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- Verified Buyer
Guitar arrived as advertised. Played well out of the box, but played better after the strings were replaced. However, the pickguard was missing a screw into the body. Not what I would expect from a $420 instrument. Per Amazon's instructions, i contacted Fender through their website, but after four days I hadn't heard from them. I found replacement screws and fixed the problem myself (seems to be a common theme in the reviews for this guitar). Caveat emptor.I love this guitar!!! It is amazing for the price. I do plan on doing a few upgrades to it, but for now I am playing the H**l out of it.The only issue that I have with it is that the nut slot on the 1st string is cut too close to edge. Yes, I suppose I could have sent it back for that one small issue, but the neck on it absolutely beautiful and I fear a replacement won't come close to it.Time to play the Blues!This Guitar is awesome all around and the transaction was smooth and flawless.Buying a guitar, sight unseen, is always a 50/50 proposition.I've been looking at this guitar and the Baja model (no longer made, and hard to find), among other Fender Tele models for a couple yrs now, I've played nearly all of 'em in music stores and thought I'd take a chance and order one off Amazon. Which are priced a bit better than what I'd been finding in stores.First; well packaged, and delivered on time. No damage in shipping, and the guitar looks great! The finish is nice-n-glossy, the neck is smooth and very easy on the hand slides.BUT, first thing I noticed was the high E string is very close to the edge, closer than the the low E-string which is thicker, but plenty of room for it on the fretboard. Once I tuned it up and did some easy cord strums and and a few string slides, hammer-ons and bends (unamplifed), the high E-string went over the edge and snagged on the 6th fret. In fact, several frets are long and edgy and will need some filing. Which I can do, but, I shouldn't have to...that's the second problem.Third, the neck has a slight bow in it, not totally unexpected, but the allen wrench does not fit the nut. Fortunately I have plenty of allen wrenches, tuned it up a bit, so we'll see. Takes a little time to settle in. But the strings are not as close to the fretboard overall as I would prefer, or in my opinion as they should be. Again, we'll see how it all settles in after a couple days.Finally, right out of the box, the lower volume know fell off. No problem, put it back on and tightened the set screw. But, I shouldn't have to do that either. The design problem is there is no flat spot on the volume barrels for the set screw and the knob to slid onto, which would help lock it into place. So that's just cheap.Now, after a tune up, plugged it in & sounds grrreeeat! So I hope it all settles in because I do like the looks and the sound and feels pretty good, aside form the problems listed above. I don't care for the tuner knobs, but they work really well. And the thing stayed in tune after 20 min's of some vigorous playing. I like the strings though the body feature too, I actually think that improves the tune/tone of the guitar. The pickup switch was also solid between the 3 settings. And the sound quality of the bridge pickup was very distinct and impressive.So, that's my tail. I have known others who have ordered on line and got a perfect guitar out of the box. In fact, it's happened to me before. But again, its a 50/50 proposition. Buy in person if you can. (PS. Assembled in Indonesia model Squire).It has a good tele twang but you won't like it so much when comparing it to a higher-quality guitar. Doesn't stay in tune. Plays nice enough. Sounds good through my Twin. If you cannot find a better quality used tele, this one will work for a whileGreat guitar for the price but the tuners are terrible. Finding a drop in replacement isn’t easy either although I did. That’s going to add a hundred bucks to the price. At the end of the day I don’t regret buying it given my satisfaction otherwise. I do think they should consider upping the price a little so it can have decent tuners to begin with, I mean usable ones basically. This bugger is really hard to tune for now. :(Now I know why telecasters have been a favorite for so many years. I love this guitar. Very comfortable to play. It's a little heavy weight wise and the tuners could be better. I changed the bridge to a Gotoh Modern Bridge for Tele Chrome and that was a big improvement. The pickups are okay for now. I my opinion, you can't get a better bang for your buck than this Squire Telecaster.No dings or noticeable dents/cracks in the finish. Guitar came with what felt like 9 Guage strings and the action was a little high for my taste, but that's just a preference thing that I can adjust on my own.I definitely wasn't expecting the fretwork to be so clean. No sharp edges on either side of the fretboard. Sure, they weren't masterfully tapered to a rounded surface at the end but still great job out of the factory.The pickup switch feels great and the intonation was spot on, which I also wasn't expecting considering this guitar uses barrell saddles. Volume and tone knobs turn steadily and without trouble.Last but not least the pickups themselves sound great. Nice warm tones on the neck pickup with some more punch in middle position. The bridge pickup is just full punch.All in all, solid guitar. I was a little hesitant to go with a squier over a straight Fender, but I'm digging it.
