Fender Squier Bullet / Single Humbucker Reviews 4

Hadn't played electric in 20 plus years but kept driving by Guitar Center and stopped in one day to look around. This solid black, simple guitar with only one knob and just one pickup down by the bridge appealed to me and it was only $99. So I decided to take it home and give it a try to see if I wanted to play electric guitar again. I picked up a Crate GX-15 to play it through and went home to drive my room mate nuts.

The single humbucker sounds great and the neck feels better than I can believe a hundred dollar guitar could. I've been learning to play lead after being a rhythm player forever. Since buying this guitar I've bought a Stagemaster, a Telecaster, an Epiphone SG G-400 and Les Paul Standard Plus and finally a Gibson Studio model Les Paul since buying the little Bullet. I had lent the Bullet to a buddy who is just learning to play and only got it back yesterday. I restrung it with Dean Markley 10-46's and am again amazed at the value for the dollar in this little guitar. The sound is absolutely too good for a beginner's guitar and it feels like a much more expensive instrument.

The body is too light and it's not routed out for either the aftermarket three pickup setups or for a tremolo. I wanted to make it into a convertible I could switch back and forth between the single humbucker and three single coils but don't want to go digging in the beautiful little body and risk messing it up. And I'd like to put a Floyd Rose blacked out double locking tremolo on it too but again no routing. That's looking pretty hard for something to criticize but the light body is the only valid criticism. It just feels too light on a strap but I'll probably appreciate it some night when I have to play and my back is too sore to hold up a Les Paul all night.

It's a Fender. It may be the cheapest model in the line. But it's beautiful and solid. The downside is that it was built in Indonesia with power tools and the screws are obviously powered in unevenly and they were in too big a hurry putting the neck on and made a couple of cracks in the body but they're small and don't appear to be getting any worse. The neck is well made and the electronics are flawless. I had to do a setup on it to correct the random intonation from the factory. But after that it sounds amazingly good.

Bottom line ? It's a dirt cheap Tom DeLonge Stratocaster. No wonder he wanted his made this way. It's a fun little guitar at a bargain basement price that has a lot of potential with no unnecessary complications and I'd recommend it to anyone who is just starting to play electric guitar or who just wants to try out humbucker sound.

Irish rated this unit 4 on 2003-01-10.

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