Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Is anyone familiar with "Maestro by Gibson"..... quality? sound? are they junky?Does anyone know what model Maestro this is?

I can reccomend the SQUIRE brand.

I had a Squire Affinity Jazz & currrently own a Squire Vintage Modified Jazz.

I've done a lot of reading of reviews and must agree, the VMJ is KILLER for the money. SLIGHTLY less powerful that a USA JAZZ, IMHO, but for $299.99 out the door, I'll use my Sansamp to get the extra boost.

Great players, VINTAGE sound, 75 Reissue appearance (gotta take some pictures), the best buy in the market hands down. The Affinity was a great player, a bit louder then the VMJ, but the tuners were trash. The ONLY flaw I found with the bass. The VJM has really nice fret work, Duncan designed pickups...makes me wonder about the Nashville Telecaster and other MIM or "off brand" Fenders these days.

ONE THOUGHT perhaps you guys can answer. SEEMS TO me like I'm not the only one who feels this way about these budget line guitars....but IF Fender is selling SO MANY SQUIRES..........isn't that taking the bread out of their own pockets by NOT selling the MIM, MIJ & MIA higher end guitars? I don't quite get that line of thinking....although I did benefit by NOT spending 1K upwards for a MIA Fender bass.

The quality on the new Squier Classic Vibe instruments is incredible. The Precision Bass I had was a killer instrument!

The new Squier '58 Duo Sonics are pretty great, too. If I didn't have a PW custom made one already I'd have gotten one of those for $300.

ajish4 wrote:...IF Fender is selling SO MANY SQUIRES..........isn't that taking the bread out of their own pockets by NOT selling the MIM, MIJ & MIA higher end guitars? I don't quite get that line of thinking....although I did benefit by NOT spending 1K upwards for a MIA Fender bass.

So far, they appear to be keeping everything in its own price bracket: Squiers go up to about $350; MIMs start around $500, and there's a little overlap with the most expensive MIMs (Road Worn, $950) and the least-expensive USA models (Highway One, $700). Note that those are street prices; the MSRP for the Road Worn Strat (for example, $1179) is only $50 more than the Highway One ($1129).

People can and do argue over whether a Squier CV or VM is better, or a better deal, than a MIM Standard, but the MIM Standards are certainly pretty decent instruments and there's always somebody who will be willing to pay a bit more to get "Fender" on the headstock. Some savvy shoppers with a $500 budget might be comparing the Squiers and the MIMs, but I suspect most people looking for a (Strat, Tele, whatever) in the $500 range are looking at MIM Standards and don't consider the "buy a cheaper version and upgrade one or two things" option. The people who do, however, appear to be disproportionately represented on internet guitar message boards and forums, which I think can skew perception.

Actually, what I suspect Fender is doing with these higher-line Squiers is going head to head with USED MIM Standards. (I'm sure they're glad when people want to buy Fenders, but they don't get any $$ from used sales.) A used MIM vs. a new Squier VM or CV, which are in the same ballpark...that's a serious choice. The lower-line Squiers aren't going to compete in that arena, but the new higher-line ones definitely could.

chuck_king wrote:

ajish4 wrote:...If Fender is selling SO MANY SQUIRES..........isn't that taking the bread out of their own pockets

So far, they appear to be keeping everything in its own price bracket: Squiers go up to about $350; MIMs start around $500, and there's a little overlap with the most expensive MIMs (Road Worn, $950) and the least-expensive USA models (Highway One, $700).

I think Chuck has it right ... a marketing plan to deliver the goods at what-ever price range the consumer wants to spend.

Better to compete with one-self then to compete with others and in this method, get all those dollars into your Sales ledger ...one way or another.

So many people in manufacturing are "competing with themselves." It's no different than the situation with Sear's Kenmore appliances being manufactured by G.E. at the same plants that G.E. makes their own branded-appliances. Or Canon manufactures printers for Hewlett Packard and puts HP's name on them. Or when you go to one of these chain drug stores like CVS or Walgreens and they have all these house-brand products -- they don't actually own the aspirin or cough syrup plants. A sale is a sale is a sale.

i recall that Korean guitar manufacturer Sammick used to advertise in Guitar Player magazine back in the 1990s, that they were the largest guitar manufacturer in the world and made guitars for xxxxx amount of their competitors.

chuck_king wrote:

ajish4 wrote:...IF Fender is selling SO MANY SQUIRES..........isn't that taking the bread out of their own pockets by NOT selling the MIM, MIJ & MIA higher end guitars? I don't quite get that line of thinking....although I did benefit by NOT spending 1K upwards for a MIA Fender bass.

Weird..couldn't find the quoted post in the thread...anyroad....

Fender, Gibson, PRS and G&L (to name a few) evidently have figured out that producing quality versions of their prime instruments from import sources generally leads to buyers "upgrading" down the road to the home product.

Fender USA and Fender Mexico are perhaps unique--the two entities are about an hour-hour and a half apart, and as stated, the production lines reflect that--the upper end MIMs are on a par with or, depending on your preferences, preferable to the entry level USA models. But I gotta tell ya--the entry level MIMs are nothing to apologize about--in fact, I'm currently anticipating the arrival of a new MIM Std Tele...

The Squier line is first class--even before the Classic Vibe series. I've got a Squier Std Strat in Cherryburst that is a fantastic guitar--bought new, cost about $200. Similarly, I've got a Korean-made PRS SE Soapbar that could go toe to toe with any guitar I've ever played--domestically made or otherwise.

Interesting observations about Fender there Bill.

BTW... when I was theorizing in my post about marketing plans to cover all price ranges and such, I was neither advocating or criticizing that business philosophy.... merely observing the mass-merchandise guitar manufacturers approach to segmenting the market.

Thanks for all the responses guys.

Very good input all the way around, and many points I've never thought of.

THANKS!