Cheapest Fender vs. Most Expensive Squire

Cheap Fender or Top-Priced Squire?

  • Cheap Fender SOUNDS better

    Votes: 7 20.6%

  • Hi-price Squire SOUNDS better

    Votes: 8 23.5%

  • Both SOUND About the same

    Votes: 6 17.6%

  • Cheap Fender is a better VALUE

    Votes: 6 17.6%

  • Hi-price Squire is a better VALUE

    Votes: 5 14.7%

  • I own both

    Votes: 5 14.7%

  • I have spent considerable time comparing both in a store, back to back.

    Votes: 3 8.8%
  • Total voters
    34
S

stevieb

Just another guy, really.
How many people have more than a passing experience comparing the two? Report your impressions here.

Let's restrict this discussion to new (made in the last 3 to 5 years) instruments, please.

Please, only vote in the poll if you feel you have sufficient experience with both- if you own and play on a regular basis, or spent a considerable amount of time in a store, A/B'ing at least two of each.

I've allowed multiple choices in the poll, so you can both choose and ID your experience.
 
Strats.

The cheapest Fender (MexiStrat) was almost 2x the cost of the most expensive Squire Standard Strat, a made-in-Indonesia model I bought. Spent a lot of time in the store playing virtually every Squire strat on the wall. The made in indonesia ones played better but we 30$ more expensive than the made in China ones. Later on I did a brief hands on comparison with a Mexi Strat owned by a kid my son was jamming with. I felt my Strat with white maple neck played much nicer than his rosewood - but then, I like white maple necks. Sound was near identical but his was noticeably but not dramatically louder (around 1/2 volume control number difference on my Fender 35W solid state amp). Trademark single-coil hum was equally louder. After the comparison, I was glad I bought the squire.

Just my experience of course. Otheres may differ.
 
I've got a 14 year old Mexi Fender Strat that I paid $125 for , and a 5 year old Mexi Fender Tele I paid $399 for. I got the $299 Squier Classic Vibe Tele and it took about a month for it to become my "go-to" guitar.
 
I lost my long wordy post, so fhk this...:D
anyway in short...

read a Eric Clapton book and thought it was cool, in the end, his wife bought him a new guitar he'd been "trying and eyeing" it at the store....she bought it for him.

Mexi- Strat, white with gold hardware.....he said he loves it. So here's a dewd that has played them all and yet still likes this Mexi-Strat.
 
I don't play Fender guitars -- I don't get along with the long scales, so I only play Gibsons these days. But I also own several Fender basses, and there is a very good reason I prefer Fender to Squier: since Squier is a brand targeted at players looking to spend less money, quite often the products have "features" that are nothing more than surface treatments of the Fender designs. So you get guitars with ugly and offensive "graffiti" graphics, and basses with oddball combinations of pickguards and control plates from different models, and flashy colors.

In other words, you get instruments that scream "cheap" in the same way that cars do when the makers put menacing names and graphics on low-end autos in the hope that kids will buy them.

No thanks. I'll happily pay more for a Fender that looks like a Fender. Nothing against Squier, but, since they have historically been manufactured wherever Fender could have them built the cheapest, quality has been a crapshoot. I gigged with a friend's Squier Jazz Bass for years, and it was a nice instrument; on the other hand, I found a Squier Precision at the local shop that had a heavy plywood body and a permanently bowed neck.

I'm not going to go without beans on the table by going (slightly) upscale, so I prefer to do that, knowing that the extra money won't mean anything a few years from now, and I'll have an axe I can get my money back out of.
 
lpdeluxe said:
...quite (Squire) products have "features" that are nothing more than surface treatments of the Fender designs. So you get guitars with ugly and offensive "graffiti" graphics, and basses with oddball combinations of pickguards and control plates from different models, and flashy colors.

In other words, you get instruments that scream "cheap" in the same way that cars do when the makers put menacing names and graphics on low-end autos in the hope that kids will buy them...
Click to expand...

I just gotta disagree with you on that point. The Squire Strat I have looks great- not cheap at all. I swear, if it had FENDER on the headstock, I could not tell it (at least appearance) from a "real" Fender. It plays nicely, too. Only thing I can not talk about is how it sounds compared to a Fender strat, because I have not A/B'ed them.
 
I played a MIJ jagmaster today, and its definitely better than indonesian or chinese squiers. The next was almsot flawless and the pickups didn't sound like shit. IMIOoC
 
The most important part of ANY bolt on neck'd guitar is the fit at the neck/body and the natural resonance of the body. Plug it in, tap on the body lightly....can you 'hear' it in the pickups? Is it LOUD in the pickups? This is the one you want.

If you can find a MIJ Strat you have something worth hanging on to. Change the pots to high quality ones. Change the sealed switch(its gonna fail anyway) with a vintage one. Change the wiring in the cavity to heavy duty low impedance wire. The P/U's are usually fine.


Now you have a GREAT guitar.

Its all about the body fit and the resonance. The rest can be easily changed for the better.
 
Cavedog, you no doubt make some good points, and I welcome them here, but they sorta miss the point.

Now, if it turned out that A) neck/body joint was THE major determinant of a guitar's potential (and maybe it is, I dunno) and B) it also turned out that Squires, or Fenders, or some under-appreciated and under-priced run of a particular Strat-type guitar had that down, not, THAT would be news.
 
I'm doing an import tele roundup in the current issue of FrugalGuitarist.com and one of the guitars reviewed is the Squier CV Tele. Against MIM Fender's, I'd take the CV all day. In my opinion, just a very good guitar with no mods needed.
 
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