SeriesSquier Standard

I got this guitar at a local music shop called Melodee Music. I had a classical guitar and was looking for a relatively cheap electric guitar. The guitar was purchased for around $240. When I was first looking at electric guitars, I liked the stratocaster and Fender. Then it seemed as if everyone had a stratocaster so I looked at other things by Fender and found the Telecaster. I liked the shape and look of it. The Squier is very cheap and is a great beginners guitar. The finish is applied well. The neck is freakishly thin and quite fast. After that, I don't have too much else nice to say about it. Where to start? The tuners are mediocre, at best. They stay in tune while I'm playing normally but when I work on a solo passage with a lot of bends, they go flat pretty quickly. Not to severly but just barely noticeable. That won't matter if it's masked in distortion but if you're playing clean that is something to worry about. The neck is good, but the joint to the body is annoying. It's a bolt on, like almost all Fenders and has a huge heel at about the 17th fret. Since the frets get small, the side of my hand hits it at about the 12th fret. The cutaway helps but not too much. A neck-thru guitar with a double cutaway is probably best. But that is one of the things that has drawn me away from fenders, the huge heel. The 17th fret of the g string buzzes like crazy and adjusting the bridge wont help. Also, if I am bending the 17th fret on either adjacent string, it buzzes as well because it will touch the g string. That is a pain in the ass. The pickups are pretty bad but will get a beginner by. The single coil sounds nice and bright if not a bit too twangy and earpiercing. The feedback is pretty bad in high-volume high-gain situations (which is mostly where I play). The humbucker is a lot smoother and I prefer the humbucker for everything. Slight feedback is still there but an enourmous improvement of that on the single coil. Leads on the humbucker aren't too great, especially as it is in the neck position, but the sound is still better than the neck pickup. The bridge is ok, nothing special. The input jack is recessed so you might have a hard time using some right angle plugs. Also, the screw holding it down always comes loose. Now, I don't like the look too much as well. Oh yah! It's freakin heavy! Made pretty well, lives up to its price. Finish was good, electronics seem ok. Good guitar for it's price. Definately not for someone with expierience or someone who will want to play some nice leads as playing higher is hard. Also, if you're someone who progresses fast, you would probably be better off starting with a better guitar than this. Having, not tried a lot of other beginner level guitars, I can't recommend anything else at this price level but I would definately go for something else. Again, at the price you can't complain too much. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I read reviews of this bass here at musicgearreview.com and bought it at Thomann.de for 250€. I love this bass because it's easy to play, the great sound, just everything. A nice Jazz bass neck allows you to play easily, and with the J-Bass and P-Bass pickups you can have almost any tone you wish. Turn up the J-pickup and play some funky jazz, or go Rock and Punk and turn up the P-Bass pickup... The Tone control lets you get a thumpy, soft sound, or a rocky hard sound. It doesn't way too much, and it's built great. i've smacked it against the wall a couple times (by accident): not a scratch. The output jack is kinda loose, so every five days i gotta turn it a little bit so its tight again. it is built to last. As I said, easy to play, sounds great and has a great look too! I can only recommend this bass to anyone, if you start, or if you are just looking for a Bass to rock with. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

My fellow bandmate purchased it for like 160 bucks at a local music store. It was a pretty sweet deal for the price. This bass is perfect for the player who likes both Fender models (P Bass and J Bass). It has a Precision Bass body fitted with a Jazz Bass neck. The neck is a lot more playable than the Precision's thicker design. The pickups are a combination of a Jazz pickup at the bridge and a Precision pickup in the central position. By adjusting tone knobs, you can literally make one bass sound like two, plus its affordable to the average player. There's some serious buzzing on a few of the frets. Also, the volume seems to randomly cut out from time to time. This only happens on low volumes, and it might be in the cable. The stock strings are kinda crappy, but our bass player doesn't plan on changing them. Well made bass. Don't let anyone tell you that Squier's are of poor quality, because it's not true. The bass looks decent and can take quite a beating if used on tour. Our bass player is planning to buy a Rickenbacker or some kind of Fender Humbucker model for his next bass, and he's going to sup' up his Squier Special. A friend of ours is going to paint it hot pink. It should be a replica of Mark Hoppus' sweet ass bass. But it will have more sound variety. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

The Squier Standard Series Telecaster is meant to offer a Tele style guitar to musicians who may not be ready or able to spring for a real deal Fender model. It's pretty simple and loyal to the standard Tele specifications, so upon first glance I figured it might be a good guitar for jamming on to get that Tele sound for not a lot of cash. It features an agathis body (very common wood with these lower end Squiers) a maple neck with rosewood fretboard and 22 frets, sealed chrome tuners, a standard Tele style bridge and a pair of generic Squier pickups wired to the standard Tele control plate. They're usually built in China, though I have seen some Indonesian models from time to time as well. UTILIZATION The design of this guitar isn't particularly ergonomic... there's no real contouring to speak of and the finishing/shaping of this Tele is crude at best. The neck does have a satin finish which would be a great feeling thing, but like many of the other Squiers I've tried, it's marred by sharp, point fret ends, a poor factory setup, and in this case the rosewood used for the fretboard felt quite cheap and dry. Even for $200 I'd expect better than this. The upper fret access isn't great given that the frets are poking out at the player and it makes getting up there a bit harder. Getting a good sound out of this guitar isn't really difficult being that it's quite a simple design. The stock pickups and electronics are not great, but they can be made to sound at least passable through a GOOD amp. SOUNDS This guitar does have some nice Tele-esque sounds lurking within which is great, but it's really at the mercy of the stock electronics. The pickups that are in there from the factory really don't do the classic Tele sound justice. They're fairly muddy and undefined, and the bridge pickup has icepick type highs that can't easily be dialed out. Through a GOOD tube amp like a Twin Reverb or a Dr. Z Maz I was able to conjure up some average sounding country or blues tones. Switching to the drive sounds, the best I was able to get was a brash and distorted punk tone... the guitar really doesn't have the definition needed for more articulate chord or lead work with distortion. OVERALL OPINION All in all I think the Squier Standard Telecaster just misses the mark. For $200 new it's not worth it. The quality of this guitar is pretty poor, and it would need quite a bit of work to be a decent playing and sounding instrument, and to do that would cost more than the guitar is worth. I'd just look elsewhere if you want a cheap Tele to jam on... there are definitely better options than this.

Fender has a sub company that is known as Squire which is basically a cheap and budget friendly guitars for someone looking to learn how to play the electric guitar. Most of their builds of these guitars are built overseas or in Mexico and can come off pretty cheap and cheap feeling. Again this is a budget friendly guitar for someone learning how to play the guitar or someone is trying to find out whether or not that you don't want to play the electric guitar. This is a beginners guitar and the prices to match. UTILIZATION * Model Name: Deluxe Series Deluxe Series Colors (505) Olympic White, (506) Black, (Polyester Finish) * Body: Basswood Neck Maple, C-Shape, (Polyurethane Finish) * Fingerboard: Rosewood, 9.5” Radius (241 mm) * No. of Frets: 22 Medium Jumbo * Pickups: 3 Duncan Designed™ HR-101 Hot Rails Pickups * Controls Master Volume, Tone 1. (Neck Pickup), Tone 2. (Middle Pickup) * Pickup Switching: 5-Position Blade o Position 1. Bridge Pickup o Position 2. Bridge and Middle Pickup o Position 3. Middle Pickup o Position 4. Middle and Neck Pickup o Position 5. Neck Pickup Bridge * Synchronous: Twin-Pivot Tremolo * Machine Heads: Standard * Die-Cast: Tuners * Hardware: Chrome * Pickguard: 3-Ply Parchment * Scale Length: 25.5” (648 mm) * Width at Nut: 1.650” (42 mm) * Unique Features: Large ‘60s Style Headstock, Gold and Black Squier Logo, Engraved Neckplate, Black Plastic Parts, Dot Position Inlays * Strings: Fender Super 250L, Nickel Plated Steel, (.009 to .042), p/n 073-0250-003 * Introduced: 4/2007 SOUNDS This guitar features actually a flamed maple top with a nice looking pick guard that is a white color with a pearl inlay. You have a vintage looking headstock with the Rosewood fretboard match. You have three single quilt pickups and basically if you've ever played Fender Stratocaster guitar than you know exactly how this guitar is used. The neck pick up is going to be your most Fender Stratocaster town and one of the most frequented tones even get out of the Fender Stratocaster guitar. The body of the wood is a base wood which is not my favorite tone would it all. The feel of this guitar is a very Fender Stratocaster town and you would be very hard-pressed to really hear the difference in this compared to a Fender Stratocaster Mexican made guitar. The build qualities can be very cheap and the feeling and balance of it is not to be very good. You'll definitely feel a difference in this guitar compared to an American made or custom shop Fender Stratocaster guitar. However, if you're looking just for a guitar that is a basic beginners guitar than this is a pretty good starting point. It has a good enough time to get you where you need especially for the price that they're asking for this guitar. OVERALL OPINION At new you can find these guitar so right around $300 and less. I seen them for around $250 but they usually range around the price of $280. They generally come with the gig bag and a cable in most cases so they have everything that you need to get started other than the amplifier tuner that you would need to get started. This is a good guitar for someone learning how to play the guitar and need something just to get started. It's a decent price and it's a fun little guitar for someone just learning how to play.

I used this while practicing in a garage band not too long ago. It was made in Japan, had 3 pickups, all of the stock configuration, with a volume and tone nob. My friend who owned the guitar said that the neck was maple, but I believe he bought that new. UTILIZATION The neck on the guitar originally was alright, but at times, felt pliable and brittle. The last frets were easy to access due to the style of the body. The guitar is well balanced and was not overly heavy or awkward shaped at all. The sound was alright, but could use a little tweaking, maybe new strings or some new pick ups. SOUNDS This guitar is suited for pretty much any style of music, as it only a beginners guitar, and with the right effects, can sound a lot better. I played it through a 15 watt old Kustom guitar amp, but my friend uses a Fender amp, and it sounds far better through the Fender amp. I use a clean chorus and a distorted chorus primarily, but switch to phase shifter and flanger from time to time. My favorite thing about this guitar is the price, but my least favorite part is the stock hardware, as it is very cheap. OVERALL OPINION I have used for about 2 months, and my friends used his for a year. The price is really what got us, but the hardware is horrible, and the pickups are pretty lame, but will get you by. I played on an Ibanez and an Epiphone but bought this as a lugging around guitar, as I didn't want to damage the others. For the price, this is a good guitar, but there are better out there, like the Epiphone Les Pauls or the Ibanez RGX20's are also better than the Squier guitars. I would probably just spend my money on a better Epiphone over one of these.