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I was blown away....by a Squier

#101
kellyrojo said:
Now I get crushed (:
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Not at all. In fact, I heavily modded my Deluxe 5 for some of the very reasons you stated. I've also seen many change pickups and pre's in some of the most expensive boutiques made. It's about taking an instrument you like and making it better for your needs. I picked up my gem for $200. After getting some screaming deals, and pulling off a couple of good trades, I have about $500 invested in a bass that is a tone monster. If I had to put this bass up against many of the a fore mentioned 70's Fenders, in most cases it wouldn't be a contest. I should mention this wonderful Squier platform now sports a Sadowsky pre and pickups, as well as a Hipshot bridge and Ultralite tuners.
 
#102
Jerry Ziarko said:
Not at all. In fact, I heavily modded my Deluxe 5 for some of the very reasons you stated. I've also seen many change pickups and pre's in some of the most expensive boutiques made. It's about taking an instrument you like and making it better for your needs.
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Cool viewpoint...I am admittedly a non-modder (until tomorrow when I coil tap my l2000) so I have no 1st hand knowledge but yeah I agree that the Squiers are excellent launchpads for modding around cause they look and sound pretty good and can probably be made very user friendly with a few changes. I have always been a guy who finds something they really like and just stick with it so 2 different schools of thought but neither better than the other.

Sidenote....last year I opened for a band and this dude had a fretless that just sung from in front of the stage. It wasn't until later when I saw that thing that I realized it was that fretless Squier jazz....It sounded really rich so he was sure makin it work

Sidenote 2: My roommate years ago had this Squier strat thing and that was one of the easiest playing 6 strings I ever held....
So there are def some Squier gems to be had!
 
#103
A Squier bass don't care where it's made.....it just cares how it's played... I have a VM P-bass that I paid $239 dollars for new and I've owned for a year and a half and after buying it, over the first year I slowly modded it to what I wanted....I say slowly because the bass sounded amazing in the store with the stock pups. When I first got it, I had the nut slots tweaked, put new strings on it and did a set-up and started gigging with it right away. Even with the stock pups, cap and pots the bass had a really good sound. As time went on I changed out the pots for CTS mini pots and an Orange Drop cap and that made a HUGE difference. Next mod was the bridge....I put a Gotoh 201 on it for two reasons...The bass weighed in at 7 pounds 4 ounces and it was a little neck heavy so I put that bridge on it to improve the tone but also to help balance the bass better and it worked. Next to go were the tuners because the stock tuners were hogs and I had a set of HipShot Ultra-Lites not being used so to help balance it some more and lighten up the headstock end I installed the Ultra-Lites. Last thing was the pup. After a year I put a DiMarzio Will Power P-bass pup on it and it sounds unbelievable now. And all this time over the course of a year, I was gigging this bass and people could NOT and still can't believe it's a Squier... The neck doesn't have the exact profile I'd prefer and the frets aren't exactly the ones I'd like to have on the bass but the truss rod is good and the bass just flat works amazingly. It's been my go-to bass for most of my gigs and I'm looking at one of the CV 50's Precision's and also one of those new Jaguar Deluxe basses.
 
#104
Went into GC yesterday to look for an inexpensive P-Bass. They had nothing that was worth a damn but I did find a gem...I picked up a Squire Vintage Modified Jaguar...this bass is very cool! What I got was a very nice playing, great sounding active PJ. Basswood body, maple/rosewood neck, under 8 lbs., and the neck is super quick. What a find!

I came home, did a little tweak on the truss rod and lowered the action to suit me and this thing plays great. I am going to be having Pat Wilkins make a P-Bass for me after the first of the year so I wanted to drop as little coin as I could and still walk away with a great playing bass. Done.

The nice thing is that I can tweak and alter this if I want to and I'll still have a very well playing, great sounding, inexpensive instrument.

These new Squire's are surely worth a look!

2011-11-30_21-34-23_44.gif
 
#105
west*coast*bass said:
Went into GC yesterday to look for an inexpensive P-Bass. They had nothing that was worth a damn but I did find a gem...I picked up a Squire Vintage Modified Jaguar...this bass is very cool! What I got was a very nice playing, great sounding active PJ. Basswood body, maple/rosewood neck, under 8 lbs., and the neck is super quick. What a find!

I came home, did a little tweak on the truss rod and lowered the action to suit me and this thing plays great. I am going to be having Pat Wilkins make a P-Bass for me after the first of the year so I wanted to drop as little coin as I could and still walk away with a great playing bass. Done.

The nice thing is that I can tweak and alter this if I want to and I'll still have a very well playing, great sounding, inexpensive instrument.

These new Squire's are surely worth a look!
Click to expand...

I love my Jag. It's great for the money. But it's not active. Are we talking about a different model? There is a lot of them. Is yours black/tort with matching headstock and stacked knobs?

Edit- pic came after my post. It's a different bass. I didn't think any were active though.
 
#106
repoman said:
I just found a new tag line ..... :D

Sounds like you know my buddy Steve. He's dropping big cash on a Carvin and I can't even get him to stand up to play. Dude always wants to sit. I told him by the time we get good enough to play out you're not even going to be able to stand up so you better do it now.
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Careful, if he stands and his blood pressure goes up, he may have to upgrade his rig to deal with the pounding in his head ;)
 
#108
kellyrojo said:
Sidenote....last year I opened for a band and this dude had a fretless that just sung from in front of the stage. It wasn't until later when I saw that thing that I realized it was that fretless Squier jazz....It sounded really rich so he was sure makin it work
Click to expand...

I had the same thing happen a few years back. I saw Coco Montoya with Steve Evans on bass. His bass tone was just killer. Great playing, through a great rig, surely helped the cause, but after talking with him, I found out he was playing a stock Squier Jazz. No mods, and nothing special, just a stock, off the rack instrument.

doktorfeelgood said:
A Squier bass don't care where it's made.....it just cares how it's played...
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Exactly!;)
 
#109
There's not much to add here that many people haven't already said, but I have a Squier Classic Vibe Jazz Bass ($350 new) and a Squier Telecaster Custom Guitar ($219 new) that I think are both very nice instruments with nice action and intonation etc. Nothing at all wrong with Squier in my opinion, especially when you can buy them for like $200 brand new. The new Squier VM Jaguar Short Scales are going for $144 NEW!
 
#110
Jerry Ziarko said:
A HUGE +1 there! I can't believe the prices that some of the 70's Fenders are fetching these days. We used to laugh at them back then. The QC was horrible to say the least. The Squires today, as well as several other lower priced instruments are equal to many of the classics of yesteryear. Maybe you might have to search a bit to find "the one," but they are out there. I have a fabulous Deluxe 5 that isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
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I used to borrow for a long time a 76 Fender Jazz for gigs in the early eighties and it was a horrible beast, no decent tone. I'm sure it sells today for a high price...

I purchased on a whim last year a Squier Stratocaster Deluxe just to see how a $250 Strat was built -- it seems to be my main axe nowadays...
 
#114
I fell in love with a Squier VMJ--couldn't believe the action and beautiful tone for just $279 new. The only reason I didn't buy it was I came across an almost new, apparently unused G&L for only $325 and, knowing I could only get one bass, opted for the one with more tonal options. But that one Squier tone was primo--wouldn't mind having it as a backup.
 
#116
west*coast*bass said:
Went into GC yesterday to look for an inexpensive P-Bass. They had nothing that was worth a damn but I did find a gem...I picked up a Squire Vintage Modified Jaguar...this bass is very cool! What I got was a very nice playing, great sounding active PJ. Basswood body, maple/rosewood neck, under 8 lbs., and the neck is super quick. What a find!

I came home, did a little tweak on the truss rod and lowered the action to suit me and this thing plays great. I am going to be having Pat Wilkins make a P-Bass for me after the first of the year so I wanted to drop as little coin as I could and still walk away with a great playing bass. Done.

The nice thing is that I can tweak and alter this if I want to and I'll still have a very well playing, great sounding, inexpensive instrument.

These new Squire's are surely worth a look!

2011-11-30_21-34-23_44.gif
Click to expand...

This is the Jaguar Deluxe I mentioned in my post... I can get one for about $170 bucks at my local GC.....I'm gonna grab one when they come in. So far that perticular model hasn't showed up yet.....Just the one w/ the Music Man-style pup. Glad you like it.....

I need to stop calling this bass the "Deluxe" model....It's the "Special".... I guess I need to pay more attention....
 
#118
JakeAndAirwaves said:
I love my Jag. It's great for the money. But it's not active. Are we talking about a different model? There is a lot of them.
Click to expand...

There are several Squier Jags that fall under the "Vintage Modified" series:

The plain "Vintage Modified Jaguar" is the one with the block inlays and the stacked knobs. Passive electronics.

The "Vintage Modified Jaguar Special" is the one pictured above. It has dot markers, ordinary knobs, and active P/J electronics.

"Vintage Modified Jaguar Special HB" is the same as the Special but with a single humbucker in the bridge position.

Finally, "Vintage Modified Jaguar Special SS" is a shortscale version of the special with passive electronics.

See them all here: Invalid Link Removed
 

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