Are all Squiers poorly made or is it just mine?

I wouldn't have bought it. Most Squiers I have come across exhibit few of these problems, and if they are present they are not this severe. I think you got yourself a dud.

 

Sorry about the lemon, man! I bought myself a Squier P/J secondhand from a kid I knew for $50, and after a minimal setup never had a problem with it.

 

No, they're not all poorly made. They are a "budget" bass so you can't expect perfection, but it sounds like yours needs to go back to the store ASAP.

 

No pics, no problems. I suspect this is a Squier bashing thread in disguise.

 

My Squier VM fretless is an awesome bass for the price. Outside of some unattractive wood grain on the face (which I have since fixed by putting on a pickguard), its pretty much solid from head to toe. Did you buy this on ebay or some other online dealer where you didnt try it before you bought it?

 

Besides visual blemishes... did you have the bass set up? The buzzing at the 15th fret could be caused by a truss rod out of adjustment...

Sorry to hear of the dud. Mine is actually pretty decent... :\

 

Well the squier basses they have at my school are probably worse than a bass with 3 broken strings. The pickups are bad (on both) ,one is scaled down, the other tries to blow up the amp 1 in 10 times you plug it in and always sounds distorted at a good volume!

 

Suspicious minds think alike.

 

I wouldn't say they're poorly made, based on a couple of them I played at a Sam Ash recently. I would say that they're a budget instrument, and they aren't made to the same standards that, say, Conklin or FBass are. The VM jazz I played sounded great, and if I liked high action, I might have said it played fine.

I don't know how bad your bass's problem is, but I would either take it back and try another one, or get out my files and put in the work they didn't do at the factory. The fit and finish seems to be the place to cut costs in a budget line of instruments.

That is, of course, assuming that this isn't just another Squier bashing thread in disguise

 

Did you buy it used?

 

The worst sounding jazz bass I ever played was a squier ... maybe it was bad or dead strings ...

 

My "Standard Jazz" (bought new April '08) has never given me any trouble. Stays in tune, stable neck, good intonation, fret ends OK but not as nice as a CIJ or MIA IMHO. The paint/finish is terrific.

 

There are no poorly made Squiers, just poorly made players.

 

my squier is just awesome. no problems whatsoever

 

mine is awesome, it sounds you got a really bad one, maybe it was damaged in the store

 

My experiences with squier have been mostly positive. My own Squier Precision Special sounded great but was very susceptible to changes in temperature and humidity but it never sounded "bad" even on it's worst day.

My friends Squier Affinity Jazz V sounded terrible until he got a set of DR Low-Riders on it then it sounded great. It does have some electronics issues though; scratchy pots, signal cutting when you turn the knobs to any extreme, a loose jack, and the bridge pickup doesn't seem to have the same output or presence as the front. The pickups are set really high form the factory too.

My other friends Squier Bronco shortscale flat out sucked. Felt cheap, sounded and played like 4 wet rubber bands, preamp did practically nothing, buzzing all over the place. It was a mess but something tells me that it was that specific model that just sucked. I wouldn't hesitate to take any other Squier to a gig.

 

i was always under the impression that the QC on the squiers was the bad part- there are decent ones and terrible ones about, it's kindof a crapshoot. but yeah if it's completely terrible then return it. did you buy it in one of those combo starter kits?

 

Sadly, musical instruments used in schools tend to be neglected and misused. You can't blame Squier for user abuse.

 

+1

My High school had a seventies Jazz bass that was in tear jerkingly rough shape (not crappy enough that the school would sell it to me for 150 bucks though). Now granted that era of Fenders are known for shoddy QC, but this one was just plain beat the hell up. Not a Fender problem.