New Bass

[Travis]

Just grabbed this Squier J Bass yesterday. I know Squier is a low end brand but I'm loving this bass. The neck feels great, and after changing the strings to flats it sounds great too! The finish on it is impeccable too and I love the color.

Had to share my excitement with my solder bros. Nothing fancy but I'm stoked!

[Silver Blues]

"Low end" doesn't necessarily mean "low quality" nor that you can't enjoy it! Plenty to love about Squier's basses, rock it to the fullest man  looks great

[Ciaran Haslett]

Agreed...the Classic Vibe series has got the best feeling necks I've ever held!

[Travis]

Thanks Silver and Ciaran

This isn't even the Classic Vibe series, this is the "Affinity" series. The Affinity stuff is not very highly touted but I'm diggin it personally.

[Silver Blues]

Even so, the issue that arises sometimes with Squier's basses is quality control, but if you get a good one then it's comparable to many far more expensive instruments. And hey, modifications can always be made if you want to change something, they're an excellent platform for them. I'd say you should definitely be diggin it!

[Neil mcNasty]

Looks like a very nice buy! Congratulations!

I have great experience with buying low end products and upgrading them.
Like my Epiphone SG Special which a friend gave me for free, believing it was worthless and unusable, has now become one of my favourite guitars.

If you have the patience to check out many of these, until you find the one that is a real player (neck sits perfect in it's pocket and it feels great) you can save a lot of money, as the cheaper basses/guitars often comes from the same assembly line as the expensive ones.
Often the only difference (except better pickups & better tuners) is the neck-pocket fit and extra adjustments/treatment, like thorough fret levelling and similar fine adjustments.
The wood and build material is always the same...

With my SG i had an issue with noisy rattling vibrations from the crappy tuners, so I replaced them.
I also had a couple of great chrome plated pickups (Lollar) and some chrome pickup rings that I installed and I also moved the Jack to the bottom + rewired it with Bass & Treble controls (also adding advanced treble bleed and using Oil in Paper caps for the Treble and Bass controls), I also replaced the standard Gibson speed knobs with Fender style chrome knobs for a cleaner and more unified custom look.
Not only is it a great player and sounds great, but now it also looks absolutely amazing.

The Bass control is probably the best feature as this has a huge effect on dirt-boxes and broken amps, and gives the instrument an amazing tone range.
A HIGLY RECOMMENDED MOD!

[Beaker]

Nice score Travis.

I'm in the same camp as Neil. All my guitars are cheap but good, and most are modified to some extent. I'm one of those guys that if given $2000 for a new guitar, I'd come home with 7 or 8 cheapies rather tham one custom shop offering. It does not stop me lusting after Rickies, but unfortunately that's not going to happen unless I win the lottery.

For what it's worth one of my favourite ever guitar mods was a battered Affinity series Tele I did for a guy who loved it simply because it was his first guitar. He asked me to make it as good as possible. I replaced the hardware, rewired it and fitted Bulldog pickups to it - a Broadcaster spec bridge and I had to rout out the neck pocket for a Bulldog P90.

That thing played amazingly, and sounded just incredible.

[Muadzin]

I'm with Neil and Travis. Mostly driven out of lack of funds. I just don't have the money to drop on a really expensive guitar, so I was forced to go for cheapies and upgrade them, or build my own guitars. Same with pedals by the way. In the end modding or building your own instruments is both way more fun and makes these instruments your own in ways that buying a perfect high end guitar never would.

[Travis]

Thanks guys! The great thing is that I'm selling a build that will cover the cost of this bass, so I'm totally in the clear for funding mods.

The neck and body on this are great, so as you guys are saying it will be a perfect platform for mods. With some upgraded hardware and electronics this bass would be primo, although it's really not bad as it is either!

Beaker just to help your lust, this baby was under 2K and that's USD. I live close to the factory and my local shop does good deals on Rics, so if you're ever in the market I may be able to help you out.

Whenever I play around with all my guitars, the sound of the Ric is consistently my favorite.

[balazs.bencs]

Congrats man!

Don't be ashamed or anything like that about the headstock logo... Who cares? As long it is inspiring you to play... That's the only thing that matters. (I'm always telling the same thing about building the 126th pedal :D )

I have 3 Squier guitars as well (classic vibe tele custom and a simon neil sig. strat, and a vintage modified tele), and these instruments are waaaaay better compared to their price - for me beats the quality of most mexican fenders.

[Travis]

Thanks man! Definitely not concerned about the name on the headstock. If anything I'm less concerned about it getting stolen :)

[Goga]

My dear Travis,

I really don't share the opinion of others that Squier is low end brand because I'm stuck with the brand and like any other brand, Squier has good and bad series.

I can say that I'm expert in Squer hahahaha LoL. I have Squiers since the end of the 80s LoooL.
I had good ones, I had bad ones I had them all! Yer personally I think that now the Classic Vibe series are better then any other Mexican made strats or teles or basses. Yes, there are people that share my thoughts about this and some that are not convinced.

I will ask you something: Do you know what is the best guitar in the world for you?!?
I'll tell you the answer: Yours!!!! :)
This philosophy works!

I wish you a lot of joy with your new guitar and please don't forget to answer our stupid questions on this forum :D LoL

p.s I have decided to by the same bass but from Marcus Miller- Sire ;)

[Pavlos]

Hey Travis, that's a pretty cool looking bass there, and even though Squier is at the lower end of the cost scale, there is nothing wrong with the quality of instruments they produce, so I'm not in the least bit surprised you like it. Yes they are built to a price, and so a few corners are cut to make them more affordable, but out of the box they are great value for the money and easily stand for a few upgrades if the mood and finances allow. My own experience is that the weakest link in the chain is the electrics, especially pickups and switches, otherwise open gear machine heads on the lowest end of the range are about the only other thing that really need changing. Like any brand or price of instrument you do need to play a few to find one that you really gel with, but it shouldn't really matter what it says on the headstock just as long as it works for you, after all it isn't about price, it's about finding an instrument that makes you want to play!
Two of the guitars I pick up the most are a Squier standard series Tele (only upgrades are re wired and SD alnico proII's which I snagged brand new from evilbay for an absolute song) and a bitsa Squier Strat (old Korean neck and a standard body, Kent Armstrong STV pickups) which isn't bad going considering I also have an American standard Strat fitted with DiMarzio Choppers (Lovely guitar and very versatile pickups, especially if you use series/parallel switching)

Any time you feel a bit of brand/price snobbery, just ask yourself, how many times have you played an expensive guitar in a shop and thought.....meh, buthad lots of fun and lost track of time with a 'cheapo'

[negativefx]

Very nice!

Just remember, a Squier is still a Fender but simply made by someone south of the border or across the Pacific... my friend was a master builder at Fender and could take any Squier and make it play like a custom shop with about an hours worth of setup work.  If you know what you're doing, you can do the same.  Squiers get the 'ugly' wood (hence the solid paint jobs) and less time at the setup station... that's about it.  I guess the case could be made that they're more prone to warping over time due to not getting the schmancy quarter saw wood, but just don't leave your bass on your car dashboard on a hot day and I'm sure you'll be fine.  :)  If it doesn't already play very well, a new nut and a light fret job is probably all it would need.

I have ~20 instruments in a wide range of cost ($100 up to $8500), and my favorite to play is still my old (and first!) Peavey Forum bass that I bought used for $150.  I also have super beat up Peavey Raptor strat clone that plays better than the Am Deluxes I see at Guitar Center.