SeriesFender Esquire

(Originally written by greg_dvs/translated from Audiofanzine FR) Korean guitar not comparable with a Squier product! It's a real Fender, but certainly its quality can't be compared with a Fender USA model. No floyd rose tremolo Only one pickup (Seymour Duncan SH8) Set neck, I guess. The body isn't one piece. It's hard to tell from the picture but I can assure you that the color and design are beautiful. UTILIZATION Very pleasant, Telecaster-like neck and very easy upper frets access (22 frets) since the guitar has a set neck. The guitar is very light unlike all other US or Mexican Fender models. Your back will appreciate it! Decent machine heads, but here you really notice the quality difference between the real Korean Fenders and the Squiers. The guitar ages well and I didn't find a single fret defect like on some Squiers. SOUNDS I used this guitar mainly with a 100-120-watt Laney TF300. Thanks to its neutral response this amp reproduces the guitar's sound character very faithfully. The SH8 pickup has a big influence on the sound of this guitar. What a punch! Clean sound is wonderful for arpeggios but is a bit too harsh for chords. The sound becomes more pleasant by simply decreasing the output volume with the guitar's one and only knob. You can try to soften the sound with a deeper pickup setting (using the screws) but it won't be enough and the sound will still be too aggressive. This pickup has much too much attack and you won't get the pleasant twangy sound of a telecaster. The distortion sound is violent and biting. You can get a pleasant crunch sound but probably not good enough for blues fans. But I don't think people buy this guitar to get a crunch sound... The sustain is quite long but not exceptional. OVERALL OPINION I've owned it for 3 or 4 years. I love its sound for arpeggios and its power in distortion mode although I set the pickup very deep to soften the tone. I'm really satisfied to have bought this guitar. It looks wonderful, it's light and has a good sound... Cons: low versatility (only one pickup and one volume control), and aggressive highs for chord playing in clean mode... If you want to play such things, just don't buy this guitar... I will certainly keep this guitar because it has a nice sound quality, even though it's not perfect.