Don’t let the name/brand or price dissuade you. Squire Classic Vibes (Strats and Teles) are great guitars, and this new model looks and sounds fantastic. Awesome playing too Rich!
This is now the most enjoyable guitar to play that I own. My $3K+ guitars now hang on the wall and collect dust. Made in Indonesia, not China. The Indonesian factory is very much like Japan's factory. Highest quality stuff. The most fun-playing guitar I've had in forever. Also it just FEELS great. The matte finish is soooo comfy and the thing is so light. Can't believe I only want to pick this one up when I have a '57 Les Paul Custom Shop and several Fender USA guitars sitting around. This one makes you want to play. I don't get that vibe from my other guitars, at least not to the extent this one talks to me. And under $400 bucks. Unbelievable. Do yourself a favor and get one while you still can. You won't be able to put it down.
I just picked up the twin to your Strat while wondering through Sweetwater a few days ago. It was a demo and I got it cheap! After about 45 minutes of personalizing the setup, I now have a guitar that rivals any other I own. And it has some pretty high brow competition so... These re sweet!
Excellent playing, Rich. I'm pretty impressed with how that the pickups sound, especially The middle one. It actually sounded pretty close to the Fender CS '69 living in the middle of my '02 MIM, Fat Strat. You are right in that once upon a time Squier was a non-starter for anything other than a novice, but it seems as if the build quality has jumped up a bit.
Ive got alot of respect for your playing and opinions on guitar sir. That being said I bought one of these and got it on the 31st. Never played a Squier ever but this is very nice and I really like it. Thanks for the great videos man and take care.
They say you look to reviews more after buying a product and this is what I did. Was going to mod it but need o no changes. Pickups sound fat!. Loved your intro.
Nice. I picked up a Jazz bass from Squier in this same model line and the same color way. I really like it, the neck feels great. Something about this type of satin finish makes it feel really soft, smooth and fast.
Bro ,you have hit the spot that everyone dreams about! Where you can play anything you think about , but dont have to t think about it ! ...know what I mean?
Same here. If you do a simple upgrade of the bridge, it's even better! I put the original fender vintage bridge, the one that comes with the deluxe players. Total game changer on an already amazing guitar. I'm soon getting some new pups as well. The guitar plays as well as my japanese vinatge and other americans lol.
I ordered one of these from Andertons, it was badly setup with fret buzz all over the board with the open D buzzing like mad and the hardware was cheap (pickup selector, tone and volume knobs). It would have required a full setup. The middle pickup was skewed angle wise. Felt like a pimped up Affinity. I came to the conclusion that it was good looks over quality and didn't feel anywhere near the quality what I expected. Neck on it was great mind. Sent it back and paid an extra £200 for a PRS Silver Sky SE (whilst on sale). Was night and day, the PRS is solid quality wise and well balanced. The colour was meant to be sonic blue but was more like duck egg blue. The satin finish would attract marks like crazy.
I played one of these and it was basically perfect. I was blown away. Yet my $800 MIM Player series was garbage. Bad buzzing with high frets despite having high action, nut cut super high, faulty switch out of the box, fret slots cut way too deep and not filled in to try to hide it, a gouge in the fretboard, finish seems extra soft compared to anything else. Then I played a Player series at a store and it seemed top notch. Point being, everything is somewhat inconsistent and you can get excellent examples or duds in any of the lines.
As much as they have good stock variety, Andertons is probably the worst place to order from tbh. They don't touch the guitars out of the factory so they will usually arrive in a terrible playing state.
Just ordered my 1st Squire this week. Waiting for arrival. A Squire Contemporary Jaguar 2 Humbucker with hardtail. The shop is guaranteed me a good set up too. We’ll see for $459 shipped; Skyburst metallic blue
Great playing Rich! 🎸 Some Squier guitars are quite good. I have an older Squier Strat standard in cherry burst (they renamed them classic vibe now) and it plays and sounds great! I could never play as good as you though. In your hands it would be awesome! Just trying to point out people shouldn’t be afraid of the Squier brand. The good dealers set them up first because they want their customers to be satisfied with the way they play. I also have a Squier Tele affinity in butterscotch blond and it played great right out of the box.
I’ll tell ya I recently compared that same Squier to a PRS SE Silver Sky at a store and the Squier totally blew the PRS SE away. Flat out just felt like a way higher quality instrument and for half the price!!!
Wow good playing. Congrats 👏 the color of the body its just like more blue or green? Because on the website it seem to be more green...I cannot directly check but the video should be more real than online website photo. What's your consideration
Good review, nice playing, nice guitar too, although the satin paint ain't for me - I've a similar parts caster (US and Japanese parts, inc TBX and lace sensors etc) that I took to Simon Law (UK) for fettling many, many years ago. My other Strats are Japanese, because back when I bought them, they were the best quality Strats available in the UK. Squires could be very good back in the day, then they seemed to get segmented downwards in quality. I think that when the economy tanks, Fender pays more attention to their budget ranges for obvious reasons (or at least I hope that they do - if common sense prevails, sense isn't always common though). Also pays to make anniversary models special✌️👍 It looks pretty and sounds great too💜✌️👍
I ordered 3 from Thomann. The first one had a small crack in the handle. the second seemed to have been cut with a knife at the rounded edges. The third has a good finish, I kept it, but the most surprising thing is the difference in weight between the models. A difference of 700 grams (1.54324 pounds) between the first and the third. Is it a good sign to have more weight?
In a documentary I saw on Fender, the chief luthier at Fender has a "go to guitar" that's a 1985 Japanese Squire Stratecaster. That's the chief luthier at fender. I now own a 2016 Indonesian Bullet Stat, an Indonesian Starcaster and a 40th Anniversary Squier Stat, the one with man made mother of pearl block markers. Also from Indonesia. I don't know how you spell it or even say it, but the pick ups in the 40th. Anniversary series are Nikkid five magnets.? Those who know would know what I'm talking about, I do not.
Plenty of blue ones left in Australia, but the green ones are hard to find. Except a well known shop nearby had a couple of green ones left and put that particular colour on sale for $799 Australian dollars including the free fender Hammertone pedal promotion! The abundant blue ones are $939 AUD haha Just ordered it and waiting for it to arrive! I'm stoked. Can't wait for my little green gremlin to arrive. It weighs 7.1 lbs woohoo
The frets and the pots are better, the satin neck is much more comfortable than a CV's lacquered one. The tone is almost the same, 60's strato sound. The aluminum pickguard has less noise.
@@RichBischoff they are £259 right now, I think the dollar price is the same now also, and I wanted a couch player that I don't mind teens hammering on instead of the good stuff. At that price and after you made it sing I couldn't resist. Cheers!
Got the Vintage sunburst at MF for $265US, asked chat if they could knock a little more off the sale price. Sonic Blue's at GC for $299 til 11 October. Got mine with a specific project in mind but a simple pickguard swap to plastic and maybe a set of Bootstraps or Tone Hatch pickups will land you in some lovely sonic territory.
I think that Squier is doing a better job than Epiphone. Squiers: a) look identical to their big brother which Epiphone still didn’t 100% match the look of Gibson b) are more affordable than Epiphone (but then again so is fender compared to Gibson lol) c) seems to be better made than Epiphone in terms of sound they give more to the player
yeah its putting me off buying one online until I see it in person I really hope its just the camera and that they do look like Seafoam like the vintera
I bet this video will get more views than when you review more expensive guitars. Do you think the reason cheaper guitar videos do better is because most viewers have a smaller budget? I feel all youtubers get more views if they review cheaper stuff over high dollar instruments. Like when Philip McKnight reviews PRS SEs over core models it always does better. Im sesning a formula in marketing here.
Yes. For sure! There's a reason some dudes build a RUclips channel strictly off of reviewing affordable gear. I get that, but I have never wanted to do that. (Only review cheap gear) From the beginning, I wanted to be a channel that reviewed both affordable gear along with standard gear. That said, I feel like I review more often mid level gear than the really expensive gear.
@Rich Bischoff I appreciate you offering a mix of low to high dollar gear for reviews. The channels that are cheap-only dont help those looking for higher end gear, nor do the high end gear channels help the broke lol. Good to have a healthy medium. My only pet peeve is when those other channels pretend the overseas models are just as good as the USA versions. Its feeding the denial and insecurity of those who cannot afford USA models. Squires are great while youre new to guitar or broke, but once one can afford a USA Fender theres no going back (though having a backup Squire for a live gig is fine, as I have done).
They're CV's basically, just some fancy tinted necks ... the frets still those stupid tall frets, 9.5 radius, slim necks and tall nuts, bad intonated instruments shipped with 9's on those tall frets ... but most of the time is not an issue for those who are starting and don't know about specs as more advanced players. Their looks are deceiving. The first thing i did with my CV jaguar was sent to a luthier to level the frets to an acceptable height, lower the nut and put heavier strings, not to say that heavier strings are better but with those frets 9's there is not much you can do other than soften your touch. That is not how it should be, that does not happen with old Strats, Teles or Jaguars. Why Squier does not start to release models with this price range with narrow small frets, (real narrows not those modern narrows) thick necks, ready to play nuts and 7.25 radius ? no we want looks, looks ... is all about how it looks !!!
Can't tell you how much I enjoyed the beginning long solo you did.
It was good soulful
Don’t let the name/brand or price dissuade you. Squire Classic Vibes (Strats and Teles) are great guitars, and this new model looks and sounds fantastic. Awesome playing too Rich!
Thanks!
This is now the most enjoyable guitar to play that I own. My $3K+ guitars now hang on the wall and collect dust. Made in Indonesia, not China. The Indonesian factory is very much like Japan's factory. Highest quality stuff. The most fun-playing guitar I've had in forever. Also it just FEELS great. The matte finish is soooo comfy and the thing is so light. Can't believe I only want to pick this one up when I have a '57 Les Paul Custom Shop and several Fender USA guitars sitting around. This one makes you want to play. I don't get that vibe from my other guitars, at least not to the extent this one talks to me. And under $400 bucks. Unbelievable. Do yourself a favor and get one while you still can. You won't be able to put it down.
I just picked up the twin to your Strat while wondering through Sweetwater a few days ago.
It was a demo and I got it cheap!
After about 45 minutes of personalizing the setup, I now have a guitar that rivals any other I own.
And it has some pretty high brow competition so...
These re sweet!
Wow, the playing was fantastic!
Tone to die for. 🔥🤘👍
IMHO the most beautiful Strat ever.
Excellent playing, Rich. I'm pretty impressed with how that the pickups sound, especially The middle one. It actually sounded pretty close to the Fender CS '69 living in the middle of my '02 MIM, Fat Strat. You are right in that once upon a time Squier was a non-starter for anything other than a novice, but it seems as if the build quality has jumped up a bit.
Squier Strat pick up on my Classic Vibe 50's sound way better than the American Standard pickups, it's not even close
Ive got alot of respect for your playing and opinions on guitar sir. That being said I bought one of these and got it on the 31st. Never played a Squier ever but this is very nice and I really like it. Thanks for the great videos man and take care.
Hats off on that opener. Shades of Doug Rappaport. You’re playing has really improved man. (Not an insult or backhanded compliment) great stuff
Thanks
Agreed... tone improved....playing definitely improved! Rock on!
@@RichBischoffit was all the squire. Just kidding. It was good
They say you look to reviews more after buying a product and this is what I did. Was going to mod it but need o no changes. Pickups sound fat!. Loved your intro.
Nice. I picked up a Jazz bass from Squier in this same model line and the same color way. I really like it, the neck feels great. Something about this type of satin finish makes it feel really soft, smooth and fast.
yeah man im thinking these are literally better than fenders just because of the neck feel
Bro ,you have hit the spot that everyone dreams about! Where you can play anything you think about , but dont have to t think about it ! ...know what I mean?
I do, except I still have to think about it. 😁
Just bought the Ruby Red Anniversary Stratocaster Gold Edition with the Laurel Fret board, love it and paid 110 bucks under list.
Alnico fender pickup,amizing tone
I just picked up one of these and am completely blown away! Very comfortable guitar to play and it sounds great! Great video Rich! 🎸🤙
Same here. If you do a simple upgrade of the bridge, it's even better! I put the original fender vintage bridge, the one that comes with the deluxe players. Total game changer on an already amazing guitar. I'm soon getting some new pups as well. The guitar plays as well as my japanese vinatge and other americans lol.
Fucking good tones and playing!!!!
I ordered one of these from Andertons, it was badly setup with fret buzz all over the board with the open D buzzing like mad and the hardware was cheap (pickup selector, tone and volume knobs). It would have required a full setup.
The middle pickup was skewed angle wise. Felt like a pimped up Affinity. I came to the conclusion that it was good looks over quality and didn't feel anywhere near the quality what I expected. Neck on it was great mind.
Sent it back and paid an extra £200 for a PRS Silver Sky SE (whilst on sale). Was night and day, the PRS is solid quality wise and well balanced.
The colour was meant to be sonic blue but was more like duck egg blue. The satin finish would attract marks like crazy.
This one was great. No setup needed.
I played one of these and it was basically perfect. I was blown away. Yet my $800 MIM Player series was garbage. Bad buzzing with high frets despite having high action, nut cut super high, faulty switch out of the box, fret slots cut way too deep and not filled in to try to hide it, a gouge in the fretboard, finish seems extra soft compared to anything else. Then I played a Player series at a store and it seemed top notch. Point being, everything is somewhat inconsistent and you can get excellent examples or duds in any of the lines.
As much as they have good stock variety, Andertons is probably the worst place to order from tbh. They don't touch the guitars out of the factory so they will usually arrive in a terrible playing state.
Just ordered my 1st Squire this week. Waiting for arrival. A Squire Contemporary Jaguar 2 Humbucker with hardtail. The shop is guaranteed me a good set up too. We’ll see for $459 shipped; Skyburst metallic blue
Great playing Rich! 🎸 Some Squier guitars are quite good. I have an older Squier Strat standard in cherry burst (they renamed them classic vibe now) and it plays and sounds great! I could never play as good as you though. In your hands it would be awesome! Just trying to point out people shouldn’t be afraid of the Squier brand. The good dealers set them up first because they want their customers to be satisfied with the way they play. I also have a Squier Tele affinity in butterscotch blond and it played great right out of the box.
Awesome playing dude. Found this video after I ordered this exact guitar. On sale at musicians friend currently for $299. A steal at that price, yes?
wow🎉
I’ll tell ya I recently compared that same Squier to a PRS SE Silver Sky at a store and the Squier totally blew the PRS SE away. Flat out just felt like a way higher quality instrument and for half the price!!!
Essa guitarra é incrível
Nice strat.yeahhhhh love it .🎸🎸🎸🎸🔥🔥🔥👍👍⚘👍🔥🔥🔥🎸🎸
Amazing demo, really shows off the guitar, insane what $500 gets you these days.
Lowered to $329!
Are those discount prices or you bought from another place?
Rippin it!
Mine's not staying in tune so well. Maybe the stock strings? Just got some nut sauce to help.
Only had it for about a week or so
Wow good playing. Congrats 👏 the color of the body its just like more blue or green? Because on the website it seem to be more green...I cannot directly check but the video should be more real than online website photo. What's your consideration
In all honesty this guy could play a toaster and it would sound great.
Good review, nice playing, nice guitar too, although the satin paint ain't for me - I've a similar parts caster (US and Japanese parts, inc TBX and lace sensors etc) that I took to Simon Law (UK) for fettling many, many years ago. My other Strats are Japanese, because back when I bought them, they were the best quality Strats available in the UK.
Squires could be very good back in the day, then they seemed to get segmented downwards in quality. I think that when the economy tanks, Fender pays more attention to their budget ranges for obvious reasons (or at least I hope that they do - if common sense prevails, sense isn't always common though). Also pays to make anniversary models special✌️👍
It looks pretty and sounds great too💜✌️👍
I ordered 3 from Thomann. The first one had a small crack in the handle. the second seemed to have been cut with a knife at the rounded edges. The third has a good finish, I kept it, but the most surprising thing is the difference in weight between the models.
A difference of 700 grams (1.54324 pounds) between the first and the third. Is it a good sign to have more weight?
Nice Axe!🙂🎸👍
In a documentary I saw on Fender, the chief luthier at Fender has a "go to guitar" that's a 1985 Japanese Squire Stratecaster. That's the chief luthier at fender.
I now own a 2016
Indonesian Bullet Stat, an Indonesian Starcaster and a 40th Anniversary Squier Stat, the one with man made mother of pearl block markers. Also from Indonesia.
I don't know how you spell it or even say it, but the pick ups in the 40th. Anniversary series are
Nikkid five magnets.? Those who know would know what I'm talking about, I do not.
It sounds incredible. What is the rest of your rig?
Fractal FM3. Marshall plexi model.
@@RichBischoff Thankyou for your response. Do you mean your Fractal is modelling a Plexi or just using one to output? Thanks for your response.
Yes, modeling a plexi
Does viewer Hubris promote deafness? It's axe.
Chuck Prophet and Peter Perrett have been playing Squiers for years so maybe rethink the whole idea that they're not used professionally.
@@Mark_Williams300 the only ones... great band. of course, i can't live without "another girl, another planet".
Peter perret, awesome. Also the late, great jeff healey played squier too, and sounded absolutely awesome doing it, too! Long live squier!
@@Mark_Williams300 yes! mazel tov! lutefisk for all!
Plenty of blue ones left in Australia, but the green ones are hard to find. Except a well known shop nearby had a couple of green ones left and put that particular colour on sale for $799 Australian dollars including the free fender Hammertone pedal promotion! The abundant blue ones are $939 AUD haha Just ordered it and waiting for it to arrive! I'm stoked. Can't wait for my little green gremlin to arrive. It weighs 7.1 lbs woohoo
Nice man! I've got one of the sunburst ones with the black pickguard, great guitar!
This one can beat the classic vibe series?
Beat?
@@RichBischoff i mean, is this 40th anniv's better than the classic vibe series?
I feel like the quality might be a bit better, but the both make music equally well.
@@RichBischoff oh i see! Thanks man, and keep the great work!
The frets and the pots are better, the satin neck is much more comfortable than a CV's lacquered one. The tone is almost the same, 60's strato sound. The aluminum pickguard has less noise.
lol. I bought one because of this demo.
Glad I could help.
@@RichBischoff they are £259 right now, I think the dollar price is the same now also, and I wanted a couch player that I don't mind teens hammering on instead of the good stuff. At that price and after you made it sing I couldn't resist. Cheers!
I bet ya won’t be picking up that fesley after hearing that baby lol
Got the Vintage sunburst at MF for $265US, asked chat if they could knock a little more off the sale price. Sonic Blue's at GC for $299 til 11 October.
Got mine with a specific project in mind but a simple pickguard swap to plastic and maybe a set of Bootstraps or Tone Hatch pickups will land you in some lovely sonic territory.
I think that Squier is doing a better job than Epiphone. Squiers:
a) look identical to their big brother which Epiphone still didn’t 100% match the look of Gibson
b) are more affordable than Epiphone (but then again so is fender compared to Gibson lol)
c) seems to be better made than Epiphone in terms of sound they give more to the player
amp? fx? …….. 😍
Both your fingers and the pickup covers look blue in the zoomed in shot 😂 To be clear, the pickup covers are white!
Blue from the guitar body reflecting onto the pickups and my fingers. Camera angle and lighting did that.
Definitely not sea foam green it looks like a Daphne blue on screen
Yeah, the camera had a hard time figuring what color this was...
yeah its putting me off buying one online until I see it in person I really hope its just the camera and that they do look like Seafoam like the vintera
@@danadams8649 It’s seafoam as can be no blue to my eye in person I’ve seen a few
I bet this video will get more views than when you review more expensive guitars. Do you think the reason cheaper guitar videos do better is because most viewers have a smaller budget? I feel all youtubers get more views if they review cheaper stuff over high dollar instruments. Like when Philip McKnight reviews PRS SEs over core models it always does better. Im sesning a formula in marketing here.
Yes. For sure! There's a reason some dudes build a RUclips channel strictly off of reviewing affordable gear. I get that, but I have never wanted to do that. (Only review cheap gear) From the beginning, I wanted to be a channel that reviewed both affordable gear along with standard gear. That said, I feel like I review more often mid level gear than the really expensive gear.
@Rich Bischoff I appreciate you offering a mix of low to high dollar gear for reviews. The channels that are cheap-only dont help those looking for higher end gear, nor do the high end gear channels help the broke lol. Good to have a healthy medium. My only pet peeve is when those other channels pretend the overseas models are just as good as the USA versions. Its feeding the denial and insecurity of those who cannot afford USA models. Squires are great while youre new to guitar or broke, but once one can afford a USA Fender theres no going back (though having a backup Squire for a live gig is fine, as I have done).
It's also nice to have a Squier for a dingy smoke filled bar gig.
@@RichBischoff True lol. Dont wanna mess up a nice piece ;)
Sounds great, but too ugly to even look at. Were they high when they made this guitar in this finish?
@jacobweeks1998 Me too
They're CV's basically, just some fancy tinted necks ... the frets still those stupid tall frets, 9.5 radius, slim necks and tall nuts, bad intonated instruments shipped with 9's on those tall frets ... but most of the time is not an issue for those who are starting and don't know about specs as more advanced players. Their looks are deceiving. The first thing i did with my CV jaguar was sent to a luthier to level the frets to an acceptable height, lower the nut and put heavier strings, not to say that heavier strings are better but with those frets 9's there is not much you can do other than soften your touch. That is not how it should be, that does not happen with old Strats, Teles or Jaguars.
Why Squier does not start to release models with this price range with narrow small frets, (real narrows not those modern narrows) thick necks, ready to play nuts and 7.25 radius ? no we want looks, looks ... is all about how it looks !!!