Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

I want to hear peoples thoughts on squire by fender and straight up Fender bass guitars. Whats the difference? Hows the quality? etc...

My experience with Squire, and Epiphone for that matter, is that the quality control is all over the place, even on "identical" instruments. Even the brand name Fenders are like this. If you try 20 of them you'll usually be able to find a pretty good axe but I would never ever buy one without checking it out in person.

If it feels good and sounds good play it.
If not look elsewhere.

I dont know about the Fender Guitars, I guess they are pretty good,..but as for their Bass,.....thats another story, I dont know how they got to be the standard. As Far as I'm concerned they are JUNK! I played a Fender P Bass for 4 years, well I owned it for 4 years,...it was in the shop for 3 1/2 years. It even fell apart on stage! and a Fender Jazz Bass for 2 years, it was ok, but just ok. Squire is just a cheeper version of a Fender, even worse!

Thank you for everyone's input. I realized I have another question. Is there a noticable difference between the Mexican made and the America made fender J basses?

Cannot comment on the bass guitars but with my Strat I had to go to some different P/Us.
Otherwise it's a great guitar.
Shame I don't play her much anymore, had my heart stolen away by a
Goddess.
[img][img]http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm74/sanshouheil/gunsandguitars001.jpg[/img][/img]

There is a reason that half of the world plays Fender guitars and basses: they're the most versatile and dependable instruments you can buy. I play both Fenders and Gibsons but the Gibsons are more of a specialty sound; the Fenders can sound good clean, distorted, with effects or even unplugged.

As far as Mexican made Fenders, I have a Mexican-made Precision bass that plays and sounds every bit as good as an American made. In fact, the instruments contain all American made parts, they're just assembled in Mexico.

Regarding Squires, I've never really found one I could play, but I'm very picky even when it comes to Fenders; I have to play a lot of guitars to find one I can play.

jimmydanger wrote:There is a reason that half of the world plays Fender guitars and basses: they're the most versatile and dependable instruments you can buy. I play both Fenders and Gibsons but the Gibsons are more of a specialty sound; the Fenders can sound good clean, distorted, with effects or even unplugged.

As far as Mexican made Fenders, I have a Mexican-made Precision bass that plays and sounds every bit as good as an American made. In fact, the instruments contain all American made parts, they're just assembled in Mexico.

Regarding Squires, I've never really found one I could play, but I'm very picky even when it comes to Fenders; I have to play a lot of guitars to find one I can play.

He's right on.

I like the sound of a Gibson, but the necks give me acid-indigestion. lol

The squires in general differ a lot from USA made, to JAP made to indonesian, mexican and korean.

Did I forget any? I bet I did.

Mexican Strats are usually as good as most that I have seen. Good workmanship for the most part. I also had a Squire for a week. It was made of lead plywood and weighed almost as much as both of my Les Pauls together.
I actually prefer the Mexican Strat pickups to others. For my stule of picking they work great. They have a bit more mid bite for the most part. At least the ones I have installed in my strats do. I also have two Strats with Carvin pickups in them. Those are killer sounding when wired n series/hum bucking mode.

I've got a Squire Classic Vibe 50's Tele made out of pine. Plays like a dream.

$349.

from my experience, fender is surviving on name recognition, and falling behind in quality control. With the high-end stuff, you still get the quality you'd expect, but at the lower end, you're paying for the headstock.

If you want a good, versatile bass for not a lotta dough, I recommend the Yamaha BB series. They sound fantastic in any genre you could think of, have PJ pickups, and can come in active if that's what you want. The quality's fantastic and the neck is probably one of the most comfortable bass necks i've ever played, including instruments 3 times the price.

I have to agree on the Yamahas. Wonderful instruments, as are the Ibenez, though they are susceptible to taste variations...

90 dB wrote:I've got a Squire Classic Vibe 50's Tele made out of pine. Plays like a dream.

$349.

Those guitars are nice man.

I guess some of you had to figure I'd say something in this thread. I use Squiers at most of our shows. Mainly because, well, I play a lot of shows. I don't want the wear and tear on my expensive guitars. But I do want the guitars to sound great. It's a given that I'm gonna swap the stock pickups of any Squier.

It's been said that Japanese and certain Mexican Squiers are the top of the food chain. But even then, they're starting to become vintage, and usually need fretwork. Not to mention, the prices for them are starting to jump into the $500-$700 range. At that point, I'd rather buy a newer Fender.

I personally like Korean Squiers from the early 2000's range. Even more than my Classic Vibe. The Koreans made some quality guitars that are less hit and miss than made in other countries. I do have one of the Mexican Squiers, but even still I opt for the Korean made. Never really tried a JV Squier.

Anyway. My list of mainly used Squier guitars looks something like this.

Stagemaster neckthrough (Blue)- Korea
Stagemaster neckthrough (Red)- Korea
Classic Vibe 60's- China
Esprit- Korea

All pickups have been swapped in favor of Dimarzio, Duncan, or Custom made pickups.

Of those guitars, the newer Classic Vibe is just on par. I get frustrated by not being able to set the action as low as the others. On all of my Korean made guitars, I can get Ibanez Wizard type action.

The Esprit is an interesting guitar. It's one that required the most craftsmanship of the bunch. It's a chambered bodied arch-top guitar with binding and some abalone work in the neck. Best tuners of the bunch. Beautiful craftsmanship. One problem though.. It's headstock heavy and I HATE that s**t!! So I had to fix that problem, then it was definitely worth what I paid for it.

If I could only keep one, it would be the Blue Stagemaster. I'll never willingly sell that guitar. Fits me perfectly.

Bass guitars?? Not sure. I'm not a Bass player. Although I do have a Yamaha RBX 774 Bass. It's really nice.

I USED TO OWN 3 SQUIER STRATS AND THE GOOD THING ABOUT THEM IS THAT YOU CAN GET THEM CHEAP AS HELL!! SO I USE THEM AS MY PROJECT DUMMIES I PRACTICE MY WIRING AND JUST PUT A BUNCH OF sh*t ON AND SEE WATS UP!!! OTHER THAN THAT THEY PLAY ALRIGHT!! THEIR ALSO A GUITAR IM NOT AFFRAID TO TAKE TO THE BEACH!!! OR LET OTHERS PLAY! ALSO ITS USEFULL FOR PRACTICEING GUITAR THROWS AND OTHER sh*t YOU WOULDN'T WANT TO TRY WITH IT'S AMERICAN VERSION!! I OWN A KRAMER , A DIME-O-FLAME, A SCHECTER, ESP, AND AN AMERICAN 1989 FENDER STRAT! THE AMERICAN STRAT HAS MORE SUSTAIN AND DOESN'T HAVE A RADDLE NOISE WEN I PLAY IT COMPARED TO THE SQUIERS!! ALL IN ALL IM THANKFULL FOR THE SQUIERS CUZ I LOVE EXPERIMENTING AND FIGURING STUFF OUT!! AND I WOULDNT DO IT TO ONE OF THE COSTLY GUITARS!! YOU CAN GET A SQUIER STRAT ON CRAIGS LIST FOR LIKE $30 - $40

sanshouheil wrote:If it feels good and sounds good play it.
If not look elsewhere.

YUP!! I HAVE A SQUIER STRAT AND I DROPPED IN A DIMARZIO CHOPPER THAT I HAD LAYING AROUND AND IT SOUNDED PRETTY GOOD!!! I JUST EXPERIMENT WITH THEM!!! THEIR ALSO GREAT TO TAKE TO PARTIES OR IF YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS GET DRUNK AND GO OUT OF CONTROL ON STAGE OR SOMETHING ITS O.K TO SMASH!!!