The New Squiers

[St_Genesius]

I was in a shop yesterday buying strings and decided to take a stroll through their collection. The first instrument that caught my attention was a Sonic Blue P-Bass. Very sexy. I picked it up and played a couple of funk licks, though "Okay, nothing special, but a nice feeling bass. Pretty typical for the Standard MIM series, really, though I didn't know they were doing heavy gloss necks on those these days..."

Only then did I look at the headstock.

Not a MIM Standard. A Squier.

Huh.

So I go down the row a few spots and see a white Tele with a mini-bucker in the neck, a Strat pickup in the middle and a reversed control plate. Hey, that's kinda cool...holy crap, it's another Squier.

So I pick it up...****, other than the .09s on it, it feels almost exactly like I'd want a Tele to feel. And these heavy gloss necks, while not my favorite neck finish of all time, remind me a lot of the Classic Player series from the Mexico factory or some of the CIJ Fenders I've played over the years.


These are FAR superior in feel to the Squiers I sold just five years ago. Even then, they were fine playing, decent sounding instruments, but the overall sense of cheapness was inescapable. That's not really true with these new ones I played.

Unfortunately, that MIMish quality is also coming with MIM prices...

 

[cayle_6]

Re: The New Squiers

the Classic Vibe and Vintage Modified Squiers are very good guitars. based on your description, what you played was a Vintage Modified Telecaster. they're great for the money and the sound is awesome. the build quality is a step up to the other MIC Squier guitars.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: The New Squiers

Yeah, it was. And the P-bass was a Classic Vibe.

the Classic Vibe and Vintage Modified Squiers are very good guitars. based on your description, what you played was a Vintage Modified Telecaster. they're great for the money and the sound is awesome. the build quality is a step up to the other MIC Squier guitars.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: The New Squiers

I just looked up that Classic Vibe P-bass..

Ick: Basswood body. That's not promising. Maybe I should have plugged it in and found out how it sounded...

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: The New Squiers

Don't let internet hearsay affect you, if it feels good and sounds good, rock it.

My #1 gigger right now is a heavily modified Squier, from their Vintage Modified Series. I reach past the MIA Strat and the PRS to put my '51 in the case to play out.




Squier is making the things that I am actually interested in these days. They are an adventurous and high quality brand. F the naysayers. It's prejudice.

(Prejudice comes from pre and judge, meaning to judge something before interaction has occurred.)

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: The New Squiers

Yeah, I've got a '51. I don't hate basswood for guitars, but it causes me pause in a bass. I'm not saying I'd rule it out, but I'd definitely go make sure the bottom end didn't go all mushy.

 

[BloodRose]

Re: The New Squiers

Yup! I have a Vintage modified Tele! I wanted tele tones in my arsenal, but Im not a big tele guy, so I didnt want to commit much $$. I compared every Tele in the shop $700 on down and the VM I bought was a standout. I simply couldnt find ANYTHING about the fenders that justified the addl price. The Only one that was nicer than my VM was a Baja that I liked the Tex mex pups in, but it was about $750 and mine was $299. I bought mine, put straplocks on, changed the bridge pup (Stock pups are all Duncan Designed and not bad) to a Duncan Jerry Donahue and the neck to a GFS firebird mini bucker. Now I have no reason to ever look at other teles.. And, the sound of that guitar when soloing the neck position is amazingly sweet!

Squier is on it these days.. Epi has stepped up too. We all need to stop being so name concious

 

[phil_104]

Re: The New Squiers

My beater is a newish squier Jagmaster, that I dropped a JB in. It sounds awesome.

 

[rowdy27]

Re: The New Squiers

A MIM Tele beats any Squier all day long!

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: The New Squiers

What an interesting and nuanced argument you have there.

A MIM Tele beats any Squier all day long!

 

[phil_104]

Re: The New Squiers

What an interesting and nuanced argument you have there.

That also happens to be false. I have played squiers that outperform fender MIM guitars. It happens. Fail.

 

[gnoj_LL]

Re: The New Squiers

I wish they still manufacture the 51'.

 

[JOLLY]

Re: The New Squiers

A MIM Tele beats any Squier all day long!

I don't agree with that statement.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: The New Squiers

For the record, while my '51 has nice low action, great intonation and sounds GREAT..it feels very, very cheap. I like it, and it has no actual problems, but you're never unaware that you're playing a souped up $100 guitar.


That really wasn't the case on these last night.

 

[rowdy27]

Re: The New Squiers

As U clowns can see.. I own both.. :wrf:

The Squier looks cute but is NO Fender.
Go back to counting pennies for your next guitar purchase..lol

 

[ES350]

Re: The New Squiers

I just bought a used MIC Jagmaster for 140$, tweaked it with some 1 meg pots and some Phat Cats---and it sounds pretty d**m good; kinda surfy, kinda P90 ish. The vibrato is better than my MIA RI Strat...

why not?

 

[LtKojak]

Re: The New Squiers

My beater is a newish squier Jagmaster, that I dropped a JB in. It sounds awesome.

The other guitarist in my group has a Squier Jag that I've changed the Duncan Designes HB103s and I've put a GFS Mean 90s set. Together with a 10-52 set of strings, it just rocks big time.

Flat neck, it intonates perfectly, nothing bad to say.

 

[phil_104]

Re: The New Squiers

As U clowns can see.. I own both.. :wrf:

The Squier looks cute but is NO Fender.
Go back to counting pennies for your next guitar purchase..lol

My squier is a backup to my american made PRS. I ain't counting pennies.

What I can do, is listen to my ears and hands when playing, and realize that a squire can perform to the same level as a fender in some occasion, instead of being closed minded about it.

 

[BloodRose]

Re: The New Squiers

As U clowns can see.. I own both.. :wrf:

The Squier looks cute but is NO Fender.
Go back to counting pennies for your next guitar purchase..lol

Honk honk!
Why I outta spray you with Seltzer water!!!

I have to count pennies! The friggin size 25 shoes are expensive!

Now, keep in mind that I believe I said that the one I bought outpreformed nearly everything else I tried. I know that not EVERY squier will trounce a Fender, but I got a very resonant one. ALSO, I was also saying that there was not so much of a difference in the quality to justify the large difference in price..
With 5 kids, 2jobs and expensive health issues, yeah I have to count pennies.

So, if you'll excuse me, I have to go, 25 of us are getting in the VW bug to go to the store..

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: The New Squiers

For the record, while my '51 has nice low action, great intonation and sounds GREAT..it feels very, very cheap. I like it, and it has no actual problems, but you're never unaware that you're playing a souped up $100 guitar.



That really wasn't the case on these last night.

Quoted from my Squier '51 Build Thread:

The neck is very good, often highlighted as the best part of these guitars.

Tall frets that are a little narrower than my American Standard frets and a lot narrower than my PRS frets.

When I got the guitar, the frets were hanging off the ends of the fretboard, a common problem with guitars that are built somewhere humid (Indonesia) and then moved to somewhere less humid. I taped off the neck and sanded down the fret ends with sandpaper and finished each fret end individually with an emory board. I took a lot of time with it, and it's in great shape now.

The neck has a lot of play time on it, and it feels a little faster now. It came with a satin finish from the factory, and I have "shined" it nicely with hours and hours of play time.

Overall, I'll say it's a 65 / 100. 90 / 100 would be a PRS and 80 / 100 a MIA Fender. Very impressive for what it is and what it cost. granted, I didn't have to spend a million hours dressing the fret ends on the others, and I haven't had to replace either's nut.

-Hunter

In my experience, if you are willing to spend time solving the problems that we're all so quick to identify, you can end up with a great playing guitar.

What's the playability difference between an Indonesian Squier and an American Fender?

The American Fender was worked on by an American guitar tech.

Welp, guess what I am, an American guitar tech --- and I worked on that thing plenty. With all the work I put into it, I'd charge $1000 for 'em too!

I don't notice differences in wood quality, and mine has tons of hours put in by my favorite American guitar tech --- me. The frets ends are perfect, the nut is perfect, the fretboard edges are perfect, the bridge is perfect, the nut is perfect...

-Hunter