Customer Reviews

Squier by Fender Classic Vibe Stratocaster 50s, 2 Tone Sunburst

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Squier Classic Vibe line offers fantastic guitars for the price. My CV50s is just a gorgeous, well-crafted, great-playing and delicious-sounding Strat. Many people compare them to Fender's Mexican Strats, and some even compare them to Fender's American strats. They are that good. I have yet to hear of a disappointed owner.

I have both this guitar and the classic vibe 50's telecaster. They are both good quality, decent sounding guitars. If you were to go to a brick and mortar store and play 5 of them before you picked one, you could probably find one that was as good or better than a made in mexico Fender guitar.

... but if you buy online you are rolling the dice. My telecaster has some funky finish problems and needed a setup to be playable. This is something I am comfortable doing myself but if you have to pay for it, it can be a significant expense for someone buying a budget model guitar.

The strat I'm reviewing in this article had the following problems:

1) Some sort of tarnish on much of the chrome hardware. I thought it was actually bad chrome but I was able to remove most of the hardware from the guitar and polish it back to a shine with chrome polish.
2) One strap button was drilled in at an angle so crooked that the button did not even sit flat against the guitar. For this I had to fill the entire hole and re-drill it square.
3) The tremolo claw grounding wire solder joint was bad and had to be re-soldered because the guitar hummed like crazy. It still hums because the electronics are not well shielded/grounded and are not high end electronics to begin with but it is reasonable now.
4) The frets on my guitar are not perfect. There are many that have a bit of a gap at the edges but they are not jagged or rough so that's good.
5) The strat needed a setup too but mostly for string height and intonation not because the neck was out of whack like my telecaster.

Those items corrected I am happy with the guitar. It sounds nice both clean and overdriven and the neck is very easy to get around.

So I would recommend this guitar for the price. If you can get it in a store I think that is better because the quality varies very much from guitar to guitar and you could get a real gem if you can hand pick it.

Mexican strats cost from $600-$1000 from Fender, but i am yet to play a MIM strat that sounds better or feels better than this guitar! the neck is a touch slimer than C-shape, the pickups get the Jazz highs and the blues lows in sound. The tremolo stays in tune pretty well as long as you dont dive bomb. And even though the neck is glossy, it doesn't stick to your hand! ive had no problem with the gloss, even though i prefer satin necks. highly recommend!