Over the years, Squier was basically seen as the poorman's Fender at best, and in most cases are associated with being "Christmas Guitars", as they have the Afinity Series which can be bought at many big-box and department stores in a kit with a little amp, cable, strap, and these are considered "starter packs". In the last couple years Squier has come up with some nice instruments that seem comparable to Fender's Standard (made in Mexico) series. Admittedly, we'll be mainly talking about the basses here, as we moreso get into Gibson when it comes to guitar.
The first thing we noticed was the Vintage Modified Series, primarily the Vintage Modified Precission. This is in that Sid Vicious-esque White with a black pickguard and rosewood fretboard. Now seemingly all Vintage Modified basses have Duncan Designs pickups, which are designed by Seymour Duncan (maker of the SPB-3, Quarterepound P pickup, our favorite P pickup out there), and this Precission has a single Duncan Designs P. One of our neighbors at the practice space had one of these, and we tried it out through an Ampeg SVTII with SVT810E cab, and were blown away! This amp is setup FOR running P-basses, and this $279 (street) Squier was on par with a Fender Standard, even though it has an agathis body (Fender Standards have alder). This bass alone is definitely in a class above the Squires of old. Since then, we've tried the Vintage Modified 70's Jazz Bass, which is a great soulding Jazz, and the one that we found absolutely STELLAR was the Vintage Modified Jaguar. This has a great balance of P and J pickup, with stacked volume/tone controls like the '62 Reissue Jazz Bass that Fender makes. At first we thought it was a rehash of the Fender Jaguar bass from a couple years ago, which we weren't all that impressed with (basically we thought it was a Jazz Bass with too many switches).
With the Classic Vibe series, we noticed these are quite good as well, but prefer the pickups on the Vintage Modified series better. The plus side to the Classic Vibe basses, is that if you're looking for a decent older style Fender for cheap, they're there. They offer some variations of Fender's '51 Precission Bass, and the '72 Telecaster bass, as well as 50's or 60's style Precission, and a 60's style Jazz Bass, both of which have the finger rests (but not the chrome pickup covers that everyone takes off anyways).
They also have a couple signature basses worth noting. There's a Mike Dirnt signature, which is similar to the Fender version, but has an agathis body, Squier P pickup (not sure how overly different that is than the Fender P in the Fender version of this bass), and a standard vintage 4-saddle bridge. There's also a Frank Bello signature, also similar to the Fender signature but with graphics, and lesser pickups and bridge, and a Pete Wentz bass that has the Duncan Designs version of Duncan's SPB-3 (and can't seem to be purchased as after market equipment). The Wentz bass sounds great but screams "I WANNA BE PETE WENTZ" a little too much with the heart-bat graphic and 12th fret marker.
The Squier Signature bass that demands its own paragraph here, is the Matt Freeman signature that is to be released soon. According to the reports, this bass will have a basswood body (which is what Music Man uses on their basses), and it will have a high mass bridge, seemingly the same bridge as what's on the current American Standard Fenders. This will be available in black, or white (the 70's Precission Matt Freeman uses that this was modeled after is white), and have a maple fretboard. Squier boasts a "tinted" finish on the neck, which will give it a higher-priced appearance than the other Squier basses.
We're all about finding the best cheap gear that actually compares to the higher-end gear, and by all means, feel comfortable with these Squiers. Admittedly, there's going to be some compromises in pots, hardware, etc, but even with replacing those, you still come out ahead compared to buying the American versions.
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