at some point to either white or parchment, as at the moment the guitar is all black and I'm not keen.

I've looked at prices for Fender pickguards online, and have noticed a big gap with third party ones (expected). I've also noticed that Fender themselves sell loaded pickguards. Bearing in mind that I might want to keep some authenticity in case I ended up selling this guitar (last thing on my mind right now, but life sometimes gets in the way), I have looked at the £125 Tex Mex AlNiCo V set as upgrading pups and electronics vs spending £30 on just a pickguard.

Does anybody have experience with those Tex Mex sets? I know the difference between ceramic and AlNiCo V, and the sound I like is much closer to AlNiCo, so a pup change was always on the cards.

Thanks,
Jon

kentuckyklira · October 2023

Except for the really cheap ones like Affinity or Bullet series today´s Squiers can be really good guitars. I´d have loved to get that much guitar for the money back when I got going!

Funkfingers · October 2023

Fender Tex-Mex pickups are mildly overwound coils around Alnico 5 rod magnets. So, hotter than period correct AND, to my ears, a tad harsh.

In the general scheme of things, Bare Knuckle pickups ought to be superior the Fender mid-price pair. The downside with BKP is that, although they are well made, the model(s) in your guitar might not suit your requirements.

Having slagged off overwound T-style pickups, I must disclose that I am currently greatly enjoying Alegree Texan Dustdevil and Texas Hailstorm pickups in a 2006 Squier Standard Telecaster. Sort of, Yardbirds-era Jeff Beck meets SRV.

Oil City Pickups does a whole bunch of T-style replacement pickups - some of which I am using in one of my guitars right now.

Mojo has a good reputation on this forum.

Yorkie · October 2023

Funkfingers said:

Fender Tex-Mex pickups are mildly overwound coils around Alnico 5 rod magnets. So, hotter than period correct AND, to my ears, a tad harsh.

In the general scheme of things, Bare Knuckle pickups ought to be superior the Fender mid-price pair. The downside with BKP is that, although they are well made, the model(s) in your guitar might not suit your requirements.

Having slagged off overwound T-style pickups, I must disclose that I am currently greatly enjoying Alegree Texan Dustdevil and Texas Hailstorm pickups in a 2006 Squier Standard Telecaster. Sort of, Yardbirds-era Jeff Beck meets SRV.

Oil City Pickups does a whole bunch of T-style replacement pickups - some of which I am using in one of my guitars right now.

Mojo has a good reputation on this forum.

As always, thanks for adding your thoughts to pickup discussions. I very much enjoy learning from you and others here.

I should have edited the thread title. The discussion was about Squier and Fender, but the original motivation and the guitar I've ended up getting is a strat.

Yorkie · October 2023

Anyone tried the SSS Tex Mex set?

UnclePsychosis · October 2023

I've got a Vintera bass, a Player bass, and a Squier 40th Anniversary bass.

The Vintera is the best of the three, but at around 4x the price of the Squier you'd be worried if it wasn't.

Of the Player and the Squier, the Fender has marginally better hardware (tuners / bridge etc) and the electronics are definitely better. But all of those can be upgraded - and the bare building blocks of the squier are fantastic. The neck in particular is a joy to a play.

I'm putting aftermarket pickups in and won't be looking back.

munckee · October 2023

Yorkie said:

Anyone tried the SSS Tex Mex set?

I have, I’m generally a cleaner end of the spectrum player and I prefer fat 50s and the 57/62 fender pickups. The Tex max were fine though and sound really good with more gain if that’s your thing.

Funkfingers · October 2023

Yorkie said:

Anyone tried the SSS Tex Mex set?

I owned a Fender MIM Tex-Mex Stratocaster HSS. The humbucker was not especially hot. Basically a copy of the Pearly Gates Plus.

I found the instrument lacking in character until I changed the pickups to, first, Lace Sensors and, later, Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pros and a Twangbanger.

IIRC, the Tex-Mex single coil pickups had plastic bobbins. To my ears, this always detracts from the sound.

Yorkie · October 2023

Funkfingers said:

Yorkie said:

Anyone tried the SSS Tex Mex set?

IIRC, the Tex-Mex single coil pickups had plastic bobbins. To my ears, this always detracts from the sound.

What material would be preferable?

Yorkie · October 2023

I’ve just had a look at the pickups on my MiM strat. Without measuring, I would say that all three have the same spacing between pole pieces. As a result, the high and low E strings are completely misaligned with respect to their pole pieces. Like very far away.

Any idea?

HerrMetal · October 2023

To be honest I think that's pretty normal. The MIM strat has a 52.5mm bridge rather than the US 56.5'ish. The pickups will likely all have a 52mm spacing which is 'standard' Fender - some vendors do pickups with a 50mm spacing which will make the pole pieces line up with the strings better on the neck pickup. I think the general wisdom is that that while it might look better it makes pretty much no difference to the sound. The pickup guru's will probably be along shortly.

Yorkie · October 2023

But… if staggering pole pieces is important, then surely such a large deviation has to matter?

HerrMetal · October 2023

Believe the magnetic field is such that vertical displacement of the string is more sensitive than horizontal. Bending a string on the high frets moves the string well away from its "home" pole piece.

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MiM Fender strat vs upgraded Squier strat

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