High-Flying Mike Rutherford Loves Rock-Bottom Squier Bullet Stratocasters

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“His favorite one is an unusual color; it’s a limited-edition finish called Sonic Grey,” Prior tells us. “Squier Bullet Strats in this finish were imported into South Africa from Indonesia. Mike bought the guitar in a shop in Cape Town because he forgot to take his black Clapton Strat with him on a visit. He actually bought two (the other Bullet Strat is Arctic White.)

“Sitting at home in Cape Town plugged into his Blackstar 3-watt amp, Mike just fell in love with it playing along to his laptop and relearning all the Genesis songs. That was him for almost all of the first lockdown because he wasn’t allowed out of Cape Town. He was stuck there. But he came back saying how much he loved this guitar.”

“It’s super lightweight; it feels like balsawood,” highlights Prior. “But I have changed the bridge/saddles and put Gotoh tuners on just to make it more reliable for the tour. Mike loves the sound of the pickups, although on a couple of these guitars I have put Fender Noiseless bridge pickups in, just in case we get any interaction with the stage's enormous 70 feet LCD screen.”

“If you want to put Gotoh tuners on you’ve got to enlarge the peghead holes,” advises Prior. “I also recut the nut and dressed the frets. I would maybe recommend upgrading the electronics to Switchcraft and CTS too. It’s about fine-tuning the guitar really.

“Mike has got so many other wonderful Strats, but he also loves using these Indonesian-made Squier Bullet Stratocasters. He can’t put the Sonic Grey one down. It’s the first guitar he wants to play every day and he uses it for some big songs in the Genesis set including “No Son of Mine” and “Mama.”

“I asked him if he’d like me to take the Squier decal off the headstock but he said he wanted it stay. Fender are probably over the moon about that!”

guidothepimmp

Awesome endorsement for how far the perceived quality gap has come.

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guidothepimmp Wonder if he ordered them off takealot/raru or actually went into Bothners/Toms.

Very cool that he had a load of fun on a bullet strat into a blackstar 3w - even cooler that all his tech did was tuners & a setup! Would have expected pots & switch to be changed...but not even that.

I'm really wondering what kinda secret sauce fender puts into their ceramic single coils, they somehow - even the cheapest ones - have some stratiness to them.

Bluetone

I won a Squier Affinity Strat many years ago, and used it for some gigs, but when stage volumes were high the pickups would squeal. Otherwise, it was a pretty good guitar. I'm quite surprised to hear Mike have such a good experience with the Bullet Strat, because I'm trying to sell one for my cousin's son and - in comparison with the Standard Squier Strats I've tried, which were great value - it's not a guitar I'd consider gig-worthy/gig-reliable. Maybe some of those same upgrades could get it there... Or maybe Mike found a particularly good one.

Yeti

From what I've heard there is quite a lot of variations in quality in those bullets. He might have gone through a few and picked out a good one.

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I hav't played a genuine Bullet Strat that didn't feel like a beginner's guitar (it's the neck I reckon), but \impressed that the neck pup almost always sounds decent. **There's some sleeper MIA/MIJ/MIK builds from the 90's) that don't qualify as entry level (today anyways).

There is a lot of variation - sometimes the pots feel a bit wobbly, nut might be poorly cut, tuners are almost guaranteed to be a bit sloppy - when the Affinity series is that much less variable, it's almost a waste of time to go through the contemporary Bullet Strat to find a goodie?

My mate has a Squire Affinity Telecaster, top loading bridge - I expected it to be a bit crap. It isn't! Really spanky tone, really easy (and fun) to play, even the paint job is decent...the bonus is that is was cheap! Yeah a USA Tele is better in almost every way, but in a recording, I'm doubt you'd tell them apart in a busier mix.

Something I've done more than once is that swop bullet strat pups into a HSS style ibby Gio - keep the bridge mudbucker for those slayer moments (heh, when the metal zone calls, one must answer) and lean on the Bullet's SC's for more usable cleaner tones - works for me!.

nick_D01

hey guys

its interesting to hear/read everyone weigh in on this story that appeared. for my 2 cents, down the years I have also developed the opinion of a backward step in quality from the 'standard' Squier range down to the 'Bullet' / 'Affinity'. much less to the Mexican line, and then to the US. I wud +1 with Meron tho that pickups on these entry level units r actually alright. Really for the cash outlay. I do think the point of things being variable tho is valid. at the extreme bang-for-a-buck economics it is almost impossible to maintain some kind of 'A' grade standard.