Squier Classic Vibe Club (Part 3)

[sonojono]

Don't be too excited, these new CIC Squiers are pretty rare and also the tuners, bridges and general hardware is not as "brilliant" as the 1st gen from 2008-2019. And can we talk about the golden leaf Squier logo from 2008-2011ish? It was better than any Fender logo!

Rare might be an overstatement as I'm seeing lately these 2021-2022 models are coming from China. This Jazz bass I'm picking up locally is from the China plant and I'm also seeing them pop up at my local music stores with the "Made In China" stamp at the back of the headstock. I don't know the full history of how or why suddenly but I'm seeing them more than the previous ones that are from the Indonesian plant from the 2019-2020 CV lineup.

Pic of reference of the Jazz bass I'm buying.

 

[InstantEctobass]

Rare might be an overstatement as I'm seeing lately these 2021-2022 models are coming from China. This Jazz bass I'm picking up locally is from the China plant and I'm also seeing them pop up at my local music stores with the "Made In China" stamp at the back of the headstock. I don't know the full history of how or why suddenly but I'm seeing them more than the previous ones that are from the Indonesian plant from the 2019-2020 CV lineup.

Pic of reference of the Jazz bass I'm buying.

View attachment 4852678

Well, you guys in the USA might be lucky folks cause I've yet to encounter one in Europe. Also, if they don't go back to rosewood for 60s model and give us better tuners, I don't think I'll be stupid enough to buy another post-2019 Squier. I had enough

 

[FilipL82]

Nice !!! Happy to see CIC CV are back !!! That quatersawn neck just look classy and pricey!

Does the EMG GZR direct fit to stock pickguard without trim ? I been install one on my previous CIC fiesta red stock tort guard which need little trim work to fit, include the Aggy 4P60. No problem on Aliexpress pickguard.

It fits like a glove!

 

[cashmoneywill]

Has anyone seen any of the CV mustangs get the new MIC treatment? Cant stand the indian laurel on those

 

[sloppy_phil]

Well, you guys in the USA might be lucky folks cause I've yet to encounter one in Europe. Also, if they don't go back to rosewood for 60s model and give us better tuners, I don't think I'll be stupid enough to buy another post-2019 Squier. I had enough

I don't think we'll be seeing a lot of rosewood boards anymore, in general, given the regulations/protections around it, which is why we have the garbage Indian Laurel in the first place. I hope I'm wrong, but I wouldn't hold my breath! Your bad experiences with the new Squiers are well-documented. If you were in the market for a budget FSO, there are a lot of pretty good options these days, so don't cause yourself more suffering looking for that unicorn CV bass!

 

[sonojono]

Ngl the more I see Pau Ferro, the more comfortable I am with them. Here's one I found on a Squier Daphne Blue Jazz

 

[tindrum]

Ngl the more I see Pau Ferro, the more comfortable I am with them. Here's one I found on a Squier Daphne Blue Jazz

View attachment 4853220

For the record I think pau ferro is a fantastic looking wood for a fretboard. I remember back in the 90's at one time it was considered a bit of a booteek thing to use.

 

[Robert Booker]

I'm thinking about putting some kent Armstrong lipsticks in my paranormal jazz. (This thing has the CV look and vibe which is why I'm using this thread). I'm pretty dead set on these pickups, I'm also going to put some better pots in there and better caps. I was going to go with standard CTS audio taper pots and mojotone paper in oils, I just thought I'd hit up the thread and get some other opinions on my plans.

Im also going to swap out the bridge as the previous owner put a really cheap one on that matches the vibe well, but I don't like the way the strings rest on it, and it doesn't intimate very well. I'll probably be going with the fender high mass. In case I want to put ashtrays on it in the future, does anyone know if ashtrays will fit with the fender high mass?View attachment 4852616

You can probably save the $$$ you'd be spending on those PIO caps. They won't make a damn bit of difference tonally. What can make a difference is tolerance. The tighter the tolerance the closer you get to what you thought you'd pay for. But the rest will make a difference tonally and your pots should last longer. JMHO so take it for what's it's worth.

 

[Yahboy]

For the record I think pau ferro is a fantastic looking wood for a fretboard. I remember back in the 90's at one time it was considered a bit of a booteek thing to use.

That day I buy the Vintera 50 P, there are a gold Vintera j hang on the wall, the pau ferro match the gold body pretty nice along with yellow tinted headstock ~ Classy !

 

[sulliman]

You can probably save the $$$ you'd be spending on those PIO caps. They won't make a damn bit of difference tonally. What can make a difference is tolerance. The tighter the tolerance the closer you get to what you thought you'd pay for. But the rest will make a difference tonally and your pots should last longer. JMHO so take it for what's it's worth.[/

You can probably save the $$$ you'd be spending on those PIO caps. They won't make a damn bit of difference tonally. What can make a difference is tolerance. The tighter the tolerance the closer you get to what you thought you'd pay for. But the rest will make a difference tonally and your pots should last longer. JMHO so take it for what's it's worth.

You can probably save the $$$ you'd be spending on those PIO caps. They won't make a damn bit of difference tonally. What can make a difference is tolerance. The tighter the tolerance the closer you get to what you thought you'd pay for. But the rest will make a difference tonally and your pots should last longer. JMHO so take it for what's it's worth.

What exactly do you mean by tolerance if you wouldn't mind explaining? Do you mean the actual size of the capacitor? If so would I be better off getting so orange drop caps? I know absolutely nothing about pots and caps. The only thing I do know is I vehemently dislike linear taper pots.

 

[RustyStringer]

@sulliman
an example:
a 250k pot with a tolerance of +/- 10% can be anywhere from 225k to 275k in reality
works the same for tone cap values I believe

 

[RustyStringer]

Installed some new guts in my CV60's PB recently, thought it turned out pretty nice (my soldering used to look like an armless blind man did it)

 

[Yahboy]

Installed some new guts in my CV60's PB recently, thought it turned out pretty nice (my soldering used to look like an armless blind man did it)

View attachment 4855191

I been use this kind of pio in my CIC CV60P as my first pio cap experience. it was .1uf. later I move to fender wax cap .1uf and settle with OD 225P .1uf.

With same Ti flat, the fender cap sound little rounder when wide open tone knob. OD 225P sound pretty close to tone pot without cap connect.

 

[Heavy Blue]

What exactly do you mean by tolerance if you wouldn't mind explaining? Do you mean the actual size of the capacitor? If so would I be better off getting so orange drop caps? I know absolutely nothing about pots and caps. The only thing I do know is I vehemently dislike linear taper pots.

Tolerance is the allowed variance of a given item. Usually expressed as a percentage. It has nothing to do with physical size.

For example, if you have a resistor rated at 1,000 ohms (unit of neasure for resistance, also expressed as 1Kohm for 1 Kilohm)and its tolerance is 10%. Then its actual measured value should fall between 900 & 1,100 ohms as 10% of 1000 ohms is 100 ohms do it will be +/-100 ohms for that particular resistor.

Tolerances can vary widely depending on the item. Capacitors traditionally have wide tolerances, up to 40%. That was years ago. I would hope it 's better these days.

Otoh, high quality resistors will have a 1% tolerance. So for that hypothetical 1,000 ohms resistor, a 1% tolerance will be +/-10 ohms resulting in measured range of 990-1010 ohms. A much tighter tolerance.

Orange drop caps are nice but imo unnecessary. Many will likely disagree. I guess my ears aren't as golden as some think there's are lol.

Linear pots for volume control don't work properly as the ear hears in a non-linear fashion. They're fine for tone controls though. The important thing with pots is making sure you have the correct ones for your bass. Single coils use 250K, humbuckers use 500K.

Hope that helps.

 

[sulliman]

Tolerance is the allowed variance of a given item. Usually expressed as a percentage. It has nothing to do with physical size.

For example, if you have a resistor rated at 1,000 ohms (unit of neasure for resistance, also expressed as 1Kohm for 1 Kilohm)and its tolerance is 10%. Then its actual measured value should fall between 900 & 1,100 ohms as 10% of 1000 ohms is 100 ohms do it will be +/-100 ohms for that particular resistor.

Tolerances can vary widely depending on the item. Capacitors traditionally have wide tolerances, up to 40%. That was years ago. I would hope it 's better these days.

Otoh, high quality resistors will have a 1% tolerance. So for that hypothetical 1,000 ohms resistor, a 1% tolerance will be +/-10 ohms resulting in measured range of 990-1010 ohms. A much tighter tolerance.

Orange drop caps are nice but imo unnecessary. Many will likely disagree. I guess my ears aren't as golden as some think there's are lol.

Linear pots for volume control don't work properly as the ear hears in a non-linear fashion. They're fine for tone controls though. The important thing with pots is making sure you have the correct ones for your bass. Single coils use 250K, humbuckers use 500K.

Hope that helps.

Thank you so much. This helped tremendously.

 

[Robert Booker]

What exactly do you mean by tolerance if you wouldn't mind explaining? Do you mean the actual size of the capacitor? If so would I be better off getting so orange drop caps? I know absolutely nothing about pots and caps. The only thing I do know is I vehemently dislike linear taper pots.

RustyStringer provided the gist of it. Like potentiometers, capacitors also have a tolerance range. The wider the range, say +/- 10% vs +/- 5% the more they can impact tonal controls. If you're buying PIO caps because you've found something you like with very tight tolerances that would be more of a factor than any hope of getting better tonality. But you can get high quality silver mica .22pF caps with a +/- 5% tolerance for $.50 ea. A PIO cap may cost you 10x-20x this much. I've used PIO caps and cannot honestly hear any tonal difference at all over Orange Drops or even Silver Mic caps. But if you believe PIO caps are worth it don't let me talk you out of it.

For example; Invalid Link Removed

 

[sulliman]

RustyStringer provided the gist of it. Like potentiometers, capacitors also have a tolerance range. The wider the range, say +/- 10% vs +/- 5% the more they can impact tonal controls. If you're buying PIO caps because you've found something you like with very tight tolerances that would be more of a factor than any hope of getting better tonality. But you can get high quality silver mica .22pF caps with a +/- 5% tolerance for $.50 ea. A PIO cap may cost you 10x-20x this much. I've used PIO caps and cannot honestly hear any tonal difference at all over Orange Drops or even Silver Mic caps. But if you believe PIO caps are worth it don't let me talk you out of it.

For example; Invalid Link Removed

Thank you very much. Now I just need to find my pickups again. Someone bought up all the bridge pickups of the model I wanted.

 

[RustyStringer]

I been use this kind of pio in my CIC CV60P as my first pio cap experience. it was .1uf. later I move to fender wax cap .1uf and settle with OD 225P .1uf.

With same Ti flat, the fender cap sound little rounder when wide-open tone knob. OD 225P sound pretty close to tone pot without cap connect.

How do you like the 0.1uf?
I just went with 0.047 because that's what most come with (or so I read), but I'm not against trying others.
I bought the pots and cap in a kit for <$20. It came with a Switchcraft, but I already had the PureTone so I kept that in there.

I didn't really look for markings on the PIO cap, the listing just stated "NOS Russian PIO 0.047uf".... didn't opt for the PIO for any reason other than it was only a few nickels more than the ceramic or film capacitors. I would say it is a little less responsive on the tone sweep than stock but has a better tone when rolled all the way off (vs. stock) and it doesn't get muddy at all. I almost feel like it's scooping out the high-mids more than anything, which I really like. I dig the mid-scooped P-Bass slap-tone.

 

[Heavy Blue]

Thank you so much. This helped tremendously.

You're very welcome & also welcome to Talkbass. Nice to see you here.

There are no dumb questions and this place is a cornucopia of bass knowledge so it's likely that someone will be able to help you with anything that you're needing info on. We have a good community here.

Also. No discussions of religion or politics of any kind please. I believe that's how it is now. If I'm wrong I'm sure a mod will let us know.

 

[Yahboy]

How do you like the 0.1uf?
I just went with 0.047 because that's what most come with (or so I read), but I'm not against trying others.
I bought the pots and cap in a kit for <$20. It came with a Switchcraft, but I already had the PureTone so I kept that in there.

I didn't really look for markings on the PIO cap, the listing just stated "NOS Russian PIO 0.047uf".... didn't opt for the PIO for any reason other than it was only a few nickels more than the ceramic or film capacitors. I would say it is a little less responsive on the tone sweep than stock but has a better tone when rolled all the way off (vs. stock) and it doesn't get muddy at all. I almost feel like it's scooping out the high-mids more than anything, which I really like. I dig the mid-scooped P-Bass slap-tone.

Better tone control for my taste.