To the Guitar People

Yea thats another thing, the frets are all uneven, i have it in standard EADGBE tuning and it buzzes still, but i can bear with it until i save up enough.

That's called fret buzz can be from a few different things.
Your neck, bad tuning, or your bridge.
Often you can just adjust your neck and it will fix it all.
 
It was adjusted many times by who though?

don't assume that just because you took it to a shop that they knew what they were doing. (but also don't assume that they didn't).

perhaps it wasn't adjusted enough?

is the neck definitely bowed? have you confirmed this either with a straight edge or using the hold a string down at a fret method?

Perhaps the buzzing is caused by incorrect saddle or nut adjustment?

If the neck is seriously that bad, why did you buy the guitar with a twisted up neck?!
have you thought about replacing the neck with one from ebay or similar that you could pick up for just a few dollars?
 
It's very likely that the frets are quite literally uneven. This is a common thing with cheap guitars, and Starcaster/Squier instruments aren't exactly known for their good fretwork. It's not until you hit the Vintage Modified and Classic Vibe lines that you see really well-made guitars. The Squier Standard series is usually decent but they need better QC.

Honestly, SX is the only company I've ever seen that actually makes good guitars for under $200. My fretless P-bass is was $120 shipped ans plays like a dream.
 
To Clarify....Strats are NOT Trash guitar's, they are a quality guitar, its just a matter what your trying to play on it, Holysky, if your playing Korn....you won't like the Strat. Squire...is a Begginer's guitar and should be quickly upgraded once you realize that guitar is a thing for you.
 
To Clarify....Strats are NOT Trash guitar's, they are a quality guitar, its just a matter what your trying to play on it, Holysky, if your playing Korn....you won't like the Strat. Squire...is a Begginer's guitar and should be quickly upgraded once you realize that guitar is a thing for you.

That's a Starcaster, not a Squier, and yes, that is a crappy guitar. The only thing it shares with a real Fender Strat is the image...nothing else. ALL of the parts are lower quality.

Also, Squier as a brand does focus more on beginner/cheap guitars, but that certainly isn't all they make. The Vintage Modified and Classic Vibe models are nearly the same as the MIM Fender models in quality.

Further, you can play anything on any guitar. There's no stopping someone from playing Korn on a strat and it sounding good. The biggest part of your tone is you amp, anyway. Case in point- Jim Root of Slipknot uses primarily Telecasters, and occasionally a Strat. Normally you'd expect a pointy Jackson or Ibanez for a band like that, but it's all image. If the thing sounds good, there's no reason not to use it.
 
thanks Mutant...lol..just realized yall have been talking about STARCASTER....not STRATOCASTER....semi-dylexic moment....my bad..

deleted long rant about Jim Root, quick summary, Jim Root's biggest sponser is currently Fender, he does play Jackson's and other brands as well, also Mutant you may want to read up about Jim Root's custom Fenders with EMG pups in it, that is NOT a stardard pup set up on Fenders. the biggest thing to keep in mind is the combination of pups, and amp.
 
The biggest part of your tone is you amp,
it's not.
it's pick ups.
you're never going to get a Gibson sound from a fender, you're never going to get a fender sound from a Gibson.

as for cheap guitars being trash...
well, yes, and yet no.

the pick ups, you can't help, if you've bought a cheap guitar and you want it to sound expensive you're probably going to want to replace them.

I don't know why they use such crappy pups in cheap guitars, there is pretty much zero difference in manufacturing costs between good and crap pups, so I guess it's almost like they put them in just to sabotage the guitar!

with regards the evenness of the frets, and everything else. if you buy a cheap guitar then you can't expect miracles, and if you wanted to save money at the point of sale then you're going to be spending your own time setting up your guitar. (rather than paying someone else to do it).

setting up your guitar is not just putting strings on it.

it's going to be flatting and profiling the frets.
it's going to be profiling the nut
it's going to be setting the neck
it's going to be adjusting the pick up height
it's going to be adjusting the individual saddle heights.
it's going to be adjusting the individual saddle positions, (setting intonation).

then, you might have a decent guitar, for a bit.

(I say for a bit, because over time some things will drift, the neck will go out of alignment, and need to have the truss rod adjusted, the intonation will go out, the action will go out, the frets will wear and need to be flatted and dressed). -but this is true even if you buy a thousand dollar (or more guitar)

I can understand that you're feeling pretty peeved with the guitar, even cheap guitars cost money, and you probably feel a bit like you wasted that money...
but to be honest there are plenty of articles on line about how to set up a guitar. (plenty of written instructions, plenty of videos on you tube).
as I said before, you've got a poorly set up guitar,
you're planning to replace that poorly made guitar,

aside from you time, what have you got to loose by having a go at trying to make it a better guitar?
 
root said:
it's not.
it's pick ups.
you're never going to get a Gibson sound from a fender, you're never going to get a fender sound from a Gibson.

^No, it isn't. You will achieve a MUCH bigger variation in tone by changing your amp than you will by changing your guitar. A Strat on a Fender Twin is going to sound more like a Les Paul on the Twin than another Strat on a Peavey 5150.


And actually, it's usually not the pickups that make a guitar sound bad...it's the pots. And even then, there's not a huge difference. Most people could not tell the difference between TS's guitar and a real Strat. The correlation between price and tone is very, very poor. What you pay for with a more expensive instrument is generally 1-build quality, 2-place of manufacture, and 3-the sticker on the headstock.

Now that's not to say there aren't some models with crappy pups...microphonic pickups, or those made with really inferior parts, can sound pretty bad. SC/Squier is usually pretty good about it though.
 
Mutant your right about getting the bigger variation out of the amp....but the pups are the base building block, trash pups thru a Great amp still sounds like trash, while Good pups thru a trash amp "can" sound "acceptable". After you get the solid baseline of good pups then the amp kicks in and thats were you get to REALLY dial in your tone.
 
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