Squier Vintage Modified Surf Stratocaster - Surf Green Reviews

This is the first guitar I have ordered from Sweetwater, and I have to say that everything about the experience has been great. Right out of the box the guitar felt very comfortable to play. Patrick walked me through the entire process, and has been super friendly and helpful all the way. It may be my first guitar from Sweetwater, but I can see that it won't be my last. SUPER customer service. And I'm one happy surf strat owner now!

I've purchased a bunch of guitars online from different places, and sadly have returned some of those as well. While I was initially hesitant to try once more, I have always had good experiences with Sweetwater, and as it turns out, their 55 point inspection is no joke, more to the point, it is outstanding! This was the best setup, ready to play out of the box guitar, that I have ever had the pleasure of ordering online. Heck, I wish I could send them some of my other guitars to setup. So much fun to play this guitar, that I can't believe how well it stacks up compared to my Fender American Special Strat. What a great vibe. The fit and finish were terrific, and it kind of reminds me of those old American hot rods with the cool color. The neck feels really nice too. The guitar arrived quickly, and again thanks to Sweetwater for providing excellent service. I feel confident in ordering more guitars, and perhaps even basses as well, in the future. Well done!

Just received my Squier Surf strat and had to sit down and offer a review of not just this gorgeous guitar but of the fabulous Sweetwater service. I started playing a year ago but had bought my guitar from a friend so this purchase was my first real foray into the guitar market. My two kids have watched me play and have become passionately interested in playing themselves so the surf strat was to be a birthday present for the eldest. Researched for weeks before settling on the surf strat. If I had spent half as much time researching the stores that supply the guitars I would have saved myself quite a bit of grief. I ordered from Sam Ash and paid $50 for 2 day delivery. The guitar arrived 5 days later, shoddily packaged. Upon opening the pickups were falling into the body cavity and the body had scratch marks, it was repacked and returned to a UPS store 10 minutes later. I had been reading reviews of Sweetwater and decided to order from them but was now even shorter on time and by the time my order was submitted to Sweetwater, even with 2 day shipping didn't look like it was going to make it in time. I had talked to Sweetwater rep Alana Aguirre about the status and had pretty much resigned myself to putting a picture of the guitar in a card until the guitar arrived when Alana called back and let me know they were putting it on priority overnight, on them! It came first thing this morning, lovingly packaged, properly set up (I only had to tune one string) and in beautiful condition. Fit and finish are first rate and when I plugged it in to my Marshall and cranked up the reverb, little slice of surf heaven!
This is the kind of service and product satisfaction that seems to becoming rarer these days but it has guaranteed that from now on, for all of my family's musical needs, I will only shop Sweetwater. Well done to everyone at Sweetwater and especially Alana Aguirre for the remarkable customer service! You guys rock.

Although I deal quite a bit with sweetwater I found this guitar in the secondary market place. I was greatly impressed with the pickups and the neck especially. the tone was outstanding and the playability was as good as some of my more expensive guitars. The intonation was spot on and it is just a joy to play. If I had not found such a good deal I would gladly pay the asking price tag from sweetwater. What a great value!
The lipstick pickup covers are beautiful and remind me of the Danelectro and Sears guitars of yesterday. You can't go wrong with this guitar !

I fell in lust with this guitar upon seeing it on a local music store's website. I like to buy from the local mom & pop shops so I went there intending to buy it, since it was listed as being in stock. Unfortunately when I asked about it, the hipster employee told me he had sold it 6 weeks prior. He further annoyed me by telling me how nice it was. Then he reluctantly offered to order one ("I guess. If you really want it").
That's when I decided to check out Sweetwater, since they seem to have a very good reputation. Now I know why! They notified me as soon as they got the guitar in stock, the ordering process was effortless, and when the guitar arrived, it became clear that their evaluation is everything it's cracked up to be.
The guitar is cosmetically flawless, the neck is straight, the intonation is dead perfect (!), and the pickups sound great!
Well done Squier for offering such a beautiful instrument at such a great price, and well done Sweetwater for making sure that my personal guitar is such a joy to play!

Squier is up to great things. This is a true gem, and a great value. I enjoy the Strat profile, the rosewood fret board is a really nice feature, and in my mind an asset with regard to playability. The lipstick tube pick-ups are a classic touch. Stand out color, the pick guard has a marble-ized effect. Based on value, you should buy one today. I own several Les Pauls, and Epiphones, but man do I enjoy playing this guitar. It is solid,well constructed, yet not overly heavy. I must compliment my rep Kevin Samuel as well. He is a really cool guy, and extremely professional and knowledgable. He is always helpful and very patient

I got the surf green about two years ago sold it to friend and got it back because it is so awesome and man the smoothness of the neck and the sound of the old school duncan designed pups are sweet they let you really dig in and get multiple soft or dirty sounds. Great for blues and rock...and melodic tunes.
I did have the issue of the most complaint i have seen about this guitar happening when a pup fell through upon adjusting etc but i just secured it better with a rubber washer underneath. Beautiful fretboard and just smooth guitar and nice feeling neck it just flows. Whatever is goin on at the fender factory in indonesia is good i cant tell you. This guitar holds its own even against my deluxe usa strat. All i can say is I love this electric, try one.

I ordered this guitar to fill a void in my electric arsenal. Need something inexpensive right now, so Squires are know for their value and they are easy to modify. Was not very impressed with an earlier Squire Classic Vibe Stratocaster, so thought I'd try this baby. Good move! Right out of the box I was very pleased with the quality - - nice clean frets, beautiful slick neck (even had some nice graining), decent tuners, great paint job, and solid hardware. It did need some serious setup, but all my guitars do because I like easy action.
I decided to remove the crappy stock strings and do a complete setup on this guitar. Had to put lemon oil on the fingerboard, and polished the frets with 0000 steel wool (although they were fine). I removed the neck and made sure the neck joint was free of any paint or stray sawdust that would interfere with sound transfer, and tightened it down fast in the good-fitting pocket. I never use the tremolo, so I blocked it with some maple blocks and loosened the springs somewhat. I put on some Fender .009's and set the intonation, and filed a couple of the string slots in the nut, and put graphite in the slots - - now this guitar is a real peach! Stays in tune for days, and it plays like butter after tweaking the string saddles. I couldn't believe how solid it was and how great it played! I couldn't put it down the first couple of days!
I must say this is the best purchase I've ever made on an electric. It plays circles around my old USA Strat I used to have, and the sounds from the Duncan pups is very strong. I did have to raise the pickups to their maximum (which is where I like them) but they have plenty of bite and power. I especially like the neck pickup, and the #2 position is very nice. This guitar is built like a tank, and is rather hefty for basswood (7 lb. 14 oz.) but I like that. It just vibrates with tone, you can feel it in your bones. Really pretty thing, with the MOTS pickguard. Hardware seems fine, so I'll probably just leave it all stock.
I will be gigging with this one for sure, and if you want to give 10 times the price just to say you have an American Strat then be my guest, but this Squire is simply amazing, and I know a good guitar when I see it. Solid as a rock, and with that sound you always know says "Stratocaster". Just make sure you realize you'll have to do some major setup and a few "adjustments", but the hardware is all there to make it a killer axe.

GREAT service!!! fast delivery, You guys ROCK....

First, Sweetwater Service: I ordered my surf green early Thursday morning and had it by the next afternoon. Crazy fast. What makes this so incredible is they also managed to do their 55 point inspection/set-up (spot-on), sent me pics of my actual guitar including serial #, and then lovingly re-packaged it before they sent it out - with candy, to boot!!! I also really appreciate the fact that I can view and choose from multiple guitars in stock before my purchase. I check the weight variations (I chose one of the heavier of the bunch... ~ 7oz.difference) and compare rosewood fret-boards (the darker the better for me). Sweetwater's diligence is why I keep coming back and why I'm not wasting any time in getting this review in promptly.

I'm a big fan of Squier's Vintage Mod series. I have a VM 70's Strat (black) that is awesome too. I'll keep this review short. All of the previous positive reviews are right on the money. My favorite things about this guitar: Vintage hardware/tuners, looks, sound, and feel. And, it matches my surf green Fender Sonoran :) Great value, Great product. - self-taught 30 yr player.

A real sharp looking axe. Plays nicely, intonates well out of the box. Workmanship, fret-work, woods, finish and set-up are excellent at this price-point.
The axe sounds bitchin' through all the amps I've plugged into; (Fender DeLuxes, Tremolux, Baby Showman, & Champ).
I bought some Tusq saddles from GraphTech to try on it when I replace the strings. So far, no worries, it's a great guitar. A little heavy for basswood.

This guitar rocks at this price-point. Great workmanship, finish, solid intonation & tone. Plays great, sounds great. It is also a good-looker. The '55 Chevy color & the lipstick pups & mother of toilet-seat pick guard are very groovy. It is heavier, however, than I had thought, for a basswood body. I am keeping mine. Leo Fender was someone special.

Never has there been a better time to be a discerning musician on a budget with guitars like this one! Great tone, plays great, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...
...seriously. Check these Vintage Modified Surf Strats out!

Thanks to Mike at Sweetwater and the whole team for yet another great instrument at a killer price, with excellent service!

Purchased from Sweetwater almost 1 year ago. I have lots of USA made Fender guitars .....I am not a fan of them. I want to make a point. I still have my 1965 Strat that I got when I was a kid. It plays great and is worn out. That is my favorite guitar. Over the years I have bought many USA made teles and strats and they don't feel right. They don't sound right either and they weigh too much.

The only guitars that I will buy now are Squiers when I need the FENDER THANG!. I am serious!! My guitars are tools to get a job done. The Squiers feel like the old Fenders from the 60s. They are light. The neck width is more like my 65. That's what I love about them.

This guitar had a few issues when I received it. Sharp fret edges, neck was not adjusted etc etc. I fixed the sharp edges, adjusted the neck, changed the strings to .11s tuned down a half step since that is how I play. Opened up the nut. Trem stays solidly in tune once it is setup. Watch Carl Verheyen's video on setting up a strat trem. That is the only video that works on a Strat trem...vintage style. Stick with the vintage trem change to a large block if you want. No need for locking tuners ever again!

This guitar is my main gigging guitar. We play guitar hero music (Hendrix, SRV, Trower, Winter, CCR, Cream etc) The pickups do the trick for that music. All in all it is a great guitar for the money. If everyone would get over the phobia of having to have a headstock that says Fender, Gibson or whatever, they'd have more fun.

Hands down, I am a Squier strat and tele player. Great value! This strat gets about 25 hours of use every week.

For gigs I play Squiers, PRS SE, and Sterling SUB series guitars. All cheap, all reliable and my gig money doesn't go for a monthly payment on my gear.

Sweetwater is a great online store!

I love this guitar. for the price it is a bargain. It plays well, looks cool and is nice on the shoulders. I usually like a classic wood look but this surf green is just a fun color. Has the great fender twang in it's pick ups, a classic sound and really works well with my f30 mesa. At this price everyone should have one

I’ve struggled with how to rate and review this guitar. I really like the sound I get from it and most of the quality is much higher than I would expect from such a low priced instrument. On the other hand, I know how to setup a guitar properly and if I hadn’t spent quite a bit of time setting up this guitar (or if I had been someone who didn’t know how to setup a guitar), I would have found it nearly unplayable. So I’ll break up this review into the bad and the good.

The bad. The guitar was not setup at all. The truss rod had zero tension in it, so the neck had too much curve (which it needed due to the bridge setup). The tremolo (vibrato for purists) bridge was setup as a fixed or dive bomb only bridge with the string height too low and intonation not setup properly. The result was a guitar which could not be played above the 11th fret due to string buzz on the frets. The springs holding the pickups were too short or weak and would not hold the pickups in place very well. The guitar isn’t well shielded so any of the switch positions for a single pickup tend to be noisy. I’m planning to shield it as one of my next projects, but haven’t yet. Lastly, there is a small run in the clear coat on the back of the neck, fortunately it’s in an area where it doesn’t affect the playability. If I did not know how to fix most of these issues, this would be a 1 or 2 star guitar.

The good. The fit and finish on the guitar (excepting the one run on the neck) is beautiful. Combined with the pearloid pickguard (the tremolo spring cover on the back is pearloid too), the lipstick tube pickups, and the vintage tinted neck, this guitar is really nice looking. Now that I’ve setup the neck and bridge and replaced the pickup springs with Fender styled rubber tubing so I could properly adjust the pickup heights, the guitar plays very nice. The frets could stand to be finished out a bit more, but at this price they are nicer than expected and they don’t have sharp edges sticking out on the ends. The basswood body and Duncan Designed pickups create some really nice tones. It has some jingle to it and it can get twangy without much effort. Using the bridge or bridge and middle pickups gives some very light tones and I find it easy to mimic a jingly surf tone. Using the neck or neck and middle pickups adds some depth and brings the guitar into a more traditional Strat tone or piano like tone. Basically this guitar is relatively bright and ranges from slightly jingly to almost bell-like. If you want a fatter, Texas blues or hard rock/heavy metal sound then you’ll want to look at other options. With most of the little issues associated with a cheap guitar ironed out, this would be 4 or 5 star guitar.

Overall impression. I have no regrets with buying this guitar. A trip to a guitar tech to get a proper setup, or some time on the bench if you know what you’re doing, can resolve most of the issues you might have with it. The look and the tone are unique and for me they are worth the extra time setting up the guitar. I’ve had more expensive instruments which needed as much or more work in order to be playable, so I’m not going to knock off too many stars for the setup not being right on this guitar. When I first ordered this guitar I was thinking that it might be fun to play around with swapping out parts on it since it is cheap enough to not worry about ruining a highly valuable guitar. Having spent some time with it now, I don’t really want to modify it anymore (other than the shielding). I don’t want to do anything which might kill the bright tone and classic style of this Surf Strat.

It's been a fascinating 2 year journey of guitar discovery for me - traded in an American Strat I bought new in 1991 and started experimenting with 335's - SG's - Jazzmasters, Teles, and more. After the dust settled I wound up with a 339, and SG, and a Tele but I was missing the Strat. So I bought this one. All I can say is that if my '91 American was 1/2 as fun as this one I never would have traded it in.

The only problem I had with this surf model is the adjustment screws that hold the lipsticks in place are very loose and the pickups were falling into the body of the guitar. I took the guard off - set the height where I wanted it and epoxied the screws to the mounting plates. problem solved -I see no need to have to adjust them anyway. Other than that it's been very fun to play and my other guitars are getting a serious rest.

That said I was at a local music store and there were two of these on the wall - neither felt nearly as good as mine. fretwork was really "picky" - try before you buy if you can - if you get a good one you'll be really happy with it.

In this price range, you're not going to get a better overall guitar. The finish, fretwork, pickups, hardware, and attention to detail are on par with an american made Stratocaster, which I've owned. The only thing this guitar required right out of the box was a small amount of setup work, and pickup height adjustment. Great buy, and great guitar.

Love the color and look of this guitar.

Out of the box this guitar falls far short of any professional standards. The electronics are appallingly cheap and the sound reflects that. I had it in mind to upgrade some parts when I purchased. Here's the list:

Mint green pick guard loaded with 69 Hendrix Fender single coils. Brass sustain block. Installed machine screw inserts in the neck heel. High speed volume pot and upgraded the tone pots and capacitors, 5way switch and wiring.

With these mods the guitar sounds fantastic, imparting lots of high-mid harmonics. It serves well as a strat. This is the only electric guitar I own without a scalloped neck so I'm not used to the the small frets and find it difficult to chord around up the neck.