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Is there really a big difference between Squire vs Fender

#82
NelsonNelson said:
I don't say this to start anything...but to me, when I started, I thought I had to have a Fender to look cool and to be trendy.

I grew out of that pretty quickly and now own a Warwick and a Carvin...not the most "trendy" bass guitars but I've never looked back. Fenders are great...but don't feel you need one because it's the trendy cool thing. Get what feels and sounds incredible to you.

Fenders are great bass guitars in all aspects....but Squire's tend to have weak necks. This is coming from the multiple friends of mine who had neck issues with their Squires that I personally knew. Fender has relied on the same look, same parts for 50+ years when there are other bass guitar companies out there that don't care about image and who give you better ergonomics and electronics. Which is more important to me than fitting in.

I love Fender so I'm not trying to troll, just saying weigh out everything. American Fenders are amazing...I know that for a fact. But there are a TON of other basses out there that are excellent competitors.
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In the 70's I owned several Fender P basses and a couple Jazz basses. They were pretty good but had dead spots. In 1980, I went into a guitar store and saw a beautiful flame sunburst bass that looked kind of like a Ric. I tried it out and bought it five minutes later. That was an Ibanez Roadstar, and I now keep it in a special case for those very special shows. Since then, I've owned various Ibanez basses from cheap to very nice, and the quality control has been excellent. Sorry to be a troublemaker here, but if you don't look at the name on the headstock and think outside the box, please give Ibanez a try. You can get a great bass for not a lot of money, and whether you're buying a beginner model or top of the line, there is no 'second class brand name,' it's all Ibanez. And don't worry Ibanez has a huge amount of respect in the bass world.

My two cents. Now I'm gonna duck! lol :hiding:
 
#83
Muckaluck said:
Some of the Fender praise gets a little preachy around here for my tastes. Makes me wonder if folks spend big buck on these pieces of mass manufactured wood and then praise the instruments to justify the purchase.
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Very well put. It's pretty much what I've been wanting to say, but didn't know how to say nicely. :)

I have a couple of Fenders that I finally like... but my experience with them has been worse than my experience with any other manufacturer. My lashing out at them comes from the fact that I felt I got really burned with that P bass, and I get a little nutty hearing the unwarranted praise that Fender gets day in and day out. For the record, here are the issues my P bass had...

  • Strap peg fell out. At a gig. I had no glue or toothpicks w me to fix it, I was screwed. Never happened to me with any other bass, and I've gigged plenty of basses.
  • Tuners had play in them, and the authorized repair dude I was sent to by Fender wouldn't touch them. He just told me they sucked, and if I wanted I could buy different tuners. It took me 3 times as long to tune that bass than any other bass I ever tuned.
  • All the metal pieces in the string-through body fell out.
  • There were bad buzzes on the E string on the low F and F#.
  • Bridge pickup was insanely thin sounding and useless without a little neck pickup dialed in.
  • Mid control cut in and out. I was told by a tech that the pot was fine, there was some kind of grouning thing going on that I didn't quite understand. If you pushed down on the pot it worked, so I lived with it.
  • And while this ain't a biggie to some, it kinda bugged me that after a years time the paint had all these crazy spider swirls in it. Bass looked a lot older than it actually was.
When I finally gave up on it, I couldn't even sell it for $600. I wound up trading it for a hartke head and transporter 4X10 bottom. If I held out I probably could have done better, but I just wanted to be done with it.

My $300 Squier played like a dream. Yeah, I'm biased. One might even say predjudiced. Nah... I still buy em. And thankfully I feel I finally got lucky.
 
#85
ulynch said:
Not to pick on you, but ...



Just what exactly does that mean? What parts? What quality? And in exactly what way?



What's "substantial" mean? Do you mean that the instrument weighs less? If you put them on a scale, what's the difference in weight? Do you just prefer a heavier instrument?
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No worries, good questions. Lower quality tuners and pots, thinner lesser quality wood neck and body=less substantial
 
#86
Not yet said:
No worries, good questions. Lower quality tuners and pots, thinner lesser quality wood neck and body=less substantial
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What exactly about the tuners was lower quality? And the pots? How is a potentiometer higher or lower quality?

Are the dimensions of the neck different? Wouldn't that mean Ricks with their tiny little necks are lower quality? And Jazz basses are lower quality than Precisions? I'm not sure I'm getting the details of what makes you say one is lower qaulity than the other.
 
#87
Squier is Fender's budget line so obviously they aren't on par ...HOWEVER.... with the CV and the Deluxe Squier has made a "top of the line" instrument at an extraordinary price and that puts them above the MIM Fenders which tend to have shoddy quality control.

Obviously there are exceptions and people will respond based on personal experience. But I've played my share of all the Fenders and all the Squiers and this is the general truth.
 
#88
Is a Cadillac better than a Chevrolet? Broad answer has to be yes. If not, why does it cost 2 -3 times more than a Chevy? Will a Chevrolet do almost everything a Cadillac will? Yes ! The key is, can you be happy with a Chevrolet? Would you go to dinner at the "Club" in the Chevy?

Some of the greatest bass playing and sound, that I have heard, has been played on a Squier. Some of the worst playing I've heard has been played on a Fender USA.

Your question cannot be answered. The question should be, :can I play a Squier well"?
Rocky
 
#90
Wow! I left the thread for a few hours and come back to a serious debate. However, the debate is very educational to me since I'm a newbie. Thanks to everyone on the thread for the response. I've learned alot. Shoot, every newbie should look at this thread Now....continue debating, please.
 
#91
ulynch said:
What exactly about the tuners was lower quality? And the pots? How is a potentiometer higher or lower quality?

Are the dimensions of the neck different? Wouldn't that mean Ricks with their tiny little necks are lower quality? And Jazz basses are lower quality than Precisions? I'm not sure I'm getting the details of what makes you say one is lower qaulity than the other.
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If you've operated them side by side, you should be able to feel and see the difference in quality of the tuners - and regarding the pots: the is no doubt that a CTS pot is a higher quality component than the cheaper ones in the Squiers - same thing with a Switchcraft jack, or the difference in pickups...

Regarding the necks - better fretwork and nut finishing are two of the aspects that are apparant upon a close and knowledgeable inspection... Of course, a trip to a skilled luthier can mitigate those differences, but then we're talking about an added expense...


- georgestrings
 
#93
If you love a Squier you have played, and have the money for a Fender, I say buy the Squier for now and put the money into a killer rig. Yes, all the components that go into a Fender do "generally speaking" put them above a Squier. However, Squier have some great basses out there like the Vintage Modified and CV. I own a Vintage Modified and I love it as much as any Fender I've owned. To me, the build quality can play a factor between the 2, but it's the head and cabs pushing it that makes or breaks.
 
#94
Vinnyboonbots said:
Squier is Fender's budget line so obviously they aren't on par ...HOWEVER.... with the CV and the Deluxe Squier has made a "top of the line" instrument at an extraordinary price and that puts them about the MIM Fenders which tend to have shoddy quality control.
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LOL, that's just a baseless statement Compared to a MIM Fender, the Squier CV has WAY better bridge, better tuners (the MIM are TRASH), better pickups, and much better overall construction.

In fact, when I tried to buy my CV at a Guitar Center the salesman said that they could not have a CV on the wall as "no one would buy a MIA bass if they played the CV"---I bought mine online from GC!
 
#95
I recently bought a Squier Matt Freeman P bass just because I had a credit at MF and I wanted a Black/Maple fingerboard p bass. I have to say the Squier Matt Freeman has an amazing feel to the neck, the fit and finish is outstanding, and it seriously rivals my 71 American Fender P-Bass. It was set up good and sounded amazing right out of the box. I did put a Rio Grande Muy Grande pick up in it just to see the difference it would make, but the stock pickup was really decent. When I changed it I noticed it was well sheilded inside and all the soldering was very clean. The Squier Matt Freeman P bass is made in China. To me, it's a Chinese Fender. It kills the MIM Fender Jazz I bought a few years ago, could never get the buzz out of the neck even taking it to a pro luthier. No comparision in quality, IMO. I own a bunch of really nice basses (Fenders, Steinberger, Yamaha, Larrivee, Conklin) and this Squier stacks up really well to all of the above. I did buy an Affinity 5 string Jazz once though that was a POS and I sent it back.. Maybe it depends on where it's manufactured. The Chinese workmanship is on par with the legendary Japanese models, IMO. It's a really nice bass..... yes, I call it my Chinese Fender.
 
#96
For me, any bass that has a working truss rod can do it. Most of the so called "horrible and inferior cheap basses" are great when properly adjusted. I'm sure that, in a blind test, nobody can differentiate a VM or CV Squier from a MIA Fender.
 
#97
Well my elder bass players. This debate helped. As well as my other threads to help pick my bass. I sold a lot of my DJ equipment and was able to get.......wah-lah!


IMG_4004.JPG

IMG_4003.JPG

A Marcus Miller 4 string with a Koa pickguard and a Musicman Stingray 5HH black stealth.

I love the way they sound and feel. I had the doe said I just figured..."Go hard or go home!" Now I gotta figure out what type of amp to get.
 

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