What Squier Would A Fender Master Builder Buy?

JD50

Interesting watch & some good tips on evaluating a purchase....

Whitecat

Yet he 'chose' the guitar before plugging any of them in... hmmmm... not sure he was 100% invested in this task...

I like Ron though, he talks an honest talk and definitely knows what's what.

dazzajl

I enjoyed that a lot and I thought he made his choice on the important stuff. They’re all going to have pretty cheap and replaceable pickups so
build and feel is where it’s at surely? 

Whitecat

dazzajl said:

I enjoyed that a lot and I thought he made his choice on the important stuff. They’re all going to have pretty cheap and replaceable pickups so
build and feel is where it’s at surely? 

Definitely it's the most important factor at this level, but the truth is that *most* people buying these guitars are never gonna change anything out (until they have to because it failed, I had a Squier, believe me I know!)

mrleon83

That's a cool video to see how a luthier would approach guitar evaluation.. 

darthed1981

So in summary, Squiers are bluddy good, especially for the money.

clarkefan

Thanks for posting this, very cool  Thorn comes across really well, he's honest about how much he likes them, you'd imagine his bosses wouldn't be too impressed

I like his TRAIN setups memory aid too, it works, it's stuck in my brain now

JD50

darthed1981 said:

So in summary, Squiers are bluddy good, especially for the money.

Interesting to note at 15.55 in the video Ron says his number one guitar is a Squier Strat with a basswood body.

Tenebrous

JD50 said:

darthed1981 said:

So in summary, Squiers are bluddy good, especially for the money.

Interesting to note at 15.55 in the video Ron says his number one guitar is a Squier Strat with a basswood body.

That made me laugh a bit. He works on some of the most desirable high-end guitars on the planet, and he's happy with his good ol' trusty Squire from the 80s. Hey, if it's the right guitar, it's the right guitar!

duotone

Bookmarked, will check this out later.

Henrytwang

Interesting video, I think that his approach was right. If the guy feels nice to play things like pickups and pots etc can be changed to suit the players taste.

thegummy

clarkefan said:

Thanks for posting this, very cool  Thorn comes across really well, he's honest about how much he likes them, you'd imagine his bosses wouldn't be too impressed

I like his TRAIN setups memory aid too, it works, it's stuck in my brain now

Well, his bosses make those guitars in the video too.

I doubt anyone who would buy a Custom Shop would see that and decide to buy a Squier instead, but people might well see it and buy a Squier over a non-Fender owned company's clone.

robgilmo

Surely, an 85 Squier Strat is a 60's RI, thats all that was coming out of Japan Squier at the time. I noticed he mentioned heavy guitars not being great, like Gibson LP's for instance?

normula1

My '85 Squier is a 70s style. If I were buying it new today, I'd swap the pickups, the trem block and saddles. The rest would be fine.

thermionic

Probably a '57, as he mentioned it had a maple neck.

Great video, very enjoyable.

robgilmo

normula1 said:

My '85 Squier is a 70s style. If I were buying it new today, I'd swap the pickups, the trem block and saddles. The rest would be fine.

My bad, the 82 Strats were 57 and 62 RI guitars, and none of them got exported to America.

This site always makes for interesting reading.
https://planetbotch.blogspot.com/2011/12/truth-about-1980s-squier-strats.html

thegummy

robgilmo said:

Surely, an 85 Squier Strat is a 60's RI, thats all that was coming out of Japan Squier at the time. I noticed he mentioned heavy guitars not being great, like Gibson LP's for instance?

My LP weighs the same as my Strat

xscaramanga

I found it weird he didn't talk about how they resonated or sounded unplugged. I think that's the biggest thing. Setup can be tweaked, pickups can be changed, glossy necks can be sanded if that's what you like. But if it's dead when you strum it, not much you can do. 

He may be of the opinion that unplugged tone doesn't affect the electric tone... but I'd be surprised if Fender's top luthier took that view.

darthed1981

jonnyscaramanga said:

I found it weird he didn't talk about how they resonated or sounded unplugged. I think that's the biggest thing. Setup can be tweaked, pickups can be changed, glossy necks can be sanded if that's what you like. But if it's dead when you strum it, not much you can do. 

He may be of the opinion that unplugged tone doesn't affect the electric tone... but I'd be surprised if Fender's top luthier took that view.

Squiers are usually pretty good for that.

xscaramanga

darthed1981 said:

Squiers are usually pretty good for that.

They should tell Fender their secrets.

robgilmo

Set up can effect resonance though.