View other reviews for this product:
King Loudness « Not a great one... »
Published on 12/31/11 at 09:12The 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.
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.