TheGreek Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 As an avid eBay watcher I've just be looking at what's available at the moment. There are currently several Squire Jazz basses for around the £70 mark. Now I've never been a real Fender fan, despite owning the Fender Zone in the "Gear Porn" thread, so I've no idea how well respected these basses are. Since they're made in Japan can't we expect Japanese build quality - i.e built to a high standard? Surely they're worth this easily - haven't there recently been quite a lot of recoomendations for these basses as first instruments? I'm sure that somebody said that Squire's were up and coming as investments..I know that something is only worth what somebody else is prepared to pay, but £70?? Please enlighten me on this... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Think it depends on the model, tho I had an Affinity Series Precision, which is the cheapest in Squiers range, and it was a very good bass. Yes, the sound wasn`t as good as Fenders, but for a bass thats 20% of the price, that can`t be expected, tho what did surprise me was what a great bass it was to play. In my opinion these are great basses for the value, and also great basses to modify. Put some higher end electrics and pickups in, and you`ve got a great bass for not much money at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 (edited) [quote name='TheGreek' post='1099775' date='Jan 23 2011, 04:15 PM']As an avid eBay watcher I've just be looking at what's available at the moment. There are currently several Squire Jazz basses for around the £70 mark. Now I've never been a real Fender fan, despite owning the Fender Zone in the "Gear Porn" thread, so I've no idea how well respected these basses are. Since they're made in Japan can't we expect Japanese build quality - i.e built to a high standard? Surely they're worth this easily - haven't there recently been quite a lot of recoomendations for these basses as first instruments? I'm sure that somebody said that Squire's were up and coming as investments..I know that something is only worth what somebody else is prepared to pay, but £70?? Please enlighten me on this...[/quote] Squier (note spelling) hasn't manufactured in Japan for many years. Japan is a high cost country for manufacturing and consequently only premium guitars tend to get made there. The vast majority of Squier instruments come out of factories in other Asian countries like China and Indonesia where the overheads are a great deal lower and as a result Fender are able to be more competitive in the market. Old Japanese Squiers fetch ludicrous sums of money on eBay and in other places as they are reckoned to be some kind of holy grail of a byegone era of Japanese manufacturing. It's all hype but there are some good JV Squiers around, just be aware that you can get a very good Japanese Fender or US Fender for the same money. The £70 pieces of "firewood" that you see on eBay are more than likely to be the plywood instruments that are Squier's Affinity series and worth peanuts in comparison. Though as with everything, try before you buy and do your homework. Edited January 23, 2011 by Sean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henry norton Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 (edited) There are Squiers and there are Squiers - most if not all Squiers are Chinese made nowadays and won't have had the attention to detail an 80s JV Squier had, but they're actually pretty good (even the mega cheap Affinity series look good and work well). I've played a 1982 Squier Precision for over 20 years and it's been a perfect workhorse even though some people didn't think it was a 'real' guitar because it wasn't made in the good 'ol US of A... The Affinity series have alder bodies, not plywood - the days of cheapo plywood guitars are long behind us now. Edited January 23, 2011 by henry norton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YouMa Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Those fretless ones they released were nice,the ones with the duncan design pickups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjones Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 (edited) [list] [/list]Yes old squiers can be good but always try before you buy. I bought my MIJ silver series jazz bass because I tried a friend's out of curiosity (that was slowly moldering away, neglected, in the corner of his reheasal room) and was pleasantly surprised at how great it sounded and how well it was made. I kept my eye out for one on ebay and paid £250 for it...........which is a bargain for such a great bass. From what I could find on the internet the silver series squiers were a superior spec product made in Japan from 92 to 94 when most squiers of that era were made in Korea. My Squier jazz even has the little brass strip from bridge to bridge pickup you get on 62 re-issue style basses which is a nice retro touch. [attachment=69789:Squier.JPG] Edited January 23, 2011 by gjones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat Burrito Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Obviously people go on about the JV ones from the 80s, the Silver Series were nice too generally. I've had a couple of Korean Silver Series which were good. I think the quality dropped slightly in the 90s but they have really come back with the VM series etc. Generally though even the Affinity ones have something to offer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bumnote Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Another plug for the silver series. I had a jazz and also a Hank Marvin strat which was one of the silver series. Good instruments both, and the Hank Marvin is starting to be a collectors piece amongst the Hank afficianadoes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jezzaboy Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 (edited) I had a Affinity P bass for a while as a back up and it was a good piece of kit. Defo an alder body as above and had I kept it and spent a few quid on upgrdes, I would have used it as a gigging bass. For £70 you can`t go wrong. They will not be Jap, more than likley Indonesia but does it really matter where a bass is made these days? And look at it this way, if you don`t like it you can sell it and get your money back. Jez Edited January 23, 2011 by jezzaboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjb Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 The current Squier Classic Vibes are excellent for the money. Great necks. Thay have alot of good comments on BC - just do a search.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musky Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 [quote name='BurritoBass' post='1099851' date='Jan 23 2011, 05:27 PM']Obviously people go on about the JV ones from the 80s, the Silver Series were nice too generally. I've had a couple of Korean Silver Series which were good. I think the quality dropped slightly in the 90s but they have really come back with the VM series etc. Generally though even the Affinity ones have something to offer.[/quote] There were never any Korean made Silver Series Squiers - they were all made in Japan. The confusion seems to arise from the use of silver logos in the early ninties, which some people take to denote a Silver Series instrument, but in fact the Silver Series was a slightly more expensive version of the standard Korean Squiers and built in Japan. They usually have the Silver Series logo on the ball of the headstock, though I've seen a few that don't. They also were the last Squiers built in Japan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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