NTD, good classic vibrations inside

[Ratrod]

New Telecaster Day

Yes! My Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster arrived yesterday.

Everyone who’s been reading the reviews of this guitar on the Telecaster Discussion Page and wondering whether it’s really that good………….IT IS!

The paint job looks flawless. It’s a milky/creamy semi transparent white with the grey wood grain of the pine  showing through. Polished to mirror finish.

The neck fits tightly in the pocket, you couldn’t get a hair between the neck and the body. The vintage look finish is, again, flawless. Not too yellow or orange and certainly not too pale. The width of the neck is slightly slimmer than I’m used too but very comfortable and a joy to play. You will NOT believe how good the fret job is on this thing. Some have mentioned a slight flame on the neck. Mine has that too but I thing that was caused by the CNC machine router bit.

Unplugged it sounds very rich, resonant and surprisingly loud. Plugged in you’ll notice there is too much sharpness in the bridge pickup and it’s too dull in the neck pickup. This needs some adjustments.

Ok, this guitar comes with 9’s on it and that’s too thin for me so I changed the strings to 10’s. That also takes away some of the sharpness. The string change required some setup adjustments. I needed to widen the nut slots a bit and the truss rod a quarter turn. Action and intonation remained just fine. It’s a brass three saddle.

While I was at it I adjusted the pickups. Neck a little higher, bridge a little lower (especially the treble side). Now it sounds balanced and like a classic style Tele should. I didn’t expect much from these pickups but they sound really good. They’re low output AIII pickups and you have to work a little for your tone but all the twang and classic Tele tones are there.

The chrome could have been better, the tuners are decent enough but I doubt they’ll last long if you string it up with 11’s. The pots feel pretty solid and they’re quiet.

In essence, this is Leo’s vision re-incarnated.

From memory I can compare this to MIM Tele and the Lite Ash. The finish is on par with the MIM, the neck is superior IMO, especially with that stunning fret job. Soundwise, a Lite Ash Tele sounds better with it’s SD pickups but the feel of the Classic Vibe’s neck is much better. The pickups are just as good as the MIM’s but very different in tone. MIM pickups are much beefier, rock and blues oreiented. The CV’s pickups are all country, rockabilly and rock n’ roll. More airy, snappy and twangy.

This has got to be the best deal you can get on a guitar.

The serial number on mine: CGS080400777
Lady Luck must be smiling down on me.

I’ll post some pics when I get my regular computer back.

[indysmith]

sweet. i might have to get me one of these babies.

[Twinfan]

Not what I wanted to hear  :(

I'm trying to resist the touch of GAS I have to buy one of those and play with the pickups and wiring.....

[Crazy_Joe]

Picss!

Have to say i'm a bit skeptical about Squires but seems like they can be good little guitars.

[gwEm]

Picss!

Have to say i'm a bit skeptical about Squires but seems like they can be good little guitars.

you're right to be skeptical crazy joe, every squier i've played has been fun and entertaining, doesn't meant to say they were quality instruments though - far from it some times. though it seems they did a good job on this one! good buy ramrod and congratulations!

[Twinfan]

They're selling like hot cakes - I haven't found a shop with one in stock for me to try yet.  Mail order seems to be the only way to get one...

[sambo]

Machinehead have got one, Dave.

http://machinehead.co.uk/product_info.php/cPath/21_41/products_id/2019

Think I'll try it out myself, too.



Looking forward to pics, Ratrod. :)

[FernandoDuarte]

Not what I wanted to hear  :(

I'm trying to resist the touch of GAS I have to buy one of those and play with the pickups and wiring.....

Does they come in reliced red sparkle??? (twiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin) :lol:

[38thBeatle]

Great buy Ratty.

[Philly Q]

Sounds great, but I think the Badger has satisfied my Tele GAS for the foreseeable future.

[AndyR]

Nice one Mr Ratrod :D

I tried one a few weeks back and agree whole-heartedly with everything you say. I was amazed at the quality of the fretwork - absolutely stunning. It knocks the frets on my Baja into the long grass by a very long way (and the finish on the neck, as well).

I didn't buy it for a variety of reasons: the neck is far too slim for my tastes (I'd have loved it 20 years ago!), I'm not too keen on milky white blonde finishes (the one I tried had an excellent one, just not for me), and, if I do get another tele, it really ought to have a rosewood board :roll:

I did advise an old bloke trying a Baja to go and check it out before he spent his money though :D. I told him I love the Baja myself, but he seemed a bit non-plussed and said he was just after a decent cheap tele... so I let him into the secret of what I'd just tried down the road. But BOY, could he play!!

I tried some MIM Classic Series rosewood board teles last weekend - not bad, but of the two I tried, for the somewhat larger asking price (compared to the CV) you get a bonus "mystery-fret" that is lower than all the others! One choked seriously at the 10th, all strings, the other at 14th... Interestingly, one shop noticed it and whipped it out of my hands with a "we're sending that back...", and the other shop?... they shrugged, and put it back on the wall...

I still might come back to the MIMs, they seem decent enough and the neck is nearer to my taste, but I'm actually wanting to try a Japanese re-issue, and I decided that I might as well wait and get what I really want!!

But anyway, if you can lay your hands on one of these, and you like slim necks, the Squier CV is extremely desirable. And if you're worried about the sound Ratrod describes, considering what they've done to my Baja, I suspect that Blackguard Flat 50s would seriously fatten it up if you want to go to the more bluesy end of things... (and it would still cost less than a MIM!) :D

[Ratrod]

The CV Tele isn't just a good guitar for the money, it's a good guitar period.

I got mine from Thomann for less than 300 euro, probably as cheap as it gets. It came in an unopened factory box so it had the factory setup and that wasn't bad at all, except for the pickups. Plug and play.

New electronics and Blackguards are in the plans for this guitar.

[badgermark]

I like the look of these, but thinking about picking up a £110 butterscotch blonde affinity tele and some piledrivers. Oh yeah!

[AndyR]

The CV Tele isn't just a good guitar for the money, it's a good guitar period.

+1 on that Ratrod, I was banging on about "cheap", "comparison", etc in my post - but the bottom line was that the one I played was just plain good, full-stop. If the neck had been thicker, I think it would have left the shop with me and I would have had some serious explaining to do!

Sadly, the CV strats (which I was far more interested in than the tele) didn't feel quite so substantial to me - the frets, especially on the 50s maple board model, were just as gorgeous, but overall the guitars didn't seem quite as classy as the tele. I think they've hit the bullseye with that one.

The quality they've managed does make you wonder though doesn't it? These teles make other "cheaper option guitars" look expensive, but their basic build quality is better. What are the other guys playing at??! I just bought a Republic resonator this week (Chinese I understand, same as these CVs) and it was comparable for feel/playability to the National near it that cost three times as much, and it had a better tone... I only tried the National just to make sure I wasn't being stupid buying a cheap one when I could save a bit harder and get what I really want tone-wise... I was stunned to discover that I prefered the tone of the Republic :roll:

[Philly Q]

The quality they've managed does make you wonder though doesn't it? These teles make other "cheaper option guitars" look expensive, but their basic build quality is better. What are the other guys playing at??! I just bought a Republic resonator this week (Chinese I understand, same as these CVs) and it was comparable for feel/playability to the National near it that cost three times as much, and it had a better tone... I only tried the National just to make sure I wasn't being stupid buying a cheap one when I could save a bit harder and get what I really want tone-wise... I was stunned to discover that I prefered the tone of the Republic :roll:

I suppose a very large part of the extra money you pay for an American guitar has nothing to do with the instrument itself.  In particular, the cost of labour and overheads.

OK, the Chinese production probably uses cheaper materials and features a greater degree of automation.  But there's no reason why the Chinese guy doing the fretwork (for 10p an hour or whatever) shouldn't be every bit as skilled as an American guy doing the same thing elsewhere for a much higher wage.

Plus the Chinese factories probably don't have too many environmental, health & safety or working hours regulations to worry about.