A few months ago, I picked up what appears to be a '97 'Crafted in Korea' Squier Stratocaster on CL for $60.00. Overall, it's not a bad guitar but it's not as nice as even some of the newer Squiers out there.
I had to glue in the nut. The tuners feel smooth (they look like sealed Gotoh machines), but they don't seem to stay in tune very well if you bend a lot. I had changed out the electronics: the stock pickups were steel poles with a ceramic bar magnet glued underneath. They have since been upgraded to MIM Standard Strat pickups which are also steel poles but with two bar magnets glued on either side underneath. They probably don't sound any different than the stock Squier units, but they are a whole lot less microphonjc. Also, I ditched the 500K mini pots in favor of proper full-sized 250K pots and I got a nice sturdy Switchcraft quality selector switch as well. The cost of these upgrades is $0.00. A friend of mine had purchased a loaded Lace pickguard for his MIM Strat and gave me the old assembly for fee.
By far, the tremolo is THE weakest point on this guitar. In fact, it doesn't even work! The inertia block is....well, not really a block. The tremolo bar was missing, the springs in the back are heavy, and the claw adjustment screws are actually bent. I just might spend some money on a Guitar Fetish vintage style trem for this guitar. Either that, or I'll wait and see if my co-guitarist at church gets around to upgrading the tremolo on his MIM Standard (hopefully, it'll fit the Squier without modification but that's probably wishful thinking).
For now, this guitar is a serviceable back up to my American Standard but I am still saving my pennies to get a proper HSS Strat to compliment my #1.
