Squire's are pretty overpriced here, I picked one up at £200 when I was starting up guitaring and thought hotshityeah. But it's a cheap-ass £100 guitar so :/ I got swindled out £100 by my local music shop.
I still use it for playing chords and shit (because ibanez rg's seem to only be good at playing lead, where it is excellent, and versatile, but the fender sounds solid yet akward to do insane shit)
Squire's have a bad rep somehow... I dunno maybe people forget that they're a cheap beginners guitar, aimed towards the "first guitar" market, and they ain't some solid piece of art to be played professionally.
DP, is it one of those tiny little shoebox amps? if yes, getrid of it. I've had two of them and the only sound they could replicate was *fart* and the high notes gotflattened, really watered down and sucked.