NGD - Blue Sparkle Squier Supersonic

Discussion of newer designs, copies and reissue offset-waist instruments.
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GreenKnee
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NGD - Blue Sparkle Squier Supersonic

Post by GreenKnee » Thu Jul 29, 2021 5:16 am

It's arrived! The only thing good about catching COVID and having to self-isolate was being home to take receipt of this beauty.
First impressions:- fit and finish impressive for a £350 guitar, haven't found any faults yet.
Nice small frets, none of this extra jumbo crap here.
Slim nut width, very comfortable. I have 3 Jaguars so I love the 24" scale length.
Fretboard material a lot darker than I was expecting, which is a big plus. It's super smooth also, reminds me of the ebony board on my White Falcon.
The pickups sound surprisingly good, I was hoping to hate them so I could swap them out for some Bareknuckle humbucker sized P90s, but these will stay until I tire of them.

Time to get it strung with some flats and setup to my taste :)

This shows the actual colour best, I think
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Some points halfway through setup:
I have not missed Strat style bridges, every ball-end was nicely stuck in the bridge and had to be knocked out with a tiny allen key. The low E was that stuck that I had to take the whole bridge apart, remove the block and wrestle with a super tiny flat head and a hammer to eventually free it.
I strung the guitar with D'Addario Chromes, which are made of stainless steel. Some quick noodling before setting string height and intonation and the frets do not feel smooth at all, although they did with the 9s it shipped with. I hope this doesn't mean the frets are super soft and gonna wear down quickly with the Chromes.

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RIORIO
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Re: NGD - Blue Sparkle Squier Supersonic

Post by RIORIO » Thu Jul 29, 2021 10:24 am

That looks amazingggggg :w00t:

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DavidG
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Re: NGD - Blue Sparkle Squier Supersonic

Post by DavidG » Thu Jul 29, 2021 10:30 am

Nice! I also took delivery of mine yesterday. I've got an equally nice dark fretboard, seems they might have found their feet with the laurel...or we were just lucky. Also impressed with the pickups, much happier with these than the ones in a new Gibson SG I picked up last week.

I had the shop set it up with 11's before they sent it to me. Frets were smooth-as, but I think that's down to them and not squier. Every recent squier and epiphone I've had has had rough frets. But a bit of playing soon sorts them out.

My only gripe is I think mine might need a shim. The action beyond the 12th fret is quite high.

Colour is stunning when it catches the light.

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Pacafeliz
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Re: NGD - Blue Sparkle Squier Supersonic

Post by Pacafeliz » Thu Jul 29, 2021 3:31 pm

Oh God not helping!!! :bored:
i love delay SO much ...that i procrastinate all the time.

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Re: NGD - Blue Sparkle Squier Supersonic

Post by Veitchy » Sun Aug 01, 2021 4:18 pm

These look fantastic. How do you find the two-volume configuration?

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GreenKnee
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Re: NGD - Blue Sparkle Squier Supersonic

Post by GreenKnee » Sun Aug 01, 2021 9:49 pm

Veitchy wrote:
Sun Aug 01, 2021 4:18 pm
These look fantastic. How do you find the two-volume configuration?
I don't hate it! Although the pickups don't lend themselves to this setup particularly well, unfortunately. As the volume is turned down on either pickup, the sound just turns to mud pretty much instantly.
I've got a set of pickups being made by a local luthier so I shall see how they behave, but I can see me installing a couple of treble bleeds to the volume pots in the hope they work a bit better

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Re: NGD - Blue Sparkle Squier Supersonic

Post by blimpage » Mon Aug 02, 2021 3:05 am

GreenKnee wrote:
Thu Jul 29, 2021 5:16 am
I have not missed Strat style bridges, every ball-end was nicely stuck in the bridge and had to be knocked out with a tiny allen key. The low E was that stuck that I had to take the whole bridge apart, remove the block and wrestle with a super tiny flat head and a hammer to eventually free it.
I just got one too and it's absolutely beautiful! 😍I'm absolutely stoked with it.

The strings that came on it were way too light for the short scale length, so I took those off pretty much straight away to put on a set of 10-52s. I'm halfway through restringing it now and I had the same problem as you - the ball end of every single string was jammed in the bridge and I had to use the same technique to get them out.

I thought it was just an issue with the particular strings that Squier fitted from the factory, but when I went to put on a new pair of strings, those also got stuck halfway into the bridge block and wouldn't seat properly. I didn't wanna keep going and jam those in there too, so I've just abandoned restringing and have left the strings off. Pretty shitty experience for the first day with a brand new guitar, I gotta say.

Did you find a solution for this? Does this bridge just need to be strung up with a particular brand of strings that has a specific size ball end?

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Re: NGD - Blue Sparkle Squier Supersonic

Post by GreenKnee » Mon Aug 02, 2021 3:27 am

blimpage wrote:
Mon Aug 02, 2021 3:05 am
GreenKnee wrote:
Thu Jul 29, 2021 5:16 am
I have not missed Strat style bridges, every ball-end was nicely stuck in the bridge and had to be knocked out with a tiny allen key. The low E was that stuck that I had to take the whole bridge apart, remove the block and wrestle with a super tiny flat head and a hammer to eventually free it.
I just got one too and it's absolutely beautiful! 😍I'm absolutely stoked with it.

The strings that came on it were way too light for the short scale length, so I took those off pretty much straight away to put on a set of 10-52s. I'm halfway through restringing it now and I had the same problem as you - the ball end of every single string was jammed in the bridge and I had to use the same technique to get them out.

I thought it was just an issue with the particular strings that Squier fitted from the factory, but when I went to put on a new pair of strings, those also got stuck halfway into the bridge block and wouldn't seat properly. I didn't wanna keep going and jam those in there too, so I've just abandoned restringing and have left the strings off. Pretty shitty experience for the first day with a brand new guitar, I gotta say.

Did you find a solution for this? Does this bridge just need to be strung up with a particular brand of strings that has a specific size ball end?
Ah that is annoying! I restrung the guitar anyway, as the strings come up to tension the balls will seat correctly in the block on their own. My plan for the future is to run a drill bit down the holes of the block that is slightly larger than the ball ends in order to prevent it from happening again. I wasn't able to do it this time as I'm having to self-isolate and all of my tools are in my workshop.

Perhaps some WD40 or similar down the holes would lubricate enough to allow the ball ends to slot in a little easier.

I'm going to have to replace the tuners on this guitar pretty soon also as its not great at staying in tune after some heavy strumming and large bends. I've done my usual setup tricks that cure tuning stability issues but this guitar is still struggling so I shall fit Gotoh SD91 tuners; they're a direct replacement.

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Re: NGD - Blue Sparkle Squier Supersonic

Post by blimpage » Mon Aug 02, 2021 4:02 am

GreenKnee wrote:
Mon Aug 02, 2021 3:27 am
Ah that is annoying! I restrung the guitar anyway, as the strings come up to tension the balls will seat correctly in the block on their own. My plan for the future is to run a drill bit down the holes of the block that is slightly larger than the ball ends in order to prevent it from happening again. I wasn't able to do it this time as I'm having to self-isolate and all of my tools are in my workshop.
Ah bummer. Yeah I figured that tensioning the strings would pull the ball end all the way in, but I didn’t want to do that since it’d mean that I’d just have to hammer them back out when I change the strings again.

I might contact Squier support and see what they have to say. Failing that, I’ll give lubricant a go, and then try drilling out the holes further if none of that helps!

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Re: NGD - Blue Sparkle Squier Supersonic

Post by GreenKnee » Mon Aug 02, 2021 4:52 am

blimpage wrote:
Mon Aug 02, 2021 4:02 am
GreenKnee wrote:
Mon Aug 02, 2021 3:27 am
Ah that is annoying! I restrung the guitar anyway, as the strings come up to tension the balls will seat correctly in the block on their own. My plan for the future is to run a drill bit down the holes of the block that is slightly larger than the ball ends in order to prevent it from happening again. I wasn't able to do it this time as I'm having to self-isolate and all of my tools are in my workshop.
Ah bummer. Yeah I figured that tensioning the strings would pull the ball end all the way in, but I didn’t want to do that since it’d mean that I’d just have to hammer them back out when I change the strings again.

I might contact Squier support and see what they have to say. Failing that, I’ll give lubricant a go, and then try drilling out the holes further if none of that helps!
Let me know if Squier/Fender say anything of note. It might be worth a bridge upgrade at some point but after a pickup and tuners upgrade I'm going to be close to half of the cost of the guitar again already...

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Re: NGD - Blue Sparkle Squier Supersonic

Post by robroe » Tue Aug 03, 2021 6:33 am

I got the charcoal frost one last year and restrung it 5 minutes after I got it out the box with 13s. Didn't experience any of these issues y'all are having. Must be they are using different parts on them.

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Re: NGD - Blue Sparkle Squier Supersonic

Post by blimpage » Tue Aug 03, 2021 1:19 pm

robroe wrote:
Tue Aug 03, 2021 6:33 am
I got the charcoal frost one last year and restrung it 5 minutes after I got it out the box with 13s. Didn't experience any of these issues y'all are having. Must be they are using different parts on them.
Ah that’s really good to know, thank you! I’ve sent a support email to Squier Australia now, who knows if they’ll get back to me. If not I’ll find other avenues via which to bug them.

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Re: NGD - Blue Sparkle Squier Supersonic

Post by Pacafeliz » Wed Aug 04, 2021 7:42 am

robroe wrote:
Tue Aug 03, 2021 6:33 am
I got the charcoal frost one last year and restrung it 5 minutes after I got it out the box with 13s. Didn't experience any of these issues y'all are having. Must be they are using different parts on them.
Yeah mine has had 2 different pairs of strings on, and I've had no prob with removing them, whatsoever.

Btw injust checked out one of these sparkle blue SSs at the Musicstore, and I remember my Vista was quite a bit darker than the new ones.
Couldn't bring myself to buy one, right now.

They also didn't have any Gibbard Mustangs on the floor and were quite snobbish, them all. Bummer.
i love delay SO much ...that i procrastinate all the time.

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Re: NGD - Blue Sparkle Squier Supersonic

Post by blimpage » Sat Aug 07, 2021 3:25 pm

GreenKnee wrote:
Mon Aug 02, 2021 4:52 am
Let me know if Squier/Fender say anything of note. It might be worth a bridge upgrade at some point but after a pickup and tuners upgrade I'm going to be close to half of the cost of the guitar again already...
I heard back from Fender Australia within a few hours which is great, though they just said that they don’t deal with warranty issues directly - I’d need to have the guitar checked out by a Fender authorised repairer. They recommended taking the guitar back to the shop where I bought it to have them sort it out for me.

I took it in to the shop and had their guitar tech check it out, and his opinion was: yeah those Squier bridges are cheap and crap, you get what you pay for. He said the metal that they use for the bridge block is so soft that it’s pretty common for the ball ends to get lodged in there and need to be tapped back out with an allen key. I argued that my issue was more extreme than that - the holes in my bridge block are so undersized that I couldn’t get new strings all the way in, and I had to use an allen key and a hammer to get the old strings out, which shouldn’t be the case. They eventually agreed that it seemed worse than it should be, and said they’d lodge a warranty claim with Fender if I left it with them. So I did!

Later that day the shop called me back and said that Fender weren’t interested in doing anything. I could return the guitar for a refund if I wanted, but Fender wouldn’t supply any replacement parts or repairs. However! The shop and their guitar tech thought that was a bit crap, so the tech took the bridge out, redrilled the holes in the block to the proper size, and set the guitar back up for me with a new set of strings. All free of charge. What a bunch of legends! For any Aussies reading, that’s KC’s Rock Shop in Boronia, Victoria. Wonderful bunch of folks!

I haven’t tried restringing the guitar again since then, so I don’t know if that’s fully resolved the issue, but I’m happy enough for now. If I end up playing this guitar out enough that it needs frequent string changes, I’ll probably upgrade the bridge eventually.

So, confirmed: Fender know that it’s a dodgy part and they don’t care about fixing it. Apologies for hijacking your thread 😅 Now we can get back to the thing we all came here for: talking about how damn beautiful that blue sparkle finish is!! 😍✨

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Re: NGD - Blue Sparkle Squier Supersonic

Post by Pacafeliz » Sun Aug 08, 2021 10:46 am

...maybe it's only a problem with/on the newer 2021 models? 🤔
i love delay SO much ...that i procrastinate all the time.

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