Is the Fender Squier that Bad?

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Alexrkstr

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I want to buy a single coil guitar. My instinct says Fender bc it's what I have always seen...

I will use it for Home Recording through my PODxt....

Is this a pretty good guitar for the money or will I be able to tell the difference from the > $200 + guitars? Should I invest more? What is the difference?

Thanks!
 
buy a guitar second hand.. i guarantee you'll get a better guitar out of it at a similar price.
 
Theyre not all bad. I owned a Squier Pro Tone Telecaster that was ash with an F hole, transparent red with gold hardware and binding. That guitar was kick ass. Looked and sounded great. Had a place right next to my american Fenders, PRS, Gibsons, and anything else.

Buy them used and save a bunch of money, that's for sure. But not all Squires are bad, not at all. There are some cool new ones out, too. Theyre called masterbuilt or something. They look very promising.

H2H
 
I've owned a Squier since I was a little tyke, and yeah it's pretty much a junker guitar ... plays and sounds sorta okay for an under-$200 axe. Never did anything to modify it, and the pickup selector is messed up and I've never bothered to fix it.

Then again, I've known a few guys who have done a whole bunch of stuff to their Squiers and they really can play and sound great, with some effort and investment.

Then again, for the amount of time and money they've spent on new pickups and various other parts, plus build time, they could have just gone out at bought a nicer guitar right off the bat.

But then again, where's the fun in that? :D

This thread looks fun
 
I see used mexican strats selling for $200, in music stores. I would buy a used mex before getting a squire. If $200 bucks in "out of range" save some money.
my 2 cents
 
Look for squiers from '82 and '83 and you will find very good instruments. Better than the Fenders of the same years.
 
I bought a $90 Squier Bullet a couple of months ago and did a lot of mods. I would absolutely NOT recommend it as a starter guitar. Very difficult to tune and set up. The nut was way out of whack.
 
Here's the bottom line....

Yes, there are some good Squire Strats out there, but you have to know *exactly* what to look for quality-wise, and you have to sift through 99 bad ones to find that one good one.

If you want to get a sub-$200 Strat with consistently excellent quality, go get a Yamaha Pacifica PAC-012. It's a Strat clone that plays and sounds incredibly well for the money and I guarantee the build-quality will far surpass the Squires.
 
jimistone said:
I see used mexican strats selling for $200, in music stores. I would buy a used mex before getting a squire. If $200 bucks in "out of range" save some money.
my 2 cents
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$200 because it is one of the bad ones..

There are good and bad Squires, Mexicans, and American.
 
There were some very good Squiers marked "Crafted In Japan" on the headstock.

If I saw one for $200 or under I'd grab it.
 
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apl said:
I bought a $90 Squier Bullet a couple of months ago and did a lot of mods. I would absolutely NOT recommend it as a starter guitar. Very difficult to tune and set up. The nut was way out of whack.
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That's because the Bullet is a plank of plywood with a contoured 2x4 bolted on. The regular Squires are generally a lot better. As someone already suggested, the quality varies widely, so be prepared to try a bunch before finding a good one.
There's a couple things that'll need replacing at some point, like tuners, tuning trees, and 5-way switch. That's pretty common for "budget" axes though
 
i have a fender squier from around the90s built in korea, and i love it, i couldnt tell the difference between a fender.
 
I bought a squire Bullet for my kids at GC for $75 so they could have a real guitar to hack away on. I was pleasantly surprized what it could do!

Playability was fine, the body was rather light (good for my kids), the neck was comfortable. I did have to set the bridge - but I've never bought anything that didn't need some adjustment.

If you get the bridge/intonation and neck adjusted properly, there's really nothing wrong with any of the Squires. The electronics are probably the weakest link on them - but that's something you can play around with over time.

But it's not like your ears will seal shut because the pups sound bad - It might even be "your sound"!
 
Fusioninspace said:
I bought a squire Bullet...
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The tuners on the one I bought were impossible, and the nut was grossly under cut. Otherwise the neck is pretty decent.
 
I played a Squire II (Korean)Strat as my main axe for more than 10 years.I loved the neck and it wasn't really any worse for tuning than any other guitar I've owned.I did replace the crappy single coils w/ EMG's.
 
I'll never forget my squire, I broke at least one string every jam. And the tuning fell out so much.

But hey, helped me get my first ever live shows when i was younger.

- Idgeit
 
I think you should by a used guitar for around the saem price. You can get a way nicer guitar for the price. That is unless you are against used guitars like some people are.(iboth of my electric guitars were used adn nothing is wrong with them)
 
A lot of info here. My opinion is that it varies alot. I've played some real nice Squires and some real stinkers. Keep shopping. Something will turn up.
 
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