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Is Squire a bad thing ?
- Thread starter Maszkman
- Start date
Affinity Series except Bronco Bass (currently Jazz Bass, Jazz Bass V and P/J and yes, Bronco Basses are included in the series) are alder.
Bronco is agathis.
there is rarely a direct or linear relationship between improved quality and price... practically never.
Is a Bentley 10 times the car a $35000 Lexus or Audi is? OR how about the $35,000 Patek Philippe watch, is it 350 times better than a $1000 Tag?
To gain that incremental improvement, sometimes there is an order of magnitude increase in price. My Alembic isn't 10 times nicer than a Fender MIA bass, but it IS nicer.. in some areas by a little, and in others by a lot... The "value" for this instrument is something I (And anyone else who's bought an Alembic) can only place and decide if it's "worth it". Since they sell every instrument they make, clearly the answer in the market place is that "it's worth it".
I'd say that the biggest difference is the weight and that's saying alot considering the price difference. I played one at an open mike night, repeatedly over a couple years and I thought it could have been a real 70's jazz bass. It was heavy and played very well.
- Squier is a GOOD thing. If it sounds and plays great that's all that matters. Don't be impressed by the name on a head stock. In fact, if I had spent more time focusing on my playing and less time looking at head stocks I'd be a better bass player today.
I've got a pretty big arsenal of basses including a handful of incredible hand-made and one-of-a-kind axes. I love them all. My Squier P Bass Special gets as much action as any of them. More than most actually. Plays and sounds amazing. Rock that Squier with pride, my friend.
Here's mine in action
Here's mine in action
You could well be right on the year of that epic Squier I played Muddslide. We knew the year of the other bass by serial number, I was guessing on the Squier year, a '75 would have been a Greco, Ibanez, or something else.
I recently got a VM Jazz Bass - it plays great and not that much difference between it and a MIA Jazz. I did a side by side comparison at the music store and for me I could not justify the huge increase in cost for the MIA for imo a smaller quality of sound. I have recently upgraded the pickups in the VM Jazz to Dimarzio Ultra Jazz. They are getting installed this week and I'm excited to try them.
Squiers are good instruments but there are some obvious - and not so obvious cost cutting done on the instrument in order for Squier to sell at such a low price point. The good news is it's easy to upgrade the parts you want to get the guitar you want.
Don't worry about what's on the headstock just play what you like.
Squiers are good instruments but there are some obvious - and not so obvious cost cutting done on the instrument in order for Squier to sell at such a low price point. The good news is it's easy to upgrade the parts you want to get the guitar you want.
Don't worry about what's on the headstock just play what you like.
I studied latin percussion for a while as a buddy of mine went off to Korea to teach English and left her congas with me for safe keeping. As far as I knew, the congas she left me great. She gigged regularly with them and they always sounded good to me. It wasn't until I played the congas my teacher had that I realized the difference. It was so much easier to get a great tone out of his drums, they just sang. That said, you could still play perfectly fine with the ones I had, which I'm sure were half the price. So yeah, a high end instrument is going to be "better" in that it's going to take a setup better, it's going to have higher quality components, and there'll likely be an attention to detail in the build that's not there with a cheaper instrument, but does that mean the cheaper instrument is unplayable or not worth the price? Hell no.
For sure there are cheap instruments that are just that: cheap. They are better suited to be a wall decoration than something you play, but from my experience, and from everything I've read, Squier isn't that instrument. For most people's use, I'd say Squier is going to do everything you need it to do. Get it set up good and you'll have a reliable, good sounding, nice playing bass on your hands, and most importantly, it won't break the bank! I think it's safe to assume that very few of us can afford to drop 5k or more on a high end bass.
Lastly, I was having a conversation with another musician buddy of mine the other day. He hosts a local jam that I head out when I can. That night we ended up jamming on the RHCP version of Higher Ground, so I was slapping the line as Flea does. That night I had my Squier Matt Freeman P bass, which I've put flatwounds on. My slap tone stank donkeys, and as my buddy pointed out, as soon as I started slapping all the bottom end dropped out. Is that because the Squier is no good? is it because I was slapping with flatwound strings? or is that because my slap technique is marginal at best (I don't really work on it, I know just enough to get by in emergency situations)? I feel pretty confident that if Victor Wooten was on stage with my bass that night, it would have sounded just fine
It's the player, not the tool, though a nicer tool will certainly make it easier for the player to make something nice, but it's still the player at the end of the day.
For sure there are cheap instruments that are just that: cheap. They are better suited to be a wall decoration than something you play, but from my experience, and from everything I've read, Squier isn't that instrument. For most people's use, I'd say Squier is going to do everything you need it to do. Get it set up good and you'll have a reliable, good sounding, nice playing bass on your hands, and most importantly, it won't break the bank! I think it's safe to assume that very few of us can afford to drop 5k or more on a high end bass.
Lastly, I was having a conversation with another musician buddy of mine the other day. He hosts a local jam that I head out when I can. That night we ended up jamming on the RHCP version of Higher Ground, so I was slapping the line as Flea does. That night I had my Squier Matt Freeman P bass, which I've put flatwounds on. My slap tone stank donkeys, and as my buddy pointed out, as soon as I started slapping all the bottom end dropped out. Is that because the Squier is no good? is it because I was slapping with flatwound strings? or is that because my slap technique is marginal at best (I don't really work on it, I know just enough to get by in emergency situations)? I feel pretty confident that if Victor Wooten was on stage with my bass that night, it would have sounded just fine
It's the player, not the tool, though a nicer tool will certainly make it easier for the player to make something nice, but it's still the player at the end of the day.
You're on crack.
Well, by 1982 I had been playing pretty heavily for about 5 years.
I played loads of MIA Fenders that were new at the time, and loads of the Squiers that were brand new (even as a brand name) at the time. I also owned a few of each. Well, three MIJ Squiers and two early 80s Fenders...
My experience was that the MIJ Squiers generally came off as superior (in feel and sound, to my hands and ears) than the Fenders of the period.
Just as many people feel the CIJ/MIJ instruments actually branded Fender from the past couple of decades surpass the MIA stuff.
This is, of course, all subjective and based on opinion/personal tastes, etc. But I've heard enough people make the exact same statements that I don't think it qualifies as being on crack to state such a thing.
Recently I got to play a 1983 MIJ Squier P bass that was exactly like one I owned new back in the day. Great piece of wood.
A week or so later I was in the OKC GC and played a 1983 Fender P bass. No comparison. The '83 Fender wasn't even in the same league (again, in MY opinion.)
Obviously this wouldn't be true of every example I or another person could play between the early 80s Squiers and early 80s Fenders. I'm not trying to state as fact that one is better or worse than the other in absolute terms.
Just saying my feeling then, as now, and the feeling of many others, is that QC at Fender in the late 70s-early 80s was not as good as it had been in prior years and the CIJ/MIJ Fender and Squier instruments of those years were often more consistent and had qualities that caused them to feel and sound "better" in some ways to some players.
Iv
it was a joke. And I can hardly believe that, but I wasn't even alive so I don't have the hands on experience you do for instruments of that time period. It's pretty subjective, as it always is.
