Re:How to Tell a Real 1959 Gibson Les Paul Guitar From a Fake
by kranner on Tuesday July 14, 2020 @01:34AM
(#23828849)
A Squier Affinity Stratocaster was my first electric guitar. This was more than 20 years ago, so may be the quality has gone down recently, but there was really nothing wrong with it mechanically. The action was perfect (and fairly low), all the fret ends were well-dressed, the neck was perfect and it had great sustain. I didn't get any fret buzz even with Ernie Ball Super Slinkys. It stayed in tune once I learned how to wind new strings properly and stretch them out, etc. The pickups were shit, though.
Re:How to Tell a Real 1959 Gibson Les Paul Guitar From a Fake
by oriolid on Tuesday July 14, 2020 @07:14AM
(#23830549)
Sounds like you have Japan-made Squier. I haven't seen one in person, but they do have a good reputation and probably cost now more than when they were new. The current cheapest Squiers are completely different guitars, and apparently even these have good and bad ones and I one of the worst. There are people who claim that you can get a good guitar if you buy a pile of Harley Bentons or Squiers, keep the best one and return the rest. My Epiphone was apparently a customer return.
Re:How to Tell a Real 1959 Gibson Les Paul Guitar From a Fake
by veggieburglar on Tuesday July 14, 2020 @11:16AM
(#23832903)
Japanese Squiers are great. My uncle, who is a fantastic guitarist and has all kinds of amazing guitars, often still gigs on his late 80s Squier Strat.
Another guitar I use regularly is a Squier Bullet Strat. It sounds kind of like Strat and it doesn't buzz at frets because of super high action, but it won't stay in tune, the ends frets are sharp and so are saddle adjustment screws that are a couple of millimeters too long and the icing on the cake is that basically anything played on second string makes something under pickguard rattle unless you press it at a certain spot. If you have to ask, it's audible through pickups and kills sustain.
I think you can find equally bad USA-made instruments at several times of the price if you look hard enough, but I wouldn't call these good instruments.