Fender Squier Bullet Stratocaster HT HSS Electric Guitar, Brown Sunburst, Laurel Fingerboard

I've been playing guitar for over 40 years. I have a Les Paul and a Gibson Hummingbird from the 70's so I already own top end pieces. I wanted something I could play without worrying about dings, plus I wanted to do my own upgrades just for the fun of it.I've read several reviews that criticize this guitar for plastic that is over the pick guard and includes a sticker to Fender's online lessons. This plastic is there to protect the guitar, you just lightly pull it off and underneath you will see a beautiful, shiny new pick guard. It's easier to get the plastic off with the strings off. You should change the strings on a new guitar anyway so this is a perfect time to take that plastic off.Out of the box, I was amazed at how well it played. All I had to do was tune it. I was expecting to have to adjust intonation but it was darn near spot on so I didn't need to. But for a 125 dollar guitar the parts are darn good. The bridge is VERY easy to adjust the action and intonation and the changes hold, they don't slip out of tune when you hammer on it a little. I also changed the strings just because I like Ernie Balls but the strings that came with it were just fine until you need to do the first change. Don't buy those kits on Amazon that include the amp etc. Everything but the guitar is junk in those packages. The amps are pure garbage, so just buy this guitar for a little over a hundo, I am using it on my own Fender 20 amp and it sounds beautiful!! That amp is around 100 also and well worth it. So for the same price as one of those package deals you will have MUCH better equipment.First thing I did was put Fender locking tuners on it. IMO every guitar should come from the factory with lockers. There are two holes as expected, on the headstock to keep the tuner from spinning and the holes didn't line up. But Stewmac makes a perfect jig so you can easily drill the new holes. Otherwise the tuners just drop right in once you drill the new holes. Don't be afraid....it is not hard to do!!!!The pick up's are very passable. I am going to change the bridge pickup and put in a better humbucker but that's just me, you don't have to do this. All the electronics work fine. No buzzes, nothing. I am very happy with this Strat cousin. Eventually I will put in a new bridge but again, this does not need to be done, it is just me wanting to upgrade.But....when I am done upgrading which will include the tuners, a new humbucker, and bridge I will have a tad over 300 dollars in to the upgrade including the purchase price and I will have a guitar that will go up against it's 2000 dollar Fender Stratocaster cousin with EASE!!!!This guitar plays fantastic and you can't go wrong at this price point. For someone just beginning, it's a perfect starter. For someone more experienced, it's a perfect practice, or knock around guitar and you can really have fun doing a couple upgrades.So don't be afraid to work on your guitar. I should note that there are locking tuners you can use for this guitar that won't require any drilling. Hipshot tuners use a universal mounting bracket and it looks great and makes the upgrade much easier.After playing this guitar for several weeks I did bring the action down a little. I didn't have to adjust the truss rod at all, I just adjusted the strings down from the bridge using the allen wrench that came with the guitar and now I have it right where I like it. This was an adjustment that I made to suit my particular playing style. It's very easy to do. Any time you are making adjustments to your guitar go slow, take your time.It's now May 5th and I am back again because I forget that most who are reading this review are new to playing guitar. Experienced players can ignore this part. When looking over your guitar you need to perform regular maintenance. For instance, tighten the screw on the end of your tuners. These get loosened up a tiny bit every time you tune up. A small phillips screwdriver will work fine. I tighten mine once a week. Another step to setting up your guitar is you need to get some 0000 Steel wool to clean and shine up your frets, you should put some lemon oil on the fret board also because the wood gets dried out. If you look on Amazon you can buy inexpensive guitar maintenance kits that will include covers that go over the fret and keep you from scuffing the wood. If you don't have one of these kits just be careful and stay off the wood as much as you can or you can place a piece of blue painters tape on each side of the frets and that will protect your wood. You really should buy one of these kits though because playing guitar is a lifetime hobby and you need to clean the frets and the fret board every time you change strings. I change strings once a week but I play a lot. For most, once a month, or once every two months will work. You will be surprised how much DNA gets your guitar. Fingering the strings takes quite a bit of skin off your finger tips and it has to go somewhere. You can also get cleaning kits at your local music store. That may the best source for your first time because you can ask the kids in the shop questions. While you are tightening things up every time you change the screens another spot you need to check is the nut on the front of your headstock that holds your tuners in place. These also become loose from constant tuning of the guitar. You will need a 10mm socket or a small adjustable wrench to tighten these nuts. You will be amazed at how much better your guitar stays in tune with all these parts tightened up. It will only take a few minutes to tighten everything and it will really keep your guitar sounding good!!

The overall finish and look is amazing and way beyond it's price point. The strings are light and the action reasonably low and easy to play even before a full setup. I would stick with lighter strings as these entry level guitars play best with them. The hardware is solid and it will stay in and tune very easily even out of the box, don't worry if it takes a few tunings that's normal with breaking in new strings and guitars about the 3rd or 4th fine tuning you'll be pretty good and it'll sound great. It is best nice and clean but you can play distorted if you really wanted to and this guitar will gladly play it. Yes you are getting generic everything electronics and otherwise but for the price of about 60$ more than the cheapest on the site you are getting a much better sound and playability in a rather nice funky body with beautiful sparkle paint. I bought this as a 5th guitar just to have some variation and while it's not as great as a mid range it blows entry levels out of the water for what you get. I can't stress that enough.

I bought this guitar with the HSS and rosewood fretboard setup. Ive been playing acoustic for years and finally tried out an electric. I did plenty of research to find out which one to buy, and I was torn between a les paul special 2 and this one. I chose the squier simply due to price. Shipping was pretty fast and very well packaged. It had some sort of adjustable foam packs in the front and rear and pretty lightweight.After close inspection, I was pretty surprised at the quality this guitar packs, I was expecting sharp fret ends or craftsmanship flaws, but I couldnt find any of that.I immediately went to tune it, and I found out the tuning pegs are horrible on this guitar. It was a PITA compared to my acoustic. However, Im well aware that you dont buy a prius and expect it to have lexus performance, so I didnt knock down a star for that. Once they were in tune, it held the tune pretty good. Im sure itll get better once its broken in just like any other new strings. Ill be replacing them for locking tuners once I add new strings.This particular guitar had the action a little too low for my preference, so I adjusted it from the truss rod and the bridge. This is where i give it points over my current acoustic. The action is really easy to set up for your liking. All you need are a 1.5mm and 4mm hex keys. The 4mm adjusts the truss rod, and the 1.5mm adjusts the bridge. I got rid of the excess buzzing in a few minutes without having to file anything down like an acoustic. You can also just have a guitar shop adjust it for you, but theres nothing like learning and doing it yourself. Especially on something so easy.Once plugged in to an amp its kinda hard to review the sound because the amp itself will play a big part, but even with a cheap amp, it sounds pretty decent. The only thing I noticed (and read elsewhere) was that the tone knobs dont really do much when you mess with them. Maybe once you use a good quality amp you can tell the difference, but with mine, I couldnt.Overall, I think this is a great starter guitar if you know what to expect out of it. I have played with my friends expensive electric guitars, and all of them have some sort of flaw or imperfection, so this is no different. Just dont expect perfect tuners or the top of the line pickups, but for something youre just going to mess around the house and learn with, I think this is great. I would highly recommend this to anyone that is starting out or just wanting a cheap guitar to travel with.