My first electric was a Squier. I spent less than $200 to find out if I really wanted to pursue this. What's cool about the strat style setup, which is the same even on the cheap strats like a Squier, is you have so much control on setup at the bridge. You can micro adjust each string for height and intonation and it isn't very difficult. Having that string positioning ability is great when you have a neck that is maybe of a B grade quality. I liked my Squier, but ultimately sold it and got a Gibson ES-335. When you step all the way up to a 335 from a Chinese made strat, you do really see, hear, and feel the difference...quite a bit but as I said, you can play that Squier silly, it'll work fine.