It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
Thats true, and i had considered that option. Suppose I should open this up to suggestions for Jaguar pickups that people have tried and can recommend.
I'd say if you are happy with the squier keep it.
I would highly recommend mojo pickups for pickup replacement.
My CS jaguar pickups have been replaced with mojos finest and it sounds even better.
My go-to is a humble MIM Std Strat (predecessor to the Player Strat). At the time it was the cheapest actual ‘Fender’ available. Hard to describe but as soon as I picked it up I knew it was the one. The okay-ish stock pickups got swapped for a set of Oil City’s finest and I now have, what to me is pretty much, my perfect Strat. (The only other change is an upgraded sustain block.)
With things like neck size this is where the trying them out really comes in I guess. I like the squire neck (small hands) so something close would be good, but I have no problem with the neck size / shape on my Start, or the 59 neck on a LP, so shape may not be a big issue.
In an anti GAS sort of way I like the idea of changing the pickups just because there isn't anything else that I find a major issue. I have changed strings to 11's and since I put one wind of tape on the bridge post I've had no issues from the bridge. it isn't even that heavy!
@Funkfingers, I can't even say that I hate the pickups, they just don't sound particularly articulate to me but can be dialled in a bit with some fiddling with the guitar and amp controls. If anything I may want to change the tailpiece / vibrato at some point. In terms of how often does it get played. Right now it is my go to guitar just because it feels right, so getting it right for me would be worthwhile.
Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
Stockist of: Earvana & Graphtech nuts, Faber Tonepros & Gotoh hardware, Fatcat bridges. Highwood Saddles.
Pickups from BKP, Oil City & Monty's pickups.
Expert guitar repairs and upgrades - fretwork our speciality! www.felineguitars.com. Facebook too!
I rate this guitar highly, well worth you checking one out if you fancy one - and only available for this year (apparently).
Other things I noticed about the Squier vs the others:
- Chrome control plates looked somehow cheaper
- Pickguard was a bit cheap looking, mine was white on a Surf Green body.
- Pots were next to useless until almost at full opposite
General Jaguar things:
- People generally despise the MIJ pickups. Mine were microphonic as hell but I thought they actually sounded great
- My favourite pickup of all my Jags was the neck pickup on the AVRI. Sounded great with flatwound strings
- The stock bridges are fine if you use 11s despite what almost everyone in the world says, though I must admit to upgrading the Squier's bridge with a used AV65 bridge I picked up for a tenner (on here, I think). I've gigged all my Jags and a couple of Jazzmasters I used to have with stock bridges with no issues.
Hope that helps!
The reality is actually that anything there is about a guitar is what can be described. If two guitars are made of all the same woods then they might weigh differently (which might make them sound different). Hardware might look just alike but one set of tuners more accurate than the other etc. Pickups all look the same really but they can sound very different (not necessarily with the more expensive sounding better in any objective way.
So I don't mean that if two guitars look the same then they are the same. But I've been in the position before of finding 2 guitars with very little difference in everything apart from price which had a bigger difference and it can be tempting to think there's this indefinable quality that makes the more expensive one worth more.
Really a lot of the price difference can be down to the relative costs of the countries they're made in and where the materials are bought on as well as a lot of mark up. I.e. the manufacturer makes a deluxe line with 100 quids worth of upgrades and charges 300 quid extra.
TLDR; you could walk in to a guitar shop and find several guitars better than your Squier. But it's not the case that the more you pay the better you get or that if you pay double what the Squier cost you'd be guaranteed a better guitar. It's a lot less clear cut than something like computer processors where a company's 400 quid model is directly better than their 200 quid model.
To change the discussion up a bit and picking up on @Funkfingers point about how often a Jaguar is used, are there any more versatile guitars that follow the same, or similar, form factor i.e. short scale, offset?
Due to radii, vintage frets, heavier strings etc all the more "expensive" guitars could be quite a fight sometimes and would make me play more the way the guitars wanted me to, if that doesn't sound too new age and obtuse?! The VM let me bend, chord and solo just as normal.