Squier Made in China and Indonesia #6
The Squier Artist Series
THE REGIONAL ARTIST PROGRAM
Launched in 2002, the Squier Artist Series debuted with the Tom DeLonge Stratocaster. Featuring only a volume knob and a humbucking pickup, this Squier closely resembled the Mexican Fender-branded Delonge model released just a year earlier.
Soon after, the Squier Artist Series transitioned into the Regional Artist Program. This new approach focused on offering signature models exclusively in countries where the musician was highly popular, regardless of their recognition elsewhere.
Richard McDonald explained, “They started coming up with these artists, and I started approving them. We’d do international artist models that are meaningful for a particular market, and they’d be Squiers, so they are affordable for the customer. It made total sense: local players to inspire and create a local sense of belonging.”
The O-Larn Stratocaster was the first model in the groundbreaking Regional Artist Program, launched exclusively in Thailand in 2008.
Fender’s Thai distributor, Beh Ngiep Seng Musical Instruments, saw O-Larn as a perfect fit for the initiative.
The guitar featured a Duncan Designed Hot Rails pickup set and only the volume knob.
Building on the success of the O-Larn Stratocaster, Squier introduced a second series in 2013. While keeping the minimalist single-volume layout, this version added a vintage-style pickup.
Following these initial efforts, the Regional Artist Program continued to expand. Squier released the 2009 Sham Kamikaze Stratocaster, available only in Malaysia, and the Simon Neil Stratocaster, sold exclusively in Europe.
Sham Kamikaze, born Shamril Salleh in 1976, grew up in a musical family and was exposed to a wide range of musical genres from an early age. He began learning the guitar at 12, and by 14, he was already playing in bands.
Building on his early musical experience, Sham took a teaching position at the Guitar Institute of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. In 1999, he formed Kamikaze and recorded three albums—Kontroversi, Inspirasi, and 3. All were nominated for Anugerah Industri Muzik, Malaysia’s music industry awards ceremony and equivalent to the U.S. Grammy, as best rock album of 2001; Inspirasi won the award. Kamikaze has performed with musicians such as Andy Timmons, Neil Zaza, and T.M. Stevens. The band also opened for the Joe Satriani/Steve Vai/Yngwie Malmsteen G3 tour in 2000.
The Sham Kamikaze Stratocaster put Kamikaze’s own personal touch on a Squier Classic Vibe series instrument. Its most distinctive feature was the non-traditional reverse headstock design and reverse string arrangement. Features included Kamikaze’s signature on the front of the headstock and a Sigma logo on the back. The guitar also had three custom vintage-style single-coil pickups, with a reverse-angled bridge pickup and reverse-staggered AlNiCo 3 magnets.
It was launched with a special event in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, June 20, 2009, at Bentley Music, the longtime Squier/Fender distributor in Malaysia.
The Simon Neil Stratocaster was launched in October 2009, on the eve of the album’s November 2009 release, Only Revolutions.
It was based on Biffy Clyro’s frontman’s Custom Shop Time Machine ’60 Stratocaster. It featured the Biffy Clyro band logo on the headstock and a set of mixed-magnet pickups: AlNiCo 5 for the bass strings and AlNiCo 3 for the treble strings. The pickup voicing was carefully designed to provide tight midrange punch and clarity under distortion, making it ideal for Neil’s dynamic three-piece band setup.
It quickly became a highlight in Squier’s signature lineup and was showcased at trade events such as NAMM, gaining attention across Europe and the UK.
As the Regional Artist Program continued to grow, Squier approached Indian guitarist Ehsaan Noorani, who had risen to fame through Bollywood films.
After studying at the Guitar Institute of Technology in Los Angeles, Ehsaan returned to India in 1986. He began composing for advertisements. He also composed for the 2008 film Rock On!!!, widely regarded as a milestone and one of Bollywood’s first rock films.
Noorani’s work with his band Shankar Ehsaan Loy took him from Indian clubs to venues in the United States. His growing recognition made him an unofficial Fender ambassador in India, prompting the company to present him with a custom guitar crafted by John Cruz.
Recognizing Noorani’s influence, Jasbeer Singh, who heads Fender’s Indian distributor Mumbai Reemal Investrade, suggested creating a Squier Ehsaan Noorani signature model to be sold exclusively in India. A Fender version, however, would have been too expensive for the local market, as the guitarist recalled, “If it were Fender—either USA or Mexico—the price would be fairly expensive for the average guitar player to afford. I could go for the Custom Shop… and I’d probably be the only one who’d buy it in India!”
Introduced in early 2011 after several design revisions, the signature model featured two humbuckers and a single-coil pickup. Noorani explained, “Most Indian guitar players have small hands: we’re not as large as Caucasian people, we’re smaller people. Very often, you’d pick up an American Standard, and you find you’re struggling a bit with the width of the fretboard. I said we ought to go for a standard width but a very small, shallow neck, because that would really help us wrap our fingers around.”
