Anyone here have a Squier Venus?

thegummy

Gerz6558 said:

thegummy said:

Imagine you were a newly successful rock star and get a call from someone at Fender about a signature model and get all excited then they go "it's going to be a Squier"

I reckon J Mascis and the Cribs would  have been pretty happy with their Squier signatures.

I'd say Squier are more interesting than Fender these days too.

More interesting how?

Most of the models are the same as Fender models.

HarrySeven

Been there.

Hated them.

ICBM

Loobs said:

It's a really cool body shape. Sort of Ricenbacker inspired. 

If Stevie Wonder was asked to draw one...

I've really never understood the appeal at all - every one I've played has been a dreadful, clunky guitar, and the whole thing really does look like it was designed by a partially-sighted child. The headstock is OK though, I'll give it that .

EricTheWeary

I like the colour. 
I do wonder looking at that bridge if there is an issue with the angle of the through body stringing and how many times per gig that high E would jump out of it's saddle. Bit hard to tell from those photos. 

Funkfingers

Loobs said:

CL did indeed play a single pickup Custom Shop Fender-branded version. 

Herein lies the problem. Curt and Courtney’s personal signature guitars were master built to their exact requirements.

The “normal” models are sought after because they are relatively scarce. They are scarce because they did not sell especially well. They did not sell especially well because they were not especially good.

None of this is to say that you should not take them to your hearts. 

Loobs

Hmm. Starting to wonder if I should buy one. They look really really cool to me, and the rarity is attractive, but if they're shite....

Loobs

ICBM said:

Loobs said:

It's a really cool body shape. Sort of Ricenbacker inspired. 

If Stevie Wonder was asked to draw one...

I've really never understood the appeal at all - every one I've played has been a dreadful, clunky guitar, and the whole thing really does look like it was designed by a partially-sighted child. The headstock is OK though, I'll give it that .

How do you mean "dreadful & clunky"? Care to elaborate? 

Loobs

HarrySeven said:

Been there.

Hated them.

why?

Gerz6558

thegummy said:

Gerz6558 said:

thegummy said:

Imagine you were a newly successful rock star and get a call from someone at Fender about a signature model and get all excited then they go "it's going to be a Squier"

I reckon J Mascis and the Cribs would  have been pretty happy with their Squier signatures.

I'd say Squier are more interesting than Fender these days too.

More interesting how?

Most of the models are the same as Fender models.

Take a look at the paranormal range in one of the other threads. Plus the incoming FSR sparkle telecasters.

grungebob

They are not shite. They are just not for everyone. 

I now want one back  more than ever thanks this thread lol. 

The necks are big the binding means you need to roll the edges a lot to get it comfy. 

The tuning stability is fine. The pickups are pants. 

Pabcrane

I believe that the original guitar that the Venus is based on or copied from was called the Mercury.

Designed and built by a couple of guys in Georgia in the US. If I remember the story correctly Courtney got one, Pat Smear ordered one and Guy P. from Fugazi got one.


Mercury folded and then Fender came out with the Venus, but the original designers weren't involved or nodded to by Fender.

ICBM

Loobs said:

How do you mean "dreadful & clunky"? Care to elaborate? 

They felt clumsy and lumpy to play, the body proportions are all wrong and the bridge is too far back - and I don't like guitars that are too much the other way either, I normally like 'short' guitars, but these are too much - the necks were all 'fat' but in the wrong way, the control locations are awkward - in particular the switch is too close to the jack socket which makes moving it from the bridge to either of the other positions difficult.

Add shitty pickups and electronics and you've got a complete package that would be junk even if it wasn't one of the worst-looking guitars ever made... not even ugly-cool, just meh.

simonhpieman

Just to clear up a couple of oft-misquoted "facts":

The original design is based on Mercury guitars. They built one for Mr Cobain and took it along to a show. As it was a right handed guitar, Kurt kind of went "ah, erm..." and Courtney went "Yoink, thanks."

As Mercury's were hand made by two guys, there weren't many about and Courtney used to like chucking things into the crowd and generally smashing stuff about. It was at this point her/her techs had Fender make some more road worthy, solidbody copies based on the heavily plaguerised Mercury design so they'd be more robust on tour.

The Squier model was never actually a signature model, Courtney just appeared (blurrily) holding one in the advert. The design is very much Mercury's.

Much of this is documented here in a really quite fascinating thread:

http://offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50431

As for what I think of my green one, I love it! It would definitely benefit from a nicer humbucker and I've toyed with getting a solid white guard made as I'm not keen on pearloid. I even thought about getting a couple of guards made so I could swap pickup configs in and out. I saw one with two single coils in a Mustang layout which looked good.

The neck is indeed pretty chunky and the frets are big but those are both things I like. It does indeed have a kind of... Clunkiness isn't the right word... It's solid and not light.

But it looks cool and I enjoy it. It's totally different to anything else I own or have owned.

roberty

Pabcrane said:

I believe that the original guitar that the Venus is based on or copied from was called the Mercury.

Designed and built by a couple of guys in Georgia in the US. If I remember the story correctly Courtney got one, Pat Smear ordered one and Guy P. from Fugazi got one.


Mercury folded and then Fender came out with the Venus, but the original designers weren't involved or nodded to by Fender.

Yep https://www.harmonycentral.com/forums/topic/1511740-offset-fans-heres-a-guitar-i-bet-youve-never-seen-mercury-guitars/

imalrightjack

My wife has one, although pretty much never plays.  I occasionally play it and always have fun.  I wish I could find a knob for the pick-up switch though!

Loobs

simonhpieman said:

Just to clear up a couple of oft-misquoted "facts":

The original design is based on Mercury guitars. They built one for Mr Cobain and took it along to a show. As it was a right handed guitar, Kurt kind of went "ah, erm..." and Courtney went "Yoink, thanks."

As Mercury's were hand made by two guys, there weren't many about and Courtney used to like chucking things into the crowd and generally smashing stuff about. It was at this point her/her techs had Fender make some more road worthy, solidbody copies based on the heavily plaguerised Mercury design so they'd be more robust on tour.

The Squier model was never actually a signature model, Courtney just appeared (blurrily) holding one in the advert. The design is very much Mercury's.

Much of this is documented here in a really quite fascinating thread:

http://offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50431

As for what I think of my green one, I love it! It would definitely benefit from a nicer humbucker and I've toyed with getting a solid white guard made as I'm not keen on pearloid. I even thought about getting a couple of guards made so I could swap pickup configs in and out. I saw one with two single coils in a Mustang layout which looked good.

The neck is indeed pretty chunky and the frets are big but those are both things I like. It does indeed have a kind of... Clunkiness isn't the right word... It's solid and not light.

But it looks cool and I enjoy it. It's totally different to anything else I own or have owned.

Cheers, that's very interesting info. 

Will read the thread on OSG. Maybe this isn't the place to ask about these guitars...

I knew the Mercury backstory somewhat. 

Loobs

Pabcrane said:

I believe that the original guitar that the Venus is based on or copied from was called the Mercury.

Designed and built by a couple of guys in Georgia in the US. If I remember the story correctly Courtney got one, Pat Smear ordered one and Guy P. from Fugazi got one.


Mercury folded and then Fender came out with the Venus, but the original designers weren't involved or nodded to by Fender.

Cool. Huge huge Fugazi fan here. 

MLten80

Odd but intriguing guitars!
 The story is quite a good read, the original guys clearly didn't have their shiz together 

There was one of courtneys own fender ones for sale recently..my gf made a pretty sensible offer (considering it had a neck break, no bridge pickup & neck s.coil wired straight to output)
 The seller went on to waffle about how it was going to be worth tens of 1000s & it had to go to the right buyer, blah blah. I guess an actual guitar playing rock chick hole fan wasnt quite good enough home   
 
She bought a strat from someone who actually wanted to sell the item in the end lol
 
That original green metallic mercury is cool as fook 

Loobs

Agreed

skullfunkerry

Gerz6558 said:

thegummy said:

Gerz6558 said:

thegummy said:

Imagine you were a newly successful rock star and get a call from someone at Fender about a signature model and get all excited then they go "it's going to be a Squier"

I reckon J Mascis and the Cribs would  have been pretty happy with their Squier signatures.

I'd say Squier are more interesting than Fender these days too.

More interesting how?

Most of the models are the same as Fender models.

Take a look at the paranormal range in one of the other threads. Plus the incoming FSR sparkle telecasters.

My Contemporary Active Strat was a fantastic guitar, it was basically a Charvel SoCal (but with better pickups imo), for half the price. They even moved the volume pot so that it wasn't in the way. I definitely shouldn't have sold it...