Mexican Telecasters versus Squire Telecasters

I used to work for a Fender dealer last year. The difference between the Mexican and American model(standard) is very little. The rep told me they use all the same materials for both models. The body of the American models are 2-3 pieces. The body of the Mexican model is 5-7 pieces. Of course, the American model get more attention to detail in craftsmanship but, the defining characteristic is the pickups. The American models have alnico while the Mexican have ceramic. I can certainly hear the difference. The Americans have a, "spankier" sound to them and the harmonics are better. They have a bit more output with less noise as well.

So, there's an obvious shift in craftsmanship and overall quality in the Affinities. The materials are a lower grade. Though, if you're talking about an old 90's Squier, those things are sweet and they seem pretty consistent.

Essentially, if you buy a Mexican model and put in some pickups that you like, you own an American(standard).
 
I ordered one of those squire teles the other day so I'll let you know what I think of it.

I recentley picked up an ash mex tele special edition from GC. It was a pretty guitar a real strong baseball bat sized neck. It needed everything setup up I even had to do so fret leveling and recrowning. There was no shielding so it was noisier than hell. The front pickup was soldered in poorly so all the electronics had to be re soldered. I ended up replacing the picks with Bill Lawrence. And the tuners with Schaller lockers, installed a bone brige bought a HS case for it. Also bougth some graphtech string savers and another nut for it. Also soldered in copper shielding through out.

I'm still not happy with it, I really don't like the jumbo frets on it they are just to tall. I guess as time goes buy they will slowly wear down to a reasonable height.
I could have paid a couple hundred more and got an american but they seemed to be lacking in craftsmen ship more than the mexs that day.

The MIM pickups were okay after I resoldered and shielded the guitar not a lot of output for very clean and crisp. I would rate the B@L's a step better in
sound quality but completely noiseless.

I have a Korean squire strat I would rate higher much more playable than my HW1 strat. I does have a pickup upgrade so that might be cheating. The HW1 has a great feeling neck it is just the the components are useless that come with it. I've put locking Schallers and graphtech components on the HW1 with Texas specials and a SCN on the neck for my next mod to it.

But I should have that tele by Wed evening and I'll let you know how mine is.

At least I'll a lot of left over parts to beed it up with. ;)
 
Easto said:
the owner has replaced as many of the parts as they possibly could "to make it sound better".


"This is the original hatchet that George washington used to chop down the cherry tree. I had to replace the handle and I had to replace the head."

Richard Monroe said:
I've never played any Chinese guitar that didn't suck.

I recently got a $75 Chinese Squire Strat that did suck until I screwed $150 worth of quality components onto it. From the way it played when I got it home, I thought it was a lost cause. I mean, it was shi-TAY. I took the neck off and left it on my desk for a month, replaced the bridge with a real fender one from a late 80s 62 RI, put decent tuners on it from some other donor and bought a prewired hb/hb pickguard from guitar fetish.

After I put it back together and set it up, it is an extremely decent guitar. It has a really good neck body joint and the neck is like a baseball bat. Evidently, they were behind at the chinese sawmill and they said "Just get it basically into the shape of the neck and don't worry if it takes 2 hands to wrap around it."

I recently played the whole model spectrum at GC and there were Mexi's that had way shittier neck/body interface than the squiers (wherever they were made - indonesia?) Electronics aren't that big of a deal to me. I can solder and usually change pickups out anyway. Plus I play pretty lo-fi anyway.

Of the ones I played, I LIKED an American vintage replica with 3-saddle bridge the most, just for the brice springsteenism. But the shocker was the $550 mexi nashville tele with the strat middle pickup. It was less than half the price of the american replicas. Now, the low-end ones were fairly shitty - all of them. But there was one $550 nashville tele that was a really good guitar, I though. One low end indonesian or korean ~$300 tele was markedly better than the $550 non-nashville mexi tele (with that light colored body with 3/4" of honey-tinted clear lacquer between the wood and me).

So, play them all. If you can find a low-end one that is mechanically cool, you can always throw a bridge and PUs in it. Keep in mind that the chinese hardware might be metric or something. I had to drill out the bridge holes on my chinese strat and put the dowels in there and re-drill.
 
Philpro, I can't give you a comparison between MIMs and Squires. But I did demo a number of Teles at GC a couple of weeks ago and I was pleasantly surprised by a couple of MIMs that I played. Both were properly set up and had good tone.
 
Mexi Teles arent student guitars. Squiers are and Affinity guitars are smaller. MExi>Squier but Squier makes some decent guitars, I have an old Tele Deluxe Squier model from when I first started and it inspired me to buy a real one.
 
philpro68 said:
So you think for the most part that the Mexican Telecasters are a grade better than the squires? The pickups on the mexican standard teles versus the pickups on the american standard teles are what I'm most concerned about. Thanks for any information that can be provided.

BTW not only are the pickups but the durability and wood. The squiers are made of terrible wood and the tone isnt that great.
 
Armistice said:
It should cost more than $169, in any currency, to play rock 'n' roll - or $389 for that matter.

Why?

I think rock and roll should be accessible to all income levels. Maybe it won't sound as good on cheap gear, but music, especially rock, is for anyone who wants to give it a shot IMHO.
 
tc4b said:
Why?

I think rock and roll should be accessible to all income levels. Maybe it won't sound as good on cheap gear, but music, especially rock, is for anyone who wants to give it a shot IMHO.

Yeah. What you said.
 
Got the squire tele today. The neck is very good no jaggies could use some polishing on the frets. Tuners better than expected. Pickup good till turned up to 11 then very noisy. The guitar probably needs some copper tape along with new pots and a switch. The ones on the guitar are what I would call Sesame Street quality. The nut was better than the one that came on my MIM.
The wood matched pretty good it had a nice finish but also had a huge chunk knocked output jack which is also very cheesey. It plays very good ,intonation sounded close the action is a little high if you do not like buzzing.

I will send this one back and try out another I actually bought for my wife to play around with and I like hot rodding and wasting my time and money on budget guitars. I may try another brand of tele copy if the next comes all banged up.

If it did not have the huge chunk of wood missing and slightly high action.
I would probably keep it.

The quality of the fit and finish is as good as MIA or MIM.

But the hardware with the exception of the bridge is pure junk.
 
Armistice said:
It should cost more than $169, in any currency, to play rock 'n' roll - or $389 for that matter.

I have a friend who has a great collection of cheap guitars - Mex strat, Epi Les Paul etc..

He's not a happy man and still yearns for "the real thing" - keep saving is my advice... get the real thing. :cool:

I gotta agree, when it comes to guitars, especially from strong brands like fender you do get what you pay for. I'd go American, even just to satisfy the stigmas attached! Highway One Teles have just been released and they look beautiful. Save your money my friend and I guarantee you'll be happier in the long run.
 
I personally dig the Squier's. I would find one that plays really nice and have it setup by a pro. It will play as good as any MIM Tele. I have a Squier 51 that plays better than an American Tele I owned. It's all about the setup!!
 
philpro68 said:
Thanks for the input. I'll just have to play em all I guess :D might be kinda fun. By the way, does anyone know the kinda tele and equipment Danny Groah (Alan Jackson's lead guitarist) uses? Love that sound!

Are you referring to his live sound or the recorded sound on cd. Because Brent Mason is the guy you're digging if you like the cd's. Danny only plays live for Alan.

Next, while I agree that all guitars are different to some degree, the mentality towards the mex teles as student guitars is pretty far fetched. Maybe they aren't finished as well, but they are in some cases superior to MIA teles especially figuring in price. Setup matters for a big part in how a guitar plays.

Squire Affinity, yeah they are in no way an awesome guitar, but they are light years away from what I learned on 20+ years ago. For the money you can't beat them, if you're looking to start out on one it's money well spent. Also works good for a modder that likes to tinker and is looking for a guitar to carry around and not worry about getting scuffed.

I have or have had all three and there was nothing wrong with either for the money spent, I currently own a squier affinity, Made in Japan Esquire (the best of all) and a MIA B Bender.
 
I happen to own both a Squier Telecaster, and a Fender Telecaster...both Standard models. Unfortunately, I'd only be able to do a side-by-side comparison in the lead position, as the Squier is a Fat Telecaster, having a humbucker at the neck. Even if I had a Fender Telecaster Custom, the comparison would be somewhat unfair, as the Fender volume/tone controls and switching are more like a Les Paul, while the Squier is typical Telecaster. I've got GFS Lipstick pickups for my Squier, which should give the lead sound some deeper twang, and I can only imagine how the sound will be, in the middle and rhythm positions, with a Lipstick humbucker.

I can offer an accurate Squier vs. Fender comparison between my Squier Bullet Special, and my Fender So Cal Speed Shop Strat. The basics are the same: Strat body and neck; bridge humbucker; volume knob. That's where the similarities end, as the only way the Squier will ever hold a candle to the Fender will be with some upgrades. I've already got a TV Jones PowerTron humbucker, for the Bullet Special, but I've also decided to convert it to a baritone, so I'll hold off until I've procured some more electronics upgrades, and the 28 5/8" scale neck and better tuners.

As I'd mentioned in another thread, I'd once played a Mexican Telecaster compared to a Highway One Telecaster, and although I didn't plug either into an amp, I could actually tell the difference in the sound between the two. Had I had the money to spend, that day, it's likely I'd have a Highway One Telecaster, but I'll settle for the 2005 model Standard Telecaster that I'd bought this spring.

Matt
 
Well,I have 2 MIM pieces....a Standard Tele and Standard Jazz bass.
I'm old school (age 50),and in 40 years of playing I've owned just about everything...desirable vintage,RARE stuff,new,ect.My MIM guitars have been about the best value vs. price point I have played in years.The only thing close was the original MIJ Squier stuff made in the early to mid '80s.
I have changed pups in my MIMs,but that's because I am forever a tinkerer..looking for that perfect combo of wood,steel,and magnets.But the stock MIM units have alot of merit on their own!
 
I got my squier tele replacement yesterday.
This one was packed better. I can't believe how nice it is, sounds better than the special edition ash MIM I got a while back better setup, lower action. I love these thin little necks and body's they put on these guitars.
The volume and tone controls fill more solid, the tuners work very decent.
I can only see 3 issues that need to taken care of.
1. This one needs a little touch up on the fret ends compared to the first.
2. Pickup selector is still junk.
3. It needs shielding but then again so did my MIM and it was 3X the cost of this one.

I bought a bunch of parts while I was waiting to soup it up with. Bill Lawrence pickups, Vintage tele bridge, some left over Fender Ping tuners from a HW1 and some new pots and switch oh also got a real tele output jack. I guess I spend more on the parts than I did on the guitar :confused:
 
Richard Monroe said:
I've never played any Chinese guitar that didn't suck.

I own a Chinese Squire Strat, and it's LUSH. I paid £50 in a pawn shop for it, vs. my mate's £200 Fender Tele, I'd take the Squire any day. Saying that, I've played some dodgy Squires, especially affintiy.

I think a lot of the price difference is to have "Fender" written on the headstock, although of course you will get little upgrades in the pickups, hardware etc.
Shop around, I'd say a good Mexican will generally be better than a good Squire, but perhaps not by enough to warrant its price tag.
 
You'd be very surprised about the Squire Standard Telecasters. They're quite nice, really... decent hardware, wood, pickups, and they do have a certain character when you hold them. I really don't like most of Fender's Standard guitars, after setting a flock of them up at our store, I'm sending a few back because the truss rods weren't installed properly. The QC on them is just terrible. I also just don't like the feel of them, I've always thought they were awkward. Could be a psychological thing.

EDIT: If I were to go Fender, I'd save for a MIJ model. You don't pay an arm and a leg, and you get the name and the quality. I have yet to have any problems with one.
 
Back
Top