Thanks for joining me on first ever Straturday! Here's my zZounds Affiliate Link if you'd like to support me: www.zzounds.co... And here's a link to the Sonic Strat this video is about: www.zzounds.co...
Squiers are great guitars for the money! Nice vid! Btw, if you're having issues with the volume/ tone knobs spinning around, I use rubber washers that I got from the hardware store. Just pop off the knobs, and place the washers over the pot stem, and pop the caps back on. Works like a charm!
Thanks for watching and the comment! I haven’t had that problem but thanks for passing on the tip. I’ll pin the comment in case it helps someone in the future
Thank you for doing this guitar justice. Most reviewers are too scared to say that this guitar is good. Then they have the audacity to compare it to a 60's strat and say its close. WTF
Glad you’re a fellow Squier fan! One thing I’ve noticed is that some people seem to take a person saying Squiers are good as some sort of personal attack 🤔 It’s really weird. I guess Epiphone kind of gets the irrational hatred too, but not to the level I’ve seen Squier get it. Personally, I’ve picked this over every Fender strat I’ve played since then. The Fenders are great, but this is just as good for me AND I prefer the pickups and neck finish. Squier would be favorite brand regardless of the price, but the fact they’re so affordable is the cherry on top. Thanks again for watching!
@@sunnyhaair even the Squier 50s and 60s style vintage strats are insane for the moneys it’s as if fender was like “we can sell a lot of guitars if we just make good guitars at a good price” and let the brands compete. It’s a win win for them
Thank you that means a lot! I love making videos, but I try to put extra effort into my Squier ones because I feel like they’re very very underrated guitars and hold a special place in my heart. I hope you enjoy yours!
I read 1.81M as your sub count and wasnt surprised! But man 1.81k for such a channel?? It's gonna blow up sooner than ever! All my love and power to you! Loved this video! Keep making more! You have a lifetime follower!
Hey that’s really kind of you to say and I appreciate it so much! Thank you for watching and the encouragement and the well wishes. I really enjoy making these videos so it means a lot that anyone enjoys let alone thousands of people who say such kind things like yourself. I hope you enjoy future videos from me just as much. For the font I’ll take your advice and will be implementing a new one in my videos moving forward. Thanks again for watching & subscribing! P.S. 😆1.81M would be awesome!
Hey! Thanks for this in-depth going review!.. Great explanation on our most wondering issues!.. That you are playing it such thoroughly, sounds, dynamics.. Thanks,.. Makes me confident that I purchased a great guitar, for this low amount of money!.. A great guitar, that makes me smile every time I now grab for it!.. 🤩
I bought one of these, though the hardtail, back in June. It's a really great guitar. Mine needed no adjusting at all and it sounds great and stays in tune. I'm not saying buy one, but I'm very happy I did.
I like the warmer sound of these pickups. They give me something different to my other strats, which are all alnico vintage-y sounding. I especially like strumming big fat chords on the neck pickup. It has such a throaty yet articulate voice I’m really digging. The only thing I’m a little unsatisfied with is the bridge pickup sound, which is a lot more mid-range forward and less twangy than I’m used to, but that too is it’s own cool sound.
Yeah I love how full these sound. I haven’t had a strat before but I’ve got a Tele and a Jazzmaster and the Pro II strat now… they definitely live in the bright side tonally. Comparing it to those other guitars though I do see what you mean about the bridge pickup. It’s like the Sonic bridge has the highs and the lows of the other Fender single coils without that certain high-mid thing that gives it that twangy sound. Not bad though! It’s cool that it offers something different. I was afraid these would sound way too bright like the mini humbuckers I had in a Les Paul Deluxe.
@@sunnyhaair Upgrading the bridge pickup to an Alnico V would be a satisfyingly upgrade. I'd probably upgrade the pots to the CTS 250's and paper in oil capacitors. It would be a fair upgrade to this guitar and make it sound like a $400.00 guitar.
I am grateful for your answer. My question about the similarities between the guitars is that here in my locality, the values between these two guitars are basically similar, since they are classified as "entry guitars", "for beginners". Another guitar that is similar in value to those from Squier and that I found (new) and for sale is the Epiphone S-210 Strat. I don't know if you know it and if you could give an opinion about it, since on the Internet we don't have much information about it, especially about the materials used in its manufacture. The similarities are basically that they are Stratos and made in Indonesia...
I’ve never played the S-210 specifically, but in my experience non-signature Epiphone models have been hit or miss when it comes to quality control. Whereas Squier stuff within the last 4 years has been consistently great from a playability perspective. I’ve had a couple of issues with electronics (a loose output jack and improper tone pot), but fret work, hardware, truss Rod, etc. has always been great 👍
The sonic is the bullet repackaged with better colours...nothing wrong with that by the way but i think it should cost 50 bucks less.....realistically there are guitars out there that kill that for the price...like the jet js 300 that has an amazing roasted maple neck,bone nut and frankly better parts for the same price....Now honestly i dont care about the parts cause most of them ll get swapped anyway but 200 for the entry level sounds a lot these days in the era of stainless steel frets,roasted maple necks and under 300 pricetags..... Still a good deal though and those colours especially the coral and the surf green make me wanna grab one....
Yeah, brands like harley benton, JET and probably a load of others definitely seem better for the price. I have a squier bullet, and my harley benton bass, which was cheaper, blows it away in quality, and it's a bass, which costs more to produce. The bullet/sonic isn't bad, and feels good to play once you set it up, but for the price you can get more premium feeling options.
Thanks for watching and the huge compliment! In a perfect world I’d be a be a composer for visual media who noodles around on the guitar for sparks of inspiration. These videos allow me to do that in a way 🤓
I appreciate that! For me it’s the opposite - a non-impressive demo to get across the point that I like it a lot lol. It’s such a fun guitar and I like it more than the AM Pro II strat. Thanks again for watching!
My experience is similar.. for the first time a playable guitar out of the box with smooth frets. With the HB's you have to be a luthier to make them playable
I also liked that you played the guitar w/ strumming, plucking the string, rhythm riffs etc and not the bluesy guitar solos etc that’s very common to guitar review videos. Not all players can always do guitar solos y’know, most players just like power chord riffing. Kudos!
Glad you enjoyed! As much as I love noodling around, I feel like every guitar can do good noodle sounds and sitting down listening to that for hours while editing is grating on the ears lol Thanks for watching!
Thanks! 🤔 That PTB mod would be very cool to do on one of these sonics I bet. Especially with how good the pickups already are. Ceramic pickups are probably perfect for that. Thanks for watching and congrats on the new strat! P.S. If you’re in the USA and haven’t bought it yet please consider using my affiliate link 😁 www.zzounds.com/a--3971719/item--FEN0373250558?siid=334388
@@sunnyhaair the PTB circuit is more useful than the two tone controls…lol. I’ve been doing a treble cut for the bridge only and installing kingtone switches as a “master” tone. Loving this set up. I noticed I never touch my tone for middle or neck. Haven’t bought it yet, I will in august though. I’ll use your link, thanks!
Having something playable makes ALLLL the difference doesn’t it? That was my exact experience with my first Squier, my Starcaster. Took it out of the box and it was good to go. No sharp frets or bad nuts/saddles or tuning issues. That’s why Squiers my favorite brand. They’re consistent and they’re affordable. I’m very happy to hear you’re happy with it!
I have one (the HT model with no trem) and I like it a lot. For $200, the fit and finish is outstanding. On another note (pun intended), that song you played from the beginning is amazing. It sounds so haunting....it's mezmerizing
You probably did a better demonstration of all the sounds than Fender could/would, as a newcomer to this model.(Kinda like an inspired fresh-eared first time blind play through of a well-known video game) The sounds available from the classic Stratocaster are seemingly endless. Spend $25.00-$40.00 for some Alnico magnet pickups and REALLY be wowed by the dynamics and tones available. Add a David Gilmour neck-on switch and get TWO more tones while your at it! Inspiring AND fun to say the least! Comparing your other higher priced Strat will show you what's worth adding or subtracting, and surprisingly what's NOT worth 'upgrading' unless you're just looking to tinker with your tonal possibilities
@@sunnyhaair Bro I just subscribed right now, btw What are your thoughts on Sire S7 ? Is it worth to spend extra bucks to get the fender player II strat?
Thanks for subscribing! So, I’ve heard really good things about them but I haven’t had a chance to play a Sire yet. The Player guitars are my favorite range from Fender though! I like em even more than the American Pro II series so I dont think you’ll regret going for the Player II!
Congrats on your first two Strats!you got the right ones! trust me you nailed it! (The Sonic I got is the HT; it is even more awesome) (I also have a ProII)They are just perfect guitars! Your Squier; you'll find it really useful since it weighs like 2 pounds, I guess! The Pro II you'll find more useful when you go out for gigs and more advanced stuff! This Squier is backed up by 70 + years of experience. Of course it is perfect. You don't have to tweak anything of it. pickups are fine, everything is great I would say; get a fender deluxe Reverb; don't use any pedals don't use any reverbs don't use anything else! Maybe just a Bugera attenuator! Those three elements will take you through a mind blowing experience of 🔊 dynamics. Everything has to come from your fingers, your knuckles, your fingers tips, your hands rubbing around the neck, etc. you'll see... I wanna say this guitar ain't ideal for heavy "distorted-Tone/hi-gain" for that I'd get the 🎸 HTH configuration or the HSS. In my opinion, Strats are like a 69 Mustang fastback! they're perfect; they are 60+ years old and hasn't changed anything; the cats at fender only keep perfecting the formula that Leo and his crew developed in 1954. It is technology hundred percent human made! Any "flaw" on every fender guitar it's not a "flaw". Is our job as Guitar players to find the right one that fit in our hands! Does that make any sense?? Anyway, bro, congratulations again keep on enjoying your guitars Amazing video 🎸 one last thing: make sure your crank up 🎛️ that FDR as loud as possible 🙏🙏🙏💥💥💥
You said it right! I can’t disagree with you on anything there. There’s a reason the Strat has been timeless since day one. I’ll try to check out a Deluxe Reverb sometime soon! Thanks for taking the time to watch and pass on the words - I really appreciate it!
I have a Lefty 2009 USA Standard Strat, a 2021 Fender Player Series lefty in Arctic White, an old '75 Hardtail Stratocaster with big CBS headstock, and various other guitars.. But, I have been wanting this one for a while, and have watched many videos on it. Your video, and thorough review along with various tones, and explanations with your commentary on its playability and its pickups, and latter lite-comparison with a 2K-Plus Strat have sold me to order one from ZZounds. Comes in on Sunday, cannot wait! I more in recent years have come to a conclusion.. It is not the monetary value of an instrument, it is the player because I learned i sound exactly the same on Squiers, and Epi's as I do on fenders and Gibs. Great video!
So sorry about this late reply! Happy to hear you ordered one (and from my friends at zZounds too)! Thanks for watching and the kind words. How's it been treating you?
Thank you! I appreciate you taking the time to watch (I know went a little long winded lol but it’s a very fun guitar!) I wanted one of the HT ones when I’d got this one but they’re so hard to come by. zZounds has ‘em both in stock if you’re having trouble finding one. They’ve got a few of the black/Laurel: www.zzounds.com/a--3971719/item--SQU0373250LN?siid=334389 And one of the pink/maple ones: www.zzounds.com/a--3971719/item--SQU0373252?siid=334390
Between this Squier Sonic guitar and the Squier Affinity, what are the differences that you could detail (if there are many differences between the two, in materials, finishing, sound timbres and finishing) and if this one is superior to the Affinity? A big hug from Brazil!
Glad you enjoyed the video my friend! I don’t have any experience with an Affinity Strat specifically, but I’ve got a few Affinity guitars (Starcaster, Telecaster Deluxe, Jazzmaster). This Sonic strat is pretty much identical to the Affinity range of guitars I’ve got in terms of build. The neck is the exact same shape, radius, finishing. All the bodies are made out poplar. Pickups are ceramic magnet. The single coils in this strat are actually very similar to the stock pickups in the Affinity Jazzmaster. So I wouldn’t say it’s superior or inferior to the Affinity guitars I’ve got. Honestly, I’m wondering myself now what exactly makes these different than the Affinity range 🤔 Thanks again for watching!
@@sunnyhaair The Affinity guitars are a little thicker. They also are said to have better pots and slightly better pickups. Are they worth $200.00 more? Not in my opinion. $200.00 guitars that stay in tune and have zero issues with cracking pots, and no fret buzz are always worth the $200.00
@@thebluesrockersThe sonic series replaces the entry-level bullet series, not affinity...technically affinity's supposed to be superior, which makes the sonic series that much more impressive in that it competes with higher priced models
@@jasondorsey7110 The Sonic is made in Indonesia and the Affinity's are made in China. I'll choose the Sonic and upgrade the Pickups, and go with a roller string tree. If my machine heads are wonky, I'll buy locking, Wilkinson tuners for it as well. $200.00 guitar with $120.00 worth of upgrades should make it play like $400.00 guitar. I don't use the tremolo, so I should be fine leaving it as a hard tail. I'm on a tight budget. If I had the $320.00 right now I'd just wait until I had about $100.00 more and buy a good, used mim Strat. But unfortunately, that's not a option for me right now. Thanks for the comment. Peace..
@@thebluesrockers I have 3 mustang pj's...and a '76 musicmaster...and still I felt compelled to buy a squier sonic bronco...and for $209 it's a damn good little shortscale, only issue is the pickup is noisy as I suspected it would be
I bought a Squier Sonic Stratocaster. The frets were very small and short. The neck had a terrible finish. The pickguard is crap, as are the pickups. I bought the fat, Strat sonic. ssh. The tone, roll on the guitar does nearly, nothing to change the tone. The fret ends were really sharp. The tuners were barely on it. I literally turned the nuts off those tuners by hand without a wrench. 1. I filed the fret ends. 2. I scrubbed the neck and frets with a 3m scratch pad to remove the shit, finish on the neck. 3. I applied 5 layers of Tru oil, and I used a stain marker, to darken the plywood colored neck. It had the worse over spray that I had ever seen on a new guitar. 4. I bought a high quality roller, string tree. Now I'm waiting for it to dry so I can assemble it. It's looking good. I'll replace the tuners with Wilkinson locking tuners, and drop a loaded pickguard in it. Then I'll be as happy as if I had my right mind.
@@sunnyhaair I got back together, set the neck and Intonation. Still same tuners, and all the Squier parts. I'm hoping to save enough for a used Fender Strat mim. or a used Gibson SG special. It seems all the guitars these days are using shit fret wire. No such thing as Med Jumbo. all are thin and small. Not to mention quality fretboards like "Rosewood" or "Ebony" will run someone over $1000.00 on name brand. Even Epiphone is charging $800.00 and up for a quality fret board. I also bet they're using that thin short fret wire too. The days of quality have fallen by the way side. It's petty bad when everyone these days thinks every electric guitar should have a little fret buzz. I've owned over 30 guitars in my life and very few junk guitars I have had have had fret buzz. But my 2006 Gibson Les Paul didn't, nor did my 83 American Fender Strat, nor my 74 Sg, 53 Les Paul Custom. But none of them had that thin low fret wires either.
Haven't had em in a strat, but I had this old Duo Sonic with Lace Sensors and it was so good! Definitely the one guitar I regret letting go of the most
Thanks! And congrats 🎉 I’m very familiar with the K records strat. Cool tribute! I’d wanted to put a hot rails in the bridge of this as a throwback to his black strats
Is it any different to Bullet Strat? Also I'm really not sure if I should shoose HT or Trem and should I go fo HSS instead of SSS in terms of actual noise reduction? Cuz I'm not such metal guy.
Sadly I’ve never played a Bullet strat so I wouldn’t be able to compare it there. It’s remarkably similar to my Affinity guitars though. For the trem vs hard tail though 🤔 I don’t use the trem at all so I think the HT would be a solid choice if you don’t either. And the pickups - in my experience with Squiers ceramic pickups, the humbuckers are great! So unless you liked the bridge pickup sound the best in this video I think you’d be happy with the HSS. For clean tones the noise of single coils could be a little distracting so having a humbucker available would be a nice safety net. Thanks for watching! Feel free to ask any more questions if you need to
One thing I'm really curious about these Sonic Series Guitars is if their synthetic bone nuts would play nice with a set of 10's rather than the 9 -42 gauge the guitars ship with. On some guitars the treble strings (specially the high E) may be prone to bind at the nut causing some issues when these are heavier than the "default" String gauge. It's one of the reasons I feel Brands should put 10s on their guitars because it's easier to go from 10s to 9s if so desired than the other way around (specially if the guitars have a plastic nut that has the string slots cut to size) Another curiosity of mine regarding these is how are their bodies routed. I know the Esquire single pickup Sonic Telecasters have humbucker routing so with the right pickguard it's easy to add a second humbucker to those would be interesting if the Strats were routed in a similar fashion. Fender definetely hit the ball park with this Series. These are great value guitars. Nice review. Did you have too much hum when not using the middle pickup with the bridge or the neck? It's usually the main (practically only) function of the middle pickup on a strat, specially one that only has singlecoils in it. Cool video :) Cheers
Sorry for the late response! I actually put .11-50 gauge strings on here just fine and feel like it could handle .12s as well. As for the binding, I use Music Nomad's Tune-It to make sure there's no issues with that. And funnily enough I only had hum with the middle pickup (and even that was if the TV is on within a few feet)! Neck and Bridge on their own were fine, but I'm using a Helix so that might be a bit different that a hardware amp. Thanks for watching!
Congrats! I would’ve loved to have had this as my first guitar. I wanted the purple one but it was out of stock so I went with black/maple because Chris Cornell played one. Thanks for watching and I hope you have fun on your guitar playing journey!
This one is really great! I gotta say that I don't see how it could better than this guitar, but I know some people had one with QC issues. I also haven't tried a Yamaha guitar before, I gotta check one out one of these days.
Nice! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. If you’re in the US I gotta ask if you’ll use my zZounds affiliate link! www.zzounds.com/a--3971719/item--SQU0373152?siid=334359
I’ve been wanting to try one of those! I used to have this red duo sonic that was one of my favorite guitars. It was a 1993 Mexican made model I got for $300 along with a black one ($300 for the pair!! Insane to think about now). The finish on the necks felt exactly like the one on this sonic strat and I loved it. I sold them both sometime in 2015 or 2016 and Ive missed that red one every since. I think the red SS Sonic Mustang would be a great spiritual successor.
Ill tell you what i bought 2 of these as a hobbyist player the strat in commiefornia blue and the tele in butterscotch blonde i thoroughly enjoy playing both
Sorry for the late reply but that's awesome! I love Squiers. They've been incredibly consistent in my experience and they're so much fun. Hope yours are still treating you as well as mine are treating me. Thanks for watching!
Sir I love your content and your videos 😊. Your voice just awesome 😊. Sir I have a question, can I play this guitar on stage???? And can I play fender squier sonic telecaster guitar on the stage????
Thanks Samir! I don’t think this guitar would struggle on stage in any way! The pickups aren’t noisy, the tuning and neck are stable, the satin finish on the neck won’t be an issue for any sweat. And with my experience with Squier I’d say the same is true for the Sonic Telecaster as well. Thanks again for watching!
It sounds very nice, but nothing like a Strat...? Seen a bunch of other Squier vids that sound almost exactly like a Fender. Is the Sonic that different from the Affinity?
Yeah I’d say the ceramic pickups are responsible for it being a little “thicker” sounding that traditional strats, but the Affinity and Sonic models actually have the same pickups. The different sound also has a lot to do with me dialing things in a little bass heavy
LOVE my Affinity guitars! I feel like overall the Affinity line is Squier's sweet spot, but the Sonic and Classic Vibe lines are worth their respective pricing for sure. Thanks for watching!
Will do 🫡 Let me know if there’s anything specific you’d like covered. Currently I’m toying with the idea of a video to dive into if a PRS really is the Strat/Les Paul middle ground but I’m not sure if it would be interesting enough. So I may use the Pro II for something else. Definitely wanna do more with it though. Thanks for watching!
Summer 2019, I ended up with a Squier Bullet SSS HT. That one is a 2005, needed some repairs & deep clean. That said, $ 25 for it & it plays about as good as anything out there that I've come across since & that I've kept to this day. I'm actually easy that way, I buy it, it's generally a keeper. Matter of tweaking one to get it where it needs to be, they all need that.
Sorry for such a late reply!! I'm glad to here you ordered one, how are you liking it? And I'll be happy to teach you - let me know if there's anything I can help with! Starting out not knowing anything was a fun experience for me and I hope it has been for you so far as well
I have the squier bullet, classic vibe 60s, and the MIM Strat. My favorite is the classic vibe. This and the MIM are close. Sometimes I prefer this one. Price really doesn’t equal to better. It is just pure personal preference and liking.
I haven't played a CV strat yet, but between this, the new MIM Vintera II Strat, and the AM Pro II Strat I mentioned in the video... the AM Pro II is my least favorite! I'm honestly not sure if I prefer this to the Vintera II... might have to do a video on that.
I had a squier strat in the 80ies. did never sound like a fender strat and sold it. Same to this one. Now i bought a squier offset tele with a cunife neck pu for 279 €. It sounds really great, but the neck is just tp replace...
Hey sorry for the late response! This video is all Line 6 HX Stomp www.zzounds.com/a--3971719/item--LINHXSTOMP?siid=276997 I think I used the Revv Gen amp models
@@sunnyhaair Good to hear! I just got one and now I need a fret file. Fret ends aren’t terrible but definitely need to be smoothed out. Everything else is good!
I think this title is a bit overrated. It is not better than the Bullet or infinity, just a remake/rebrand to counter the Harley Bentons(who are really crap-I had 3, all with uneven frets)In 2016 I performed with a Squier Bullet(put some decent tuners, topnut in though) The Bullet was then $120
I have a harley benton bass, and it blows my squier bullet away in terms of quality, and was cheaper! Nicer finish, nice feeling neck. Only real problem is that it's heavy as hell, being made of ash wood. They aren't crap instruments. You can get QC issues with any cheap guitar, even expensive ones. I saw a photo of someones $1000 epiphone that had a ton of QC issues, worse than my harley benton les paul copy. My yamaha pacifica has much more uneven frets than any of my harley benton guitars *and* my squier bullet, despite it costing double the price of the bullet, and yamaha are always recommended for good beginner instruments. My harley benton les paul copy came out of the box with a nice low action, no sharp frets, and only one uneven fret that slightly buzzes. My pacifica buzzed all over the fretboard out of the box, and still does even after setting it up. It's just luck of the draw with cheap instruments. Some people will consistently get perfect ones multiple times in a row. And then some people will get multiple bad ones in a row and think the company is shit, despite just getting unlucky.
That’s something I’ve had kicking around since 2020 (I actually came up with it during my Blackstar Debut video) and am trying to figure out what to do with it lol. I’m not familiar with marble hornets but I’ll check it out for some inspiration! Thanks for watching and asking!
Only differrence is the salary .US made cannot afford by many .cause workers demands high salary and benefits .but it doesnt mean asian made guitars is bad ..what matters is the sound and feel it brings ..true music matters
I just unboxed and played mine. It sounds awful. Unbearable. I'll play around with it some more, but I've tried some things and in no setting does it sound close to good. It's extremely harsh in every setting, especially with gain (and I can hear it in your video as well, it's horrible.)
Congrats on starting your journey! The good thing about strats is they work with almost any case. Fender’s sturdy gig bag is lightweight and works wonderfully: www.zzounds.com/a--3971719/item--FEN0991312?siid=260755 If you’re looking for a hard shell case I’d recommend this one: www.zzounds.com/a--3971719/item--GATGWEELEC Hope you have fun!!
