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A Tale of Two Stratocasters, Pt. 1

// April 18th, 2009 // Guitar

There is a hierarchy, or ladder, in the world of stratocaster guitars and my Squier may not be at the very bottom of that ladder, but it surely wont get hurt if it falls off. Somewhere near the top of that hierarchy is the Fender American Standard and while there are plenty of better strats than the AmStd, it’s high enough up that ladder to get a nose bleed.

This past weekend, I was able to get my hands on a friend’s Fender American Standard for the whole weekend to play with and I figured this would be a good opportunity to highlight the differences between the these two strats.

There are a couple of things to consider when reading this post. These guitars may look very similar, but they are far from the same on the inside. The guitars are from different years with the Squier being built in 1996 and the Fender in 1997, but the fact that they are so close makes this exercise that much more interesting. The AmStd was manufactured by Fender at their factory in the United States, while my guitar was manufactured in China by Fender’s low-end affiliate, Squier. The American Standard retails for around $900, while I purchased my Squier for $189 back in ‘96.

All of that being said, the most important element to consider while reading through this post however, is that these twin brothers grew up in very different homes. In fact, when I use the word “twins” I am thinking very specifically of the old Devito/Schwarzenneger movie. The American Standard went to a good home to be raised by a man who knows how to play and care for his guitars. The Squier on the other hand went to live with someone (me) that didn’t know a damn thing about playing or caring for guitars until recently. It’s amazing it has made it this far.

Looking over these two guitars from head to toe, you can see that they look very much alike, cosmetics excluded. It’s only when you look closely that you can see the minor differences in the various sub-components.

Tuners

The American Standard features standard Fender tuners (made by Schaller, I believe) and while I don’t know the exact gear ratio on these tuners, I can assure that it is sufficiently high and the action quite smooth. The Squier on the other hand features some Kluson-esque style tuners and the gear ratio is significantly lower and the action a little jerky.

Trees

I recently upgraded my vintage style trees to the American Standard barrel style string tree and as such both guitars have essentially the same trees. Of course, one of my trees is a wee bit off center, but not enough to mess with the string angle.

Nut

Another recently upgraded item on my strat is now made of TUSQ (man-made ivory) instead of the cheap plastic one that was initially on there. I’ve read that Fender has used a number of different materials for their nuts, but a number of online sources list Melamine as the material used for the American Standard.

Neck

Both guitars feature maple necks with rosewood fingerboards, only the AmStd has a walnut skunk stripe on the back of the neck. They feel very similar to me and I believe they both have a “Standard Thin” back contour. Seeing as it is the defacto standard for Fender/Squier stratocasters that hardly seems like a bold statement. Despite the similarities, the feel of the AmStd neck is light years better than the Squier. The frets are perfectly rounded and the rosewood feels a lot smoother and softer than on the Squier.

Frets

There is no comparison here. For one, a tech recently performed a pretty poor fret level on my neck that left me with really low and wide frets with virtually no crown whatsoever. That being said, I let the tech perform the level because the frets on the Squier exhibited some significant wear on the first couple of frets. Meanwhile, I’m pretty sure the AmStd has never been leveled. This is doubly surprising since this guitar belonged to a gigging musician who has logged significantly more time on this guitar than I did I on mine.

Body

The bodies on these guitars appear virtually identical, but are in fact quite different. First and foremost the bodies on the American Standard are typically one single piece of Alder and I have no reason to suspect otherwise with this guitar. Squiers are known to be made of various kinds of wood with the most common varieties being Alder or Basswood. The Basswood is a softer wood known for its lack of durability, but good warm tone. I’m fairly confident my body is a two or three piece Alder body considering how well it has stood up to some pretty significant bumps and bangs without bruising. The biggest difference between these two bodies, however is that my Squier has a “universal” pickup rout that would allow me to put any number of kinds of pickup configurations in there. The AmStd, however, has the traditional three single coil top-rout.

Bridge

The bridge on the Squier is of the vintage, 6-hole variety first seen on vintage strats from the 50’s and 60’s. Unfortunately, the similarities end there. The Squier bridge is pretty cheap in comparison to the early, hardened steel bridges. The trem block, is especially weak and puny. The AmStd’s use a completely different kind of bridge that has only 2 holes to attach the bridge to the body. This gives the bridge the ability to move much more freely than the vintage style. The saddles are also radically different. The trem block isn’t quite as solid as the vintage blocks, but it clearly has more mass than the one found on the Squier. Other than that, I prefer the look of the Squier’s traditional bridge. Ironically neither I nor the owner of the AmStd use our tremolos much and generally keep the arms tucked away someplace safe.

Electronics

The only thing I’ll say about this particular area is that they may look the same, but they are light years apart. The pots and switch on the AmStd are smooth in operation and virtually noiseless. The Squier, not so much. The switch has got to go and the pots will certainly go with it.

Pickguard

It is primarily cosmetic, but worth noting that the AmStd uses an 11 hole screw pattern for the pickguard while the Squier has a vintage 8 hole single-ply pickguard. The difference is only significant for those Squier owners who are looking in to pre-wired pickguards. Most come with the standard 11 hole pickguard found on modern Fender strats and needs to be kept in mind, or you’ll be drilling four additional holes. Only 7 of the holes on the 8 hole pattern match the 11 hole pattern.

Pickups

The only thing worth mentioning here is that the AmStd has an aftermarket Seymour Duncan stack humbucker (Vintage Stack?) in the bridge position. I’ve never really liked the sound of most strat pickups in the bridge position. I love the sound of “Fat Strats”, but generally hate how the traditional humbucker ruins the classic look of a stratocaster. I can’t wait to hear how this one sounds as I’m thinking of making a similar upgrade.

Stay Tuned for Part 2 in which we’ll actually get to “Hear” the difference between these two guitars.

Related posts:

1. A Tale of Two Stratocasters, Pt. 2
2. To Invest or Diversify?
3. Madali S-812 Deluxe
4. Changing the Nut on a Strat, Part 2
5. 2010 Madali Tradition Standard