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View Full Version : Squier experience



deeaa
December 9th, 2009, 02:38 PM
I just got our guitarist's Squier Tele in for adjustments. It was WAY off the mark or intonation and neck relief as well.

So I went over it, adjusted everything, new strings etc. I never did play a Squier much I must say, before this. Seems to me it's a tad inferior to mexican Fenders, but quite a good basis for an axe anyhow.

I was able to get it in pretty good working order. A few things were lacking:

- on .10-48 set the low E string intonation was just barely possible. I had to remove the spring from the saddle bit and screw it so far back it would wedge upwards from the body, pressing against the back of the bridge assembly. A tap of a hammer fixed that, though :-) but it might yield problems later on with a thicker E string.

- The tuners worked usually fine - actually the whole guitar keeps the tune remarkably well - but then again it's a hardtail with a rather beefy neck so I guess it well should. However, there does seem to be a minute amount of play in the tuners, causing a few tries to get it right/yank the strings.

- The rosewood on the neck was a tad rough and quite light in colour. Oiled&steelwooled it and now it's passable.

- The biggest problem: the frets. Very thin, sort of corroded feeling and clearly worn already despite the guitar has literally seen maybe 50 hours of action. Polished them but I can see a refret coming up soon.

- The neck would need a shim to get maximum low action. The low E saddle is as low as it can go, but the action isn't super-low still.

Anyhow...the woods are good, it's a solid guitar and the action is pretty good. Oh yeah also tweaked the nut a little, the strings were sitting a li'l high on it. The 'Duncan designed' pickups on it seem as good as any pickup I can imagine on it, quite OK to say the least. It's a pretty nice player and with maybe better tuners at some point and definitely a refret she'd be quite a nice tele. Well worth the ~150 he paid for it IMO, but yet it's quite easy to see how it's nowhere near Fender quality/build.