Why Are Squier Guitars Hated?
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- Опубліковано 17 чер 2022
- Tonight, I analyze why Squier guitars are commonly disliked, and why I find that to be unjustified. To do this, I've purchased two of Squier's recent "Contemporary" run of guitars to review and compare to Fenders. Enjoy!
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Hi, sorry for the shitty audio. I haven't done anything differently in this video and the one before, but something is off. I can't hear any distortion in my editing software or my iPad gallery, only once it's uploaded to UA-cam. Will be fixed in the next video and sorry for putting your ears through that! 👁️👄👁️
WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU! 😅
hah
Hey man, dittoes about Squier. I have some 'nicer' more expensive guitars (Les Paul, Schecter etc.) but picked up a Squier Mustang limited edition model with dual humbuckers at the pawn shop last Winter for cheap because it was in stellar condition with a near perfect finish and neck. It is a blast to play with a shorter scale that allows you to burn and make wide chord stretches a little closer to the nut because the reaches are not extreme. Pickups aren't bad really and certainly wake up for hard rock/metal with amp tweaks and effects but also have sweet clean blues tone. In short, my little Squier is for real and I'll have another Squier of some kind before I'm done.
@@jessebondmusic I literally plug my Rode wireless mic into my 2015 (or 14?) iPad Air 2 and record in voice memos. That's worked super well so far but I've also seen others record into Garageband with the voice over setting on because that has a built-in compressor/limiter. I gotta try that.
Check out your mastering level, stay around -14 LUFS. Use a free plugin called Youlean to tell LUFS. Love your video and attitude btw.
I like the point about Squier being their platform for testing new ideas. You're 100% right on that.
Their equivalent of an Instagram spam account
It’s like Tudor to Rolex. Quality is all there in both. Tudor is just way more into new ideas.
100%. The big negative I see is Fender still does the marketing. You can tell they are not promoting them right, often not even mentioning major features. IMO, contemporary series has the best neck shape/radius of any Fender guitar. It's a new shape, yet they literally just say "comfy C". The jumbo frets & radius are just for "easy bends" according to Fender.
Low end guitars stopped sucking around the turn of the century and for the last 20 years the value-for-dollar ratio has continued to increase.
It is simply amazing what 2 or $300 can get you now compared to back in the eighties when I was a teenager. It's actually astounding.
You can get a pretty good 8 string from Harley benton for about 160 bucks
300 in the 80s would've got u a big brand guitar
thats actually really nice to hear :D I'm 15 and been saving money for a 200$ squier, but often times having doubts will it be good
@@StevieZero
Maybe in the first half of the 80s, but definitely not in the second half. I paid $400 for my first guitar in 1986. It was Peavey T-15.
You were able to buy Mexican Fenders for 300 quid until about ten years ago...
The research and production value in these videos is astounding for a channel with only 3.5k subs. You address the camera like you’ve been making vids for years let alone only 7 months. found this channel through KDH (the Yngvie malmsteen fiasco) and binged all your vids. Can’t wait for this channel to blow up 👍
Thank you so much! 😁
I've definitely noticed a development in how I present over the past half year. Glad you're a fan 😎😎
Agreed this young man’s content is incredible as good or better than some UA-cam veterans. I’ve played some incredible squires over the years you get one with a good neck on it and you can do anything with it. Keep up the great work young man. Digging the KFK 800 and the 900 there too !
Thanks!! I'm flattered by the amount of people enjoying my stuff. 😁
Also the top head is a JCM2000 👁️👁️
Similar to the 900, just a bit more generally beloved
@@sixstringtv1 yep my mistake yeah , I’m an old guy I can remember the launch of the 900 and everyone hated it. With the eventual success of they 800 anything that followed it was doomed. I say eventual because I don’t think the 800 was an instant hit everyone still wanted plexis and jtms.
I don't get why the 900 is *quite* as hated as it is, but it's definitely inferior to the other two. Still, I'll have to buy one eventually to complete the JCM collection
The reality is that low end guitars today are better than they have EVER been thanks to advancements in mass production techniques. Hell, last year my former roommate bought a US$200 GIO Ibanez that had ZERO business being as good as it was. He put a Duncan Invader in it, god damn that thing sounded WAY better than it had any right to hahaha.
Of all the "guitar guy" channels, you're jamming and noodling always feels more sincere and realistic than others who demo gear.
You jam out the way I think I do, and thus I think a lot of guys and gals do. Very relaxed, not pretentious. Just a guy whose pretty fuckin badass on guitar, talking shit and jamming, and I appreciate it!!
Hell yeah! Demoing gear for videos is about 50% of my guitar time at this point, so I do just genuinely enjoy myself when I get to record guitars
I bought a Lake Placid Blue Squier Affinity Telecaster for my college dorm since I didn’t want to bring one of my expensive guitars, and it very quickly became one of my favorites.
Fender but squier is leading the way for young new generation guitarists who want their own sound their own guitar, fender and squier offers that. Unique parallel and paranormal, vintage to contemporary. Can’t go wrong.
Yes Squier is the best of both worlds: the walled garden of Fender design principles, combined with the mix n match of tones and sounds. at a 3rd of the price.
Fender has a great line up. Products at virtually every price point.
Facts 💯💯
Love your videos! Jazzmasters don’t have p90 pickups though, the j mascis signature squier did but all classic vibes have jazzmaster pickups. There flatter and wider than a p90 with some somewhat similar characteristics!
I wanted to say the same thing!
Jeff Healey, RIP, blind, on his lap, rocked his Squires like nobody's business. But you omitted one awesome guy, Jack Pearson. He playes Squier Stratocaster Affinity (!) all stock with stock ceramic pickups and he sounds magnificent. Like a Custom Shop Strat. He ownes multiple of them and knows how to recognize one that will sound healthy. Great guy, check him out, few videos preferably if you want to spare time. It's not your usual Yngwie shred, it's blues but maybe you'll appreciate it.
I do like some good blues, especially with good tone!
@@sixstringtv1 Check him out. I was amazed at how cheap Affinity with cheap Chinese ceramic pickup can sound
I was just listening today to Jack play some Allman tunes with Govt Mule in Macon 2019. Man is a legend.
I earn a living as a guitarist and I have no problem taking a Squier or a Harley Benton to work. I ve had a lot more expensive guitars having similar issues sometimes. Thank you for not being a headstock snob. Keep up the good work and greetings from Greece
The Squier's available today are excellent. Especially the Classic Vibe series. There are always going to be brand snobs. I'm in my mid 50's and love Squiers.
8:59 Love that you're playing Speed Metal Symphony along with other riffs and licks you don't really hear anyone else play!
Love the video's dude, I've been following you since I saw you on KDH and I'm absolutely hooked!
Keep it up! ^_^
I'm a sucker for Becker, Friedman, Gilbert etc, I'm always happy when people recognize the licks 😁😁
@@sixstringtv1
Heck yea! Good stuff
I was gifted an E series 87 MIK squier with no chips scratches or any type of damage from my grandfather. It has an alder body, rosewood fretboard, gotoh tuners and fender hardware, I recently took it in and was offered some good coin for it due to the sound and feel! I had no idea it was a gem until recently.
My first guitar was an '84 Japanese Squier Bullet, made in the Fujigen factory, it had a tele neck and a smaller strat-like body. Very solid axe for how cheap it was.
That sounds sick. I'd love to try one
after kdh’s video about your yngwie malmsteen video you have quickly become one of my favorite guitar youtubers. keep up the great work man!!
Thanks! Great work will be kept up! 😁
I found a Squier Contemporary Strat Special Hardtail in the Sunset Metallic finish on Reverb for $230 USD! For that price how could I say no? It kicks ass. Great factory action, great fretwork, a nice chunky neck, and it's 2lb lighter than my alder-bodied Strats! I expected FAR less than I got for the money. I planned to upgrade the pickups but these pickups sound great! Thanks for the positive review.
Ive got two Squiers, the Toronado and the Offset Tele from the Paranormal line and i absolutely love them them both!
The Paranormal series looks awesome. I own a couple fender guitars. I paid well into the thousands for them plus upgrades and at the end of the day I still want more guitars lol so it makes sense to feed the buy & mod addiction with Squiers guitars. Great vid man thanks!
That Squier Jazzmaster 😱 what a beauty!
Incredible, both the finishes look much better up close, especially the sparkly one on the Strat.
I personally love Squire guitars lately. They’ve really stepped up their game the past few years. I have several Squires from the classic vibe series and they absolutely rival any of their fender counterparts! Especially the 70s Jaguar. Seriously a great guitar for the price, would 💯 recommend to anyone the Squire CV series. They may need some more set up and tweaking out of the box but it’s absolutely worth it! Great video, thank you!
Agreed. Glad you enjoyed the video😁
Well said 👍👍
I setup even American Fenders. I don't get why people wouldn't. Don't you have personal setups? You just take what the factory gives you? So yeah, both Squire and Fenders gets setup out of the box for me. Setup is a personal taste.
A few years ago I bought the bullet mustang and was so impressed by the squier quality that I’ve bought 2 more since, a cv jag and a paranormal off-set tele. I play them more than my other guitars. Beginners have excellent choice these days for affordable, quality guitars.
Brilliant video. The only thing I would add is that the Contemporary Series should be higher, or at least at equal to Classic Vibe series in the Squier hierarchy, as almost all the Contemporary Squiers (especially the first generation) I have tried were better sounding, better playing instruments than the CV series regardless of their price tags. Keep up the good work!
Unfortunately, mine (a contemperary Strat hard tail) is a "plink plank". It buzzes like crazy all over the neck. I raised the factory action a bit (1-1/2 turns on the saddle screws). I went to adjust the Truss rod as there was a considerable amount too much relief in the neck and the included truss wrench was the wrong size and it was in the sealed case candy bag! Also there was no saddle wrench and I used my own. There were a few high frets on the treble side of the neck up at the area of the tenth fret causing the note D to play D# as if I fretted the string at the 11th fret. This seems to rob the string energy from the treble side E string above the seventh fret or so. It may be I need to tap down a few high frets and shim the neck to increase the break angle over the saddles to get it right. There is a noticeable drop in output of the E string with a near complete loss of sustain. If this is typical of these $450.00 is an awful high price.
Sick video dude, I've been defending squier as they were my first good guitar because it had everything I needed in a guitar. Would like to see a video on esp/ltd in the future
Legator, ESP/LTD and Jackson are next on the hot seat. In that order.
I have two M-80's. Beautifully crafted guitars that are a pleasure to play. Good video and subscribed. Best Regards and Best Wishes!
Probably not P90s? Just regular jazzmaster-style pickups.
Jazzmaster pickups are P90s 😐
@@sixstringtv1 No, they're not. That's why they sound different.
I think that Darrell Brown had a video on that.
@@sixstringtv1 no they aren’t?? The J mascis Jazzmaster and classic player have pickups that more closely resemble P90s but in general Jazzmaster pickups are wider and flatter than a P90, and have a very different tone
Dude! You need another espresso! 😂 Good job! Thanks for the video. I just ordered a Contemporary Strat like the one you played only in orange mist or something like that. Blessings!
Thanks for the vid, as I am a 100% newb just picking up guitar. I am not sure I will stick with it, so I wanted a new guitar but for little money. I found my way to a Bullet Tele for under $200 and I'm just going to go from there. To me it felt like a couldn't go wrong from what I have heard about Squire.......and I always loved the Tele body and looks. Aaaaaaaand subbed!
Thanks for the sub! 😁
Squier Bullet stuff is cool! I started with it too
I had a fender squire in the early 2001 time frame. "Vas Kallas" of Hanzel und Gretyl auctioned away her old squire she used to record Ausgeflippt.
I worked in a small music store in the early to mid 2000’s and most of their guitars at the time weren’t any good however, we got in a “Telecaster” with coil tap, double humbuckers and an arched top. That guitar was fantastic. Fender has since released them as the FMT series.
I'm thinking of getting a classic vibe jazzmaster, it sounds so cool.
Do it.
I have the same Squier Contemporary Stratocaster in Pearl white, and this model rips. I love the alnico single coils in series, and the pickup selector feels great and has a good combination of tonal options.
Oh and I got it for $300 on sale for Black Friday. Saved $140 🙂
Squier are great. Got two and I play both of them often. Probably more often than my more expensive guitar. Get one. Especially the classic vibe series and contemporary, but also the cheaper ones if you're on a budget. You will not regret it.
New subscriber! That strat sounds killer thank you for the awsome content!
Thanks for the sub! 😎😎
Squier is fantastic. I got a Squier 70's Jazz bass (you know, the one with the natural finish with the black pickguard. Beautiful. Actually, I think I can see the same one in the thumbnail of one of your videos right now. XD) in like 2014 and it's great. I'm the kind of person to mod and upgrade my guitars, since I'm left handed and left handed players don't get anything cool. I haven't done anything to this bass, other than having a tech level and polish the frets and whatnot. It's that good.
Personally, Squire is one of my fav guitar brands for how creative they can be with some of their guitars, and the quality they have in them for the price is truly insane, The sound demo was really good in the vid i always love watching the sound demos because of how cool they are, Great video!
Very good, honest and informative! I've got expensive Fenders and I can honestly say that the top tier of the Squier brand is just as good. Even the pickups are great! All Fender designed and alnico magnets! What more do you want? People will say if I put a 500.00 set of Fralin pickups in it, then it'll sound great. When in reality, when you are playing with heavy gain, you aren't going to know the difference.
Thanks again for a great, honest video on these Squiers.
I'm a Les Paul man, but began looking into a Tele for twangy tones. Tried all the Teles in my local store. Walked out with a Squier CV 50s Tele. Had the best neck by far. On the fence whether or not to change the pickups...here in Canada, there's about a 500-600 dollar difference between mine and the Mexican Fender Tele.
I've heard good things about Squier for years. I'm thinking of getting a 40th Anniversary Gold Edition Jazz Bass for my first bass. Bullet Strats are especially known for being good mod guitars.
I have a squier strat and it’s my work horse. I put locking tuners on it and it never goes out of tune and came perfectly intonated. And I think my next guitar is going to be a classic vibe tele.
The Classic Vibe series is killer. Go for it!
I have the Classic Vibe Custom Tele and it is great. If you like awesome things you will love it.
Hey man, was there another video where you mod (or review) that blue Contemporary Strat? I can't find it now. What do you think what is worth a used one, mint condition?
I'm planning on getting the Squier classic vibe 60's jazzmaster in shell pink in about 2 weeks, I couldn't be more excited! The carbonita thinline Tele is also a pretty great guitar, and if I didn't already have a Thinline Tele I'd probably snag that as well
Let me know how you like it! 😁
I’m 75 and i just bought my first Squire, a Classic Vibe Starcaster. It’s a great guitar punching way above it’s price.
Hell yeah!
Great looking guitar
There's a 90s Pro Tone Strat in transparent blue coming my way, should be arriving soon next week, I'll be sure to post an update when I have it in my hands.
Do that 😁
The contemporary strat has the two single coils close together. Is there a humbucker type of sound when both are played together in that 1st position bridge and middle? Thanks.
I lol at people who hate squiers. The thing I love personally about squiers is its a good workhorse/recording guitar that you can just abuse, for lack of a better term, and its more than possible to make a squier sound good if you have decent mixing/producing skills. Less expensive too, so you have so much less to worry about with respect to every scratch or natural wear and tear, compared to a more expensive variant in my experience. I have videos on my channel of me playing a squier and putting it thru good production treatment, and it sounds absolutely amazing with with the right balance of gain/reverb/delay. I can't in good faith say its better than the combined features of a real mim or mia strat, but its still really good, especially for the prices
I collect vintage guitars, and sometimes it's really just nice to have an instrument you don't have to treat as gingerly.
I’ve been looking at a contemporary telecaster, and I would be perfectly happy if Squire just become a massive experimental brand with new shapes, newer specs, different finishes and woods etc. just because it seems like a good idea, also a good way to create a newer more experimental way to get higher end versions in Fenders lineup as well if they are good
Facts 💯
I'd really love to see you make a video like this on Jackson guitars.
Jackson is now the new target with many claims of bad QC at outrageous prices and paying only for a name. Would love to see you examine some of their Soloists (surprisingly enough the 600€ X series has less reports of bad QC than the 1000€ Pro Series lol)
The thing I've always passionately disliked about Jackson is that you seem to get *in house* Jackson brand pickups with every guitar under $1000.
What a sham.
@@sixstringtv1 or Duncan Designed... Which is a spec nobody else uses since 2009 lol
Really? I've heard good things about their budget guitars. Especially the neck and finishes on them. No clue about the higher ranges tho.
@@Mr.Goldbar Well technically Solar Guitars pickups in their 2.6 Range are all Duncan Designed
@@sixstringtv1 Not every, just fyi. Guitars like the RRX24 (any finish) / RRX24M come with Seymour Duncan Blackouts. Also my Indonesian RR3 Pro I purchased new for around $1050 with Seymour Duncan Distortions and a Floyd Rose 1000 came out with perfect QC. Luck of the draw I guess. 🤷🏻♂️
Awesome video. The stuff Squier produce today is really high quality stuff.
Just a few year back a roasted maple neck would be reserved for top ££££ guitars.
One of my fav bands (The Cribs) bass player & guitar player both have Squier signatures and they are sick!
I gotta check those two out. And yeah, Squier is bringing a lot of features to the table that weren't really common on low end guitars before
@@sixstringtv1 I have the bass but the guitar is impossible to find these days for under £1000!
I'm hoping for a re-issue!
Absolutely love you way of looking at how Squier are like a modern version of Fender and you’re bang on.
I’ve been curious about getting one as a mod platform.
I watched this and now I want a contemporary Tele… I normally don’t even like Tele’s 😂
Do it! I did last month and loving every second of playing
Came back to this because I thought I remembered you reviewed the Squier contemporary series....just found a used Contemporary Strat HH w/active pickups in excellent condition for sale on Craigslist for $180. Going rate on reverb is $300-$350. Came back to this video to confirm I'm getting an absolute bargain that's actually worth it. Sometimes I get such absolute deals because parents buy their kids guitars and they give up within a year lol
The low low end range is meh but the 250-500$ range are usually pretty nice, I like how they bring some rarer things like the bass VI to the market.
Right, I really want one of their Bass VIs
I agree I got a low low end Squier I'm modding but damn I want that 5 string P bass so bad even though I heard bad things about through my friend Hector. If buy it and it's not good I would return it and get an Ibanez GSR206 because I always wanted a 6 string bass.
My first electric guitar was an Squier Obey edition strat. They came with Seymour Duncan pickups. Ive had it for 17 years and it is still in immaculate condition. The neck has never bowed and the electronics still shred
Love the vid and agree that Squier guitars are a great option. I’ve owned a number of guitars and the one I’ve stuck with is an affinity Strat that I’ve modified. It’s always been the guitar I’ve felt the most comfortable with. For a relatively minimal amount of $ you can upgrade hardware & pickups to give it some more balls and stability.
Great playing as well! Killer
I decided to keep the blue Strat and slapped some Fender Ultra Noiseless pickups in two days ago, thing really shreds now 😎😎
@@sixstringtv1 nice! I did the same with my strat. Gen4 noiseless fender pickups, obsedian wire electronics, locking tuners. Eventually I replaced with neck with a MiM fender replacement neck (that passed the balloon test haha). Love this guitar. Cheers!
Hi, what do you think about nuts being only 40mm wide on Affinities? I feel I don’t like my Affinity Strat because or it but I don’t know if I’m just searching for an excuse and I should just study and practice more… or it might just be too narrow for my hands.
I have very large hands and it doesn't bother me. In fact I prefer slimmer necks/nut radius most of the time
Got a '20 affinity FMT and put in some Tex Mex single coils and a SD humbucker. Added locking tuners and didn't need to change the pots at all. Total cost for the build, including money spent to sand down the edges of the neck, was kept below $800, but it feels and sounds like a $2k guitar.
May consider replacing the trem with a vega trem system because I like dive bombs.
I have a 15 year old Squier Bullet Strat and it is frickin' awesome! Flamed maple neck (only available on more expensive guitars these days) rosewood finger board, faux pearl inlays and it plays sooo nice I kept it for all of these years - It has ceramic pick-ups that sound lovely. A couple of weeks ago I finally upgraded the tuners to Wilkinson kluson style with split shaft and that's the slight tuning issue solved.
I've heard that roasted/flamed maple was less expensive before it became a "trend"
@@sixstringtv1 Absolutely! But it seriously plays nicer now than ever. For fun I just did a set up on my old acoustic guitar and it turned out well, so that's all good!
I like that you mention how fender likes to experiment within the squire brand while leaving the fender name branding as boomer appeasers. They're doing the same with Charvel- all of the experimental layouts and modern
features just without the fender branding so they're priced extremely fairly
As a boomer at heart but Gen-Z in reality, I love both.
I have a mid 80's Squier Strat, made in Japan. The original 5 way switch wasn't very good so I replaced it and swapped the neck pickup for a Di|Marzio PAF. The guitar sounds great, plays well and hardly shows its age. Great value for a well made guitar.
Dude you're awesome! keep making these
Thanks! Will do 😎
Loving your content bro....
Thank you!
If it wasn’t for ‘Squire’, I most likely wouldn’t have been able to afford to pick Bass playing back up after 25+ years. Maybe I got lucky, I don’t know, but I got a REALLY good Squire P-Bass out of it in ‘92, that played as well if not a little better to my ear anyway than the old Fender I had in my teens. Squire (and the other less expensive brand names) gets a LOT of young would-be players in the proverbial door… and that’s a GOOD thing. Sadly sometimes a person finds that they aren’t as interested in playing or as ‘naturally talented’ as they thought they’d be, and they shouldn’t have to shell out a grand or more to discover that.
And if the idea of ‘building’ a guitar, especially if it’s your first go at it, is your goal - a Squire is a great way to start. I spent the lockdown experimenting with my first build attempt, and in the end I had made my dream Butterscotch Blonde ‘50s Tele, and a sort of Strat test bed as well. Plus a bit of skill in soldering, fret work, etc., that I didn’t have before. Most importantly, I had an absolute blast doing it.
Understandably Squire isn’t everyone’s taste. But nothing really is if you think about it after all.
That Strat... It's so perfect. Except... I want to reverse the angle of the pups and have a reverse headstock. A freeway switch mounted on the horn. A kill switch where the Vol is and master volume/tone. Squire probably will release it next year.
The cavity below the Pickguard is fully routed out, not in the shape of pickups, so if you bought a new pickguard you could change the angle of the pickups. You could also easily make the killswitch thing happen
@@sixstringtv1 I've wanted to do that forever. It really is the ideal platform. Also thinking of it for a pickup testing platform. There are these pups that are supposed to sound like Burns pups in a Strat format from a company called Creamery. Currently playing a Warmoth Strat and Bari Strat and feel a little robbed when looking some Harley Bentons and Squiers lately. And... Just had to say you are so cool to do so much with single coils. And I agree with you on EMGs.
I have a Squier Classic Vibe Starcaster since a little while back. I really love that thing.
My first guitar was a bullet strat as well, selling it this saturday, gonna miss it but it's become just a piece of work needing more than i have
Leather straps with rough backs help a lot with neck dive.
And the vintage style tuners make string changes a joy, so I will always want them on my guitars.
And those are not P90s, they're Jazzmaster pickups. :P
Have a Korean crafted 1996 Squier Stratocaster Pro Tone in Sapphire Blue with gold hardware that I purchased new. An absolute honey of a guitar that I wouldn’t think of trading. Cheers!
Does the fan turn on automatically when you plug in guitar or you have to do it manually?
😂😂😂
Its a regular metal fan opposite me propped up on a desk chair, I plug it in and turn it on whenever I play to keep my hair out of my face (and to look good)
@@sixstringtv1 I use that also at summer but it makes my guitar warble a bit. 〰️〰️
Nice video homie! One thing I'll never understand is how the squiers have amazing fret work like you showed but almost all the new MIM i see in store are cheese graters posing as guitars
I love my 93 MIJ Blondy Squier. It's bloody awesome and only cost me $359 AUD in an eBay auction!
Damn, what a steal
I'm a bass player and I've got a Squier affinity PJ from 2020 and it's genuinely amazing. The affinities from the last 2 years have had a definite drop in quality in my opinion, but they're still great
I had three Squiers I picked up cheap at garage sales; the years were unknown, but none were particularly new (early 2000s?). I went through them, doing little more than general cleaning, fret clean up, new nuts, and string height, and a set of bridge springs for one because they were missing. I was talking to a coworker who said, "Squires?! They suck balls." So I invited him over one day. I brought them out, he plugged them in, played a bit, then offered me $400 for all three. Sold.
I bought a lefty Squier Classic Vibe 70s Strat almost a year ago, and out of the box, it was close to being unplayable. The frets get increasingly rough (on both sides of the neck) starting at the 6th fret and the action on the high E-string was so low that it always buzzed out along with none of the saddles being intonated at all.
Some less important things are: microphonic pickups, noisy electronics, righty knobs on lefty pots (the numbers are reversed so 10 is 0 and 0 is 10 etc.), wiggly whammy bar and an uneven level of gloss on the headstock.
There are cheap and easy fixes to most of these problems. Intonation and action was fixed minutes after getting it home, frets will be fixed with a file and sandpaper this summer, the pickups and electronics are easy to swap and the uneven finish on the headstock is not a big deal for me. The reversed knobs are just annoying and it does not bother me that much either.
I believe that the reason as to why it was so bad out of the box is that it is a lefty. In my experience left handed guitars usually have more problems from the factories regarding setup than righty models. I have had 2 Epiphone sgs (2016 & 2018) and a Harley Benton LP copy (2015) with bad intonation, action and lacking fretwork in the higher regions of the fretboard. My only guitar ever that was perfect out of the box is (ironically enough) my Gibson LP Studio (2017).
I was gonna say, that's unfortunate but there's probably an easy explanation. Lefty guitars often come with really shitty setups. Not really "justifiable", but more understandable since they're kinda rare. Still, I'm sorry you seemed to have a bummer guitar
@@sixstringtv1 Probably setup at the factory by a righty guitarist so not a natural perspective for him to set it up just right. I'm just guessing of course
Alex, I'm righty and I bout first series of Squier Classic Vibe '60 back in the 2007 brand new from the shop. Guitar was a quantum leap from Standard series at the time with build quality. But sound wise it was a very unappealing so I sold while it was still having a brand new guitar smell. No regrets.
I've come to like squires over time especially in the recent years a friend of mine has A PowerCaster and it's pretty freaking cool.
Do one for Jackson guitars. Also I'd like a deep dive into the squire telecaster too
You ever play a Yamaha Rev Star? I bought one 6 months ago, a Standard in black w/p90s and it’s the best guitar I’ve ever played…best neck, pick ups RULE, stainless steel immaculate fretwork, gorgeous aluminum tail piece….so fun to play too…play’s itself…for $800 it’s unbeatable…imo
Trespass is such a cool riff. Also, great video.
Yeah I’ve never really understood the Squier hate, I had a 2016 affinity that I modded into a super strat for a UA-cam video with high end parts that I find myself picking up more often than even my $2000 guitars
After I put some Fender Ultra Noiseless single coils in the blue strat (yes, I decided to keep it) It quickly became like one of my top 4 guitars
@@sixstringtv1 the actual main parts of they’re instruments are great my biggest issue was honestly the cheap tremolo in them. How are the fender noiseless? I’ve never had the opportunity to try the noiseless single coils and always wondered about them.
@@taitjohnson I love them, they sound incredible. Buy them.
@@taitjohnson Yeah it can be a bit tedious to find the right trem bar for them because they keep on changing the body thickness with every new batch. I blocked the trem on my guitar with heavy gauge Floyd rose springs. Might also add a wooden block as a temporary measure to get more sustain. Gives me an excuse to learn new techniques to compensate for the lack of a whammy bar.
@@sixstringtv1 guess I’ll have to put them in my next build
....my best guitar is a 1996 Squier (YN****) Strat. I modified it , tru oiled the neck, installed clay dots. Gutted it and Fender-ised it put some VooDoo pups in. Locking tuners. Great guitar.
I have a 97 NC in the mail. It appears they are a cousin to the YN of that year. Shhh keep ‘em secret.
A fan.. u had a fan on lol 😆was that intentional.. or was it just hot.? Cool video definitely noticing a huge difference in squiers of the past an current ones. Glad I'm not the only one 🙂
100% intentional
Do those singles run parallel or series? In the sky blue contemporary
ok what is that first riff u play on the jazzmaster it is driving me crazy trying to place it but i know it
Can 100% vouch for this. I picked up a 1995 Korean Squire for $100, easily gives 10-20x priced guitars some competition 😂
It's like whenever they realize the quality of Squiers is too good, they move/cheapen production to make Fender more desirable
Shout-out for that The Haunted riff thrown in there. Your playing is where I wish mine was even tho I'm pretty damn good sometimes.
I love my Squire.. I got second hand 1996 Squire Aff Strat and it's amazing! Just now realize that it is in fact Korean made..
It was 250e nearly mint condition, my main axe i love this little thing...
My current love affair with my Squier Classic Vibe 60s P Bass is ongoing. It's such an enjoyable instrument to play. I have an American Professional Strat that was a grand more but it really isn't a grand for fun to play. Maybe the Strat takes itself too seriously? a Squier P Bass used to be the byword for horrible experience but not anymore. It's clearly come from the ability to CNC to such close tolerances that the finger board feels like it has rolled edges but it doesn't it just has a really small CNC cut that replicates it.
I'd have more. I keep eyeing up the Mustang bass, and the 50s P bass, and the 50s tele...
You skipped over the actual begining of Squier branded guitars- the JV Squiers made in Japan beginging in 1982.
I just picked up a surf green Squier tele baritone and it is fantastic.
That sounds amazing. What pickups?
@@sixstringtv1 Alnico soapbar by Fender - part of the Paranormal series. It was $400 and has inspired and challenged me far more than the cost belies in the 3 weeks I've owned it. Love your channel, by the way! Keep up the hard work.
I'm not a strat guy but I'm really considering picking up the contemporary strat for something fun to play at home.
Do it!!
Loving that sky burst strat! i forgive what it says on the headstock.
I love squire man I want the 40th anniversary tele Hella bad. Looks so cool with the block inlays. It's nice to see another metalhead digging jazzmasters I got one a year ago and it's probably my favorite guitar now.
Jazzmasters are cool
The old squier series are great guitars as well. Squier Standard, Squier Vintage Modified and Squier Deluxe.
I have a Squier affinity P bass it had faulty wiring so I ripped out the wiring and I'm putting EMG's in it to play Thrash Metal and Slipknot. Them squier affinity P basses only with the P bass pickups have been discontinued for the PJ affinity basses so I'm keeping it and putting them EMG's and possibly putting a fretless jazz bass neck on it in the future.
As much as I hate EMGs *in guitars*, the downsides they have in a guitar are upsides when put in a bass.
My Squire Contemp from 2015 is a damn good Jake E Lee Ozzy era copy with a damn good JB copy in the bridge and is one of the best guitars ive bought and it was $350.
Congrats! Sounds like a great catch
Nice! I picked up a discounted store damaged (small chip on bottom and busted strap pin) Affinity a couple months back and it played like butter but needed some hardware and electronics upgrades like they all do so I replaced the pickgaurd with an aluminium one, copper foiled the cavities, put in quality pots with Strat values (the ones in it were 500k) and wired it up for a Gilmour mod with a dual pot to keep the bridge tone control (had to drill the lower pot cavity down a bit to fit), new switch/plug, a FR Rail Tail, locking tuners and just for fun dropped a 0 fret in. Cost me a total of €680 when done including the replacement black knobs, pickup covers, plug plate and screws, files, small nut/fret vise and nipper.
Really just stuff that I do to all my guitars except that one I got from James Tyler (soo soo perfect).
Freakin awesome guitar for less than a really really cheap Fender of far lesser quality.
Basically all that is left are the wood, frets and pickups (GREAT sounding pickups) which are the guitar really and they needed nothing, the setup was awesome, the fretwork was awesome except for a couple of snaggy ends which filed down in 2 or 3 strokes of the fret file I needed for the 0 fret, the action was unbeleivably good even for a high end guitar and best of all it's slim bodied with a narrow spacing. It is the Fender Strat that Fender should have made.
Lovin Squire's build quality these days, gonna be my new gigging guitars.
I own a “vintage modified” Jaguar bass with the active preamp 31inch scale. Seriously, one of the best instruments I have ever owned, I’v bought and sold many instruments over the past 30 years of playing live. I will die with this one… The fit and finish, playability to the sound is amazing. Bought for 80.00 US. New tuners new hipshot bridge, and it is rock solid!
I have the Squier showmaster electric guitar 🎸 the Black one with skull cross bones it says by Fender crafted in china I had it since 2005
For me, they are hated because I don't want to have to mod the nut, re-solder the grounding wire, replace the broken pots that came with it as new. They can be amazing instruments, after YOU finish the QC, and be ready to replace parts.