Monday 26 November 2012

Squier goes Superstrat: the Stagemaster


This Squier Stagemaster is quite an unusual guitar, for it is both a strat and a superstrat: it has a classic Fender Stratocaster body (just a little but thiner though), but all the attributes of the superstrat - no pickguard, H/S/H pickups configuration, Floyd Rose tremelo, reduced electronics, 24-fret neck, contoured heel, neck-through-body construction, and even a reversed headstock...

The Stagemaster was shortly released in the early 2000s and is based on the mid-1980s Fender HM Strat (HM stands for Heavy Metal), a previous attempt at the shredding market of the post-CBS era, poorly received at the time. But it is different enough from the HM to be considered as an original Squier model. And the colour is unique!

Bertram D

Edit: a comment allows me to precise that this model is actually the Stagemaster HSH Deluxe - the regular Stagemaster had a bolt-on neck a just 2 humbuckers. A 7-string version of this guitar was also available. 

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3 comments:

  1. This is the Stagemaster HSH deluxe. It has the set neck as opposed to the standard stagemaster which has a bolt on. I had one of the HH versions in cobalt blue pass through the workshop recently. Mine had enclosed humbuckers of squier origin in them but I don't think they where original. I can confirm it's a very nice guitar. solid as a rock. Bomb proof finish. nice neck perhaps a bit on the chunky side considering it's intended market. Floyd works well and the tuning is stable. I have seen these go for very little money on Ebay UK. and they are uncommon. I'm not a green guitar fan but that is a lovely colour.

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    1. Indeed. I owned a Stagemaster 7-string and it wasn't like the above guitar at all. It had a bolt-on neck (albeit with an upsidedown head) and the body was very slab-like, not nicely contoured like the deluxe. It had two humbuckers, and tone-wise was very muddy. I expect the pickups were designed for those into shredding and low riffage, but for me the sound was quite vile. I soon realised that the 7th string was nothing more than a gimmick and didn't really inspire me to make new and interesting compositions and sold it on to another curious person on eBay.

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  2. I just had the pleasure of picking up one of thees HSH deluxe neck through model v4 recently and I'm dumbfounded how good this guitar really is. I'm real picky when I go in to a Guitar Center or used guitar shop, I have played hundreds of guitars and just not impressed, not this time I'm blown away, this guitar is special, simply one of the best guitars I have ever played. I like to shred Steve Vai, Vh, Paul Gilbert,Vito Bratta,Jimmy Page, I do lots of Warren de Martini and this guitar screams the 80's with huge stain this guitar dose it all really.

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