Well this is a story about my two strats.
First the Washburn.
When I got the Washburn which is really a nice two tone sunburst it was stock except for the bridge humbucker pickup.but someone had kept it up while not playing it much... it was clean and the frets were well polished.someone had taken pride in ownership.
the neck and middle were ceramic and at least to my ears sounded anemic and puny. I had two old alnico Japanese pickups which I installed.I also put #10 EB slinky strings. The guitar came stock with grover tuners.
This strat has the big route and can take any pickup combination.it also has a thin neck like a G&L and really plays quite well once you get used to the small neck.it stays in turn with a good medium low action.the body is supposed to be mahogany.
Next the Squier 2 from India
as some of you know I bought this a few weeks ago off ebay.it was made in 1989 and is completely stock.
The color is almost a vintage white with fine gold metal flake in the paint that has aged well.This guitar is in almost perfect shape and looks like it was played a few hr's and thrown under a bed or set in a closet out of the case.
When it arrived the frets and board were a mess and it took me quite awhile to get it all cleaned up.the strings may not have been changed out in twenty years as the were very rusted but almost unused.
When I fired this strat up it cut out and a light tap with my fingers on the volume told me that a wire was probably just hanging on so I took off the old strings and cleaned the neck and frets and body of all those years of dust and grime. I pulled the pickguard and it of course was very dusty and completely stock with the small 500k pots and funkey switch. The pickups all have a metal base plate{not a magnet} and I think they may be covering up ceramic pickups.I didn't want to pull one apart and damage it so I left them alone.
well next I got out my Iron and went to work resoldering about ninety percent of the wiring, put a drop of wd-40 in each pot and several in the switch,put a new set of EB#9 strings on those strange looking tuners and tuned up..To my pleasure everything worked the way it was supposed to with no cutouts or anything. with a wonderful low action it plays like the wind.
I played it for the next two days not even picking up my LP copy or the Washburn but after awhile curiosity got the best of me and I had to do a side by side shootout and see which was going to be the main strat for now.
what I found really floored me.
remember I put alnico pickups in the Washburn and it had the grover tuners in place so I expected the Washburn to sound much better.
Yes to my surprise the Squier stayed in tune just as well as the Washburn.To my surprise the squier has a bigger fuller and maybe even sweeter sound then the Washburn.every pickup setting is fully a fender sound. it has full range quack in the forth position and nice blues on the neck the middle is good for almost any folk or country while the neck/mid gives the more humbucker flavored sound.the bridge is also strat typical and needs the tone control wiring.
Its a strat's strat and I have had at least thirty expensive fenders. it makes me wonder why I did not pick up a squier many years ago and give them a chance.
Ok the Washburn's sounds.
This guitar sounds big and airy sounding and is close to being thin. remember it was thin and anemic before the pickup change.these are very sweet sounding pickups but its not really a stratty sounding strat.
I think maybe its the washboard route or the wood that gives it a harder edge with those vintage hot pickups. the humbucker sounds fine for its purpose and I had to lower it to match the levels of loudness in the other pickups.I really expected this washburn to steal the show but thats just not the case.
BTW the red washburn is not mine. Mine is sunburst but I don't have a photo of it available.
never met anybody who played a squier deuce and wasnt floored by the tone/sound. 
And theres not a sexier faster neck to be had. 
congrats on the deuce..........laters...chuck 
