Squier Deluxe Strat - Pearl White Reviews

First, I want to thank Mike Harris for helping me with my ordering and shipping of the Fender Squire Deluxe Stratocaster guitar, and for sending the high resolution photos to me by email. Nice touch Mike!!. Of course I need to thank others in the guitar setup department as well, Luthier's who do a good job setting up our guitars. I'm sure there are others who deserve a thank you like the shipping department, and all who work behind the scenes at SweetWater. Thank you all for doing a great job getting our products to us. I appreciate it very much!!

Excited I was after receiving an email stating shipment of the Fender Squire Deluxe Stratocaster and it's arrival date, with tracking number included. The guitar made the trip just fine with no damages to the shipping box. Upon opening the Fender box and removing the guitar I was well pleased with the quality of the finish...it's play-ability (thank you to the Luthier who set it up) and how beautiful the paint job looks with the metallic finish. This guitar is beautiful to look at and to play!! I did not find one thing wrong with it and am impressed by it's tones and the feel of the smooth neck. I had read others reviews of this guitar and was anticipating a similar experience when it arrived. Both SweetWater and Fender delivered and positively reaffirmed my hopes like they did for others who purchased this beautiful guitar. Also not to be forgotten is the bag of candy SweetWater sends along with purchases made with them. I "LOVE" the Bit-O-Honey taffy candy with nuts. That brings back fond memories as a kid enjoying that candy years ago. Now I'll link that sweet experience with receiving the Fender Deluxe guitar and playing it while eating the candy at the same time. Thanks SweetWater for helping us fill our candy needs!! LOL

I spent the better part of the day upon receiving the guitar playing it. Just enjoying the feel of it's smooth neck and how easy it is to play. My playing has declined recently from surgeries I've had so getting a new guitar is how I thought I'd approach playing again. The fingers were a bit sensitive but plowed through wanting to enjoy the experience of playing this beautiful guitar. It's worth every penny and anyone who's considering getting one of these beauties should act sooner than later. You won't be disappointed!!

Thanks again to both SweetWater & Crew and to Fender for offering such a nice guitar. It's a beauty and one I'm grateful to own.

I Ordered this Guitar after seeing U Tube videos and read reviews on this guitar,and adding Seymour Duncan Bridge Pick up even though the consensus was Seymour Design pick up’s are fine as is.
I had asked that the tech team swap the Pick Guard out with a pearl pick guard to help hide scratches and wear and asked them to install the Seymour Duncan Hot Rails Bridge pick up and restring with 8 gage strings which they did and they did so with kid gloves and repacked all parts and guitar to me in short order.
Can’t say enough about Dontae my sales representative and follow up procedures in the past and the future! that’s the Sweetwater Difference .... A Great American Company to do Business with !
Thanks

This Strat Square Deluxe Pearl White Could Be a good Christmas present for me . I got to try an buy it I might not have this opportunity again. It's not a hi price. PS .. troyster.. ?/

I ordered this guitar in Pearl White from Sweetwater. It arrived at the estimated time and in excellent condition,tuned her up (not terribly out of tune after the trip) and was extremely pleased with the tones through my Boss Katana. I may change the volume pot to one with a better taper,use it a lot,but overall well worth you're hard earned money. Love mine.

This guitar is an incredible value. The pickups sound great, the tremolo system works like it is supposed to, the neck is straight, and I haven't had any tuning issues. The finish of this guitar is very nice too. I changed the strings to 10's as soon as I got it and set it up the way that I like it and it plays wonderfully. I really like the neck on this guitar. The smooth flat finish makes it very easy to play without getting stuck. There are some minor differences between this guitar and a lower end Fender strat, but you are going to pay $200 more for those minor differences. For the musician on a tight budget looking for a quality instrument that is going to last as long as you take care of it, I would definitely recommend this guitar. It feels and sounds like a much more expensive guitar. The customer service at Sweetwater is also second to none. I highly recommend doing business with them.

Guitar is very good, very impressed. I'm 45 and my band days are over. My playing these days is at home and church. I got my Squier 1/20/16. I took it over to church today and plugged into the big Peavy there. I wanted to hear it with the great acoustics the churches have. It sounded EXCELLENT. This may be an economically priced guitar, but sounds like a much more expensive instrument. I ran through some blues rhythms and soloing, and the sound coming out of the amp was a terrific tone. Guitar held its tune through the string-bending very nicely.

It's fairly lightweight and comfortable to play. Honestly, playing it felt no different than high end Fender Strats I've played. If you're on a budget as I am, this guitar is a great value for the price. I'm not going to say it's as good as a $ Strat, but it sounds and plays great. Much more than you'd expect from such an inexpensively priced guitar. It's not a "good guitar for the money" it's a good guitar period. I recommend it very highly.

I have a hard time paying high dollar for a guitar and modding it to my preference....So, a cheap guitar modded to my desires is my way.
This Squier Deluxe makes that a very short road.
The feel and quality of the Squier Deluxe is amazing at this price point.....better than many MIMs I've tried.
Pickups are so good, I'm not changing them!
Tuners hold tune very well (through dives and stretched trem use) ( I will change them to sperzel locking "preference ")
Has a zinc tone block "brass block ordered"
The upgrades will cost less than a mim and will have my desired specs.
Totally love the guitar and recommend it to seasoned guitarist and adault beginners ( neck is thick so pre teens might struggle)

I recently got this after seeing some reviews on youtube and was blown away!

This is a real nice guitar, the fit and finish is impressive. If your looking for a well built guitar that plays and sounds great for a budget price look no further. I am more than happy that I purchased this guitar, and next day delivery by Sweetwater makes it even better.

Squier Deluxe Stratocaster review time! A word about Sweetwater first. Before you pull the trigger, do yourselves a favor and review the Sweetwater practices and procedures. IMHO, Sweetwater gives you the best value, guaranteed. My Sales Engineer, Ryan Clapper, made every effort to help me and I know the difference after being mistreated at a local competitor big box store. I am fortunate to have found Sweetwater and Ryan and I will buy from them again. Thanks for the candy!


This Squier Deluxe Stratocaster has an elegant feel and I am majorly impressed (long time Fender Strat owner). As part of the 55-point Guitar Evaluation, Sweetwater even checked the string height and intonation for me! I have not had to readjust anything. Just remember that a high end Squier IS NOT a high end Fender. Squier guitars are really nice, but keep in mind that you get what you pay for. This guitar and my Squier VM P-Bass (three years old) are very playable and beautiful and I have no issues with either of them. This Sweetwater purchase was a win/win for me.

I took a chance because I didn't order the USA made Strat and thought this one would be disappointing. I was very pleasantly surprised. If it didn't have a Squire emblem on the headstock I would not have known it wasn't an American made Stratocaster.

I've had mine for about a year now and it's has never failed to please my ears. The Duncan PUs are a real bonus on this modest priced model, and have no intentions on changing them out, no time soon that is.
I tried the Mexy, and an Am standard model (couldn't afford that one any how) just to compare the tones, and this one sounded better than the Mexy and quite favorably to the standard. Sure there are differences in quality, but for an ardent non-pro this is a real winner. I have NO complaints with my guitar what so ever. Yes really.
In addition to having the worlds premier musicians supply house twenty minutes away was a real bonus, and the help received was top notch! Thank you folks.

I had been reviewing and considering purchasing a used MIM strat for a couple of months, but when I found the squier deluxe strat and read all the positive reviews, I decided that I should seriously consider this as my new guitar. I contacted Robert @ Sweetwater, who pulled a couple from stock, tested them and selected the best one for me. he recommended putting a new set of 10's on the guitar and he was right. the deluxe strat plays fantastic, sounds great and really lives up to all the positive reviews that players from all over the country are giving it. did I mention that it's an absolute beauty as well? there was absolutely nothing wrong with the guitar when I received it. the fit and finish, hardware, neck and components were all perfect. I purchased the squier deluxe strat back in may 2012 and just recently (aug. 2012) purchased a squier deluxe tele from Robert. he again selected the best from the bunch and tested it for me, prior to sending it to the techs for final inspection and setup.

Squier is sometimes considered a dirty word with fender purists, but I am not one of them. I find the quality of the higher end squiers to be very good to excellent and don't hesitate recommending the deluxe, vintage modified and classic vibe series guitars to friends.

Thank you Mark M. for your assistance in making my purchase an enjoyable one! If you want a strat that wont break the bank this will do! Guitar arrived ready to rock! Flawless finish and solid build! The Duncan Designed pickups are really great. wanted a heavier sound for the bridge so i had em install a SD hot rails and now this thing is a beast while still maintaining that classic strat sound for clean. Setup was spot on and the playability is amazing. grab one now before they're gone. Buy only from Sweetwater:-)

This thing is amazing. You can't possibly go wrong with it! The Neck is incredible, pickups sound really nice, finish quality is awesome! I wont comment about the trem cause i block them off. This is truly an amazing guitar for the price. Squier has come a long long way. I wasnt going to give it a second look, but a friend comvinced me to try it. He was right.

This gutar has a great finish and came eady to play after being tuned up. I have had several guitars in the past and this is by far the one I like the best. I wrestled with buying this guitar over a little less expensive model. I am glad I went with this one.

Great looks, build, and feel. Especially the satin neck. Grab one before they are gone:)

Its amazing how great this thing is, at this price.
The neck is out of this world. I was blown away, honestly.
I did not expect such budget guitar to be this good.
Sounds great out of the box...and with some minor upgrades....i think this can be an amazing guitar. Buy it...now !

No, it's not as good as an American Deluxe.
It is as good as a MIM Standard.
I'd go so far as to say it rivals an American Standard.

The pick up's are good. true individual pole pieces in A5.
The trem is a 2 point
The body is one piece, not ply.
The tuners are non locking but good quality.
The paint on mine is perfect.
The frets are perfect.

It's got everything on it that I wanted in a Strat, so I went ahead and tried it.

I'm glad I did. Pick one up before Fender realizes how good it is.

Three years and other than the dings I put into it, still perfect. but hey, It was only 220.00 when I got mine. I'm not going to sweat a few dings. Then again, that's part of the beauty of it. I would have had one monster of a fit if I had purchased the american deluxe I was looking at and dropped it like I did this one.

I'm an intermediate level guitar player and have played a Standard Mexican strat , and an American Strat. This guitar is right up there with the american . The finish is perfect , the fingerboard is nice and the neck is smooth all the way. Beautiful guitar for the money !

I've been playing for 25 years and oddly enough started on a Squier way back then. Over the years I have owned a lot of guitars from all the usual brands as well as not so usual like my current John Petrucci 7 string, and 4 Carvins custom shops.

I am in the military and stationed overseas, i.e. playing in the dirt, and wanted to get a guitar that I could use as a "beater" so that I wouldn't have to worry about any of my nicer guitars getting chewed up over here. Can't go wrong with a Strat so after searching the site for a bit I picked up this model along with a Line 6 Spider III (also awesome bang for the buck) and I have been very happy with this set up.

The features this guitar has are very similar to the USA Strat: 22 frets, and two point trem, and the finishes are usually not found in the Squier line.

The build quality is top notch for this price point. The Duncan designed pickups sound really good and give you all the spank you would expect from a Fender designed guitar. Teamed up with the Line 6 I got enough sounds to cover the camp bands wide ranging set list of rock, blues, jazz, and funk.

The best feature of this guitar has to be the neck and fretboard which has nice detailing and none of those knife edged frets that slice up your hands like on those other cheapos. It small and fast and Malmstein and Dream Theater riffs just fly.

So over all I gave it 5.0 rating based on how it compaires to it's competition and even guitars above its price. For $300 there's almost nothing that can touch this killer guitar.

I bought my Squire Deluxe and changed the PuPs to the Fishman Fluence active set with the battery pack. I charged it six months ago and its still not ready for a recharge. Of course, I don't exclusively play the Squire Deluxe, so that most definitely has some bearing on why it doesn't need a recharge yet. The PuPs cost more than the guitar, lol. The only thing I don't like about he Deluxe is the basswood body. I much prefer Alder bodies on a Strat. But the basswood doesn't sound "bad" per se, just doesn't have the resonance that Alder does. I'm actually considering getting a Alder body for it and keeping everything else the way it is. The only other change I made was I put a brass compensated nut on it and locking tuners from Allparts. These are great guitars to mod or not, they play very well stock.

This is exactly the guitar I want except for the ugly pearl finish.

Great cheap guitar. I guess it's hard to say "great and "cheap" when talking about guitars. We all know the price of guitars can cost a much a good used car or even a house! And we all believe that "you get what you pay for." Well here's an exception to the rule. This little Strat is simply a great guitar. Not only would it make a great instrument for the beginner-but it makes a great instrument for the seasoned player as well.Of course, Sweetwater did another bang-up-job of delivering a perfect example of this axe. Add their fast shipping and the best customer service in the business and the A++ support of agents like Aaron Smith and you really have a great guitar experience. Need a great practice guitar? Need a guitar you can knock around without taking out your Custom Shop guitar? Want a really great guitar for a little money (who doesn't) then get yourself a Squier Deluxe; you won't be sorry. My only question is where is the Squier Deluxe Telecaster???

I ordered this guitar last May for a project (to build a fat super strat). It came set up exceptionally well by tge Sweetwater staff. I have bought Squier guitars for my kids so I know for the price, they are quality beginner instruments.
The stock Duncan designed pickups actually sounds really good. The tuners were very course and had to be replaced. I install locking tuners on all of my guitars anyway so no big deal.
I Installed Grove locking tuners, replaced the 5 way switch, volume and tone pots. Installed Seymour Duncan hot rails in the bridge and neck. Installed a tusq nut. This guitar never goes out of tune now and plays beautifully.
I also need to point out that Sweetwater has the best customer support and care. Roq, my sales representative does a great job making sure everything is right.

love this guitar. After doing a lot of research and playing all the models available to me at my local shops I decided to go with squier. But not just any squier. The deluxe offered so much of what I was looking for in a guitar and I really wanted a fender and for an extra $200 you can get a nice entry level fender strat but, with that said you'll probably want to do some mods maybe switch pickups or tuners etc... Well why not just spend $200 less get an awesome squier strat and put that money on even better mods like tex mex pickups all for less. IMHO great value for a amazing guitar

Nice guitar. My only concern is that there are some paint blemishes, and a couple dirty marks probably from inspection. I had to reset action and truss rod.

If you can’t afford a $1000, American made Fender this is the next best thing. I would recommend this guitar for all the right reasons. Fit and finish are good. The sound is great. It’s a very playable and fun guitar to own. My only reservation is the tremolo. I’ve only used it once, so I’ll have to reserve my opinion until I’ve used it more. And don’t forget the price….that was good, too. Of course Sweetwater handled the purchase flawlessly. Even the shipper did a good job and got the carton to me in one, undamaged piece. Thanks, Sweetwater.

This would have been a Sweetwater purchase because they have the best customer service and support in the online music store business. I got a mint used one for an embarrassing low price just because I had waited so long for this to be restocked and I lacked the patience to wait any longer.

Cons and Considerations: Fret ends were very sharp and "grabby"". So, I unbolted the neck and filed them smooth and buffed them out with steelwool. This isn't so much a fret problem, but has more to do with maple neck shrinkage having come out of humid Indonesia. Having removed the neck, I took the time to refinish the headstock and replace the plastic nut with a compensated brass one. I also upgraded the string trees, added a custom decal and refinished with Tru Oil. You may need to do a complete setup. Mine needed to be intonated after all I did to it. You can learn a lot and bypass a Luthier if you are willing to watch a few YouTube videos.

Positives: Good craftmanship overall. Electronics are an improvement over MIMs. Straight and very fast neck with the light satin finish. Solid body and excellent paint. Solid tremelo needed no adjustment with 3 springs already installed. It sounds very straty with the brass nut, no fret buzz and pickups at correct elevation. Tuners are good quality and hold a tuning well. I'm staying with them for now.

Excellent buy. If you aren't willing to put in a little time, have it professionally setup. My experience on this purchase was not from Sweetwater. My experience with them was excellent!

cool pearl finish, sounds great, nice set up, dont need to pay more

Love the way it looks.....sounds great too
...my best one yet..

I bought this guitar and I must say it is my favorite now. Decent duncan designed pickups and a quality tremolo as well. Put the 3rd tremolo spring in and it has quality tuners already so no tuning issues whatsoever. Also I dont think there is a better neck on any guitar in this price range, not too mention it is skunk striped. The satin finish on the neck is outstanding and the overall tone and build quality of the guitar is a notch above a MIM strat if you ask me. If you prefer an alder body then you should look at the CV series but I personally prefer a basswood body so this guitar matches my likes perfectly. LESS THAN $300 shipped to your door for this guitar and it is a steal at that price.

I've Owned This Squier Deluxe Strat In Pearl White For A Month And It's The Best Strat I've Ever Had. It's Better Than All The Mexican Strats I've owned. The Smooth Satin Finished Maple Neck Makes It A Breeze To Go Up And Down On,The Action Is Low The Pickups Sound Great And It's My Number One Guitar. And I've Been Playing For 45 Years This One Is A Keeper!

I have nothing but good things to say about this guitar. I was expecting a cheapo guitar to carry to college with me, but WOW!. The fit and finish on this guitar are on par with any other i've ever played. As a matter of fact this guitar plays, sounds, and feels better than any MIM strat i've ever played. The quality components, pickups, neck (has a rolled fingerboard!!!), and overall fit and finish will surprise anyone that plays it. Don't be fooled by the name on the headstock. This is the real deal strat sound and feel.

for a squier guitar great qualty, nice neck,good sounding ducan p,u i own 14 guitars, an american made strat, 2 epi les pauls, but i have to say over all i love my 2 strats the most.

I bought this after getting a squier affinity telecaster that I just fell completely in love with, hoping for the same karma. It didn't happen. The strat is gorgeous, and has a nice feeling neck with nice action. Pickups - they're okay, but not great. They do give me that gorgeous neck pickup chirp around the 10'th & 12'th frets that I just love. I did the following things to make it super playable:

1. Got rid of that horrible threaded trem arm. Worst invention ever. I got a trem block and push-in arm for an american deluxe strat. The block mounts to the trem plate just fine. The holes for the trem arm don't line up for the two different blocks though, so there is a little filing to do on the trem plate with a round file so the push-in arm goes in. Not unsightly when done, and I'd have to point it out to someone or they would not notice.
2. Replaced the as-received frosted saddles with some prettier chrome saddles.
3. Installed locking tuners.
4. Installed an Earvana nut to solve intonation issues (3rd guitar I've done this for, resulting in pure
intonation heaven).
5. Some of the pick guard screws were loose. Holes were too big or something, so the trick of
using in a little plastic wood in the hole, then the screw. When it cures, tighty-tight.

We shouldn't use phrases like "hurry up and get this before Fender realizes how good it is" because that will only encourage Fender to charge more for less. But, it is a good guitar for what I paid used ($189).

The fact is that the neck on this thing is amazing—really—and that's one of the most important parts of any guitar. The pickups are decent, too, but the electronics overall don't compare with a more durably built Mexican or American model. Open it up and you'll see the flimsy soldering. The bridge is better than average, but it's not steel like an American or MIM and the tuners are decent, but they're not as durable and the gear ratio is definitely not 18:1. The body is basswood, which is cheap, soft wood, so if you take the pickguard, neck or bridge off too many times, you're going to probably have to refill some holes and redrill (or else try the toothpick trick). I realize Ibanez superstrats are all made out of soft wood like this, but that doesn't make it a good thing. Yes, the guitar is lighter and I personally like that, but it's not cool to see the holes splintering out and getting larger every time you take the pickguard off. This is not the kind of guitar you want to mess around much with as far as the neck and bridge goes. At some point, I may buy an alder body replacement, but that will be a shame because I love the Daphne Blue color and I doubt I'll be able to match it.

My point is, it's a good, playable guitar, but let's not overstate the case. I think the price is honestly a little high for what it is. $299? You can get a used Mexican for around the same price and the hardware will be steel, the body will be alder or some comparable stronger wood, the pots and jack will be sturdier and the electronics will be wired better and the tuners will have a better gear ratio. Heck, often you can get a used MIM with tuner upgrades and pickup upgrades for around $300. I got a Telecaster with Epic Nocaster Klein Pickups for $279 w/hardshell case.

But this guitar, is very playable. It actually might be my favorite neck of the 6 electric guitars I own. I'm not sure exactly what makes it so playable. Yes, the satin neck, but the dimensions feel really good for some reason, too. I find myself playing in different areas of the neck and learning new tricks just because the neck seems so different. And when I find myself doing the same old riffs and licks, I quickly stop so I won't go back into old, boring territory. I want to make this new neck inspiration last as long as possible. :)

For playing at home, it's fine and for light gigging it's fine, but it will not take a lot of abuse. It's a shame there's not a real good identifier on this neck because it would be a good one to buy used off ebay if you're looking for a replacement neck. It doesn't even say "deluxe" on the neck, just Squier in gold. I think there's a lot of Squier necks with a gold logo, so would be pretty hard to identify on ebay.

i own 14 guitars,american made standared strat,my favorite. two epi, les pauls list goes on. i was pleased with my dss, love the pearl white. for the money a good guitar, boy it.

First off I will say that this guitar with the white pearlescent paint job looks absolutely stunning and the neck is very good, with the fret ends nicely rounded. I bought this guitar with the intent of upgrading parts. The first thing I did was replace the stock tuners with locking Schaller knock-offs from Guitar Fetish and a Graphtech Tusq nut. I also removed the string trees to help the tremolo stay in tune better. The tremolo bridge is just acceptable but I replaced the stock zinc block with a brass block and that resulted in a noticeable improvement in the tone. Then I replaced the cheap stock electronics with a blender wiring harness from Obsidian Wire. That also resulted in an improvement in the tone. I haven't replaced the pickups yet but that is the next thing I will do. I am less than happy with the stock "Duncan Designed" pickups. It seems to me that the pickup covers are about the only thing about them that could be called "Duncan Designed". They are just way too thin, brittle, and dirty sounding for my taste, not musical sounding at all to my ears but that's just my opinion. Some players might like that sound but I find it quite uninspiring.

My overall impression is that if you get this guitar set up right, it plays beautifully and it would be a pretty good instrument for the intermediate player. I think it's also worthy as a platform for upgrading.