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Squier 40th Anniversary basses - BAD QC
- Thread starter Crackle
- Start date
Honestly the last 2 basses I bought from Fender/Charvel & Squire had many issues I had to address its to the point I doubt I'd buy another Fender. I just do not trust them anymore.
The necks really put these things over the top...smooth as silk.
My friend was floored by the quality of mine.
After playing it, didn't want to put it down, he bought one himself...GC still has them for $300.
Made him forget all about the Fender Player Jazz he'd been playing for the last few years...it's now his backup bass.
He's thinking about the P bass, just hoping to find a blonde one with a nice finish...some of them are pretty bad.
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GC isn't selling these on consignment so your complaints stop with them. Fender faces no consequences, other than an uptick in sales. If anything by repeatedly buying the same thing you're telling Fender to keep doing whatever they're doing.
I've worked in the industrial sector for years and have seen this kind of thing frequently. It usually starts with a trainee. Mistakes are not caught and it goes down line until it hits QC. QC departments get batches of products, usually, and then select a specified number at random, which they check. All other units in the batch are passed unchecked if the samples are OK, in this type of system. Combine a careless operator with a clueless QC guy and you get problems like this. Also, it may be that GC got a bunch of instruments from a bad batch and can only replace the instrument in question with more bad basses.
True story. Several years ago I worked at a high tech company, and did about 6 months in the QA (Quality Assurance, just a fancy name for QC) dept. Management was always on our backs to process units faster, and one day I asked one of the more successful inspectors what I might be doing wrong, because I was the slowest inspector in the dept. He said "Well, you actually measure stuff".
Wise choice to drop GC Crackle.
Tom
True story. Several years ago I worked at a high tech company, and did about 6 months in the QA (Quality Assurance, just a fancy name for QC) dept. Management was always on our backs to process units faster, and one day I asked one of the more successful inspectors what I might be doing wrong, because I was the slowest inspector in the dept. He said "Well, you actually measure stuff".
Wise choice to drop GC Crackle.
Tom
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My local GC is about a 15 minute drive from my house. That's about double the time it would take me to fix a few stripped screw holes in a piece of wood. I understand your disappointment, but if that was the only thing wrong....
What happened is a not some dismal failure of QC, someone just set the torque wrong on a power screwdriver in the factory (or used a screwdriver set up for another job), and it stripped the screws. The "toothpick and glue" fix puts wood fibers in that go in the right direction to make a repaired body better than one that was made "right" in the first place.
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The customer is the last stop on the QC train. If you don't call attention to it by returning it, they can't correct it. Maybe their protocol is visual at the later stages. It looks they they need to add a step to verify screw insertion and angle.
Our company is always rev'ing our QC to lower defects.
Our company is always rev'ing our QC to lower defects.
My 40th anniversary p bass also had 2 stripped screws in the bridge, but once I put the hipshot kickass bridge on it, and a toothpick into the stripped screw holes, everything has been fine. I also had a couple high spots on the frets, but nothing that my stewmac fret kisser couldn't fix.
OH DEAR! I nearly bought a gold edition in white several months ago but I bought my Mustang Limited Edition instead, I tried it in the shop and I actually really liked it.... QC seemed ok on that one. Really sorry to hear you had a bad experience.
Okay, after a couple pages of trading 4's about this, here's what I've gleaned from the OP;
Currently owns close to 20 basses. None of them meet the criteria for being "the one", hence the search.
$300 is considered a significant investment, and should fetch a name brand instrument worthy of picking apart.
And openly admitting to being fussy about the small stuff, and willing to act when things just aren't right.
I get it, but would like to step back from the Squire brand QC arguments and analysis and would ask anyone listening to consider this:
My first brand new bass was a MIJ Squire Jazz bass, purchased off the rack at a local music store, and I had to make payments for 12 months to make the deal work for me.
Purchase price: $350.
In 1986...!
Currently owns close to 20 basses. None of them meet the criteria for being "the one", hence the search.
$300 is considered a significant investment, and should fetch a name brand instrument worthy of picking apart.
And openly admitting to being fussy about the small stuff, and willing to act when things just aren't right.
I get it, but would like to step back from the Squire brand QC arguments and analysis and would ask anyone listening to consider this:
My first brand new bass was a MIJ Squire Jazz bass, purchased off the rack at a local music store, and I had to make payments for 12 months to make the deal work for me.
Purchase price: $350.
In 1986...!
definitely no one cares, GC will just sell it again
In 2015 I bought a new Fender Steve Harris Precision Bass from Sweetwater. When it arrived, one of the four pickup screws was broken off in the body. Obviously that is not the kind of thing that happens during shipping without much more extensive damage. Instead, it must have happened when a) someone at Fender was installing the pickup or b) someone at Sweetwater was adjusting the pickup. After some discussion, Sweetwater replaced the bass at their expense. The second one wasn't up to par, so I ended up sending it down the line and got a third from a different vendor. No 55-point inspection - lol - but the third one was definitely the charm.
I played Squier VM Jazz in GC, it ight have been a good bass, no way to tell since GC does not setup whatsoever, the action was unplayably high. I asked the sales flunky about it, he said they do no setup unless you commit to buy the bass. Is this standard GC practice?
Unfortunately yes cause they want you to pay for setups.
Best way to avoid that is to bring a truss rod
I own a few basses that I consider "the one" including my Lull P4, Lull V4, and Fender American Original 50s P. In this case, I'm looking for a bass that I can be more carefree with. The Squier 40th Anniversary basses get excellent reviews but I'm experiencing the opposite. And $500 for a bass isn't exactly cheap. Anyway, I'm done with the Squiers and looking to the Yamaha BB434. And I know the '80s Squiers were incredible. I had a 1983 Precision bass that I regret losing to this day.
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I seriously doubt any particular GC has their tech guy set up every single bass that arrives from Fender, Ibanez, MusicMan, etc...my local GC usually has 125 basses or so.
Regardless, no one's ever offered to set up what I did buy.
Other than that, I'm pretty sure not all GCs are the same...bought two 40th-Anniversary Vintage basses there in August, one in Cherry Hill and one in Langhorne, both impeccable...I'm guessing they were set up at the factory.
We're talking $300 basses as nice as basses that cost twice, if not three times as much.
Did I have to do anything to them once I got them home?
Definitely!
I had to put on better strings.
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