> It's a squire > It's Japanese Ah, that explains it.

Inexpensive not cheap. Quality does not have to be costly.

Eddie Van Halen built his frankenstrat from a $50 factory second body and a $75 neck. It's now one of the most valuable guitars in the world. If you love it and it sounds good. It is good!

As a long-time guitar teacher, often students will say, "You can only play good because you have a great guitar." I will then bring my cheapest guitar to lessons. They are then totally deflated.

Wether it’s cheap or expensive, the real trick is learning to play it.

I buy cheap guitars so that I can afford to have several different ones with different pickups, instead of one expensive one

Jeff Healey played Squier Guitars, if they are good enough for him their good enough for us..

I try to tell people what you are talking about, not just about instruments, but all things in life. Nice to see a young man with an audience delivering this message. Because I am just one old man to be ignored.

I have a PRS Custom 22 USA (1997) which is the most expensive guitar I own. It plays like butter and is worth every penny. At the other end of the spectrum, I own a Vintage VS6 that I bought off a bloke for £100, and I love it. The cost should never be the determining factor; it's whether or not you enjoy playing the guitar, and whether or not it inspires you to make music with it.

My Fender Jazz Deluxe was cheap when I first purchased it, but now, it's been modified, but I still treat it like I paid $4,000 for it. If you love your guitar, (no matter how much it cost), treat like it's a Million dollars

I own a gibson custom, a cs strat, and 3 quiet expensive Music Man guitars and a few other "premium" guitars, but the fire-saver non replaceable-guitar is my first guitar, a now 30 year old Epiphone Les Paul custom (heavily modified and refretted) who survived several movings, water in the house, angry kids and ex-girl-friends etc. It's like a brother :-)

Even as a garage band hack, I’ve learned to take my less expensive guitars (already had a lot of wear) to certain venues when I know it is going to have the potential to get knocked about or stolen. Although, I enjoy playing my nicer custom shop guitars more. Chris, if you love the way the blue strat plays and sounds, I think spraying (especially if you are doing it yourself) it white is a great idea. I love Olympic white strats. If you are paying someone else to spray it (same applies to refret), I’d sell it and buy a white strat.

I think the year was 2013. I was at the Musikmesse in Frankfurt and Eric Johnson was invited by Fender to promote some of their models. At one point in his live demos, he grabbed a Chinese Squire which was plugged into a Fender Mustang miked to the PA. And... yeap, it sounded exactly like Eric Johnson. He talked to the audience, "hey guys, I'm playing a Squire into Mustang". I guess a lot of true-bypass-new-old-stock-caps-vintage-tonewood-aficionados die a little bit that day.

I'm reminded of talking with a really good pool player who always used a "house" cue - even though he had a really nice one I'd seen him use a few times... Not that he wouldn't select from a few they had for straightness, but his answer was they had different weights/feel and it kept his skill up to have to deal with the differences. In guitar terms maybe it's easy to make a great guitar sound good, it's more challenging to pick up any old guitar and make it sing?

Playing the way you do, any decent guitar is bound to sound fabulous.

I play cheap guitar because I’m broke af

My Mex Strat is my most reliable and most played guitar. I always notice how nice it feels and sounds after I switch from my Gibson or Gretsch.

Cheap guitars work fine for me but when I got my American Tele it really inspired me. I wanted to play it more. I love playing a quality guitare.

It baffles me why anyone would give this video a thumbs down. Especially 155. Such a genuine young man and the subject matter is just great. You really don’t need an expensive guitar to have fun and enjoy playing and Chris’s reasons are very justified. Thank you for making and sharing your video’s 👍🤘🤙🏻👌🏼

What God-given talent you have! And so young. You are so lucky. No amount of practice could let most of us play like you. You could make any guitar sizzle with beautiful sound.

lol, you have some striking similarities with Loki from Thor movies. But great video. I hate people who look down on cheap guitars.

I play cheap because my skill level is not there enough to warrant an expensive guitar

Very informative, this kind of input is as important as anything else you could teach us! Thanks so much!!!

A guitar is a tool. The tool is only as good as the person using it. I prefer guitars with character and feel that inspire me rather than guitars which hold the prestige of a name or price tag. But that's just me.

That's always a tricky one: should I buy an American or a Mexican Fender which are both built by Mexicans?

I’ve never found that I need more than a Epiphone pro too or Mexican Fender strat.

it's always amazing how often we hear, that nobody gave us any advice on the important questions in life....when we needed it....it's later put down as "experience"... but you have whats most important of all....talent.....and you've got your head firm on your shoulders.....very sensible...and a exceptional guitarplayer.....;-D

Youre such an awesome player man! i realize this is an older video but as a 39 yr old dude whos just starting out your tone is amazing!!!! love and respect from Canada

A Gibson is more comfortable to play on higher frets than my epiphone because of the bolt on neck. But is that comfort worth a $3000 price difference? To me, no. The sound is so close, the money is better spent on a good amp and pedals and you still got enough left for a big bag of weed

This echoes my experience as a bike courier. You start with a nice bike, until it gets stolen. Then you end up hacking about on something that cost 40 quid from a flea market. Pretty much every courier I know has done this. Plus, there's a big difference between cheap and inexpensive.

As always, what a legend, solid advice and you practise what you preach!

Appreciate your humble nature! Don’t lose it! Always great vids!

Yeah i agree. I paid 55 dollars for my 59 les Paul in 62 and it plays way better than alot of 500 dollar expensive guitars.

Im particular about gibsons but when it comes to fender I actually prefer cheaper ones. Gotta Mex Tele that's my favorite ive ever played dead stock. And the squire strats that are slightly smaller are also some of my favorite guitars. They dont sound great distorted but I mainly pick up a strat to play clean to slightly overdriven sounds anyway. Also they end up being the ones you grab the most cause you're not worried about always having them in the cases. There's always one leaning in a corner around here.

Well said Chris. Another thing with the whole band load ins and outs is that sometimes it only takes someone to ‘help you out’ with gear and something (like a guitar) gets put up against a wall outside in the dark and not seen and everyone’s leaves the gig, gets home to unload and the guitar isn’t there. Heard that happened to a friend. Devastating! Thanks for these videos and for your top playing. Always enjoy them 🤙

I had a boutique effects pedal "disappear" from the stage between soundcheck and performance. It was an $800 US pedal and, as you said, in a foreign country. I completely understand the premise of your video. Great job, Chris!

I’m stilling playing my ‘91 MIM Strat I bought brand new in high school. I actually but it in early ‘92. I’ve swapped out the original pickguard with better (yet cheap Alnico 5) pickups, and better wiring/switch (passive treble bass controls). It sounds and plays great. Also had a Squier Affinity Strat, a Squier Vintage Modified Tele, and a Tradition Strat copy. Also have a tele build a friend is doing with budget body/neck. I’d love a good USA strat someday, but I’ve played for nearly 30 years on “cheap” guitars.

Nice yellowy cream if you have to but blue looks spot on to me.

My favorite strat guitars are Squiers! I put in the narrow Callahan bridges and change the springs and love em! I like smaller necks too!

Dig your videos, mate. And always good to see a fellow Welshman doing so well. Good luck to you. Agree with this video, by the way.

I had a very cheap guitar when I just started playing. And I used to blame that guitar for sounding like crap. Then a friend of mine picked it up and it sounded awesome. I then realized the tone was not in the guitar but in the fingers.

I exclusively play Fender american special Tele's. They're cheaper. They're more accurate to the original "Old school" telecasters. And the texas special pickups are rad! I've got expensive guitars. They unfortunately don't go on tour with me. My epiphone nighthawk's do, not my gibson nighthawk's. So I get it. I just bought a 50's classic mexican strat, that plays SO much better than my 2000 dollar american standard. I paid 500 dollars for it, lightly used. That's going to be my new road guitar. That, my epiphone hawk, and my tele special. Great video! Take care!

Hi Chris, I'm from Paraguay (a little country in the center of south America) I'm a fan of your tone, your songs and your style. You're an inspiration to me 🎸💥

I'm just finishing up a refinish to a Matte Chalk white Epiphone Junior. Bolt on with a moved screw carved access and Bellycut. Stinger and plain neck. But yeah I spent a lot of time on the frets and the bridge had ultimately leaned and lifted the laminate top layer. Superglue and drilling in toothpicks and a full refinish. But I love it and it does the thing now.

i play a sub 400 quid gretsch for the simple reason i love it. i love how it feels and i like how it sounds, that's the only reason. though it is also reassuring knowing that if it gets stolen it's not a complete tragedy.

I was never able to afford anything expensive. Friends had expensive gear, and I found the common denominators in guitars that were expensive, guitars that were cheap, and why they felt different. It took one [cheap] guitar that I loved enough to entrust it to a VERY skilled luthier, invest a little money, and find the playability improved to a degree that those friends and their expensive guitars were at a loss as to what made my cheap guitar, feel so good. From that day forward, expensive gear OWES me that playability. If it doesn't feel/sound as good as something that cost me $800 soup-to-nuts, it's not worth it to me.

i was considering buying my first 'real' strat, but instead modded my old 130,- strat with new pickups and some hardware, and now it plays and sounds like a dream

Very true comments dude. I first got into blues and bluesy style tunes I guess when I had an old abandoned acoustic which I saved and restrung and loved/played for quite awhile until I realised I was mostly playing electric blues licks haha. So then my first electric guitar was and still gets played and loved is a 2003 56 Epiphone Les Paul gold top reissue which I got for $600 in immaculate condition second hand. I now also have a brand new MIM Player Series Strat. I've been lucky enough to also upgrade it with Jeff Beck noiseless pickups. Even with all this iam sure there are thousands of players that sound so much better then me on a no brand dirty banger guitar with bent necks and dirty out of tune strings. You are inspirational Chris,thankyou.

When I worked at GC, you could play 10 so-so USA LPs or Strats and then that one used Squire in the corner would just be SOOOOO good and cheap enough to upgrade and still be affordable. Guitars are hit and miss, even "the good ones"

The Silver Series Japanese Squiers (like yours) are fantastic guitars, they used to be quite cheap, but seem to be fetching up to £500 nowadays as they are getting scarcer.

Good vid! Been watching your channel lately - goes without saying you’re excellent. You mention you’re a fan of the Olympic White Strat, mint guard, and dark rosewood neck... that perfectly describes mine! You’ll see me play it on my channel. It’s from the Custom Shop. Anyway, top marks!

I love my Squier. The stock pickups were good, but I just switched them out for fender Tex Mex pickups. A bit higher output Alnico V magnets. They're only 100 or so dollars for the set and they sound fantastic! I'd be hesitant to mod an expensive guitar, but a relatively inexpensive one is a great jumping off point for building your own unique sound from the ground up.

Reason 3: "cheaper guitars" (sub custom shop,) are much easier to fix than single Luthier constructions like CS guitars with hand constructed everything and more appointments. It goes back to the original intentions behind the Fender design: if something is broken, buy that part and replace it.

I'd have a small hidden video camera in the room focused on my gear, if it's someone in house who's stolen it you've got um! In fact because its such a big problem these days I'm surprised clubs, pubs, & event venues don't have a dedicated monitoring system themselves, its cheap as chips to do it these days.

Agree totally. I have two classic vibe guitars and love them more than any strat I’ve played. Guessing you’ve tried those already?

I own a Squier classic Vibe Strat that I absolutely love. The neck is impeccable. I've played millions of times on my brother's fender stratocasters and he even admits that my classic vibe plays as well or better $400 can't go wrong

I found my guitar leaning on the dumpsters in front of my apartment. The school district that it came from is carved on it.

Had this with my PRS , felt uncomfortable living on stage to have a meal , drink , get changed and socialising at the bar. Trouble is my old S G is now an expensive guitar to lose !

I play a 87 mij squier telecaster. I’ll never sell it. Thanks for the insight of your awesome strats. Cheers

Was talking to Gordon Giltrap last night in the interval of a local gig he did, and he had exactly the same view. One of his guitar’s was a stock 200 quid acoustic which sounded glorious and was a real work horse albeit not a piece of furniture.

My son recently bought a G&L tribute Strat 450 euro new awesome guitar made in Indonesia, ever tried one?

I play a cheap Guitar because I can't afford an expensive one 😂

I have a LTD EC-256 and added Seymour Duncan hot rodded pickups with a new nut, upgraded pots & electrics and I love it.......also just recently acquired an east coast strat type (due to some of the good reviews from Andertons) for £150 as a donor guitar for learning to do my own tech work to it and I'm pretty impressed by it to be honest :)

I have LTD. EC1000 Deluxe. Its flawless! Love it! I'm getting a Gretsch soon. Just gotta make up my mind on which.

I play guitars I feel comfortable with. They just happen to be towards the one grand mark. Not that cheap, not that expensive.

The imperfections of cheap guitars usually will guide you into creative solutions to overcome their deficiencies and develope your own style. I have a very nice high end Fender and it's perfect, but when I have writers block I grab one of the cheap flea market guitars and it usually "guides" me into new ideas. Even a broken string can sometimes help me as I play "around" the handicap of missing a string. Try it, it's fun!

I have a Squier Affinity Tele that I installed with Fender Texas Special pickups. I plays and sounds great.

I have a refinished vintage strat I put together with 72 body and neck and a mix of 72/73 pickups. Maple neck. I love that axe its my baby... but I feel paranoid taking it out of the house. Even in the house you just never know when you're not home. Recently I got a Squire thinline telecaster and have been really enjoying it. I keep it in the trunk of my car with a vox mini 3 amp I love the feeling of freedom of not worrying about. Unfortunately my last car was a hatchback no trunk and it was broken into last summer they stole a Squire frankenstrat that I really enjoyed it was really light weight two tone gold sunburst with Tex mex pickups I miss that thing sometimes it was fun

After watching Stevie Ray Vaughn, literally try to destroy his strat, I say guitars are able to take a beating. Love y'all.

I buy very, very expensive guitars, hang them on my wall and look at them.

I bought a black Japanese HSS Strat with Floyd Rose (very Maidenesque) around 2013 from a bloke in Llanelli, then sent it off to Spectrum Finishes who resprayed it in "mystic blue". Absolutely stunning. Sadly the guy whose company it was died a couple of years ago but it's such a beautiful colour. Respray for the win! 🎸😊

Another Squire fan here. I have an Affinity Telecaster. Cost me £200 and I absolutely love the thing.

The Japanese are master’s at whatever they put there hand to. 🙌

I play cheap guitars because they're cheap

You're totally right about leaving gear. I left my gibson sg and a luthier made acoustic at a venue while we got food in another pub. 6 grand left back stage. I was very stupid when I look back. I play a Chinese affinity tele and Japan squier e series strat which are great guitars.

Remember Geddy Lee's number one bass was a Fender Jazz Bass purchased at a pawn shop in Kalamazoo Michigan for 200 dollars.

As long they setup nice it doesn’t matter 👍

great video. but It would be better without a song playing in the back. 😉😁

Dude! What an inspirational video. Killa solos!

I do the same. 3 squire strats, an LTD LP, and an angel just gave me a 1970's Lawsuit SG. All of them play great and i do all the setups. A setup, new nut, maybe new pickup(s), strings, and a good cleaning makes my inexpensive guitars just what i want.

Does a hobby musician really need a professional quality instrument? I would say no. Most people who don't play instruments can't even tell the difference anyway so your friends and family won't care you're playing a Cort g-100 and not a 1964 Feder Strat.

Ive never liked cheapos cuz i dont like the idea of buying a guitar and having to finish the fret job, yeah no

Highway one’s rock, 🤘 I picked up an practically unplayed one a few years back still with the stickers on it for 380€ I sold the neck and pickups and put the money towards a second had set of bare knuckle pickups and a all parts neck and now I have my perfect forever Strat and after the past few years of gigging it’s even starting to look like a roadworn one due to thin nitro finish....!

Pre-covid when we were still allowed to do such things, my gigging lineup was a US core line PRS and a Yamaha Pacifica I bought used for £120. After a setup and sorting the electronics out, I'm honestly hard pressed to say which is the 'better' guitar. I'd be totally happy taking either to a session. If it feels good, is well set up and has good electronics, it's good enough for anything.

It's like Tom Chaplin and Loki had a baby

squires are bloody awesome idk why people give them shit

I have a Squier Affinity tele that I used to prefer to my Fender just for the feel. I was given a beautiful G&L that I play mostly now, but I still keep that Squier around, and I'm thinking about sticking some nicer pickups in it and giving it a tuneup, and then it'll be ready to get back on the stage!

Although they can be hit or miss depending on the year and individual guitars, American Standard Fenders can be amazing guitars that can easily compete with custom shop ones. It’s just important to try a few before settling on one. My 2015 American Standard Strat and Tele are both absolutely fantastic.

I feel like I'm at a party, trying to hear a conversation over the music

Made in America aint got shit on made in Japan. Im not a weeb, but culturally the Japanese just take more pride in their work. There's a reason 90% of new technologies are Japanese.

Squire classic vibes strats from before 2010ish (due to the rosewood fretboard availability) are incredible. Their pickups sound like real vintage strats, and I haven't played a better strat in my music career. Highly recommend.

I'm not a snob by any means, but from having sold guitars for a living for a little while, I can break it down to this - there's different levels of guitars and you have to decide what you value on an instrument. For example, I got a fantastic deal on an American Strat that basically found me. In 2010 money, it would've been the ~$1,200 model. Not TOO fancy, but when people play it, they say, "well, I guess you get what you pay for," in a good way. The low end, as far as cost goes, will fetch you a functional student level guitar these days, but will feel rough around the edges to someone more experienced [occasional intonation issues, frets not dressed as well, lowest cost everything.] Intermediate level instruments are where some people max out for cost reasons. Sometimes it is also a choice made from an assessment of self worth as a musician. Whatever the reason, these instruments are considerably better than the student end and can sometimes compete with the higher end instruments for one reason or another. High end - The high end of guitars gets a lot of scrutiny, usually involving quality control issues. I can't tell you how many conversations I've overheard of horror stories about thousands of dollars spent on an instrument and some kind of issue. But in my experience, you find ones you like at every level, and you try before you buy. High end is no exception. I chose my Strat because it dive bombed and stays in pretty good tune. Enough for me to love it. The only thing I would change about the guitar is a more 50's set of strat pickups. In general this level is where most even more experienced players will max out if you are a good player, but maybe not rich. Gucci Guitars - These guitars play just about as well as the level below, but are total show pieces. Almost too pretty to play. In some cases, like the Eric Clapton Strats around 2008ish, and 2010-2015ish, didn't like 'em. There were common scams with some though like the Eric Johnsons that had unique pickups where people would buy them and then swap out the pickups and do returns on the guitar which was a high ticket item.

To each his own. If you want to play a cheap guitar, that is your prerogative. It took me years to get my collection together. It cost a lot. I am going to play every one of them with great pride. I will not look down on you for playing what you want. I expect the same from you. I will not play cheap guitars.

nice heart to heart about guitars. i'm a fan of the cheapies as well

My favorite guitar was a Mako. Found at a Good Will in 1989.Double Humbuckers, sick shape. Loved playing it until the day someone absconded if from me. Never seen a Mako since.

I love my harley benton single cut guitars (sc 550 + sc custom). It is all about the neck for me here, but they sound great too (for me)

The guitar I play most is my Squier Affinity Telecaster. Bought it B-stock for $160. Have a Fender and a MIJ Ibanez, but this is the one is what I usually grab for.

One of the best guitarists I've ever heard played a squire with some upgraded pups. Anyone that gets caught up on thinking gear makes up for chops should look up Brian Mays story on how he made his guitar out of furniture and motorbike parts. Story has it he did fine with that guitar,

I buy "cheap" guitars simply because you can always upgrade the main determining parts easily nowadays. Pickups, tuners etc are in such vast array of options is why I buy them.

I have a fender Kurt Cobain jaguar, a fender USA Jim root Strat, a Mexican Strat and a squire bullet tele. The Kurt Cobain jag and Jim root Strat are both 1k plus guitars and yet I play the £140 squire bullet tele more than any of those other guitar. I did switch out the pickups but still it's all stock apart from that and I love it.