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Year Squier's were crap

ejaggers

ejaggers

Aug 18, 2009
2,728
2,681
Fort Worth, TX
#1
I've read on TB somewhere that Squier's were much crappier than today.
What years were that?

This one is from '84-'87, does anyone know about these other than the weird 80s headstock?
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057912
 
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#5
tallulahsdaddy said:
I'd say clean it up and restring it, it'll probably be a fun bass! All brands are so hit and miss over the years, it's hard to nail down a good or bad era. There are always diamonds in the rough, and the only way to find one is to play a ton of them!
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I haven't bought it yet, and playing it first is not an option.

Some eras were more miss than hit according to some TBers,
but I'm not sure when that was for Squier.

In fact, Squier was on par with Fender at some point,
but I don't remember when that was either.

And yeah, it's an '84-'87 production....057912
 
#6
I owned a fender mik “squier series” once, which was pretty decent except for the “licensed by schaller” tuners (they probably had a 45 degree tolerance) and the laminated body.

Now about your bass , if it stays in tune and he setup doesn’t change it’s a keeper.
 
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#8
elgranluis said:
I owned a fender mik “squier series” once, which was pretty decent except for the “licensed by schaller” tuners (they probably had a 45 degree tolerance) and the laminated body.

Now about your bass , if it stays in tune and he setup doesn’t change it’s a keeper.
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I doubt if these are Schaller, but I thought Schaller's were decent tuners.
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tallulahsdaddy said:
If you're buying it sight-unseen, that does make it a little different, depending on what you're paying for it. If it's cheap and you can afford it, it might be worth putting a little work into it, but if it's a turd you're outta luck...
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I've only bought one bass online, my VM SS Jaguar,
and it turned out just great.

This is a no-return deal, so I'm researching.
There are a lot of smart people on TB.

Thank you both for helping with my decision.

EDIT:
I own 60s 70s 90s, and 20s era basses but no 80s.
First of all, some of them aren't very appealing with the pointy headstock...057912
 
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#11
tallulahsdaddy said:
FWIW I have bought and sold a bunch of Squiers over the years. Bang for the buck, they tend to be pretty sweet. I have a VM Telecaster Bass, and it's one of my go-to basses. If you don't like a pointy headstock, then I'd say this probably isn't the bass for you...
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Agreed, I own four Squiers, all are excellent at their price point,
plus I can't think of a better modding platform.
But I'm not familiar with this one at all.

At least one pointy (80s) for the collection,
I don't see as a bad thing...057912
 
#13
'82-84 Squiers are excellent because they're basically greatly made Fenders, by the excellent Japanese craftmenship.
2008-2014 Classic Vibe models in 50s and 60s Ps + 60s Js were also excellent, excepted the wood used on 60s models (basswood...), but the rest is truly solid, as long as people don't destroy the trussrod nuts with imperial Allen keys...
Artist Series Matt Freeman Precision Bass was awesome, made just like the CV line, and a solid pickup that don't even need replacement (IMHO)
The CV 70s Precision model produced between 2014 and 2019 was also alright, with a solid one-piece quarter-sawn maple neck! And the neck tint was fair to the era, but then also I don't like black blocks on Precision Bass necks (they go better on Jazz Bass necks IMO), that's just visual of course!

Other than that, some Affinity series and Vintage Modified series models were also good or okay, but it's clearly a matter of lottery and years! For instance, I tried 3 different VM77 Jazz Bass between 2013 and 2017 and all of them had terrible neck stability and fret buzz between the 5 and 7th fret. Zero pleasure to please these.

I don't think the new CV line from 2019-now is part of the "great" Squier lines, because FMIC clearly reduced the specifications, mostly the pieces of maple used to make the neck (younger maple + thin necks = bad necks, that's physical, not a matter of taste!). Additionned to that, you can clearly say that the planimetry on frets is not the same as the Squiers produced in Grand Reward, China for the CV 1st Gen line + Matt Freeman artist model!
 
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#14
smarthound said:
Squier's what were crap?
Click to expand...
Or: Squier's who?

Anyway: when I started playing around 1999/2000 the Squiers were definitely something to stay away from and I'd say especially the Affinity series from that era aren't great. Apart from that: anything up from the Standard series has always been pretty good and when taken decent care of, you can buy any Squier and probably end up with a decent bass. If you find the right series however, you can end up with a great bass. The CV line has always been great, all Squiers up to about 1986-1987 are very very good, quite a few basses from the Vintage Modified series, especially the later ones, are absolutely terrific.
But the most surprising series I have tested so far are the most recent Affinity instruments. Very cheap instruments, but very well built. I used to recommend Cort and Yamaha for starting bassists with a small budget, and I still do, but the Squier Affinity series has definitely been added to that recommendation.
 
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#16
You are looking at a Korean made HM Squier, part of the short lived heavy metal series.

I briefly owned the 4 string version. It was nothing special.

Generally the best Squiers were made in Japan. The Korean ones had good necks but otherwise were not consistently great. They tend to be heavy, tuners vary in quality, pickups likewise. Some had plywood bodies. That doesn't mean they can't be good players but some folks are biased against plywood.

If it were a standard p or j MIK model I'd say go for it, but I personally would avoid a 5 string HM bass. The tuners are likely to be a trouble point and it's probably not worth modding.

The recent China made CV series was excellent, as others have said.

All of the above is based on my experience and memory. YMMV.
 
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#17
ejaggers said:
...
...
Is there anybody out there with an opinion?
...
Click to expand...

Based on personal experience of owning one for a couple of years, the original 'JV' Series, circa 1982-3, were some of the best Squier (read Fender Japan) instruments ever made - comparable if not better than some of the USA offerings of the time. With that in mind it has been mainly downhill - at varying rates of descent - ever since.
Also from personal experience of picking up (and quickly putting down) 2 examples, the Affinity models alluded to by @Element Zero represent a particularly low point. That said, they were built to cost and probably met that element of the design brief.

On the other hand, most of the CV and VM models I've touched in recent years, with notable exceptions, have been pretty good. The notable exceptions are/were the fretless offerings which were not so good as too many of them had raised position markers that essentially operated as micro-frets. Perhaps the occasional or part-time fretless players liked them because they always played in tune!

All IME only.
 
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