I think the Vintage modified range of Squier's is the best thing to come out of Fender since (forget his name, ex CEO of guitar center) took over the reigns and bought all these new series in. I Have a vintage mod jaguar bass hb special and back in the early noughties, this would have been a $1000+ instrument. the candy apple red finish is unbelievable, and the humbucker sounds great with the active onboard EQ, the only thing i dont like is they don't paint the neck at all, But I guess they have to make savings elsewhere to load it up with the great pickup and electronics and for $300 (thats cheap in Australia) you can almost go without a night out and have enough for a Bass!. It plays just like a P-bass, only it's a jaguar body!.
I also have a jagmaster which is one of the first vintage modified squires and the last of the chinese made squiers before they moved to Indonesia, beautiful guitar, a Jaguar with two humbuckers and a Strat Trem. Lastly I just ordered the Fender modern player tele plus (which is made in china) and it's just like the Japanese one's that came out in 1991 / 92 except it doesnt come stock with the lace sensor humbucker (you can buy the exact one from them though) with the addition of a strat pickup in the middle of the humbucker and the tele neck pup. it's maybe a little step more quality wise from the high end squires but not by much. you can see how they
ve saved money on it with the pine body and the plain finishes (honeyburst or charcoal), it should be a versatile axe though. Also, I'm told that the vintage modified Jazzmaster (the one with the proper trem, not the silly danelectro bridge) is more authentic to the original 58 models than the Expensive high end Fender models.
I would recommend any beginners though to take heed and DO NOT buy the Affinity series Strats or Teles as they are awfully put together, the one I saw you could fit a pick into the neck pocket and it wouldnt intonate very well. Kids are often attracted to them as you can get them in a combo with a little amp and a gigbag. do yourself a favour and save a little longer and get something that;s not so cheap and nasty that it won't put you off learning to play. Hell you can get things like 51 bullets and thinline teles for $299. I would also recommend the Tele Deluxes (of which there are about 5 with varying pickups, some humbuckers, some with Wide range humbuckers (which sound just awesome for a tele) and some have the traditional single coil in bridge with a neck widerange or normal 'bucker. There's also the cabronita with the bigsby , thinline body (just an F hole hollowed out and not much more) and a hardtail one with Gretsch style filtertron pickups (the former being at their top price level, $599 like the 60th anniversary gold strat,
the john 5 tele etc, but when shops bring them in they get beaten down almost 30% from that i dont know why they even bother listing the prices. . I find it Amusing that the Squier 60th anniversary strat is more authentic than the Fender variant as it has the period correct 6 hole trem, the fender has a 2-post , which wasn't around back then lol. They play like a guitar of almost 3 times the price, the squire strat I just mentioned from all reports. I think indonesia is starting to get it's act together with the QC and stand a good chance of overrunning Mexico, i've seen MIM Fenders with imperfections and wiring problems frequently lately. I'd love top get the Frost Gold John 5 Tele and put WRHB's in it. the only annoying thing is fender doesnt sell limited feature items like the pickups or bridges etc off the limited edition squire's for example if the pickup on my jaguar bass stopped working, there's no replacement, I'd have to find something else close enough and make it fit. Luckily Amazon has the Wide Range Humbuckers for $60 each. Anyway, I don't see any gibsons or epiphones that excite me as much as the Fender / Squire range. (and as of next year nothing they make is going to be able to compete on price.)
... ROTFLMAO
