I've noticed over recent years that the price being asked for on MIJ Squier Basses seems pretty high. I have seen JV series jazz basses for £1500. Do people really pay that much when you can easily find an American Fender for much less. I have seen E series for £850 as well. Tell us what you guys think and what you think is the right sort of price on these basses.
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How much are MIJ Squier Basses really worth?
- Thread starter JohnDL
- Start date
Hi John 
After collectors discovered 1970s Fenders (that you could buy for the price of a new Squier back in the 80s),
they started to collect cheap Japanese basses from the late 60s and 70s.
Not talking about Fender copies, but the real cheap crap (well, those who didn 't go to the landfills)
On most of them you could not even get the intonation right!
Now they have discovered the 80s. They start to collect 80s Tokais and early Squiers (JV and SQ series)
which were low budget beginner models! Of course this influences the prices!
I am not a collector! I will pay the price they were worth back in the 80s, a low budget beginner price!
£1500? Never ever! Not saying they aren 't nice for what they are.
But they haven 't become better, just because someone decided to collect them!
£1500 gets you a pro level instrument (in top quality!)
may the bass be with you
Wise(b)ass
After collectors discovered 1970s Fenders (that you could buy for the price of a new Squier back in the 80s),
they started to collect cheap Japanese basses from the late 60s and 70s.
Not talking about Fender copies, but the real cheap crap (well, those who didn 't go to the landfills)
On most of them you could not even get the intonation right!
Now they have discovered the 80s. They start to collect 80s Tokais and early Squiers (JV and SQ series)
which were low budget beginner models! Of course this influences the prices!
I am not a collector! I will pay the price they were worth back in the 80s, a low budget beginner price!
£1500? Never ever! Not saying they aren 't nice for what they are.
But they haven 't become better, just because someone decided to collect them!
£1500 gets you a pro level instrument (in top quality!)
may the bass be with you
Wise(b)ass
Last edited:
Not "low budget beginner models" but vintage inspired models for a newer market. Nothing inherently inferior about the original JV and SQ instruments, although the pickups in my Jazz were kinda weak.
The JV models were intended as pretty faithful copies of 60s instruments, the SQ as 70s versions. Accuracy varies, but they aren't true copies. That said, they're pretty close.
JV Squiers have many period accurate (or close) details that are now mated to MIJ quality instruments with 45 years of play time and they look pretty good in the vintage market. SQ models seem, overall, less period specific or period accurate, but still have high-level MIJ craftsmanship and the same aged/aging woods. Their prices are rising too.
I have 2 MIJ SQ basses, an 83 Precision and an 84 Jazz, and they are very good. However, both have been modded
but nothing irreversible.
Here, have a link: Invalid Link Removed
Lots of info here.
edit for some admittedly guitar centric info:
"JV stands for "Japanese Vintage". These were the very first Squier instruments available, and were high quality vintage style guitars with a great sound and authentic feel. This was at a time when the Squier name was introduced to indicate a Fender Japan export guitar, and not the entry level instrument that the Squier name has become associated with.
Though they were available slightly later in the Japanese domestic marketplace with a slightly different spec (Japanese domestic models were fitted with quality Japanese SQ-4 and SQ-5 pickups), they were also Fender Japan's first export guitar. This makes the export models historically important, and these guitars (The first short run of Fender logo models in particular) have become very collectable, especially in Europe; It is this quality, vintage accuracy, collectability and historical importance (not forgetting the use of American Pickups in the Stratocaster models) of the export vintage spec 'JV' guitars, which has directed this site to concentrate more on those models.
They were built (from the original blueprints!) and exported as vintage replicas of pre-CBS 1952, 57 and 62 models; Features included six in a line Kluson style tuners, USA made vintage staggered pole pickups (Stratocasters only) with cloth covered wires (plain wire was used on a lot of the earlier models), period correct screw positioning , vintage body contouring and neck radius.
Squier JV guitars were built right alongside the Japanese domestic market Fenders at the Fuji Gen-Gakki factory, (makers of Ibanez, Greco and Antoria brand instruments) Matsumoto, Japan, between 1982 and 1984.
"...Fender JAPAN CO Ltd was officially established on March 11, 1982 as an American-Japanese joint-venture, with equal partners from each country. The agreement provided that Fender guitars made in Japan would be manufactured by FUJI GEN-GAKKI Mfg Co,. Ltd with designs and parts supplied by CBS/Fender."
A.R. Duchossoir "The Fender Stratocaster" Squier JV (export) History and Details.
As with anything, they are worth what people will pay.
The JV models were intended as pretty faithful copies of 60s instruments, the SQ as 70s versions. Accuracy varies, but they aren't true copies. That said, they're pretty close.
JV Squiers have many period accurate (or close) details that are now mated to MIJ quality instruments with 45 years of play time and they look pretty good in the vintage market. SQ models seem, overall, less period specific or period accurate, but still have high-level MIJ craftsmanship and the same aged/aging woods. Their prices are rising too.
I have 2 MIJ SQ basses, an 83 Precision and an 84 Jazz, and they are very good. However, both have been modded
but nothing irreversible.Here, have a link: Invalid Link Removed
Lots of info here.
edit for some admittedly guitar centric info:
"JV stands for "Japanese Vintage". These were the very first Squier instruments available, and were high quality vintage style guitars with a great sound and authentic feel. This was at a time when the Squier name was introduced to indicate a Fender Japan export guitar, and not the entry level instrument that the Squier name has become associated with.
Though they were available slightly later in the Japanese domestic marketplace with a slightly different spec (Japanese domestic models were fitted with quality Japanese SQ-4 and SQ-5 pickups), they were also Fender Japan's first export guitar. This makes the export models historically important, and these guitars (The first short run of Fender logo models in particular) have become very collectable, especially in Europe; It is this quality, vintage accuracy, collectability and historical importance (not forgetting the use of American Pickups in the Stratocaster models) of the export vintage spec 'JV' guitars, which has directed this site to concentrate more on those models.
They were built (from the original blueprints!) and exported as vintage replicas of pre-CBS 1952, 57 and 62 models; Features included six in a line Kluson style tuners, USA made vintage staggered pole pickups (Stratocasters only) with cloth covered wires (plain wire was used on a lot of the earlier models), period correct screw positioning , vintage body contouring and neck radius.
Squier JV guitars were built right alongside the Japanese domestic market Fenders at the Fuji Gen-Gakki factory, (makers of Ibanez, Greco and Antoria brand instruments) Matsumoto, Japan, between 1982 and 1984.
"...Fender JAPAN CO Ltd was officially established on March 11, 1982 as an American-Japanese joint-venture, with equal partners from each country. The agreement provided that Fender guitars made in Japan would be manufactured by FUJI GEN-GAKKI Mfg Co,. Ltd with designs and parts supplied by CBS/Fender."
A.R. Duchossoir "The Fender Stratocaster" Squier JV (export) History and Details.
As with anything, they are worth what people will pay.
Hi John
After collectors discovered 1970s Fenders (that you could buy for the price of a new Squier back in the 80s),
they started to collect cheap Japanese basses from the late 60s and 70s.
Not talking about Fender copies, but the real cheap crap (well, those who didn 't go the landfills)
On most of them you could not even get the intonation right!
Now they have discovered the 80s. They start to collect 80s Tokais and early Squiers (JV and SQ series)
which were low budget beginner models! Of course this influences the prices!
I am not a collector! I will pay the price they were worth back in the 80s, a low budget beginner price!
£1500? Never ever! Not saying they aren 't nice for what they are.
But they haven 't become better, just because someone decided to collect them!
£1500 gets you a pro level instrument (in top quality!)
may the bass be with you
Wise(b)ass
Last edited:
I've seen JVs for £700, I owned a Japanese Squier, (used), in 1984,
Precision that is, it was a cracking bass and I'd give £700 to have it back
Precision that is, it was a cracking bass and I'd give £700 to have it back
Hey thanks for your thoughts so far guys. The truth is I just bought a 1984 Olympic White Squire Jazz with an E serial number. On studying the pictures I was impressed I have to say. It has truss rod adjustment at the heel the frets look nice, the rosewood looks good and I was told it weighs 4.5 kilos which is a little heavy but hopefully I can handle it. I got it for £276 on eBay auction and would have gone to £343.
I used to have an E series Strat that was very good. I have also played a few E series P basses that weren't bad at all.
That price, around $340 US, seems very reasonable. Barring issues, you should be very happy together.
From research I've done, I got my SQs remarkably cheaply. Luck is a thing.
That price, around $340 US, seems very reasonable. Barring issues, you should be very happy together.
From research I've done, I got my SQs remarkably cheaply. Luck is a thing.
hi wraub
I started playing bass in 1982 on a borrowed bass in our local youth club.
In '83 I bought my first bass, which was crap and got replaced in '84
by a one year old, used Squier Jazz! (dirt cheap!!!
)
(btw one of the best Squiers I ever played, I know these instruments)
I love 80s Squiers!!!! But they were not the "newsuperhyperwunderwaffebass" either!
The list price (new!) was lower than a Tokai! (Fender' s hardest low budget competition)
"authentic vintage specs" meant:
The same crappy bridge they had always used ( mod number one => Badass bridge?)
A visible grounding strip between the pups and the bridge, instead of a wire connection. (mod number two)
Weak pickups (compared to what was available, mod number tree => dimarzios?)
and heavy vintage style open tuners (The cheap gothos (edit: gotho style)on Ibanez Roadstar basses were better!)
And of course in good old Fender tradition, available in 3! different colours,
one of them sunburst /tort, the nightmare of every young bassplayer in the 80s (Tokai had a lot more!)
So why are they they considered the "holy grail"?
The answer is very simple!
For the first time since CBS bought Fender, they had a product that was not hit or miss.
Squiers were consistent! The Japanese had invented quality management in the early 80s
which was unheard of in the western hemisphere.
Fuji gen gakki applied this to all their products one of those beeing the Squiers.
"The myth" of the "legendary Japanese quality" was born.
You could take 10 Fenders back then and they were all different (everything from "a dud" to "great")
Now you took 10 Squiers and they were all the same
(all the same duds or all great, depending on who you asked) actually a good overall quality and affordable.
That' s why they they became popular!
greetings
Wise(b)ass
I have 2 MIJ SQ basses, an 83 Precision and an 84 Jazz, and they are very good. However, both have been modded
I started playing bass in 1982 on a borrowed bass in our local youth club.
In '83 I bought my first bass, which was crap and got replaced in '84
by a one year old, used Squier Jazz! (dirt cheap!!!
)(btw one of the best Squiers I ever played, I know these instruments)
I love 80s Squiers!!!! But they were not the "newsuperhyperwunderwaffebass" either!
The list price (new!) was lower than a Tokai! (Fender' s hardest low budget competition)
I will certainly not bash the JV or SQ Squiers. I just want to demystify them a little bit!
"authentic vintage specs" meant:
The same crappy bridge they had always used ( mod number one => Badass bridge?)
A visible grounding strip between the pups and the bridge, instead of a wire connection. (mod number two)
Weak pickups (compared to what was available, mod number tree => dimarzios?)
and heavy vintage style open tuners (The cheap gothos (edit: gotho style)on Ibanez Roadstar basses were better!)
And of course in good old Fender tradition, available in 3! different colours,
one of them sunburst /tort, the nightmare of every young bassplayer in the 80s
(Tokai had a lot more!)So why are they they considered the "holy grail"?
The answer is very simple!
For the first time since CBS bought Fender, they had a product that was not hit or miss.
Squiers were consistent! The Japanese had invented quality management in the early 80s
which was unheard of in the western hemisphere.
Fuji gen gakki applied this to all their products one of those beeing the Squiers.
"The myth" of the "legendary Japanese quality" was born.
You could take 10 Fenders back then and they were all different (everything from "a dud" to "great")
Now you took 10 Squiers and they were all the same
(all the same duds or all great, depending on who you asked) actually a good overall quality and affordable.
That' s why they they became popular!
greetings
Wise(b)ass
Last edited:
Believe or not I once owned a Japanese P bass that was a bit underwhelming. I know, that can`t be true as all Japanese fenders are fantastic, as we all know. They seem to have obtained this mythical status.
They are worth what people will pay for them but anyone who pays £1500 for a JV Jazz has far to much money.
They are worth what people will pay for them but anyone who pays £1500 for a JV Jazz has far to much money.
Hi
I'm old too.
I'm old too.
hi wraub
I started playing bass in 1982 on a borrowed bass in our local youth club.
In '83 I bought my first bass, which was crap and got replaced in '84
by a one year old, used Squier Jazz! (dirt cheap!!!
(btw one of the best Squiers I ever played, I know these instruments)
I love 80s Squiers!!!! But they were not the "newsuperhyperwunderwaffebass" either!
The list price (new!) was lower than a Tokai! (Fenders hardest low budget competition)
I will certainly not bash the JV or SQ Squiers. I just want to demystify them a little bit!
"authentic vintage specs" meant:
The same crappy bridge they had alway used ( mod number one => Badass bridge?)
A visible grounding strip between the pups and the bridge, instead of a wire connection. (mod number two)
Weak pickups (compared to what was availible, mod number tree => dimarzios?)
and heavy vintage style open tuners (The cheap gothos on Ibanez Roadstar basses were better!)
And of course in good old Fender tradition, available in 3! different colours,
one of them sunburst /tort, the nightmare of every young bassplayer in the 80s
So why are they they considered the "holy grail"?
The answer is very simple!
For the first time since CBS bought Fender, they had a product that was not hit or miss.
Squiers were consistent! The Japanese had invented quality management in the early 80s
which was unheard of in the western hemisphere.
Fuji gen gakki applied this to all their products one of those beeing the Squiers.
"The myth" of the "legendary Japanese quality" was born.
You could take 10 Fenders back than and they were all different (everything from "a dud" to "great")
Now you took 10 Squiers and they were all the same
(all the same duds or all great, depending on who you asked) actually a good overall quality and affordable.
That' s why they they became popular!
greetings
Wise(b)ass
Hey cheers, greetings I like your headstock.That' s my man!
Congrats! Good deal!
Happy NBD!!!
greetings
Wise(b)ass
Hey I started playing in about 82. My first bass was awhite Fender P I bought brand new in Chelmsford (Essex). Oh man I'd love to have that bass now so this 80s Squier, well I quite happy to get it. Not only that but I dismantled my Jazz bass a Bacchus by Headway because it was too heavy thinking it would be easy to swap the body to a light one. Well neither of the two bodies I bought were quite right so now I have a neck. I haven't decided what to do but I'm no luthier I don't have the tools!Hi
I'm old too.
I'm pre CBS alright.....Who says I am old? i am not pre CBS!
That' s okay as long as you don 't play a P with flats! (ooops! of course you have one)
just kidding!!!
That' s a 10 kg '73 Jazz. Bought in '85 when men were still men and old basses just cheap old basses.
I think you won 't get much lighter than you have with your 4.5 kg. (not heavy for a Jazz)
Maybe get some lightweight tuners, the bass is better balanced with them.
greetings
Wise(b)ass
- Jul 7, 2010
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Scored this one for $80. That was an absolute steal. I'd pay much more, but not over $800, for sure.
I have an SQ Squier Precision. I've owned at least a dozen USA Pbasses, and the only one better than the Squier was a 59 that I got in 1978. The Squier is as good as any current Fender.
I wouldn't take $1000.00 for it.
I wouldn't take $1000.00 for it.
