Squier Classic Vibe 60s Tele Custom.

Don’t let the name on the headstock fool you- this guitar is seriously good!

Now, I am a Tele fanatic, and I am firmly in the camp that believes that Leo Fender got it right the very first time. This is the 2nd Tele in my collection, along with my beloved mid 80′s Japanese Red. Normally its very very hard to justify adding another version of something I already own to my collection, but this decision was made an awful lot easier by this being my dream guitar. I tell anyone who will listen that my dream guitar is a “1962 Telecaster Custom, Double bound, in 3 tone sunburst, with a proper ash tray, 3 saddle bridge and string through body.” I don’t know why, but I just love the double binding- I think it looks stunning. So when I heard that Squier were doing a Classic Vibe that ticked all of these boxes, I was awfully excited. I’d been toying with the idea of buying a ’62 Custom Made in Japan, and getting a Squier version would save me a few hundred quid. I have no qualms about rocking a Squier either- at the end of the day, a good guitar is a good guitar- it doesn’t matter what it says on the headstock. Leo Fender designed the Telecaster to be a cheap instrument, so I do find it a bit daft that people will insist on spending £1,400 on them. Classic Vibes can also be seriously good guitars, especially if you consider the price point. The first batch are also extra extra special, so I wasn’t going to wait around and wait for the quality to (possibly) slip!!! As soon as it arrived at work (I work in my local guitar shop, which is pretty awesome, and another story), I opened up the box, saw a fantastic quality instrument staring back at me. I plugged it in and bought it!

You get a very classic, very full, round Tele sound out of this. The wood is very good quality and the grain really stands out, and paired with a decent bridge (I was initially considering swapping it out for a Wilkinson Compensated bridge like I have on my other Tele, but I don’t think it’s needed), you get a very good sound acoustically. This is always vital, and often over looked- if the acoustic sound of your instrument isn’t there, no matter how good the pickups, amp and pedals are, it will only sound so good. Speaking of pickups, the pickups in this guitar are good for the money (RRP is £300). Squier use Alnico Vs, which is historically accurate. They’re not microphonic, even with serious amounts of gain and not overly “scratchy” or “icepicky,” which is a normal complaint of mine with single coil pickups. The bridge pickup is hotter than the neck, so there is a slight volume increase (I may try lowering the pickup, see if that helps). I am planning on eventually swapping these out for some Seymour Duncan Alnico Pro IIs, but I will happily play, rehearse and record with the stock pick ups in the mean time.

The pots aren’t great, which is classic on cheaper Chinese instruments. They are very stiff for a start, which make volume swells and on the fly adjustments difficult. These will be swapped, along with the pickup selector switch- I will add a 4 way control, which adds the option of having both pickups wired in series. This is a fantastic, simple and underrated Tele modification- you lose no sounds or functionality, but gain a very warm, louder, near humbucking sound. Highly recommended!!

The Maple neck with Rosewood fingerboard feels extremely comfortable. It’s the thinnest neck that I own, and I wouldn’t want it any thinner. The fingerboard radius is a much more modern, flatter 9.5″ radius than a traditional ’62 neck, which benefits string bending. It has a high gloss finish on the neck, which some people love and some people hate. The frets are medium/jumbo, which again I’m a big fan of (I’m also beginning to think that this guitar was designed with me in mind…)- the fret work here is fantastic. The guitar tech at work is used to spending a good while on the frets of most out of the box Fender guitars, and when I passed him this guitar to be set up with 10s, he was seriously impressed that he had no work to!!

Overall, as you can probably tell, I am in love with this guitar. I’m looking forward to testing it out properly at rehearsal next week, and will post an update on how it is. If you’re looking for a great looking, sounding and playing Telecaster for at a very low price point, I’d definitely consider the Telecaster Custom.