the other surf green strat i totally forgot about

You go through enough guitars, and sometimes you forget the ones you owned in the past.

I still have the Sonic Strat in Surf Green. It's good and I've had it for over a month now.

Before buying that guitar, I had not seen it in person, so I was worried about whether Squier's version of Surf Green would be to my liking or not. When I saw it in person fresh out of the box at Guitar Center, I knew instantly yes, good color. And then after buying it, I thought hey, nice to own my first Surf Green Strat.

But it wasn't the first.

I should first note that my Squier Sonic Stratocaster is a Surf Green with maple fingerboard, which is a Guitar Center exclusive color combination. However, elsewhere you will find it with a dark fretboard (which I think is Indian Laurel). I'm okay with the Surf + maple combo, but you may be one of those players that thinks Surf + dark fingerboard looks better. Guitar Center doesn't have that as it's an online-only thing.

Second to note is that Sea Foam Green is NOT Surf Green, as Sea Foam has more blue in it. You may see a few of those kicking around.

And this brings me to that Fender Player Stratocaster I owned briefly back in 2021.

That guitar was technically not Surf Green, but rather Surf Pearl. It was a color I didn't even want, but had to go with it due to the fact it was the only Player model I tried that didn't suck.

I've told this story before, so here's a recap:

Back then when the Player was "only" just over $800 after sales tax (the Player II is now $920 after tax in most US states), I wanted one in a color called Buttercream.

Summarized, I had to try FIVE different Player models at TWO different Guitar Center stores just to find one that wasn't terrible. FOUR of them, two Buttercream and two Polar White, all had bad nuts that made sitar noises on the unwound plain strings. Only one didn't, which was one in Surf Pearl, so that's what I went with.

I was never in love with the color, which I'll get more into in a moment.

That Fender did not stay with me because I quickly discovered the B and high-E were too tight as a result of no string guide spacer from the factory. I had to go to ANOTHER Guitar Center just to get that stupid part, installed it, and... it didn't fix the problem. I got rid of the guitar shortly after that as it was still well within the return window. The money on that stupid spacer was wasted.

Surf Pearl is a sorta/kinda metallic Surf Green but at the same time not really. It's one of the weirder colors from Fender. I never truly took a liking to it.

Consider Surf Pearl to be "You Wish This Was Surf Green But It Isn't", and that sums that color up.

As for my Sonic Strat, it does have a real-deal Surf Green. No metallic flake and a "minty" hue to it, just like it should look. And by that I mean as it should look for a gloss polyurethane finished body.

Nitro finish over Surf Green does look a touch greener while gloss poly mutes it a bit. I'm okay with this. Almost the exact same color muting happens with Fenders in Surf Green that are urethane finished instead of lacquered, so this is not a unique-to-Squier thing.

This is of course assuming you can even get a current production Fender Stratocaster in Surf Green with nitro finishing that doesn't have the dopey two-post bridge... which you currently can't. How do I know? I looked through the Fender catalog. Yeah, they have a few Surf Green Strats, but none with a proper 6-screw bridge. The closest you'll get with the 6-screw bridge is the American Vintage II 1957 Stratocaster in Sea Foam Green, which again is not Surf Green.

You can and should hold out for a color you really want...

...and shouldn't have to pay extra for it either.

If there weren't an option for Surf Green on the Sonic Strat, two other colorways currently offered works for me. There's basic black, which is a black body with all-maple neck a.k.a. Eric Clapton "Blackie" style, and an Arctic White HT version with white guard and blond neck. Either one of those would also suit me fine.

I got lucky twice with the Surf Green Sonic Strat I bought. It was available, thankfully cheap, and on sale at the time I bought it. Doesn't get much better than that.

Oh, and I didn't have to fight with the guitar either like I did with the aforementioned Fender. On first play, the Squier was good and needed nothing.