As an old geezer (71) who in high school could only afford a single pickup Kay Speed Demon (which are going for $600-$800 dollars now, dammit) while all the more well off guys had Fender Mustangs, I still have a yearning for a Mustang down in my jealous soul. I still have a memory of visiting with another high schooler and lying on his bed was a Dakota Red Mustang with a white pearloid pickguard next to a copy of Cream's "Disraeli Gears". I still have that image in my old head. Perhaps my time has finally come.

Commenting as I watch FYI... Colin's enthusiasm unwrapping alone is so genuine. If you're like me and try to guess what a gift is, straightaway the size of the box and weight would get the excitement going! Hands down, one of the most relatable staged unwrappings ever. Love it

I love this guy. He’s very thorough. He’s comfortable and enjoyable to watch. I always learn a lot as a viewer. Honestly, this is one of the best guitar-focused channels on KZfaq. Hey Colin… if you read this, I’d love to see comparison video of Jazzmasters at various price points. And for kicks if you want to throw in a Jaguar just to tell us what you think of that, as it’s so closely related to the Jazzmaster. Also, I’d love to see a video about the Telecaster Deluxe and whether it is possible to get it to sound close to a Les Paul. It seems like a great lightweight option to a Les Paul. I wonder if a better comparison with the Tele Deluxe is an SG? Ah well… always look forward to your videos. Have a great weekend!

The takeaway here for me is that a " Cheap" guitar through an " expensive " tube amp can sound absolutely killer of the players got some skills.

Glancing over my shoulder at the Bullet Mustang I bought for my daughter just over a year ago, I absolutely concur with Colin’s assessment, great guitars especially for slightly smaller hands and arms! She hasn’t yet fully caught the bug but the guitar will wait patiently for the day when music moves her to it.

Not just a toy, a guitar as a gift is potentially a friend for life,maybe the beginning of a love story! Absolutely nothing to lose getting one for your kid, or anyone who ever dreamt of playing guitar

These are really more Duo-Sonics than Mustangs, but still cool I wouldn’t complain if I received one as a gift. I do have a Mustang that has all the original stuff- vibrato, slider switches for in & out of phase, and I love it A great guitar related gift for me is a giftcard, but I don’t believe anybody owes me a Christmas gift,so if someone gets me one, I am grateful, no matter what it is

The Squire Mustang is one my favorite guitars! I upgraded mine with P90s and it is a sheer joy to play.

You know, I have a feeling that he is a super cool guy to hang around with. I love his playing style and he is so informative. Anyone could learn from him. I already have. Thanks brother, and Happy Christmas.

I recently bought one of these to keep at my mom's house. Something to play when I'm staying for visits. I'll be seeing it at Christmas.

This is so funny, I ordered one that is supposed to arrive today and I was thinking that Friday is the "Guitaristas day" and that would be cool if Colin would do a review of the Sonic Mustang. Can't wait to receive mine.

Super guitar for the TV room and more. In my experience, it's once in a third blue moon that tuners cause any tuning stability issues. Cheap ones might not hone into the spot quite so easily, but I have made them work well enough for the fun stuff. Great review:)

Great! I got one of these a few months ago and after a few mods can't believe how good they are. I also picked up one of the Bullet Mustangs earlier this week and there are a few differences, the neck is totally different on this, 9.5 radius and a lot thicker than the Bullet. I honestly think these Sonics are the better guitar though.

A great little guitar for the money perfect for any player that likes the classic Fender bolt on design guitars, those ceramic magnet pickups sound great. I wonder if Epiphone will take notice and once again make some good bargain basement guitars, at the moment they seem to be pricing themselves out of that market.

I bought a Bullet Mustang several years ago when they were selling for under $150 to mod into a Duo-Sonic II, Olympic white with added full size pots, alnico single coils, and tortoise pickguard. Rounded the fretboard edges and stained the neck vintage amber. My fav guitar. Thin like an SG. My friend who has a collection of high end guitars liked it so much I made him a copy. It's a fun easy guitar to play. Guitar Center has a special color for the Sonic Mustang - yellow with pao ferro board- for $159,99. I might be tempted just because it's so cheap and fun, Great video,

Got this exact model for my 10 year old daughter to learn on earlier this year. She loves it and I have been really impressed with how it plays and sounds. Absolutely nothing wrong with it, great little guitar.

Just a thought here.... I have arthritis in shoulders, left arm and hands. This put a near stop to playing so I grabbed a Mustang, albeit a Fender one but I would certainly use a Squier Sonic, about a year ago. Light body, shorter scale and, believe it or not, I had to put 8s on as I no longer had the strength to bend with 9+ without a lot of pain. Result was I managed a gig in a local town where beer flowed and good evening was had. Nobody cares too much about my gear,and certainly not what strings I was using, maybe except me! So if anyone out there has a similar condition then consider one of these and try it. It may mean you can continue to play. Anyways, just a thought there. Great vid there Colin, many thanks.

Lovely video - your comment about how much better (and cheaper) entry-level guitars are nowadays is so true (remembering the dreadful, Jedson, Shaftesbury and the likes back in the day!)

If I got that I would be over the moon even if having more expensive guitars. Great price and you got to love the Mustang.

Colin is like the cool guy who lives round the corner that you can pop round and have a jam with then have a pint in the pub and talk about guitars all evening..... what joy that would be.........

Cool as 10! My first guitar was a Zenta Telecaster, over 45 years ago. I loved it, however when you look at what’s available today for new guitarists, it’s amazing. Great video as always Colin and loved it when you were laughing at the wonky screws 😂 have a great weekend mate! 🤘💜

I bloody love this channel. Sounds ace and presented in fantastic fashion and quality. Plus a little man who sold the world thrown in for good measure.

Just goes to show how much reasonably priced guitars are much better now than years ago great video as always Colin

That was fun. A cool little guitar for the cost of a sit-down dinner for two. It ain't perfect, but would you expect? Colin says "I wish I'd had one like this when I started out" and I say damn right. I'm diggin' the whole beer-piss-and-smoke club vibe distilled down from a hundred black-painted basement dives; Screw the pots - just dime it out and rock on.

Once again - amazing content. Matches my taste exactly. My first guitar was a 1964 Duo Sonic II with the longer scale length. Got it used for $125 in 1976, or $668 in today’s money. You’re right about the value of today’s inexpensive guitars. One feature on the original that I wish for on the new version is the two three way pickup selectors. One selector for each pickup. Position one is on, two is off and three is on with the opposite phase. The number of possible settings is 9 but seems endless. I love the two “out of phase” combinations. Quack and double quack.

What a great entry level guitar :) I love Squires :) It would be really cool if you could review one of the new re-issue Rapier guitars designed by Alan Entwistle of Burns fame. They have some very interesting pickups and electronics.

This is like kryptonite to me. I don't need any more guitars but could use a decent Marshall tube amp if anything but it's shiny objects like this that I can't resist sometimes. Just bought what I believe to be one of the last Andertons purple Squier Classic Vibe Telecasters. Went on sale at a great discount for the first time I ever saw so I bought it. Now they are all sold out. 😇🤗😘🤓

the "butterknife of joy" - love it!

I love your honesty and I swear I will give your channel something back for all your help that I get from it. I swear this is the last comment.

I'll be selling off a lot of guitars in the coming year, including some expensive pieces that I thought I would never get rid of, but this year I purchased a Fender Player Duo Sonic, and I absolutely LOVE it! For that little money, this Squier is going to join it on the wall of fame! MERRY CHRISTMAS, COLIN!

The Mustang would have to be Fender's simplest model. I'd say Telecaster, but '50-'67 models did have a control layout that would confuse today's player. I'm a bit dubious about 9s on a 24" scale length though for tuning stability. At least it's a hardtail which helps in that department. The readings on the pickups made me think it would be a fire breather, but it just sounds normal, a nice tone overall as well. Lastly, during the video, I checked the Fender website (to see what colours they were available in as that can change from region to region) and it looks like Australia still has the Bullet line and no Sonic line, so what I can see is just a Sonic Grey HH Bullet Mustang. I wonder why they've got that discrepancy

If the off-kilter screws really bother you, it's a simple matter to fill the holes with bits of toothpick and wood glue and re-drill the holes. Give that you're not changing the location of the holes very much, it's _very_ difficult to see what has changed, even with the pick guard off the guitar. The only difference is the screws are straight. Fun video.

Hi Colin. You could try using a hinge drill bit to redrill and centre the hole. Very easy job. Always look forward to Fridays reviews. Keep it up.

Lousy pots aside, I’ve got to say that I’m REALLY impressed by the tones. I was expecting very little from this, but I really thought it sounded great. Nice demo!

Great little guitar there! Tuning was spot on, no issues after your tinkering. The real shocker though, was where in the flippin' heck did you get such immense wrapping paper??! 😱

Another great episode. Not a big Mustang fan. But that Squire Stratosonic that you did a few weeks back is one hell of a guitar. I love it!

I first feel in love with the mustang when I was 12 in 1990 and I saw this little underground band from Seattle in a video. They’re playing a memorable little ditty that had a riff that sounded like “Louie Louie”. I can’t recall the name. 😂. Cheers Colin.

Hiya Colin! You can glue a cocktail stick in the wonky screw holes, cut them flush and redrill.

What a great guitar for so little money, looks and sounds terrific 👍🎸😄

Colin, you can sell anything with your energy alone. But that IS a pretty cool little axe.

nice vid mt.

Very good cheap guitars, maybe not just for complete beginners. I have several Squier guitars and the quality usually exceeds the price. In my subjective opinion, especially those made in Indonesia. Hello and thank you for the nice video. Pavel CZ

Great video , i bought my nephew this exact same guitar for Christmas . He is 10 & the shorter scale will help him & red is his favourite football team colours , i don`t mind if it needs the pots replacing as he will learn modding & how to set up his new guitar , Squier are great guitars for the money .

The pickups surprised me. They sounded pretty good played clean, which is rare to find in cheap pickups. With the issues you did have, it sounds like this is actually a good guitar to learn how to do setups and mods like replacing the pots (or pop a P-90 in the bridge position). All around, not a bad guitar to start with or to have around, no matter what your playing level is.

Just vibing with that Squire. You can tell he’s really feeling it at the “let’s play something jam.” Really nice chord progressions with some tasty runs.

I’m on a quest to watch all of your videos through Christmas, I’ve seen them all already. I find them rather calming. Thank you and have a Merry Christmas!

Always entertaining - Love these affordable guitar vids. I have a Squier bullet & new sonic Mustang Fantastic value for the money as is or a mod platform.

Genuinely wish I didn't have all my guitar needs covered, so I could warrant a Squier collection.

I pick up a mustang every time I go to the guitar shop they have two. One plays really good and the other not so much. I have so far fought the urge to bring it home for now. They are fun because they are simple. Great video. Cheers

The green one.. Supercool!

Love the look of these. Recently sold my 8 pound diy ash body mustang. Looks like great modding platforms for that money. So better fretwork than that Bonnamassa SG. Hat off to Squier for that.

The perfect guitar for mucking about. Mod it, let house guests or the kids play it. I wish I'd gotten one like that back in the 60's. Great review and playing, as always. Cheers..

Thanks Colin for writing. I suppose what I was suggesting is, "What would be a good first amp for a good first guitar?" My number one pick would have been the Vox-Pathfinder, 20 watts, OD, tremolo, reverb, ext spk out, line out. I paid $70usd fifteen years ago. Most versatile, expressive amp, friends ask me what is that amp? I say, can't you read, it's a Vox. Thanks again, prosperity, peace and rock on.

That little guitar sounds absolutely gorgeous. I really wish you’d compare its sound to the ‘65. My first proper guitar was a ‘70 Mustang (orange with the racing stripes). Lovely guitar, but I always thought the pickups were rather weak. I suspect the Sonic might put it to shame plugged straight into an amp. Someday I’ll get another one of those, or a Duo-Sonic in desert sand. 😍 Also, I like the butter knife. I always wonder about the guys that feel the need to pull out a foot-long hunting knife when they’re doing an unboxing video. Weird.

You might be saving me money on my daughters Christmas present this year as am under pressure to get her a new one if this is as good as it looks.

Very cool! Perfect first electric, doest't need to be expensive. Christmas guitar is just right when you don't need a $2500 fancy type(the kind most of us want). especially as a gift for someone. Sonic Mustang looks great and sounds great too. Thanks Col!

Nice choice for Christmas👍I bought my son an excellent bullet Mustang a few years ago. I treated myself to this brilliant one pickup guitar £249.00 from GAK last week in the sale. Squier FSR Classic Vibe '60s Custom Esquire 3-Colour 👍

Being a Mustang/Sonic/Bronco whatever, I sort of like that the screws are wonky and that the volume pot is crap. Obv it just wouldn't do on a top end guitar, but this is a garage band beater that is made for abuse and only to be set to 10. It's almost as if it was made that way on purpose and I think that modifying it or trying to upgrade it would be entirely missing the point and would ruin the vibe. I so wish I could justify buying one. I'd love to see this in the hands of a teenager forming a first band, gigging for the first time and living those teenage years that we did ourselves. Thank you for finding this guitar out there and bringing us the word. I now want to find some struggling kid and anonymously hand this to them. Love it. Thanks.

Bowie instead of Neil Young(ish), a good choice

I love my bullet mustang; it has the H H humbuckers instead of single coils, but these are cool fun guitars indeed cheeeers!!!! Mustang baby!!! 🎸

I still remember building my first electric guitar (there was no money around so ..) when I was around 11 ...I remember I went to buy the strings ...all the same gauge ! ..I had no idea they had to be different and Internet was not around yet :-). Well, today I've got some 29 guitars (PRS, Fender, EVH, Music Man, Ibanez, Kramer, LTD, and others) so it must have been a long life love considering thatI'm now 71 :-). I wish many others could do the same ....too good for a musician soul....so give it a chance.

Fun video! Cool guitar. These are $199 USD in the States, however, MF has the Canary Yellow one on sale for $159. Also, today (12/4/2023) the have the Bullet HH Surf Green model for $129. Want to guess what I did today? I've seen some product reviews of this model on the MF site that suggest using 11 gauge strings on these. What do y'all think about that?

He's not lying, sounds good and quite versatile, scale length/ body shape/ weight are extremely comfy and playable (unless you're a giant), looks cool to anyone with any genre preference besides extreme metalheads, design makes it resilient and durable, is easy to make basic setup adjustments to so you can learn/ practice that essential skill in an approachable way, and even a cork-sniffing advanced guitarist would love one as a fun modding platform to upgrade and create something uniquely theirs. Hard to think of a safer (affordable) guitar to gift an aspiring/existing guitarist.

Oh! Just saw the unwrapping! She's a beauty! Sounds nice. Could be fun to goof with!

Colin you lucky sod, I got socks and undies. Great films mate, playing catch up on all the previous films. Cheers.

Another great video amigo.. 👏🏽 it’s nice to see affordable guitars getting some love nowadays when everything cost an arm and a leg and a kidney. I’m running out of parts to hock. Looks like it’s a stripping career to fund my habits. (It’s going to be a rough go I tell ya, starving artist sort of thing lol) Merry Christmas cheers!

A nice guitar WITH an instruction video of the set-up is a nice touch! Even my squire Strat (About $200) sounds great after a set-up my friend did. I did this to all my other instruments after he showed me how to do it and what to look for. Great idea to include the video set-up!

Wow Squier has come a long way you made it sound really great. ''Leave it on 10'' you should get that trademarked. I like it.

So good i bought 3 of the Bullet FSRs with the stripes that you brought out to show, the daphne blue, graffiti yellow and a sherwood green. Modded to SS, HS, P90P90. they are now every bit (99% anyway) as good as my top tiers. The Bullet FSRs have a 12" radius and the contoured body so i prefer them over the Sonics but this red is a beauty for sure! I am a little tempted though to get 2 of these sonics and mash the, pink body with the laurel fretboard neck from another.

Bought the HB version a few months ago, haven't put it down since, wonderful sound. Advanced players may prefer 11s on it, the truss rod will need some tweaking as the neck settles in. Destined to be a classic if the necks hold up long term.

IT is a kewl looking guitar. MF has them for $200 in 2 Color Sunburst or Torina Red. I'd love to see you do some PRS SE's sometime on your channel. Merry Christmas!

Colin For the money and sound I was impressed with this guitar and it's price range. Nice review and playing!😊

That is funny,because i gifted myself with the tobacco burst version Yesterday ! Happy Christmas ! I love the guitar.

I've been eyeballing the Sonic Bronco basses... I've played guitar all my life but never owned my own bass and they look great too.

Totally agree: There's anyone who wouldn't appreciate a Squier Mustang. Not even the Snobonamassas out there!

I'd just bought a Bullet Mustang HH pretty cheaply at the pawn shop when I saw your show for the first time over a couple years ago and subscribed, it was the first "Cool Wall" episode. My first Mustang was a surf green one from Indonesia and its fit and finish were nearly perfect, the way you'd like from a new Fender hopefully. Best paint job of any guitar I've ever owned. It was such a good guitar that I bought another 'used' one for much cheaper last year in metallic blue, also made in Indonesia. Bought it for spare parts actually or possibly as a modder but it was so good I haven't messed with it except to clean it and set it up and keep it as a player that I can take out of the house or hand to a friend to play without worry. So this year ('23) we go from Bullet to Sonic series and they've dropped the wonderful comfort contours on the body and don't have one extra minute, literally, to pilot drill the screwholes and run them in straight. Maybe that's a China vs. Indonesia thing, whatever, but on average Indonesia seems to have better QC on their guitars regardless of brand. If you shop for an older Bullet model I'd say look for one from Indonesia and the overall quality might be better. Still the new series Mustangs sound and play nice and are a great deal. As you say, these are not just beginners' guitars. They're easy and fun to play for anyone and if you like to modify or upgrade guitars the Mustang is a great place to learn to do that without risking a lot of money. I still think that anyone with a guitar 'collection' of any size should get a Mustang just for fun and variety. It may just be the guitar that your kid learns on. A lot better than my first electric, long ago. Cheers from Dallas!

Wonderful man, thanks. Have just ordered a California Blue HH one for my 10 year old daughter. I'm terrified it'll arrive in a mess as I'm not a guitar man myself. Will sign up to the TV channel when it arrives to watch setup vid. Have some 10 gauge Elixir strings to add and don't mind fiddling so hopefully I can get it rocking for her. Ordered some black racing stripes for it too, competition style! Plus a little plugin Fender Micro amp thing to plug her headphones into. Hope she likes it. Half fancy getting lessons myself now. Thanks for your hard work with this channel, the good advice and your general lovely demeanor 🎸🤘

Another wonderful video. I have bought guitars over a $1,000 or 2 and I had to get them setup. Merry Christmas from the States.

Great vid Colin, and a good no-frills guitar. For the price it's a no-brainer, and as you also said... a decent modding platform. Cheers from another Colin!

For a maker as big as squier, they really should have a better range of lefties.

Colin really enjoyed this weeks video but if you are going to recommend a beginners guitar you really should demo it with a small practice amp that would be purchased with the guitar and play it without pedals. Don't take this as a criticism, just an observation. I remember being very disappointed that my first amp didn't sound as i hoped

Hello cow girl in the sand-anista - ish ! A utilitarian axe if I ever did see one. Like it

A fab video Colin on top form with this one pal great work…what a bargain these are .. the man who sold the world a mustang 👍

It sounds good but this why I don't exchange Christmas gifts because I'm not into squire ( the neck is not me ). . In all the years of exchanging gifts, only twice I got something that I needed and liked, so I just rather just hang out together and save money and face. I rather get a Vola guitar ( Japanese) , great quality guitar

As a somewhat advanced player I’d still love to get a playable guitar for Christmas. Regardless of a pricetag, I know I’d build some sentimental value as I played it and likely modded it over time.

I just finished a long and tedious complete rebuild of my trusty old guitar (a partscaster, essentially). I took great care, but I still managed to make one or two screws a bit wonky. So it's perfectly fine if they make one or two wonky screws in a factory where they have 60 seconds to put them all in (likely), as far as I'm concerned. BTW to fix it, you would probably need to drill out the hole, fill it with wood and then drill a new pilot hole for the screw. Squier really is killing it lately. Many people actually seem to prefer them to genuine Fenders these days.

Very well considered suggestion. I expect that if I decide to buy a Fender style guitar the first choice would be a Tele, but I could certainly see enjoying one of those. Thanks for the video.

Wonderfully informative once again Colin,always enjoy your tutorials.

Aloha Colin! I always wanted a Double Sonic

Took me to 14:56 to notice you have a festive tree in the studio!! I've played a couple of MiJ Mustangs. Very nice indeed. I like to say inexpensive rather than cheap if the quality is there. Looks like a great beginner's guitar. Very good modification platform.

I have two Squier Mustangs..love both

Sweet! Will not break the bank, sounds good!

Another great review Colin! I bought the HB Bullet one a year ago and loved it. It needed work too but what a great guitar to learn to play, once set up properly. Those single coil ceramic magnet pickups are wound way HOT, but sound pretty darn good! For a few bucks you could replace pots & cap and leave everything as is and be good to go.

I'd play it

Love the Fender and Squire by Fender line of strat style guitars. I've also been ordering Firefly guitars from Guitars Garden for a few years now. They're one Chinese guitar manufacturer that has been getting better every year. Lots of models and even doing relics now. Just ordered a FFST which is the strat model. Locking tuners, bone nut, stainless steel frets with rounded ends, alnico 5 pickups and a lot of really nice finishes. Also using nice woods and Korean bridges. Really great for $169 USD plus $27 shipping.

Love your playing! I may be ordering this at this price. Great review.

Perhaps next week a more square shaped present to go along with this electric guitar...?😉👍👍 Some say they would spend more on a great sounding amp and an inexpensive guitar, rather than an expensive guitar with an inexpensive amp...? However...Today there are great sounding solid state/analog amps (Boss Katana) that are inexpensive compared to their tube fed brethren 😉👍 There's also headphone options that bypasses an amp altogether, giving those in the household a break while the beginning Guitaristas works everything out...? Lots more choices than in the past for sure😃👍👍 Lots available to make this holiday full of HAPPY HO-HOs...😉👍 Fun stuff indeed Colin...Thanks😎👍👍 😎✌👍❤🖖 Love Brother

I own an older Duo Sonic strat and it is a great guitar that is lots of fun to play

As long as you’re not left handed… Fender are getting worse for the leftys among us .. still great vid Col ❤

Always with the quality content, Colin 👍🎄