Performing with Squier Mini Strat!

[T-Bone]

My “mini” doesn’t need mods. It’s like a short scale MIM Standard, only made for a couple years.

 

[schmee]

A few years ago there was a clean Strat on CL for sale cheapish. Back when MIM Strats were a dime a dozen. I went to look and bought it immediately. Nice Sunburst.
It wasn't until I got home that I realized it was a mini Strat of sorts. The guy I bought it from had bought it for his daughter years earlier. But it was MIM. I have never seen one since , it had the usual 3 knob controls. I think it was a pre curser to Fender selling Squier mini strats which are all over out there.
I put some good pickups in it and then a woman I know with small hands was wanting it real bad so I gave it to her. Grrr... she turned around and sold it!

It played great, I cant remember if it was 23 or 24" scale... the body didn't seem small...

 

[JOHNNYGUITARIST]

Here’s mine with a boatload of mods. Plays great! View attachment 916341 View attachment 916342 View attachment 916343

Wow, that is one beautiful looking mini strat

 

[JOHNNYGUITARIST]

Hi, I believe yours is a 1/2 size. I have a couple - 1 pink but not Squier. I have been playing my 3/4 strat. for 3 years now! I scalloped the neck and dropped the tone pot. into the (now foil lined) cavity & fitted the vol. there instead. There's still a hum but the pups are a nice change and bite. I keep debating whether to shave off wood behind the low body horn for better top of neck access. It's not a Squier but I have one too and the HM Washburn They recommend heavier strings to compensate for length but I too use 009s - as usual. I used to gig with 24 fret Giffin strat with SD HBs and Kahler and would worry about tuning stability and neck length if a covers gig - so that's a worry.
I still haven't restrung it as I am reluctant to butcher a new set to fit. What is your stature? I am 6' with large hands.

I'm the same height, I think the previous owner had 8s on it, but felt too slinky. I went with 10s but im still debating if i should go down to 9.5 ernie ball not so slinky strings

 

[JOHNNYGUITARIST]

I bought one last year and think it's pretty fantastic as-is. It's not my #1 but I do play it and write with it frequently. I put 12s on and have it tuned down to either D or C depending on the day. Huge tone. I think the pickups have a good sound too. It did develop a bit of fret-sprout but I was able to file them. Only thing I'd like to change is the location of the jack. . . .

I have become a pretty big fan of the entry-level Squiers all around:

View attachment 916349

Nice, very cool brother. I didn't know they had mini telecasters. I'm a big fan of telecasters.
The strat I have is the Fiesta Red (or Dakota red) with a white pickguard. Very awesome mini collection!!!

 

[JOHNNYGUITARIST]

I got my 8 year old grandson a ministrat. He has since lost interest, but I leave it in a stand and every once in a while feigns interest. Lately I have been picking him up after school. I need to get there like 45 minutes early for decent parking, so been taking it with me. I can sit behind the wheel comfortably with the window is open or switch seats. I mostly use it for scales or song writing. They are great starter guitars.

Yeah i noticed that, alot of adult players buy them for bonfire jams, Backstage warm ups, or as a travel guitar.

 

[thankyouguitar]

Nice, very cool brother. I didn't know they had mini telecasters. I'm a big fan of telecasters.
The strat I have is the Fiesta Red (or Dakota red) with a white pickguard. Very awesome mini collection!!!

Thanks! But only the pink strat is a mini. The other two are full size.

 

[drmordo]

I have a Mini Strat. I actually took it to my last gig but was having so much fun on my Casino I forgot to break it out!

It's an ok guitar, definitely fun to play. I will eventually put 9s on it and give it to my kid. I need to find a used left-handed Mini for my more contrarian son.

 

[jimmywrangles]

Good guitars but the tuners are second rate at best.
Drop in some quality parts and it'll reward you because Squier mini's are good guitars, the 22.75" scale takes some getting used to but maybe not as much as you'd think. Take a normal fender neck and remove the first two frets and you have 22.75", I've checked this.
I'm currently building a 22.75 tele just because I can.

 

[Ed Driscoll]

Might be a great candidate for re-stringing if you're looking for a Nashville-tuned electric guitar:

 

[Willie Johnson]

A 24" neck and an appropriately repositioned bridge would be cool on one of those.

 

[PixMix]

I got one for my son, he picked the colors and we gave it a refin. Plays and sounds great as is, and the only upgrade I did are the tuners. My son started taking lessons two months ago, and his teacher was impressed with how it played.

This happened shortly after we refinished , but now we are back to a clean look.

.

 

[11 Gauge]

My daughter got one of those minis many years ago as a present, when she was just a little kid. She barely touched it. I got around to trying it (at some point, years later), and the stock pickups were just killing my ears, even with height adjustments and such...

I mostly just play a Strat on the bridge or neck pickup, so I ended up replacing those with what I had available, which were a couple of Harmonic Design Vintage Plus models that I wasn't using for anything else. IMO, that made for a monumental improvement, and I didn't need to dink around with messing around with any of the other stock electronics. IIRC, the pickup selector switch may have seemed a little wonky, but I wasn't going to bother replacing it because of how little this guitar gets played.

The biggest issue for me was getting that little sucker to properly intonate. I had the best luck by raising it up to like G standard or so, IIRC. I hate using strings with any gauge lighter than 10s though, so that could be the reason.