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ribbetingfrog

Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar

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My main guitar is a bit of a metal beastie with active pups, I bought this Squier to be a different option.

I bought it second hand from my local guitar shop, I tried it in store and it played wonderfully so had to come home with me. Cost £200 and is well worth it.

The neck is pretty thin, which I like, it plays fast. Tuners work smoothly and hold tune perfectly.

The trem is nice, it gives a nice wobble, great for a surf rock kind of sound. It doesn’t do big dive bombs like a floyd rose though.

It has a myriad of options and switches.

Flick the main switch upwards and it uses only the bridge pup with the upper volume and tone wheels.

main switch down uses both pups and the lower switches. One each to turn on and off each pickup, along with a high pass filter to cut the low end for an exaggerated single coil sound. The volume and tone knobs work with this circuit.

 

The pickups are Duncan Designed and review very well, widely considered better than the Fender Japan pickups.

I certainly like them, they are clear and with a lovely quack. Sound really nice clean and crunchy.

i wouldn’t swap them for what I use it for, easily good enough to gig or record with. Very satisfying sound and exactly what you want in a Jaguar.

 

There is so much to like about this guitar, especially for the price. However one thing many people complain about is the bridge.

Squier tried to keep this guitar as faithful to the sixties model as possible and that includes the bridge, which is bad. 

It has loads of tiny grooves which the strings do not sit in well. I’m a pretty heavy handed player (mainly playing bass) and if you hit the strings hard they jump around in the saddles, not helping the tuning and intonation.

This is easily solved though. As per most other reviews, I fitted a Mustang bridge, which is a drop in replacement. It has a proper groove in the saddles.

Mustangs have a different radius on the fretboard so I got a bridge with adjustable saddle heights and it is perfect.

I put 11 gauge strings on it which in conjunction with the new bridge solve the problems perfectly.

 

It is a slightly shorter scale guitar than normal so the thicker strings work well with it. The scale makes it ridiculously easy to play.

 

To sum up, this is an amazing guitar for the money. Plays really well, easy and fast.

sounds great, iconic single coil tones on tap and clear note and chord definition.

A quick £10 bridge replacement and you have a great  axe that punches well above its price point.

The guitarist in my band has an American Fender Jaguar and it is assuredly a better guitar, locking tuners but less tonal options. His sounds a little bit better, but nowhere near better enough to justify the price tag from my point of view.

 

If you are looking for a great value guitar that is good enough to practice, record or gig, with versatility from jazz and blues, to rock and punk this guitar does everything far better than its price would suggest. You’ll struggle to find anything better for anywhere near the price.

 

 

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It’s hard to find fault with the Squier VMs and CVS (I have a CV Tele), good/great quality at bargain prices. I love the look of the Jag, especially in Surf Green, but tone-wise I prefer the Jazz Master. I have a very talented guitar playing chum who has a  full on, Fender Jag and loves it. He’s also recently rediscovered The Smiths and Morrissey and has been to see Johnny Marr a number times (I’m not sure if the Jag or the rediscovery came first). The Marr sig has some very useful custom features/upgrades.

Enjoy your lovely looking beast.

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The only fault I can pick in the CVs is that they're chasing the bottom end of the MIM Fender priceband, which can, unfairly, make them look like "expensive Squiers" rather than "budget Fenders", but that's purely subjective. I've long fasncied the 50s Strat and Tele variants. Especially tmepted tp pick up one of the Teles and turn it into an Esquier... not sure if they've dropped the lefties, though, since the revamp? Looking at the website a few days ago they didn't seem to be there any longer.

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