|
|
Post by Tony Ravenscroft on Jun 7, 2022 19:38:31 GMT -6
{update -- have found this model referred to as the Bullet Special, "about 2000-2004"}{scroll down for hands-on impressions and for some official specifications}{the first entry was posted to social media to friends/family, so not all gearhead-speak}Okay, so I went a little crazy. My bills are paid, I've zeroed a credit card, I've put away more than my savings goal... ...so I bought three used guitars. Not on my Absolutely Must Have list, but oddities that suit me. First up: a Squier Stratocaster. Wait: this gets odd before better 😁 -- it's a Squier BULLET. 🤨 So, a "budget" sub-brand of a "budget" sub-brand... which, really, is a "budget" sub-brand of the Standard (made-in-Mexico) "budget" sub-brand of USA-made Fender. 😂 Cost me $132, shipped to my door. Oh, but my mind isn't linear. 😉 First, easily 50% of the used self-cloned Strats are black with a white pickguard. This one's a nice color known as "Pelham blue"... and a BLACK pickguard. And instead of the usual three pickups and three knobs, just one of each. But what makes this unusual is what's called a "hardtail" bridge instead of the all-too-common vibrato. Though Fender has made hardtail Strats since before I was born -- back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth -- the design has never caught on, and is associated with very few famous players (like Robert Cray!). More wood, less metal, fewer big holes in the body... in short, I've wanted to TRY one of these for like 40-some years, and am willing to settle for a lower-tier version. Worth it. 
|
|
|
|
Post by Rex on Jun 7, 2022 19:59:11 GMT -6
Nice score. I take it you’re pleased.  I worked on a Bullet a few years back (only one...people rarely take an afflicted Bullet to the shop, for some reason). I was struck by how light it was. Like someone had weight-relieved the poo out of it. Low weight is often the sign of a lively guitar. Not in this case, though.  |
|
|
|
Post by Tony Ravenscroft on Jun 7, 2022 20:55:25 GMT -6
I was struck by how light it was. I admit, I'm a bit curious about that as well. Some inexpensive lightweight guitars -- like my trans-red Arbor -- are pretty lively, and others have all the tonal personality of soggy balsa. I figure there's likely a similar range within Squier's Affinity line, especially early on; naturally the Bullets would follow suit. If I were living anywhere near a proper city, I'd be making notes on this during my habitual haunting of local shops. Minneapolis had at least seven MGRs, a bunch of GCs, and some local big shops, so would have provided plenty of data as the trade-ins circulated through. And, to be fair, I once went to a GC and played two "identical" new Strats. One "sang like angels" and was literally delightful to play, and the other... was okay I suppose.  Price range or factory or source nation don't seem to be significant factors. It's easy to treat factory guitars like they ought to always be the same identical sort of perfect. IME (and more as I get older), I ponder how it's a pretty good trick that so many of these instruments play AT ALL, considering the many variables that must be balanced. |
|
|
|
Post by Tony Ravenscroft on Jun 10, 2022 18:34:04 GMT -6
Here's the back of that Bullet, showing how an authentic Strat looks without the big routed-out center.  |
|
|
|
Post by Tony Ravenscroft on Jun 11, 2022 18:57:23 GMT -6
...aaaand only NOW does it occur to me that "pelham blue" is actually a GIBSON color name -- the Fender version is Lake Placid blue. Hm; now that I look it up, sources seem to say that either way it's a GM color, maybe specifically Cadillac. However, one reason I like it is sentimental: the car my dad owned longest was a '65 Mercury Monterey, and I will swear it was at least awfully darn close to PB/LPB. I dimly recall once seeing a guitar in that blue, but the clearcoat had yellowed, and the result was an amazing rich aqua -- which for some reason is now "cyan."  |
|
|
|
Post by Tony Ravenscroft on Jun 15, 2022 19:12:57 GMT -6
Okay, it arrived. First thought: many loving kudos to Goodwill Southern California!!! OMG: new fullsize box AND clean padded Fender gigbag (albeit with broken zipper) AND triple layer of bubble wrap AND floated in styro peanuts.  All-in cost: $104 even.  Cort Indonesia 2004. official weigh-in: seems to be about 7.2 lbs (though my scale has gone a bit wonky in read-to-read consistency and requires multiple weighings, and This Is Not A Laboratory). For comparison, a hapless nearby 1994 Mexico Strat is 8.4.
Third thought: condition. - HEAD/NECK - Diamond-can tuners, but they feel good. Two trees. Small ferrules. Medium-dark skunk stripe. A little pleasant figuring.
- GENERAL - Overall dust and grime, "talky" (patina) strings, some red-brown rust on pickplate screws and pole pieces and bridge screws, minor nicks and a couple of scratches on face, small shallow nick on rear edge, small nick on headstock edge, missing one pickup spring. A "closet classic" though a slight smell that says "damp basement."
- FRETBOARD - Nut a touch high, a few fret ends have minor sprout, frets could benefit from rounding off BUT the only wear is the first three frets.
- Typical Fender heel-pocket paint cracks, but I had to hold it under a strong light.
- If it weren't for the unbroken gloss, I'd swear someone lightly rolled the fingerboard edges!!
- The playing lanes are strikingly narrow all the way down: low E almost 1/8" from edge, high E maybe 3/32, reminding me of my oddball '95 MIM Precision.
Overall thought: "I've played worse factory-new USA Strats."
Fourthly: tune and twang. Recurring thought: OMG IS THIS... INTERESTING. - It's like a medium-C neck with just a teensy bit taken off either side giving it a vaguely V feel.
- Intonation is frighteningly close to perfect, and the neck curve is almost as good.
- Sustain very good despite half-dead strings.
- I will have to measure the frets, because they seem narrow AND high.
- For being a slab of wood with a couple of holes, a surprising amount of acoustical volume. Like, ALL DOWN the guitar -- mostly from the immediate bridge area, but nothing being sucked down by a trem, so even some at the fretted strings. I could probably play it in front of a microphone.
- When I first saw it, I was curious if the lack of trem would kill tone and/or volume. No problem.
- And while logic says a hardtail Strat should sound pretty much like a hardtail Tele... nope. It's somehow definitely a Strat tone.
Enough excitement for one day -- all in all, something you ought to watch for. Simple, solid, an un-common variant Strat, inexpensive. |
|
|
|
Post by Tony Ravenscroft on Jun 16, 2022 15:34:04 GMT -6
Another deep-blue hardtail has been listed, but with an oddity: Though a Squier Bullet, it has the "Affinity Series" headstock tag. Factory error? Transitional?  |
|
|
|
Post by Tony Ravenscroft on Jul 4, 2022 11:32:18 GMT -6
Some day, someone will probably decide to try collecting these things -- by which I mean obsessively seeking to have one mint example of each slight variant. Here I am, with an interesting example of how that's nigh-impossible. I'll limit myself to the dark-blue s-s-s hardtails, and at that just a few that have appeared recently online at various Goodwill shops. Will add as they crop up.
Standard HT Strat config, Samick, diamond-can tuners, no skunk stripe or truss hole liner. 
For comparison, here's the one I now possess. Cort 2004, diamond cans, skunk stripe. Note the string tree locations.  |
|
|
|
Post by Tony Ravenscroft on Jul 9, 2022 14:47:24 GMT -6
Dragging myself back to the one-pickup Bullet. I found a Reverb.com listing from about three years ago. In maybe Good+ shape, it went out listed $139 + $59. As well, it's a Samick (2004) so no skunk stripe or trussrod port liner, and a black witch-hat knob (mine has a knurly). So basically a slightly lower appeal for me, at more than I paid, so yay for me. As well, Goodwill has recently seen a steady flow of the sss HTs, but only (at most) two hxx when mine was on the block, then nothing since. Though I'm tempted to snag another sss, I'm going to hold off in hopes of another one-knobber -- decent axe AND seeming (for now) closer to rare.  |
|
|
|
Post by Tony Ravenscroft on Jul 9, 2022 15:11:56 GMT -6
Hey, this is interesting: a W'pedia section about the one-pickup Bullet. Hell, they owe me for a couple thousand hours of work, so consider it licensed. Yep, written AND edited by boneheads who know damn little and have less talent at simple research -- typical W'pedia "editors," you could say -- so "mostly OK, not entirely humiliating." At a glance, I really doubt Tony Bacon spent a couple hundred words on this short-lived variant, so it's likely a (WP-typical) cover for guesswork and hearsay; for further example, the "20th Ann" plate is clearly gratutious ANDS unsourced, ditto the "Affinity" decal oddity. As well, can't claim "all made by Cort" when I just on this very site mentioned a Samick, and here's the same ugly wall:  I'm enjoying the beast as-is for the moment, but when I get 'round to new strings I'll report on the pretentious "nothing but plywood" claim -- like, it is definitely meaty, so likely NOT balsa-I-mean-basswood. |
|
|
|
Post by Tony Ravenscroft on Aug 24, 2022 11:43:02 GMT -6
This one is on Reverb, for a mere $100... but local pickup only, alas!! A 2002 in red, Cort Indonesia, striped neck. What's particularly interesting is that the hardware is matte black. Like, ALL the metal, including tuners, neck pate, and string trees. And it's got the "20th Anniversary" stamped neckplate.  |
|
|
|
Post by Tony Ravenscroft on Mar 7, 2024 17:53:59 GMT -6
Someone just sold off a body for $85; I'll include it here to verify the routing.   |
|
Price range or factory or source nation don't seem to be significant factors.
Cort Indonesia 2004.