Squier '51 by Fender
The Squier '51 was an electric guitar made by Squier, a subsidiary of Fender. The '51 is notable for being one of the few original designs made by Squier, which normally manufactures less expensive authorized copies of Fender's popular guitars and bass guitars.
The '51 combines aspects of several of Fender's best-known instruments. The body and neck pickup resemble that of the Fender Stratocaster, while the single-ply pickguard and the control plate is borrowed from the original incarnation of the Fender Precision Bass. Finally, the neck and headstock design are reminiscent of a Fender Telecaster.
The '51 uses a humbucker in the bridge position and a Stratocaster-style single-coil pickup in the neck position. The bridge of the '51 is slightly narrower than most US-made Fender guitars in order to line up better with the polepieces of the humbucker, which are designed for the narrower string spacing of Gibson-style guitars. The bridge pickup has a coil split, activated by pulling out on the volume control knob, to switch between single-coil and humbucker configuration. The second control knob, which normally would operate as a tone control on a Telecaster or early Precision Bass, is a three-position pickup selector switch for choosing between the neck alone, combined neck/humbucker, or humbucker alone. It has a six-saddle hardtail top-loading bridge.
The guitar features a basswood body, with a maple neck and fretboard. The '51 is offered in three colors: 2-Tone Sunburst, Black, and Vintage Blonde (a cream-yellow). The pickguard is white on the sunburst and black models. Although all Squier promotional pictures depict the Vintage Blonde model with a black pickguard, they have been manufactured with both black and white pickguards. [citation needed]White pickguards were standard from the beginning of production until October 2004, during which the color was switched to black until the end of production in January 2007. It has been rumored that the white pickguard was dropped because many seemed to be prone to warping. Because of the much smaller production and relative rarity of the blonde body/white pickguard '51, these have become the most sought-after and highly valued '51s according to many fans.
