New Classic Vibe Esquires

TTBZ

Just seen these, very tempted by a black one! Double bound black teles are the coolest and esquire adds a further few cool points to that

https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/product/210406368005025--squier-fsr-classic-vibe-60s-esquire-black

Says the body is nato, what's that like? A quick Google suggests it's similar to mahogany. Are these newer classic vibes any good? The price is creeping up to used Fender but I don't mind it saying Squier if it's a good guitar.

Bennyboy-UK

It looks very cool.

Vintage-T

Just like pretty much every other guitar at the moment.... out of stock

stonevibe

List price seems to be the same as the 2019 Squier '50s Esquire models, so could be a good deal

Chuffola

I had one of the new CV 60s Strats and while it was a decent enough guitar, it wasn't a patch on the Chinese ones - I never thought I'd say that!

For example, the little walnuty plug around the truss rod hole was misaligned and it was a bugger to get an allen key in. The tremolo block looked like it was made of the cheapest pot-metal available and was very thin. The pickups weren't as good as the old ones (which rumour has it were Toneriders). These were very generic. 

Nothing major at the price to be fair, just not as good. 

The Nato body seemed pretty heavy - I didn't weigh it but it felt well over 8lbs. 

At the price, there's not much risk really but just be aware they are effectively Vintage Modified rebadged as Classic Vibe

Funkfingers

TTBZ said:

Says the body is nato, what's that like? A quick Google suggests it's similar to mahogany. Are these newer classic vibes any good? The price is creeping up to used Fender but I don't mind it saying Squier if it's a good guitar.

Nato (AKA Mora) is an Asian species. Yamaha regularly used it on budget solidbody guitars such as the SG200. Takamine has used it on electro-acoustic guitars. Apparently, the heartwood and outer trunk are of distinct appearances and density.

The choice of a mahogany-like timber might make the Squier Custom Esquire a good host for DiMarzio rail and Seymour Duncan Li'l humbucker format pickups.

The Fifties style model from a few years ago was hamstrung by the lack of a neck/Rhythm pickup cavity.

MagicPigDetective

Vintage-T said:

Just like pretty much every other guitar at the moment.... out of stock

There doesn’t seem to be much new Squier stock around at the moment, especially offsets. Which is annoying as I fancy one. I read somewhere that the pandemic had resulted in huge sales of beginner guitars. So I assume production cannot meet demand. Perhaps production has been slowed in China/Indonesia. Fender must have made a killing via Squier over the last year. 

TTBZ

Funkfingers said:

The choice of a mahogany-like timber might make the Squier Custom Esquire a good host for DiMarzio rail and Seymour Duncan Li'l humbucker format pickups.

I was just thinking if I got one it would probably end up with a Chopper T or something P90ish like the Oil City Kayman 90 I don't like your typical twangy Tele bridge pickup but the fuller/more midrangey ones sound great.

chrisj1602

Theres’s an Anderton’s video coming, and they’ve posted some photos of the actual guitars on Instagram and they really look good.

TTBZ

Yeah Anderton's is where I first saw this and it caught my eye straight away! Unfortunately the video probably won't tell me much useful unless they get someone who actually plays some riffs in to do it.

impmann

As a long term player and advocate of the Telecaster, I genuinely don't understand the fascination with Esquires. For me, not having a neck pickup makes the guitar less useful and versatile. 

I understand all the flim-flam about the tone control to find those other sounds - but you can do that on a Tele *anyway* plus you can use the tone control on the other pickup settings. And no, the other sounds aren't in the tone control - you can approximate them, but rolling the tone off to near zero doesn't sound like the neck pickup and the two pickup on together chime just isn't in there. I've looked...

There's a school of thought that the neck pickup somehow affects the tone... hmmm, well, I did try an experiment once on my black 72 Tele whereby I ran it without the neck pickup for a gig to see if it made any difference. Nope. Other than I was frustrated by the lack of neck pickup for bluesier numbers and I missed the two pickup sound. A lot.

This constant clamour about single pickup guitars feels like folks making life awkward for the sake of it - and trying to make out its somehow "cooler" to have less of a tonal pallet available. If I'm honest, the first thing I'd do would to an Esquire would be to fit a neck pickup... and looking at the comments above, there was one about being hamstrung by a lack of neck pickup routing, so I'm not alone.

It maybe a fashion thing for some to want to strip things back - or maybe they only ever use the bridge pickup. Good luck to you on both counts if that applies to you. But this old fart genuinely doesn't get it - and never has done and never will. 

p90fool

Esquires are like single speed bicycles, their stripped down look is cool but ultimately pointless. 

thermionic

My singlespeed bike gets me from a to b.

That Esquier (see what I did there) looks very nice, but I’d want a neck pickup.

Snags

Vintage-T said:

Just like pretty much every other guitar at the moment.... out of stock

I'm fairly sure that with the FSR stuff they announce the guitar a good few months early, get all the pre-orders in, then build and ship them. Certainly every one I've seen has followed a pattern of announcing it but with the due date being somewhere between three and six months down the line; that was the case for an FSR Squier Tele I got last year, and seems to fit a pattern.

Jonathangus

They'll sell a load more of these if there actually is a neck pickup rout under there.  Double-bound LPB Tele?  Yes please!

stonevibe

I love Esquires, and end up using the bridge pickup way more than the neck anyway.

dazzajl

Having a smaller palette to work with can make you be more creative. That can be really inspiring but of course an Esquire isn’t as versatile, unless it’s not really an Esquire like the Brad Paisley of course. 

Schnozz

Mmm Indian Lauren *touches one's self*

chrisj1602

Schnozz said:

Mmm Indian Lauren *touches one's self*

Looks better than Pau Ferro a lot of the time... look fine here:

Photo from Lee Anderton’s Instagram...

chris78

Esquires look cool. Custom esquires look even cooler.
If they want to use alternative tone woods though, why not use Pine for example for the body? Having a mahogany style body is going to significantly change the typical snap you get from an esquire. I've got a mahogany bodied tele and an okoume body. They're great, but they're different from a typical tele sound. Smoother

Schnozz

chrisj1602 said:

Schnozz said:

Mmm Indian Lauren *touches one's self*

Looks better than Pau Ferro a lot of the time... look fine here:

Photo from Lee Anderton’s Instagram...

...Some filters and brown boot polish later.