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Post subject: Best & Worst Squier Guitars
Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 2:30 pm
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What are the best and worst(lowest quality) squiers in your opinion?


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Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 6:29 pm
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Best Squier in my opinion has to be the Jagmaster hands down. Maybe not the model they produced after the Vista Series went out of production so much, though.

I've owned one over the last few weeks and I've loved it so much it's pushed me to sell off all of my gear and go for a Classic Player Fender Jazzmaster. The body contouring of the offest waist body is far more comfortable to me than my Strat.

My Jag though was relic'd out and beat up pretty harsh, though. But the scale of the neck and the way it was worn out and worn in made it play unlike anything I've ever picked up.

Here she is the day before I loaded everything up into the back of my Camaro and took it down to my friend's dad's music store to be sold off.

Image

I've played a few of the Classic Vibes Strats and they have a lot of mojo Squier guitars haven't had in a quite while.

Worst, though, is the Bullet. I place the blame on the fact that the body is made out of crap plywood. If they used basswood, it might not be so bad. Of course, I can't think of any reason why someone wouldn't just pony up the extra fifty bucks for an Affinity Strat. With the right electronics, an Affinity can walk all over a MIM Strat. I'm in the process of upgrading and relicing my old one right now to sell for a profit. The construction of the guitar is actually quite good, it's just that it's saddled down with inferior pickups and pots and the bridge saddles and tuners could stand to be better as well.


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Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 8:35 pm
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Well, of the new Squiers, I think the CV's are about the best...some of those are -very- nice instruments for the money. I also am rather partial to the Squier Standard Strats too...my only real gripe about my '08 is that I wish I could get a better bridge for the thing...or at least a better trem block.

The worse in the new line up is obviously the Bullets. Now I can't really even bad mouth them because "they are what they are", which is an entry level instrument. I will say however the regardless of phoenix-caster's comment there, not ALL of the Bullet's are the cheap laminate...the sunburst Bullets are basswood. Actually until a few months ago I had an '08 Bullet (Sunburst) and for what it was, it really wasn't a bad little guitar at all. In fact, for $100 guitars, both Bullets I had (including the lam body with the hard tail) actually had pretty decent necks on them...with decent tuners, they'd be pretty playable. Are they going to sound and play like an American Standard or even an MIM? No...of course not. But for $100...well...$120 now, they're a far site better than the entry level instruments that were available back in the 80's. That said however, I would still have to say that for the extra $60 or so, the Squier Affinities are -MUCH- better instruments. In fact I'm dinkin' around with the idea of getting one myself...thinking about getting a lefty model and stringing it up righty to try that whole Hendrix thing. If I can find a decent used one for cheap, it might make an interesting experiment :-).

Now I think the all time worse Squier I've ever seen was the '91 Made in Korea Strat I had briefly...that one was just -awful-. I know some folks have had some really sweet MIK's so I guess it was maybe a bit hit or miss there but this one was a -serious- POS...cheap laminate body, the bridge was a joke, the neck was pretty bad and the pickups were terrible. On the other hand, I got it in trade for a $25 guitar pedal and I ended up trading (most of) it for a $150 Ovation "Applause" so I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

Anyways, just my $.02 worth,
Jim


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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 12:58 am
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phoenix-caster wrote:
Worst, though, is the Bullet.


WHAT!!!!???? Dude, you dont know what your bagging out!! Man, I love my bullet strat, its probably the most played out of my 3 guitars. Once you have started playing it for about six months, you realize what a great guitar it really is....

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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 6:23 am
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There is no best, there is no worst. There are levels of build. But even then, I'm sure you can find and setup (not modify) an entry level Squier that smokes a higher end one. There are always diamonds iin the rough out there, as are polished turds.

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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 6:41 am
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Asking who or what is the best is like the old arguments about how my dad is bigger than your dad...everyone's going to have their own opinions based on what their own personal ideas, definitions, experiences, and/or criteria is for the word "best" is...

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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 12:57 pm
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auriemma wrote:
There is no best, there is no worst. There are levels of build. But even then, I'm sure you can find and setup (not modify) an entry level Squier that smokes a higher end one. There are always diamonds iin the rough out there, as are polished turds.


He said it all for me... 8) -N


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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 5:39 pm
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BastardN wrote:
auriemma wrote:
There is no best, there is no worst. There are levels of build. But even then, I'm sure you can find and setup (not modify) an entry level Squier that smokes a higher end one. There are always diamonds iin the rough out there, as are polished turds.


He said it all for me... 8) -N


+1 Agreed.

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Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 5:43 am
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The best quality Squier I ever had in my hands was the Squire Esprit - now sadly discontinued - and I kick myself everyday for not having bought it. It was from their master built range (as I recall) that also included the M80. But the Esprit was the one to have..

Worst is/was probably the Bullet Strat, but any Squier can be made to sound and play good these days.

I have Fenders, but there's something about upgrading budget level instruments that fascinates me. Bad economics though - for what I've spent on my Squier Standard series Strat and it's various upgrades (pickups, elecs, scratchplate, tusque nut etc) I could have comfortably bought a US Strat and still had change. And you never get that money back if you sell - the market defines it as a Squier strat and prices it accordingly..

The recent CV series of Squier instruments are great guitars by anybody's definition, regardless of the name on the headstock.

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Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:53 pm
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The Affinity's really aren't bad for the money, you just have to get them set up. I've had one for three years now, and it sounds better than most MIM Strats in my opinion. The necks are super fast (I love satin-backed ones), and the SE, which I have, has the same Pups as a standard Fender. I agree with lomitus and phoenix-caster, the Bullets are pretty bad. They're better than any other Strat knockoff for $100, but I would just buy an Affinity or a used Squier standard.

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Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 6:42 pm
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The Classic Vibe Series are great instruments

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Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 9:04 pm
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stratmuchacho wrote:
The Affinity's really aren't bad for the money, you just have to get them set up. I've had one for three years now, and it sounds better than most MIM Strats in my opinion. The necks are super fast (I love satin-backed ones), and the SE, which I have, has the same Pups as a standard Fender. I agree with lomitus and phoenix-caster, the Bullets are pretty bad. They're better than any other Strat knockoff for $100, but I would just buy an Affinity or a used Squier standard.

What have people got against bullets??? Seriously dudes, they are some pretty dam decent guitars. It wins over my epi SG

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Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 1:56 pm
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rileytheguitarist wrote:
stratmuchacho wrote:
The Affinity's really aren't bad for the money, you just have to get them set up. I've had one for three years now, and it sounds better than most MIM Strats in my opinion. The necks are super fast (I love satin-backed ones), and the SE, which I have, has the same Pups as a standard Fender. I agree with lomitus and phoenix-caster, the Bullets are pretty bad. They're better than any other Strat knockoff for $100, but I would just buy an Affinity or a used Squier standard.

What have people got against bullets??? Seriously dudes, they are some pretty dam decent guitars. It wins over my epi SG

True. I guess there aren't any bad Squiers (they're basically cheaper Fenders, after all), so you're right. But of the all the Squiers, at least the ones I've played, the Bullets just haven't been as good as my Affinity. And hey, I could be wrong. Sometimes you get lucky. 8)

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Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 2:58 pm
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stratmuchacho wrote:
rileytheguitarist wrote:
stratmuchacho wrote:
The Affinity's really aren't bad for the money, you just have to get them set up. I've had one for three years now, and it sounds better than most MIM Strats in my opinion. The necks are super fast (I love satin-backed ones), and the SE, which I have, has the same Pups as a standard Fender. I agree with lomitus and phoenix-caster, the Bullets are pretty bad. They're better than any other Strat knockoff for $100, but I would just buy an Affinity or a used Squier standard.

What have people got against bullets??? Seriously dudes, they are some pretty dam decent guitars. It wins over my epi SG

True. I guess there aren't any bad Squiers (they're basically cheaper Fenders, after all), so you're right. But of the all the Squiers, at least the ones I've played, the Bullets just haven't been as good as my Affinity. And hey, I could be wrong. Sometimes you get lucky. 8)

Thank you, my uncle has an affinity and I admit it is very good, probably the tiniest bit better than the bullets.

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