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Post subject: Squier Classic Vibe 60's Stratocaster
Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:56 pm
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Squier Classic Vibe 60's Stratocaster

Here's my review.

I went to check this guitar out because I recently purchased a Squier Classic Vibe Custom Telecaster that I think is exceptionally high quality for the Feel, Sound, Look and Price. I told a few friends about this purchase and they made fun of my love for a Squier guitar. I contemplated making fun of them for purchasing $1200 Fender US Tele's. A few friends told me that the 60's Strat was amazing too.

The Series
Squier is taking higher quality components than they have ever used and assembling these guitars in China. The pickups and build of the guitars combine to give the guitars a Vintage sound, the China production makes it a lower cost.

The Look
I'll start by talking about the look of the guitar. (Even though, the look is not the reason that I would purchase a guitar.) I opted to try the Sunburst Strat with the Tortoise Shell pickguard and rosewood fretboard. It is a 2 piece Alder design and the finish and look are amazing close up as well as far away. The back of the neck is a high gloss poly finish as well as the headstock. There is NOTHING on this guitar that looks cheap at all.

The Build
This guitar is solidly put together. The neck fits perfectly in the cavity on the body. Perfectly. More perfectly than on the Mexican Fender Strats that I have owned. I will also say that the frets are perfect on this guitar. Perfect. Not only are there no sharp edges, there are also no buzzing strings with the guitar set up to a very low action.

The Hardware
The tuners are the Vintage style tuners that come on a few different fender guitars. They stay in tune remarkably well. The bridge feels just fine, very similar to a Mexican Made Fender that I compared it to. The tremolo uses a small zinc block. (I would have loved to see a steel block, but once you hear the guitar, you won't know that it is zinc.)

The Electronics
The switch and the knobs both feel actually a very high quality. The Knobs have a good amount of resistance and adjust the volume and tone evenly.

The Neck
This neck is thinner than most strat necks. it is a thin c-shape neck with a high poly gloss on the whole neck. As I said before, the frets could not be more perfect. You have to be a fan of a thin neck to like this guitar. But if you are, it feels perfect.

The Sound/Pickups
The pickups are ALNICO, not Ceramic. All lower priced Strats use Ceramic Pickups. Combined on this guitar, the pickups have a fantastic sound. You get your normal quack using the 2 and 4 positions. The Bridge pickup certainly seems to be a pretty high output pickup. It has a nice piercing tone to it. The neck and middle pickup are both great sounding pickups. They have a full sound and get nice and dirty with overdrive. The middle pickup has a very high quality tone to it. A really good and thick middle pickup tone.

There is waaay more sustain than what you might expect a zinc block guitar to have. I actually don't think that I have ever played a strat with this much good sounding sustain. It is a quality sustain too. I really feel that this sustain is due to the thinner neck and the quality build.

Let me make this clear. The sound that comes out of this guitar is a very cool and pleasing sound with a good amount of sustain. It gets nice and dirty with some overdrive. The neck and middle pickups sound great clean too. The Bridge pickup is always going to sound a little raspy. Perhaps a tone that not everyone will love as much as I do, but I think it sounds amazing.


Overall
Some guitars are good by accident, but these Squier Classic Vibes are Great on Purpose. These are high quality components. I believe that they must have a higher quality control standard in China than ever in order for these to be so perfectly put together. They sound great. You can get a great sound out of them, no doubt. As with any guitar, not all sounds are for all people. But if you like the sound and feel of this guitar, it seems extremely high quality for the price. Nothing feels or sounds cheap.

People will skip over these because they are Squier. There are people who will pay hundreds more to have a Mexican Made Fender or US made Fender and will get what they pay for. With this guitar, I feel like I am getting a Tone, a feel and a sound that is much greater than what I am paying. I want to make it clear that the price only makes this great guitar better. It would be a great guitar at a much higher price.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Classic Vibe 60's Stratocaster
Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 7:58 pm
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paztormike:

I wholeheartedly agree about this guitar. I have owned one for a year and a half and will put the quality of the build and tone up against any Fender MIM Standard SSS. A quick cosmetic change and it went from this:


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To this:


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Post subject: Re: Squier Classic Vibe 60's Stratocaster
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 10:44 am
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I have one Squier Vintage Modified 60's that I hesitantly bought at American Musical Supply. I was hesitant to buy it because I was told that they were really bad but one day I checked them out online and read lots of good reviews so I bought it. My friends you have no idea how surprised I was when I received it and got it on my hands. It was flawless, beautiful three tone sunburst with a black pick guard, rosewood fretboard and quality tuners. No a single scratch or finish flaw. However when I plugged it in, it didn't sound quite good until I replaced the strings with a set of GHS Electric Flatwound Pat Martino Custom strings and voilá the sound improvement was instant. The next day I set my strat up myself to my liking. By the way, it came with three Duncan Designed single coil pickups and maybe that's a reason why the guitar sound so good. One thing I would like to see improved is the quality of the Vol. and Tone controls. They are just good enough but not completely. I have plans to replace the 2 tone controls with custom shop TBX Tone Control pots. Also a better quality Volume pot and
a 5 way selector switch. Eventually I'll end up upgrading the pickups as well but for now they sound sweet right now.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Classic Vibe 60's Stratocaster
Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 12:47 pm
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I've now had my CV strat for about a month and I have to say that without a doubt it is the most fun strat that I have ever played.

The Bridge pickup breaks up for some great sounding overdrive, the neck pickup has a really great round sound with mids in it (which many single coil neck pickups lack some good mid tone to them.) The middle pickup is one of the only middle pickups that I could ever play by itself on a strat. It has so much spanky straty character and I love it. The 2 and 4 positions are so cool as well.

I bought this guitar so that I could mod it thinking that I would strip off the poly finish from the neck and body and eventually experiment with different pickups. But the sound and feel of this guitar have only continued to please me more and more. I have a mexi strat that I modded meticulously and put $200 worth of new pickups into it, and I actually play my CV strat more than the mexi.

I recently purchased the Mustang III amp as well. I sold an amazing tube amp to make room for it because I needed an amp that I could play at low volumes that sounded great. I am in love with this amp and with the combo with my CV strat. I spent $600 total for this combo, and I can not think of ANY better way to have an amazing sounding combo.

I've never gotten such a cool tone, or had as much fun playing guitar.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Classic Vibe 60's Stratocaster
Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 7:02 pm
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paztormike,

I am glad you are having fun with the new guitar and amp. I owned a CV 60 for abou 2 years before I traded her in on another guitar. Long story about losing her, let's just say that it had something to do with a promise made long ago to my wife.

How donyou like the Mustang III? I am in the market for a new amp. I am kind of leaning towards a tube amp, but am intrigued with the Mustang IV or V. I already have a specific sound with my pedals that I like. Is there a clean channel/mode or is it like the G-DEC and you have to dial in a clean tone?

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Post subject: Re: Squier Classic Vibe 60's Stratocaster
Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 8:02 pm
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rkreisher wrote:
paztormike,

I am glad you are having fun with the new guitar and amp. I owned a CV 60 for abou 2 years before I traded her in on another guitar. Long story about losing her, let's just say that it had something to do with a promise made long ago to my wife.

How donyou like the Mustang III? I am in the market for a new amp. I am kind of leaning towards a tube amp, but am intrigued with the Mustang IV or V. I already have a specific sound with my pedals that I like. Is there a clean channel/mode or is it like the G-DEC and you have to dial in a clean tone?

I was leaning toward a tube amp like the Blues Jr. or the SuperChamp xd before I bought the Mustang. I looked at the Line 6 Bogner amps as well as the Vox amps but the Mustang came out on top.

To be honest, I really needed an amp that could have a great tone at low volumes as well as high volumes. I had bought my son the Mustang I and I was blown away by the amazing tones at the price. I was about to buy the Mustang II when I heard that the III and IV were on the way.

I bought the III because of the amazing tones that you get from it, the ease of editing and creating new tones as well as the great tones at low volumes. I sold a good 15w tube amp in order to buy it. All I can say is that I have not had a second of buyers remorse. It is everything that I wanted and MUCH more. There are so many great tones in this amp.

As far as the effects loop, I will have to say that I have never tried it. I have never had the desire to hook my pedals up to it. In fact, I am selling all of my pedals because I have NO need for them now that I have the mustang III.

My favorite bands are King's X and Govt Mule as well as Jimi etc. I have found amazing heavy tones as well as the best clean tones that I have ever found in a solid state amp. The heavy stuff sounds overdriven and authentic. The Bassman sounds like a bassman, the Champ sounds like a Champ, the Twin sounds like a Twin, the Deluxe Reverb has the coolest tone ever, the Marshall amps have a great classic sound etc. I can not say enough about how much I love this amp.

If someone were to offer me a tube amp that was twice as expensive to trade for my Mustang III, I'd take the trade, sell the tube amp and buy the Mustang III back and pocket the difference. That's how much I love this thing.

Especially for the price, you just can't beat the Mustang III or IV. I've tried the Line 6 stuff and it sounds overprocessed and the presets have waaaaay too many effects and gimmicks to them. The Mustang presets are almost all usable.

The combo of this amp and my CV strat is unmatchable for the price. Best tones that I have ever gotten and they are out of a $300 guitar and a $300 amp.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Classic Vibe 60's Stratocaster
Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2011 12:13 am
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paztormike wrote:
To be honest, I really needed an amp that could have a great tone at low volumes as well as high volumes. I had bought my son the Mustang I and I was blown away by the amazing tones at the price. I was about to buy the Mustang II when I heard that the III and IV were on the way.

I bought the III because of the amazing tones that you get from it, the ease of editing and creating new tones as well as the great tones at low volumes. I sold a good 15w tube amp in order to buy it. All I can say is that I have not had a second of buyers remorse. It is everything that I wanted and MUCH more. There are so many great tones in this amp.

As far as the effects loop, I will have to say that I have never tried it. I have never had the desire to hook my pedals up to it. In fact, I am selling all of my pedals because I have NO need for them now that I have the mustang III.

My favorite bands are King's X and Govt Mule as well as Jimi etc. I have found amazing heavy tones as well as the best clean tones that I have ever found in a solid state amp. The heavy stuff sounds overdriven and authentic. The Bassman sounds like a bassman, the Champ sounds like a Champ, the Twin sounds like a Twin, the Deluxe Reverb has the coolest tone ever, the Marshall amps have a great classic sound etc. I can not say enough about how much I love this amp.

If someone were to offer me a tube amp that was twice as expensive to trade for my Mustang III, I'd take the trade, sell the tube amp and buy the Mustang III back and pocket the difference. That's how much I love this thing.

Especially for the price, you just can't beat the Mustang III or IV. I've tried the Line 6 stuff and it sounds overprocessed and the presets have waaaaay too many effects and gimmicks to them. The Mustang presets are almost all usable.

The combo of this amp and my CV strat is unmatchable for the price. Best tones that I have ever gotten and they are out of a $300 guitar and a $300 amp.


I already have a practice amp (Fender G-Dec and a Roland Cube 30X) for bedroom playing or using headphones with. I don't like them at levels other than low playing. I am used to cranking up an amp when my wife is out of the house or going to jam sessions. Love some of the setting I can get with the G DEC, I am sure they are similar on the Mustang, but I also love my pedals too. Total Metallica and Maiden tones when dialed right. Also some pretty heavy Blues as well.

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Post subject: Re: Squier Classic Vibe 60's Stratocaster
Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 2:41 pm
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How are you figuring $300, these are $350.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Classic Vibe 60's Stratocaster
Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 3:07 pm
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They are listed at $350, but go into any Guitar Center and have them "work you a deal" they'll do it. Either that or wait for any weekend sale grab a coupon and you should be able to get them down to 300 easy. Or trade something in and they will give you 15% off of the item you are trading it toward.

There's a million ways to get 15-20% off anything at Guitar Center.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Classic Vibe 60's Stratocaster
Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 6:15 pm
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Another thing that I should say about this guitar is that I was at a music store the other day and saw one on the shelf. I took it down, plugged it in and it did not sound or feel the way that mine does.

There were no big errors like sharp frets or anything, but I did notice that the pickups were at weird heights and the string heights were set up all at nearly identical heights. Some of these things might need a little tweak. I did adjust my pickup heights and string heights out of the box to get them where I want them.

My CV Strat is the most playable and comfortable guitar I have ever owned. I love the sound of the pickups, they are gritty and moderately high output, but they get a great balance of vintage and modern tones out of this guitar. I'm actually thinking about buying another one, so that I can keep one with all of the stock stuff in it and one to mod and tweak.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Classic Vibe 60's Stratocaster
Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 12:23 am
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It's funny how every clip I've ever heard of the CV 50's sounds overly bright, too jangly and thin-sounding. It's those Alnico III's of course, lo-output, super bright, which so many guys go crazy for with their "vintage" sound. But to me, they sound slightly cheesy and trebley.

The Alnico V's on the CV 60's on the other hand sound much closer to my fave pups, the Custom '54s. Warm yet articulate and still quacky and glassy when needed. The perfect Strat blend. Which makes no sense since they are "vintage" Alnico III's!

Tone is as mysterious as death and love, and swing.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Classic Vibe 60's Stratocaster
Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 4:26 pm
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I started this thread a couple of months ago, and I have to say that my Classic Vibe 60's Strat has become my favorite guitar.

It stays in tune perfectly. I've also found that whenever I hear a great strat tone and think that it sounds better than my guitar, I plug in and try to play the same riff and am reminded how amazing the tone on this guitar is.

The neck is the right shape for my hand (which is slightly on the small side.) I am still baffled by how great this guitar sounds. I know that this guitar is not for everyone, but when I play it, I feel like Fender designed a signature series specifically built for me.

This guitar has taken the first chair in my collection. I sold my Kenny Wayne Signature strat because I was just not playing it anymore. I have a MIM strat that has probably $300 worth of upgrades, a Yamaha Aes guitar that I just put two Duncan P-Rail pickups into, and a Squier CV Custom tele, and my Classic Vibe 60's Strat is still the first guitar that I pick up when I go to practice.

When I told that to a clerk at Guitar Center the other day, he looked at me like I was on crazy pills, so we pulled one off of the rack, and changed the pickup height and plugged it into a Blues Jr. and a Mustang IV, and he was blown away.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Classic Vibe 60's Stratocaster
Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 6:35 pm
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paztormike wrote:
When I told that to a clerk at Guitar Center the other day, he looked at me like I was on crazy pills, so we pulled one off of the rack, and changed the pickup height and plugged it into a Blues Jr. and a Mustang IV, and he was blown away.

It's pretty bad when you have to convince the guys at GC that they are selling a good product. :? I was at our local GC last Thursday on my day off and grabbed a Squier CV Tele Deluxe to use to test a couple of amps. For GC stock it was very well set up and played very nicely. When I went home I took the guitar, not the amps! It's the first Squier I bought new - I have a couple others I bought used from other band members.

Oh, and GC had a promo going for 15% off your total purchase and 12 months same as cash, so I got a great deal.

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Post subject: Re: Squier Classic Vibe 60's Stratocaster
Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 6:47 pm
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CRGuitarMan wrote:
paztormike wrote:
When I told that to a clerk at Guitar Center the other day, he looked at me like I was on crazy pills, so we pulled one off of the rack, and changed the pickup height and plugged it into a Blues Jr. and a Mustang IV, and he was blown away.

It's pretty bad when you have to convince the guys at GC that they are selling a good product. :? I was at our local GC last Thursday on my day off and grabbed a Squier CV Tele Deluxe to use to test a couple of amps. For GC stock it was very well set up and played very nicely. When I went home I took the guitar, not the amps! It's the first Squier I bought new - I have a couple others I bought used from other band members.

Oh, and GC had a promo going for 15% off your total purchase and 12 months same as cash, so I got a great deal.

sweet deal!

I also bought the CV Tele Custom! I loved it at GC, got it home and loved it more. Last night I raised the neck pickup a bit and it sounds even better. I love the neck shape and size and it sounds like a much more expensive tele. it has a unique tone to it that really sounds amazing to me.

Even the frets were perfectly set on this guitar, no sharp edges, just a perfect neck. I have already sold a couple of other guitars because of how awesome my Squier CV's are. I just don't know if a new $300 guitar can possibly be any better.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Classic Vibe 60's Stratocaster
Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 2:15 pm
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This guitar was set up perfectly, which is really rare at GC. I usually have to make their tech do some work on their much more spendy guitars to get the action down to under 1/4"! :)

The neck is great, the tone is great, can't find anything I need to adjust. Just might have to upgrade the tuners if I decide to rock on this thing a lot.

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