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Agree, it’s too costly to produce a single line of basses where the truss adjustment is at the neck heel. The notch in the pickguard is most likely only for show.Yeah, I saw that and was a little intrigued. I'm no expert, but I can't think of a single Squier that has truss rod access at the heel. I guess we'll just have to wait and see when they're finally released.
Sadly, their Squier FSR's seem to only consist of P-basses, Mustangs and a couple of Broncos. <sniffle> No Jazz basses…
Agreed. I do some occasional Photoshoppery and it does look like a rendering. It's a decent rendering, but probably cobbled together from their vast supply of clip art and website images.
Maybe immediately after, but nowadays the Indonesian made ones are just as good. Squier recently has been doing an excellent job.
Nice CV '60s Jazz you've got there! I've had two over the years, as well as a neck used for a parts-bass project. One was good, the other was great and the standalone neck was pretty damn good, too! Many of us agree that the first generation, Chinese-made Classic Vibes were some of the best that came out under the Squier name.
While I wholeheartedly agree that the first-gen CV's were probably the best ever, I'd like to respectfully disagree on the "significant drop in quality" part, as well as add a little more history to the discussion.
), but for us tinkerers and modders, a whole host of possibilities suddenly became possible.
Totally agree! I absolutely love the first run Classic Vibe as much as the next bloke, but sometimes I see too much sparkle in people’s eyes when they talk about those instruments. Those were excellent, especially 10-12 years ago when that quality of an instrument was unheard of from the Far East. Today it’s looking like it’s the norm.While I wholeheartedly agree that the first-gen CV's were probably the best ever, I'd like to respectfully disagree on the "significant drop in quality" part, as well as add a little more history to the discussion.
During the early 2000's, the Squier Standard and Vintage Modified series' were both produced in Indonesia. But, in 2008, a lot of interesting things started happening within FMIC. The Standard series was getting phased out, the Classic Vibe series started arriving in music stores, but most importantly, there was a big push to improve quality control across the entire Fender/Squire lineup.
A number of series' underwent some considerable revisions and interchangeability of parts became almost universal. That meant one could swap out parts between most Squier and Fender basses. There were some outliers that were somewhat incompatible (I'm looking at you, Squier Standard and Squier Deluxe basses!
On a related side note, I feel I should the Fender Modern Player series. Starting in 2011, Fender produced a series of interesting batch of instruments that were produced in China, possibly in the same factory as the Classic Vibes. It only lasted for two or three years and a part of me still kicks myself for passing up the opportunity to get one of their Transparent Black finished, humbucker pickup Jazz basses.
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That's a very good take on it. Back then, they were stellar…diamonds in the rough, so to speak. Now that quality control has improved top to bottom (note: I did not say "perfected"
), it would probably be more accurate to say the "Vibe Classics of yore" can hold their own against their Fender-y brethren.
So, if that serial number starts off with "CGRI", then it's a 2008, but if that "I" is actually a "1", then it's a 2010. Without another "1" in the serial number, there's no way to tell if they were using a serif or a san-serif font.
That's an I. I checked the serial of my Squier, which has 1's in it, and they look different.
You're right about the Japanese Squiers, I knew somebody would point that out
I should've said said "the best recently produced Squiers". That's good to hear about the Indo CV's, although it has to be said they're getting much more mixed reviews than the Chinese ones. The hardware is also objectively worse (the old ones came with a high mass bridge and brass saddles, for example, and the tuners on the newer ones are supposed to be the same as on the Affinity series). Still, I don't doubt they're still a very good value for money.
Thanks for clearing that up.
My indo 70s CV p sounds great after I put Lollar P-90s in it and changed out the pots. The construction of the bass was really nice as well no hot spots on the fretboard, the stock pups are the weak link IMO. But turning a $450 bass into fender player series price territory is kinda looney on my end, but I guess that’s part of the fun.You're right about the Japanese Squiers, I knew somebody would point that out
