New Squier Starcasters - Classic Vibe, Contemporary, and Affinity

Discussion of newer designs, copies and reissue offset-waist instruments.
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pikmin
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Re: New Squier Starcasters - Classic Vibe, Contemporary, and Affinity

Post by pikmin » Thu Jun 27, 2019 12:40 am

alexpigment wrote:
Tue Jun 25, 2019 3:30 pm
mbene085 wrote:
Tue Jun 25, 2019 2:39 pm
The new Classic Vibe series is entirely Indonesian. They are cashing in on the goodwill the MIC CV's built but are sadly not continuing production there. I'd have been a day-one CV Jaguar purchaser if they were going to be made at the same factory as the old CVs. I've had two of the 50's strats and with minimal mods they were easily as nice to play as any of my much more expensive Fenders.
So you're saying that the guitars they used to make in China (Strats, Teles, etc) are moving to Indonesia? I don't have any reason to doubt you, but I was wondering where you saw this info.
The new Jay Mascis Jazzmasters are now made in Taiwan ...
The 50s and 60s classic vibe must follow too, I think ...
I think Fender did that because of the economic war between China and the USA .
China products are going to be more taxed .

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Re: New Squier Starcasters - Classic Vibe, Contemporary, and Affinity

Post by thatfenderguy » Thu Jun 27, 2019 10:53 am

I spoke with Sweetwater this afternoon and apparently these aren’t supposed to be released until after the first of 2020

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Re: New Squier Starcasters - Classic Vibe, Contemporary, and Affinity

Post by Mechanical Birds » Thu Jun 27, 2019 12:33 pm

I really, really wish Fender would start making actual Wide Range humbuckers again. Everybody and their brother makes them now and all do good business, but for people like me they’re super expensive. It’d be cool to be able to get a set for $70 or whTever a typical 2 Fender pickup set costs. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say “yeah I genuinely like how the PAF copy WRHBs sound” because nobody likes how they sound. Of course the marketing material for these mention “newly redesigned pickups” but dollars to donuts it’ll be the same crappy mess that they’ve been using since they first started making them like the PAFs.

I really need to just take mine out of my Jazzblaster and send to BrandonWound before he’s forced to raise the price again cuz I’m not getting any richer and the job isn’t getting any cheaper I’m sure.

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Re: New Squier Starcasters - Classic Vibe, Contemporary, and Affinity

Post by MechaBulletBill » Thu Jun 27, 2019 12:46 pm

In the name of pedantic contrarianism I have to point out that a guy I play with likes the pickups in his MIM tele deluxe. It does, to be fair, sound pretty good. Better than his 90s SG.

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Re: New Squier Starcasters - Classic Vibe, Contemporary, and Affinity

Post by Mechanical Birds » Thu Jun 27, 2019 2:48 pm

Oh no if I’m being honest I can’t tell much of a difference. I can’t tell much of a difference between a PAF and a Jazzmaster pickup either, though. Same thing with speakers. When I hear someone say “oh those speakers are awesome” it’s like, have you spent intimate time with 50 different speakers amplifying the same guitar/amp combo? How the fuck does anyone have enough time to develop a preference for this stuff? I’m not saying it’s impossible, just that it seems like it’d be hard and very time consuming.

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Re: New Squier Starcasters - Classic Vibe, Contemporary, and Affinity

Post by thatfenderguy » Thu Jun 27, 2019 3:29 pm

Mechanical Birds wrote:
Thu Jun 27, 2019 2:48 pm
Oh no if I’m being honest I can’t tell much of a difference. I can’t tell much of a difference between a PAF and a Jazzmaster pickup either, though. Same thing with speakers. When I hear someone say “oh those speakers are awesome” it’s like, have you spent intimate time with 50 different speakers amplifying the same guitar/amp combo? How the fuck does anyone have enough time to develop a preference for this stuff? I’m not saying it’s impossible, just that it seems like it’d be hard and very time consuming.
I’m with you. I generally can’t tell a difference between most things. I can differentiate between humbuckers and singlecoils. But that’s really about it.

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Re: New Squier Starcasters - Classic Vibe, Contemporary, and Affinity

Post by timtam » Thu Jun 27, 2019 8:19 pm

Mechanical Birds wrote:
Thu Jun 27, 2019 12:33 pm
I really, really wish Fender would start making actual Wide Range humbuckers again. Everybody and their brother makes them now and all do good business, but for people like me they’re super expensive. It’d be cool to be able to get a set for $70 or whTever a typical 2 Fender pickup set costs. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say “yeah I genuinely like how the PAF copy WRHBs sound” because nobody likes how they sound. Of course the marketing material for these mention “newly redesigned pickups” but dollars to donuts it’ll be the same crappy mess that they’ve been using since they first started making them like the PAFs.

I really need to just take mine out of my Jazzblaster and send to BrandonWound before he’s forced to raise the price again cuz I’m not getting any richer and the job isn’t getting any cheaper I’m sure.
Fender are claiming that the new WRHBs on the Vintera teles are a step closer to the originals ...
https://shop.fender.com/en-AU/electric- ... 12300.html
"I just knew I wanted to make a sound that was the complete opposite of a Les Paul, and that’s pretty much a Jaguar." Rowland S. Howard.

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Re: New Squier Starcasters - Classic Vibe, Contemporary, and Affinity

Post by Jan Deal » Thu Jun 27, 2019 10:20 pm

timtam wrote:
Thu Jun 27, 2019 8:19 pm
Fender are claiming that the new WRHBs on the Vintera teles are a step closer to the originals ...
https://shop.fender.com/en-AU/electric- ... 12300.html
Well, they would! But in all honesty, people probably won't be able to hear much of a difference, unless you could A/B the pickups in the same guitar.

There are lots of pickups out there for people who want a more "authentic" or better built product. A small boutique builder is also going to have a better QC rate than Fender mass producing Mexican guitars.
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Re: New Squier Starcasters - Classic Vibe, Contemporary, and Affinity

Post by vistavision » Thu Jun 27, 2019 10:33 pm

timtam wrote:
Thu Jun 27, 2019 8:19 pm
Fender are claiming that the new WRHBs on the Vintera teles are a step closer to the originals ...
https://shop.fender.com/en-AU/electric- ... 12300.html
What's funny about their Tele Deluxe page is the copy says the radius is 9.5, the specs say vintage 7.25, and an actual Tele Deluxe was 12. Fender!!

In the video he says 9.5 so that answers my only question about the Vintera line. He's playing through a Custom '68 Deluxe Reverb which is what I have and those pickups do have a bit more going on than the previous WRHB's. Let's all cross our fingers that they're generally acceptable sounding.
I'm sure some Fender dealer in '64 looked at the new Duo-Sonic II and thought, "That's not a Duo-Sonic. That's a Mustang".

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Re: New Squier Starcasters - Classic Vibe, Contemporary, and Affinity

Post by matthew a » Thu Jun 27, 2019 10:38 pm

It’s a tricky one. I’ve heard “weak” PAF pickups, “thick” single coils, and everything in between. No idea what a wrhb should sound like, but then again I’m not really sure I know what a strat pickup should sound like tbh.

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Re: New Squier Starcasters - Classic Vibe, Contemporary, and Affinity

Post by 601210 » Fri Jun 28, 2019 12:30 am

The key difference between WRHBs and regular PAFs is that WRHBs use magnetized polepieces and PAFs use a bar magnet, right? Kind of like the key difference between a P90 and a JM pickup? I remember talk that the magnetized, threaded polepieces are kind of a bitch to machine, but I think many of us would be willing to accept non-threaded polepieces like on Rose Picassos.

I think we just overestimate how big of a market gearhead forumites are. I don't think nobody likes the modern faux WRHBs, and I'm sure for the vocal minority of guitarists who just buy whichever guitar looks coolest and plays it without giving it much thought, their pickups sound perfectly fine. Of course if you push that distinction of authentic and reproduction pickups it's easy to make up the difference in your head, but how long have guitar magazines been calling JM pickups "soapbars"? How many boutique builders are still offering straight up JM clones but with P90s instead?

If anything I'm surprised Fender don't do it for custom shop models just to squeeze some more money out of guitar nerds, but as with any corporation, if the money's there then they'd do it.

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Re: New Squier Starcasters - Classic Vibe, Contemporary, and Affinity

Post by matthew a » Fri Jun 28, 2019 12:48 am

Depends on your definition of money.

Not to derail this thread into another “can’t believe Fender still haven’t fully embraced all aspects of JIT manufacturing”, but... it still shocks me that $100,000 dollars doesn’t seem worthwhile to Fender when it comes to easy-ish to produce (with modern manufacturing techniques) things like this & left handed models.

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Re: New Squier Starcasters - Classic Vibe, Contemporary, and Affinity

Post by leokula » Fri Jun 28, 2019 6:09 am

601210 wrote:
Fri Jun 28, 2019 12:30 am
I think we just overestimate how big of a market gearhead forumites are.
That's pretty accurate.
Jaguar > Jazzmaster :)

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Re: New Squier Starcasters - Classic Vibe, Contemporary, and Affinity

Post by jesterpunk68 » Fri Jun 28, 2019 9:34 am

601210 wrote:
Fri Jun 28, 2019 12:30 am
The key difference between WRHBs and regular PAFs is that WRHBs use magnetized polepieces and PAFs use a bar magnet, right? Kind of like the key difference between a P90 and a JM pickup? I remember talk that the magnetized, threaded polepieces are kind of a bitch to machine, but I think many of us would be willing to accept non-threaded polepieces like on Rose Picassos.

I think we just overestimate how big of a market gearhead forumites are. I don't think nobody likes the modern faux WRHBs, and I'm sure for the vocal minority of guitarists who just buy whichever guitar looks coolest and plays it without giving it much thought, their pickups sound perfectly fine. Of course if you push that distinction of authentic and reproduction pickups it's easy to make up the difference in your head, but how long have guitar magazines been calling JM pickups "soapbars"? How many boutique builders are still offering straight up JM clones but with P90s instead?

If anything I'm surprised Fender don't do it for custom shop models just to squeeze some more money out of guitar nerds, but as with any corporation, if the money's there then they'd do it.
The biggest difference is the type of magnets, the original WRHB used CuNiFe (Copper/Nickel/Iron) rod magnets which are harder to get now, newer ones use Alnico magnets. People like Curtis Novak can rewind the new ones to be more like the original but it wont have the same magnets.

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Re: New Squier Starcasters - Classic Vibe, Contemporary, and Affinity

Post by Mechanical Birds » Fri Jun 28, 2019 9:45 am

Yeah that’s the whole idea - pretty common knowledge that the magnate material would have to be different but like, there’s no way that making them the right way can be much more taxing than either what they sell as WRHBs or like a typical Jazzmaster or strat pickup or whatever. Save the PAF shit for the Shawbucker or Atomic or whatever the fuck and make Wide Range humbuckers actual Wide Range humbuckers. I don’t feel like that’s asking too much or overestimating the draw or anything and in fact, to me, it’s the equivalent of putting out a Les Paul and putting a Jazzmaster decal on the headstock

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