Is there something wrong with me, or is there something wrong with Fender?

[oldbassplayergu]

+1

yeah I've had enough of that tune. they're good basses yes, better than mia's......nope not happening

 

[Nobody]

But are MIAs 3 or 4 times better than Squiers? They cost that much more don't they?

 

[SteveC]

I won't sit here and say a $300 Squier CV is better than a $1,200 MIA. I will say that if you don't want to spend $1,200, the $300 Squier CV is a lot of bass.

I don't know if it will last, but when I decided to give up my active 5 for a passive 4, I decided to get a CV P and CV J instead of one "better" bass. I may change my mind, but I'm going to try it for a couple months.

My motivation is this - no one knows or cares what bass I play. I've used $300 and $3,000 basses at the same gig and no one noticed I changed. That makes me wonder if it's worth it - to me - to have a more expensive bass if a decent sounding and playing cheap bass will do the same ting for me. It comes down to what the player wants and is comfortable with. If I can make due with a couple Squiers, why not. Unless I just can't get used to having Squier on my headstock.

 

[oldbassplayergu]

I was in GC 5 years ago. I look up to see a mia Pbass in butterscotch for $699. I pick it up and play it. the strings were aHalf an inch off the board. It was out of intonation. the neck needed a rod adjustment. I said to a floor guy "whats the deal". He sez what? I sez this get drop or something? No. No case? I sez. he sez it does. whats wrong? he asked. I tell him, and he sez give me a sec. OK I sez. he takes the bass and me to the back and sets the bass up as right as he could in that time. he tells me its the last one in the store in that color. Butterscotch didn't sell that well he sez. My point is, after he set the bass up the way it should of been there was no squire in that store better than my american P bass.

 

[LaklandMike]

As far as the setup comments go, I totally understand how GC would be the last place you'd expect to find a well-setup guitar... but the rough frets? And I'm not talking about one little rough edge on just the 13th fret, every single fret felt sharp and jagged on a MIA P Special that I tried. It was almost like an entire step was left out of the finishing process. I do admit, however, that the one P I'm talking about was much worse than the other MIAs. IMO, that still points to iffy QC.

If any of you are from around Sacramento, go to the Sac GC and play the MIA P Special with the strange see-through white finish. It's hanging up high on the wall at the entrance to the bass room. Let me know if I'm trippin'!

 

[JimmyM]

i played a beauty new AmStd Precision at GC a few days ago. The Squiers are great for the money but I don't think any of them felt quite as good as the AmStd's I've played. Most of them have been terrific. Might have played one or two dogs along the way, but most have been quite nice.

 

[LaklandMike]

i played a beauty new AmStd Precision at GC a few days ago. The Squiers are great for the money but I don't think any of them felt quite as good as the AmStd's I've played. Most of them have been terrific. Might have played one or two dogs along the way, but most have been quite nice.

Yeah, it's gotta be expected that any product, musical instrument or not, that is mass produced will have some anomolies. Maybe my expectations were too high. I really wanted to play one of the MIM Road-Worn 50s Pbasses after I heard that awesome tone that Oteil gets with his in the Tedeschi/Trucks Band. GC didn't have any of those... I sure hope I get to try one out some day!

 

[seungkoo]

Buy mine! It has a perfect setup and will blow any squires away by a mile.

 

[AMJBASS]

I know this has been talked about in several threads before, but now that I have firsthand experience, I just can't help myself and I have to chime in.

I had some extra time today so I decided to go to the local GC and play as many basses as I could just to get a feel for what's out there. Of course, the brand selection was limited to mainly Fender, Ibanez, EBMM, and Schecter and was completely lacking in what I really wanted to play, Laklands and MTDs. So, I decided I would spend most of my time with the Fenders.

I played every J and P that they had, 5 string and 4, American, Mexican, and Squier, and this is what worries me... HANDS DOWN, the Squiers felt the best to me! Without even taking tone into account, the quality of craftsmanship on the Squiers just felt altogether superior to the MIMs and MIAs. ALL of the MIMs and the MIAs had rough frets, sticky feeling neck finishes that were uneven (some spots sticky, some not), some had scratchy pots, and one of the MIMs actually seemed to have the bridge attached crookedly. Some of the MIM Ps were much heavier than others, but the MIAs and the Squiers were all about the same.

Fow what it's worth, none of the Fenders came close to the feel of my MTD Heir 5, but that is of course IMO.

So...

What's the deal? Is it me? Is it really that Fender's QC is lacking that badly? Could it be that GC had an unusually crappy shipment and I was there at the wrong time?

I was truly stunned. I played over 20 basses while I was there, and I would take one of the 3 Squiers I played over the others any day of the week.

Its a funny thing. My Squier VM Jazz has been with me the longest out of all my basses. It plays great, and sounds terrific(some mods... original pickups though). Regarding QC, I don't think its usually too much an issue. The MIA basses are made as well as almost anything out there IMO. I have been very impressed with them. However I'll just throw this out there: I just bought a Marcus Miller signiture. I replaced the pickups, and the wiring(and soldering) was abysmal. Burn marks all over the old wires, messy solder. Not good. The bass is killer though so I am happy now that its cleaned up.

 

[RS]

It's you.

 

[loinmute]

I own a 2009 MiM Jazz that has rough frets and the saddle height screws were the softest alloy I have ever taken a hex key to. Needless to say; I rebuilt the guitar as I only paid $150 for it. However, I ve never seen an MiA that was inferiour, when it comes to the Mexican made and CVSquires; they both overlap.

 

[SurferJoe46]

Maybe it's not MIA is better than MII or vice-versa.

I don't like the smaller radius necks so that colors my opinion of the MIAs and I am not favorably impressed by them - not to the point to drool on one or sell my car to buy one.

I absolutely disliked the Marcus Miller for the neck and even though the finish was very good - great in fact - the neck killed the deal for me. Beautiful and I WAS drooling over it - but in hand it wasn't what I wanted.

But - and here's the caveat - maybe one could confuse one's own desires and the failure of a certain country of origin as the problem when it's just a personal perception.

That said::: I am still jonesing for a Reggie Hamilton, but I guess not the Custom Shop one since it has that same neck as the MM.

As it is - I truly like my four Indonesian Squiers and I also like my Deluxe MiM Jazz and even my Affinity P - but they fit me and that's the biggest qualifier to me.

 

[mcm]

fenders can be deceiving cause they come from the factory with a crap set up, and then the gc guys make that set up worse. you would have to spend 15 minutes giving it a set up to get it to feel right

 

[SurferJoe46]

fenders can be deceiving cause they come from the factory with a crap set up, and then the gc guys make that set up worse. you would have to spend 15 minutes giving it a set up to get it to feel right

That's just inflammatory and assumptive.

It's negativism that just isn't called for.

 

[mcm]

negative or not, its the facts. its true here in nashville. go to corner music and then go to gc. the corner music guys set up each bass themselves so that when the customers pick up a bass, it feels good, and hopefully they buy it. the gc guys just take the basses out of the box and hang them up and thats it. go ask a gc employee if he or she takes time to set up each bass and see what the answer is.

 

[Tusec]

Well, my Squier CV 60s Precision has totally changed my attitude towards Squier. Too bad there's not some ultra-objective 100 point test so we could really see how a CV measures up against an MIA. I think that would be interesting, at least as far as build quality. You could measure how well things are aligned and centered, how straight screws are driven in, the number of properly polished fret ends versus jagged ones, the width of gaps and spaces. I have a feeling the CV would do really well. Mine looks like it was built by someone who was obsessive about those kinds of things.

 

[ModuMan]

It could be that the Squiers come out of the box set up better than some of the Fenders? I've gotten a couple (shipped) that all I had to do was tune them.

Well, my Squier CV 60s Precision has totally changed my attitude towards Squier. Too bad there's not some ultra-objective 100 point test so we could really see how a CV measures up against an MIA. I think that would be interesting, at least as far as build quality. You could measure how well things are aligned and centered, how straight screws are driven in, the number of properly polished fret ends versus jagged ones, the width of gaps and spaces. I have a feeling the CV would do really well. Mine looks like it was built by someone who was obsessive about those kinds of things.

Couldn't agree more. My Squier CV 60's P has fantastic fit and finish and is the best "impulse" purchase I've made in years.

 

[SurferJoe46]

negative or not, its the facts. its true here in nashville. go to corner music and then go to gc. the corner music guys set up each bass themselves so that when the customers pick up a bass, it feels good, and hopefully they buy it. the gc guys just take the basses out of the box and hang them up and thats it. go ask a gc employee if he or she takes time to set up each bass and see what the answer is.

It is NOT a fact. It is a factoid and it is drawing to a total conclusion based on a minor sampling.

It is anecdotal at best and incendiary at worst.

Not every GC is as bad as you state your local store is - if it's even as bad as you say.

You have imputed that nobody at any GC knows their butt from an allen wrench and that's incorrect.

That's just trolling on many sites.

 

[Tusec]

It could well be that the Squiers come out of the box set up better than the Fenders? I've gotten a couple (shipped) that all I had to do was tune them.

My CV P inspired me to buy a CV Strat that was like that. It was the first new instrument I've ever bought sight unseen. It came out of the box with an excellent setup, and in fact was pretty close to being in tune. I couldn't believe it.

 

[FarkusSWR]

A few months ago, I got it in my head that I wanted a Jazz Bass. I went to the local store (we have no GC's down here) and they had a surprisingly good selection of Squier's, Fender MIM's and MIA's. I played every one they had in the store. The Squiers are very nice; someone said earlier in this thread there is some overlap between the Squiers and the MIM's. I think that is true. For me personally, I didn't get that "oh-my-goodness-this-is-the-one" feeling until I hit the Highway Ones.
The MIA's were nice, but I think my HWY1 is just a factory freak, or what I have heard referred to as a "random optimization of parts".
As relates to the OP's point, the Squiers that *I* played were not on the same level as the MIA's.
YMMV. For what it's worth, the next bass on my radar is a Squier VM Jag