The main reason not to buy a Squier guitar is because the Company is owned by Fender. Because of this reason alone it ensures that any Squier guitar is going to be somewhat inadequate and inferior because Fender will make sure it is. I own a Squier Classic Vibe 60s Stratocasters and taking it at face value it looks and feels really nice. It certainly looks like a quality guitar in every way. It is only when you come to plug it into an amp when you understand it’s shortcomings and to all intents and purposes it was designed to be a disappointment because Fender simply do not want you to get anywhere near the quality of their own premium Fender lines. In a way it makes financial sense to protect the originality of their own more expensive guitars. They simply do not want you to be able to obtain that quality at a bargain price. It is such a shame because when not plugged in this guitar has such potential. The Squier Classic Vibe had the potential to be a classic guitar in it’s own right and could rightly have been up there alongside many classic Fender Strats but obviously Fender could not and would not tolerate this so it designed a system of poor quality, inferior pick ups and/or electrics to make sure that the Classic Vibe never quite reached it’s true potential and thus protected its premium brand status. The Classic Vibe feels like a real instrument of quality made for a musician of intermediate to professional level. It is not an entry level guitar until you plug in it into an amp when all its potential just ebbs away into dissatisfaction. The same goes for Gibson and it’s own cheaper brand of Epiphone. I feel sorry for the workers and designers in these factories who must get pretty frustrated at seeing their products and handiwork being sabotaged in this way because they are certainly very capable of producing lovely instruments.
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