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I have an interesting tool on this website, known as SiteMeter.

Essentially, SiteMeter relieves me of the need to check my logs every day. I can check SiteMeter and see who's been hitting my site here, what they were looking for, what kind of OS their machine is running, and a few other things of no conseqence. Wish I'd had it on here a lot earlier.

It's sometimes useful to see what people who hit the site were looking for, because it's not always "Bill Rushing". Thank goodness for that, because a website just devoted to me and my daily routine would put everyone to sleep faster than a fistful of sleeping pills washed down with a bottle of rum. No, every now and then, someone comes across my site in the process of trying to get an answer to a good question.

This happened a couple of weeks ago. Some poor soul, using Ask.com (Who uses Ask for anything?) was looking for an answer to a really good question, namely:

What is the difference between a Squier and Fender?

That's a damn good question, and it's not that easy to answer, as you need to qualify the question...which Squier? Which Fender? For example, there's far more of a difference between a standard Fender Stratocaster and an Fender Eric Johnson model Stratocaster than there is between a standard Squier Stratocaster and a Fender 70's reissue Strat. 

An better question to ask would be: how does Guitar A compare to Guitar B? This is really the only way to go. Comparing guitar brands is not terribly helpful and can lead one to some grossly erroneous conclusions (namely, that Fenders are better than Squiers - not always true).

For instance, let's say our hypothetical guitar shopper is looking for a Jazz Bass. If she blindly assumes that Fenders are better than Squiers, she'll go out and buy herself a Fender Standard Jazz Bass.

And she'll have wasted two hundred plus bucks.

Let's compare!

Squier Jazz Bass ($229):

Three piece body
Urethane lacquer
Slab maple neck, flat finish
Slab rosewood fretboard, plastic dot inlays
Korean electronics
Chinese made hardware (tuners, bridge, etc)
Made in Indonesia

vs.

Fender Jazz Bass Standard ($499):

Three piece body
Urethane lacquer
Slab maple neck, flat finish
Slab rosewood fretboard, plastic dot inlays
Korean electronics
Chinese made hardware (tuners, bridge, etc)
Made in Mexico

There are two utterly unimportant differences:

1. The Fender says "Fender" on the headstock. The Squier says "Squier".
2. Country of origin.

That's all. I own the Squier, it is at least as good as it's Mexican-built counterpart.

Now, let's compare that same Standard Fender Jazz bass to the American Fender Jazz bass:

Fender Jazz Bass ($499):

Three piece alder body
Urethane lacquer
Slab maple neck, flat finish
Slab rosewood fretboard, plastic dot inlays
Korean electronics
Chinese made hardware (tuners, bridge, etc)
Made in Mexico

vs.

American Fender Jazz Bass ($1089):

One piece ash or alder body
Nitrocellulose lacquer
Slab maple neck, gloss finish
Slab rosewood fretboard, abalone dot inlays
American-made electronics
Japanese made hardware (tuners, bridge, etc)
Made in America

Quite a few differences now, eh? There's even more of a difference if you were to pick the two up and play them side-by-side. This is what I mean about ignoring the brand on the headstock; it just doesn't do you any good in making a decision about a particular instrument. In the examples I've just cited, there's far more of a difference between the two Fender-branded instruments than there is between the Fender and Squier instruments I cite.

Now let's compare a couple of used instruments:

1986 Squier Strat
2-piece alder body
Urethane lacquer
Slab maple neck, 4-bolt joint, gloss finish
Slab rosewood fretboard, plastic dot inlays
Japanese-made electronics
Japanese made hardware (tuners, bridge, etc)
Made in Japan
Original sale price: $199.00
Sale price today: about $500

vs.

1978 Fender Stratocaster
2-piece alder body
Urethane lacquer
Slab maple neck, 3-bolt joint, gloss finish
Slab maple fretboard, plastic dot inlays
American-made electronics
American made hardware (tuners, bridge, etc)
Made in America
Original sale price: $849
Sale price today: approx $1200-1500 

Which one's better? Well, if you like tone, stability, durability or decent looks, you'd have gone with the Japanese Squier guitar; American Strats from that era are uniformly dog-awful pieces of crap. Badly wound, noisy pickups, necks that wobble copiously in their sockets, poor paint jobs (especially the black, which turned a light blue shade after a few years) and rotten action (lots of neck warpage) characterize the American instruments from that sorry era.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but were I in the market for an old Strat, I would be looking for a VERY narrow range of manufacture; ideally 1961 or 1962, if I could afford it.  I sure can't. I'd consider ones somewhat older, 1958-1960, if (a very big if) they were playable. Most of them aren't. The 1961 and 1962 model years are really the only ones that have reasonably profiled necks, nice woods, and decent workmanship. 

Guitars are all different, every one of them. Knowing how much they cost, the name on the peghead, what wood is used in them, how they're made, and what nation they were made in are all important in helping you determine what you want, but you need to really sit down and play guitars to find the right one.

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