Squire from Indonesia? Are they decent starter guitars?

[ApeDosMil]

My nephew wants to start learning how to play guitar and I feel Stratocasters are the best starter guitars. Are the Indonesian Squires decent?

Another question.

I found a ton of Squires here locally for about $100 bucks each. Are they the same size specs at Mexican ones? I am thinking about picking one up and getting a neck off of ebay and modding.

Are the bodies on these real wood or plywood?

[Bigfknbang]

i have a squire standard strat. i put a 35$ gfs prewired pick guard in it. i like it alot. its not plywood. i dont know what kind of wood its made of though??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OCowuAuXOc

[allcree]

i have a plywood one, out of korea, i guess you can't tell for sure until you look into one of the cavities

[VitaminG]

I checked them out recently and the Indo Squiers at my local guitar shop seemed decent beginner's guitars. I ended up picking up my son an SX strat copy instead though - the pickups sounded better, the whole guitar felt more substantial & solidly put together, good fretwork, and it was made of alder. Should serve as a solid base for mods in a few years as he gets more into playing

One thing I did prefer on the Squier - the satin neck finish. But overall the SX was a much better guitar

[Flatpicker]

Short answer yes.

Longer answer:
They are a lot better and much more consistent than what we started on.
Not plywood anymore, usually basswood or asian variants on known tonewoods.
Necks are maple and fairly thin with narrow spacing.

Pots are only ok, hardware is passable for a beginner. Pups are Ceramic I believe. They transmit the vibrations from the strings to the amp. Nothing more to say about that. They are very basic and nothing to be excited about.

[ApeDosMil]

I found a really nice looking Squire Stratocaster. It was really clean. The only issue I noticed is when you grab the neck and slide up and down it, you can feel the edge of the frets. It's NOT enough to hurt or cut you, but it definitely isn't smooth. It's still probably the nicest one I've seen so far around here and they only want 89 bucks. Do you think it's worth a bite?




For future reference. I might get one of these for myself but buy a used American or Mexican Fender neck. Will it fit or will I have to mod?

[markD]

$89? sounds good to me. you could aways smooth the fret ends yourself.

[Racerx2k]

I have an Indo Squier standard Strat that I did a few mods on, and it's terrific. I wouldn't hesitate to check out another one.