Local Man in Horrific GAS Attack

[Mr Pants]

Following good reviews on this and other sites, I decided to brave matrimonial wrath and buy a Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster Custom (the one with the bound body). These are my initial views, based on the guitar I have in front of me, they are my views only, and I certainly wouldn't dis anyone elses choice of instrument.

Straight out of the box, the set up is perfect, and exceeds that of any other guitar I have purchased, and I have bought a fair number. String clearance exactly matches that on the enclosed QC card.

The maple (mapleoid?) neck is well finished, with no sharp fret ends or buzzing frets. The nut is a dingy snot grey colour, but this doesn't seem to affect the tone or playability, so I'm not bothered. The neck grain even has a slight quilt effect, which is pretty.

The body is a beautifull three tone sunburst, and I literally cannot see how it could be done any better. Body is a three piece alder slab, with a nice grain. The finish knocks that on my MIM Tele Baja into a cocked hat.

Tone wise, a nice bright Tele sound, with the pickups not really sounding much worse than the Bare Knuckle units on my other Tele.

Negative points: the neck is skinny, to the extent that if you pull back on the headstock with moderate pressure while picking a string, the note goes noticeably sharp. The chroming of the bridge and control plate look quite stippled and cheap, but then it is a cheap guitar. I have some concerns about upping the string guage to 10s in view of the neck.

Overall a fantastic sounding guitar for the money.

Cheers, Martin

[Duffy]

Congratulations. Sounds very nice. The chrome could be easily replaced if you want to upgrade it. I like thin necks, but then again I like the round ones as well; so the neck wouldn't bother me. Your baja has a round neck doesn't it? A thin neck might be nice to have.

Good luck with it and don't let the woman give you a hard time about your very valuable but inexpensive new guitar. I would like to get one of them someday but I just bought an excellent and inexpensive Agile AL 3100 top and bottom bound, like your tele, for a great sale price of 299 from Rondo, no affln. Really a great guitar, comparatively speaking and "especially" considering even the regular price. It seems to be right up there with my Epiphone Tribute LP that cost almost three times as much and even has some fine points that the Epi does not have - but the Epi sounds great and has great sounding Gibson USA 57 covered pickups in it, along with real good tone and playability, but the agile has great tone and playability too plus a round neck that feels very good and contributes to the tone I'm sure.

[deeaa*]

Sounds good. FWIW, I don't think I ever had a guitar I couldn't do slight whammy effects by bending/pulling the neck back and forth - in fact I do it quite regularly for effect when playing, I never use the actual trem even if the guitar has one, I find the neck bending keeps tune much better.

The most lax neck I had on any factory-made guitar was on my Gibson Les Paul Standard. I used .11-52's on that but it was pretty bendable, the neck, anyway.

[Mr Pants]

I've probably been spoilt by the stability of the neck on myTele Baja, which is like half a baseball bat.

[FrankenFretter***]

[Mr Pants]

I knew someone was going to ask that! If I can work out how to post them, I'll get some on, although my last efforts on the BYOC website all turned out huge and unviewable. One for my kids, perhaps. If you search on the Tele forum website (http://www.tdpri.com/) you will find some really good pictures.

Cheers, Martin

[duhvoodooman***]

I knew someone was going to ask that! If I can work out how to post them, I'll get some on, although my last efforts on the BYOC website all turned out huge and unviewable....

Just resize them before posting. Irfanview does a great job with that--make 'em any size you want.

I have the '50s model--unbelievable guitar for the money. I found I preferred the sound of the Alnico 3's in the '50s to the brighter Alnico 5's in the Custom model. Put a minihumbucker in the neck position and I keep it tuned to open G. Great for channeling Keef....

[deeaa*]

I knew someone was going to ask that! If I can work out how to post them, I'll get some on, although my last efforts on the BYOC website all turned out huge and unviewable. One for my kids, perhaps. If you search on the Tele forum website (http://www.tdpri.com/) you will find some really good pictures.

Cheers, Martin

picasaweb.google.com

Then once in albums, you can just pick up the picture address and use the picture directly.

Like:



And, of course, Picasa in itself is a great free photo navigation/treatment tool.

[Mr Pants]

Looks fantastic DVM . Used your website for my Epi Valve Junior mods BTW ,and it worked a treat.

[Bloozcat]

Nice purchase, Martin!

Not to worry if the little woman has a tizzy over it. There's a stool reserved for you here at the GAS Attack Pub, first pint's on me.

[Mr Pants]

I might take you up on that! Florida sounds tempting compared to a currently cold, dark and rainy UK! Only joking about the trouble and strife - she is remarkably patient considering she has to live with me

Very busy at the moment, but I'll try and get some pictures if the light improves over here at the weekend. Re the skinny neck, I've been trying my other guitars, and sure enough, they all go sharp with moderate pressure back on the neck, so you live and learn.

[Brian Krashpad]

Looking forward to the pics Martin, Congrats!

Btw, I'm in Florida too and it's gorgeous here today. Night was in the 50's F, today will be in the 80's F.

[Mr Pants]

Hi, if you are interested, you might want to try this link: http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaste...review%2A.html. It's a good site for teleholics. This guys photography is way better than mine would ever be. My guitar looks exactly like this, except that I got lucky and the neck of mine shows some quilting. Still loving the tone!