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Post subject: I hate those cheap guitar
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 5:09 am
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Location: Province de Québec, Canada
Sorry for my title , I should write ; Now I don't hate.......

I have few american Strat and Tele and some Gisbon too. I like good guitar and most of the time good guitar cost money. If you don't put money for a guitar chance are this is a cheap guitar.

Few days ago a custommer bring me his Squier Telecaster Classic Vibe , a new buy but a second hand for a tune-up ; All string was buzzing.

First thing I think; made in China look nice but I'm pretty shure this is not a real Tele and it surely a cheap built guitar; I was wrong;

String; buzz, need a truss rod adjustment, the neck was backbow. Il was afraid that the truss rod nut was cheap , hard to find the right tool to adjust it and hard to turn, afraid to strip it;
Wrong; Easy to turn with american Allen key and neck move gently.

All electronic was upgrade by the previous owner except pickups. Pots , switch, jack are American made replacement and bridge with compasated saddles made by Wilkinson ( import ? )
When I do the tune up I was surprise by the good tone of this guitar and the neck was great like a very expensive American and I do a "test drive " with my two other tele, a 52 Reissus and a 1983 Tele. The sound of Squier was very good . Yes it have somme difference but there are great price differential too.

The tone capacitor was a 0.047 mfd , It muff the sound. I put a 0.022 mfd , like original tele and this is better.

When I screw pick guard I feel the soft ( cheap ) wood of the body, many screw holes are damaged, need a tootpick and glue to fill up.
I don't know how was the tone before the upgrade but I should admit this low cost guitar is a great Fender guitar and I understand people enjoy their Squier.


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Post subject: Re: I hate those cheap guitar
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 8:14 am
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stratele52 wrote:
Sorry for my title , I should write ; Now I don't hate.......

I have few american Strat and Tele and some Gisbon too. I like good guitar and most of the time good guitar cost money. If you don't put money for a guitar chance are this is a cheap guitar.

Few days ago a custommer bring me his Squier Telecaster Classic Vibe , a new buy but a second hand for a tune-up ; All string was buzzing.

First thing I think; made in China look nice but I'm pretty shure this is not a real Tele and it surely a cheap built guitar; I was wrong;


Over the last 45 years of playing I've found that sound and money do NOT go together...

More "expensive" guitars tend to sound good, but the occasional lemon slips by that is something less...

On the other hand, "cheap" guitars are not necessarily cheap sounding at all.

Sitting in the living room are three Strats that sound pretty darned nice... Mine is a "C" neck MIM FSR Special 60th Anniversary of Fender HSS, my oldest son has a Squire Strat with the "D" neck, and my youngest just got a "Harmony ext 1892" Strat "C" neck that rivals the sound of any other Strat I've heard lately...

Mine was the most expensive at under $400, and the Strat clone from Harmony ext 1892 (that's actually the brand... the whole long name<G>) was $85 with the parts of fix her up and a new set of Standard Slinky strings.

The two fenders were bought after being auditioned through a half dozen vintage and new amps... and both sound pretty nice... My HSS plays through a somewhat vintage Princeton Stereo Chorus and the Squire has a Frontman 25R...

The Harmony was bought in a pawn shop with five strings and some missing bushings and screws...

It was intended as just a project guitar for my son to learn on, but it came home and cleaned up nicely... and the sound is amazing!

The Harmony is being used with my Champ 600 for now, but we'll find something else for the 13 year old eventually<G> (it's MY Champ and I'm not giving it away<G>)

stratele52 wrote:
String; buzz, need a truss rod adjustment, the neck was backbow. Il was afraid that the truss rod nut was cheap , hard to find the right tool to adjust it and hard to turn, afraid to strip it;
Wrong; Easy to turn with american Allen key and neck move gently.

All electronic was upgrade by the previous owner except pickups. Pots , switch, jack are American made replacement and bridge with compasated saddles made by Wilkinson ( import ? )
When I do the tune up I was surprise by the good tone of this guitar and the neck was great like a very expensive American and I do a "test drive " with my two other tele, a 52 Reissus and a 1983 Tele. The sound of Squier was very good . Yes it have somme difference but there are great price differential too.


I haven't found many guitars over the years that were worth ten times the price...

My Taylors and Gibson were perfect out of the box... which is what I expect for the price... but the less expensive guitars that required some setup after purchase have never disappointed me yet.


stratele52 wrote:
The tone capacitor was a 0.047 mfd , It muff the sound. I put a 0.022 mfd , like original tele and this is better.

When I screw pick guard I feel the soft ( cheap ) wood of the body, many screw holes are damaged, need a tootpick and glue to fill up.
I don't know how was the tone before the upgrade but I should admit this low cost guitar is a great Fender guitar and I understand people enjoy their Squier.


Sounds like that Squire has been restored to better than new status...

Welcome to the ranks of open minded people that can close their eyes and listen before deciding if a guitar sounds right<G>

I've always been amused at "guitar players" that turn up their nose at a label without trying out an instrument... Some of the most amazing Players are making money with guitars that "purist" dopes wouldn't look at in a shop...

One example is Carolyn Wonderland... her whole collection is on You Tube with a little history about each one...

I'll listen to anyone who plays guitar better than her if they want to critique Squires... but that limits the field to only the top 10% out there...

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Still looking for that One Guitar To Rule Them All since 1964...
FSR Fender 60 Anniversary Strat HSS MIM, Gibson ES 335, Taylor 555, Ovation Custom Balladeer-12, Baby Taylor, Fender Princeton Chorus (stereo), Fender Champ 600


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Post subject: Re: I hate those cheap guitar
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:38 pm
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I see another small thing to fix with this Squier.

The cavities of the pickips have black conductive paint , original or paint by previous owner ? I don't know. But the neck pickup cavities paint is not connected to the bridge pu cavities. So the neck pu conductive paint is not useful. I will put a ground wire from this pu cavities to the metal part

The bridge pu cavity have a good ground wire solder to all metal parts.


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Post subject: Re: I hate those cheap guitar
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:50 pm
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My HSS plays through a somewhat vintage Princeton Stereo Chorus and the Squire has a Frontman 25R...
_ tchall,

I have a Princeton Strereo Chorus I buy new 15 years ago . I do not know there are vintage Princeton Stereo Chorus ! Mine is a very good student amp , it is a solid state amp. I always use tubes amps which I found they have better tone.


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Post subject: Re: I hate those cheap guitar
Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2011 5:30 am
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stratele52 wrote:
I have a Princeton Strereo Chorus I buy new 15 years ago . I do not know there are vintage Princeton Stereo Chorus ! Mine is a very good student amp , it is a solid state amp. I always use tubes amps which I found they have better tone.


My Princeton is the solid state model, blackface, but it is a mid 80s build.

Love its clean sound and terrific Reverberated/Chorus effects.

I use the drive channel mostly to bring up the volume when I do a few licks between verses...

Guess I'm still a 12 string rhythm player at heart, that's where I fit in the band with a little vocal work on the side.

The last group I was playing with blew up just as paying gigs started being offered... Politics and brothers shouldn't mix<VBG>

Fortunately music isn't my day job... just my number one hobby since I was a teenager.

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Still looking for that One Guitar To Rule Them All since 1964...
FSR Fender 60 Anniversary Strat HSS MIM, Gibson ES 335, Taylor 555, Ovation Custom Balladeer-12, Baby Taylor, Fender Princeton Chorus (stereo), Fender Champ 600


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Post subject: Re: I hate those cheap guitar
Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2011 6:15 am
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tchall,
Your Princeton is same as mine . I won't call it a vintage amp . Have you ever tried a good tubes amp like Fender blackface '60 area or even a reissues ?


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Post subject: Re: I hate those cheap guitar
Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2011 6:49 am
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stratele52 wrote:
tchall,
Your Princeton is same as mine . I won't call it a vintage amp . Have you ever tried a good tubes amp like Fender blackface '60 area or even a reissues ?



When I got my Gibson 335 in 1975 it was with a Princeton Reverb... very nice amp, but a friends kid "borrowed" it and I've never seen it again...

It was a terrific amp, and I do miss it since it was a Christmas gift from my parents...

Love tube amps, the warm tube sound is pretty special and my reissued Champ 600 is a terrific little practice/recording amp...

OTOH, a GOOD solid state rig just takes what you put in and sends it to the speakers louder... no added color to the tone...

The old Princeton Chorus models, like ours, were biased so the transistors were running in their most linear (accurate) zone. The "Clean" input was just that...

It disappoints some folks when they hear exactly how their guitar sounds with no tube flavor to it... so, naturally, they blame the amp<G>

When you overdrive the input on a transistor amp you don't get the natural harmonics that a tube generates, so the distortion tends to be harsher... which is quite all right if you're producing the distortion in another device and using the amp to reproduce that signal.

Pedals are almost a must with solid state amps if you want the grunge or heavy metal distortion that some folks love...

I wouldn't turn down a terrific deal on a Fender Twin, but there is no romance between me and tubes... Not after spending a career in the US Military working mostly with tube systems while transitioning to more modern solid state replacements...

With nearly 40 years of working as an electronic tech behind me, my opinion is that a good amp is a good amp no matter what the design.

_________________
Still looking for that One Guitar To Rule Them All since 1964...
FSR Fender 60 Anniversary Strat HSS MIM, Gibson ES 335, Taylor 555, Ovation Custom Balladeer-12, Baby Taylor, Fender Princeton Chorus (stereo), Fender Champ 600


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Post subject: Re: I hate those cheap guitar
Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2011 7:26 am
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With nearly 40 years of working as an electronic tech behind me, my opinion is that a good amp is a good amp no matter what the design.
-Tchall

Same for me , 40 years in electronics.
Amps and guitar is a mater of taste. Music and soul first .


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