Here is the statement I was responding to: "In my opinion if Squire can make a flawless guitar for $200 Rick should be able to for $2000."
'Decent' quality control does not equal 'flawless.' I never said Squiers aren't good, but calling them 'flawless' is just ridiculous.
It really depends on what attributes you're looking for whether you can call an item "flawless" or not--more or less your definition/expectations. I'd look for consistent routing, bridge placement, fret heights within some tolerance, and consistent neck alignment. Secondarily maybe I'd be looking at the finish, i.e. does the binding line up, is there a lack of finish bubbles, etc. Of course the pickup/electronics build quality is in there too.
Just because a Squier uses a set of cheap potentiometers, or a bridge that isn't as dense, etc. that doesn't mean that it instantly has low build quality. The soldering job is often good, and the parts work as intended. These basses were designed by Leo Fender from day one to be adjustable and allow relatively large deviations in manufacturing tolerances. Many of Leo Fender's decisions were for cost cutting, not for tone or playability. The Fender P bass was a design meant to cut manufacturing costs so he could offer a cheaper product and make more money. You can adjust various parts so that you don't need really tight tolerances in manufacturing.
I'd expect that you can give any quality bass a setup to the manufacturer recommended specs. Squiers can do this, follow the Fender Setup Guide and you'll be able to get most Squiers at those specs playing comfortably. If you want to get even lower action or a straighter neck you're no longer following the manufacturer recommendations so why do you expect it to work? It's not a build quality problem, it's an expectations problem. And, this can be fixed. Put your Squier bass in a Plek machine, for example.
The ability to set your action lower or neck straighter than what the manufacturer recommends is something I'd say is reserved for "high performance" instruments. A high performance instrument is going to be made to tighter specifications, maybe allowing you to set the action lower, or gain some other performance benefit through additional features. People pay for the tighter tolerance and performance features and that's fine, however that doesn't mean the lower performance instrument is somehow inferior. It depends on your use case and expectations.
For an analogy compare a Toyota Highlander to a Lexus LX. Is the Lexus higher quality? I suppose you could say "yes" if you're looking for a high performance engine, etc.. However, in my opinion there isn't much of a build quality difference. They both work exactly how they're intended to work. There is a feature difference, but not so much a build quality difference. The Toyota and the Lexus can both be flawless in terms of build quality even if the Lexus has some features that make it higher performance for some individuals.
All of that taken into consideration, plenty of Squiers would meet my expectations of "flawless". Many won't have much if any finish flaws, or alignment issues, etc. because they're predominately made by machines or on an assembly line. The whole point of this style of manufacturing is you build products consistently. Paired with the ingenious Leo Fender design you can adjust away most of the problems by looser manufacturing tolerances. Or, you can make your Squier higher performance just by putting a bit of money in it, kinda like some guys sup up their Honda Civics for racing.
Like anything there is always variance unit to unit. American Fenders sometimes come out worse than other American Fenders for example. In the past I think Squier had quality control issues and I would agree they were not made very consistently. However I don't think it's so much of a problem anymore. Anymore I think you're paying for features rather than quality, most of the time. That is mostly thanks to automated manufacturing and better factory design.
Anyway. I think what you're saying is that Squiers don't meet some of your expectations in a bass, but I think you may be confusing cheap parts or lack of high performance features with low build quality. The build quality is pretty high on most Squiers, but the part and finish choices are cheap. They are made only to be used at manufacturer recommended specs. You can feel the cheapness and lack of higher performance features, and you may not like it, but this doesn't mean the bass has some issue in build quality.
At any rate, all that being said, I do appreciate a MIA bass and I understand the differences between them and Squiers or MIMs. I'm partial to G&Ls. I guess I just don't have the expectation that a Squier should be a high performance instrument, however I do have the expectation they should be built consistently. Most of the time they are I think.
