Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

Squier Debut Series


Recommended Posts

Fender/Squier have made a determined assault on the entry level market with the new 'debut' series on Amazon for £129.

Looks like they are squaring up to Glarry in the USA and Harley Benton over here, even cheaper than the Squier mini-P.

This suggests the market is segmenting even further with Squier having almost as many 'levels' as Fender with affinity, CV, paranormal and Anniversary models.

If anyone drops the cash on one, it would be useful to know how these square up as beginners' instruments. I'm assuming these are going to be closer to the old Korean budget jobs than recent models.


Site stripe link .... https://amzn.to/3U1lAVW

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't understand these, to be honest. That's not that far below the recently introduced Sonic series, and close to (I think slightly above) the discontinued Bullet series. Doesn't seem to add a whole lot. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, LeftyJ said:

I don't understand these, to be honest. That's not that far below the recently introduced Sonic series, and close to (I think slightly above) the discontinued Bullet series. Doesn't seem to add a whole lot. 

 

I forgot those! It's an insane level of market segmentation. I assume they want to compete at every level. It's hard to see what meaningful differences there can be between £129 and £155 basses without making the cheapest deliberately cruder.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, neepheid said:

What about that massive gap between the top end of Squiers and the least expensive Fenders?  Are they just going to leave that to the likes of Sire then?

I believe they did that on purpose. Fender had the Modern Player series for a while that was made in China, to fill this gap. But it had a ton of overlap with the more expensive Squiers in the Vintage Modified and Classic Vibe line. It was confusing many potential buyers, and in terms of quality the Squier CV and Fender MP were identical. They were quite succesful, but at the same time they made it even more difficult to justify paying that much more for a MIM, let alone an MIA Fender when you could have the Fender name on the headstock of a €400-500 guitar or bass!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted (edited)
25 minutes ago, neepheid said:

What about that massive gap between the top end of Squiers and the least expensive Fenders?  Are they just going to leave that to the likes of Sire then?

 

I think @LeftyJ is right, quality wise there's not much to call between CV and VM Squiers and Fender Player whatever the logo snobs say. Certainly, the Squier Anniversary models were the equal of any entry level Fender.

They are walking a narrow line to keep the Fenders as 'premium' instruments.

 

I saw a GuitarGuitar video yesterday comparing Gibson and Epiphone 335s with a 10:1 cost ratio. They sounded a bit different but...

Edited by Stub Mandrel
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, LeftyJ said:

I believe they did that on purpose. Fender had the Modern Player series for a while that was made in China, to fill this gap. But it had a ton of overlap with the more expensive Squiers in the Vintage Modified and Classic Vibe line. It was confusing many potential buyers, and in terms of quality the Squier CV and Fender MP were identical. They were quite succesful, but at the same time they made it even more difficult to justify paying that much more for a MIM, let alone an MIA Fender when you could have the Fender name on the headstock of a €400-500 guitar or bass!

The Chinese Classic Vibes were excellent; even if you took the price out of the equation, they were just good instruments. I think it was definitely intentional to merge the VM and CV lines to drop the quality on them and move them further from the lowest rung of the fender ladder. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, from my point of view (and I appreciate that I'm an odd fish at the best of times), Fender's most basic offerings are too expensive for what you get.  It's the bass that's important to me, not the name on the headstock, and Fender are banking on most people being unlike me.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, tauzero said:

The world was crying out for a cheap copy of the Precision bass. How fortuitous that Squier are filling that vacant niche in the marketplace.

A cheap copy of a cheap copy of a cheap copy of the Precision bass. A very specific niche indeed, I'm excited to see how it plays out.

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Could be handy as a mod platform? Particularly for those of us who risk serious injury attempting any form of DIY, I would probably just buy a HB but they don't do one in red (yet!).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I first saw these, I thought they'd simply be renamed sonic series in limited colours to compete with amazon cheapies, however I've noticed that the debut doesn't have the dark surround in the truss rod adjustment orifice, where the sonic does. I wonder what other costs they were able to shave off.

 

If they did a black one with maple fingerboard I could easily be tempted to get one to mod.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

Amazon Special... nothing on the Fender Website...

This Green Meanie for £175...

https://www.fender.com/en-GB/squier-electric-basses/precision-bass/limited-edition-squier-sonic-precision-bass/0373901535.html

Crying out for a Kawasaki ZX750RR logo...

I thought it was the Ninjas that were green? I admit to no knowledge on the subject beyond my sister owning a Ninja many years ago

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, PaulThePlug said:

Amazon Special... nothing on the Fender Website...

This Green Meanie for £175...

https://www.fender.com/en-GB/squier-electric-basses/precision-bass/limited-edition-squier-sonic-precision-bass/0373901535.html

Crying out for a Kawasaki ZX750RR logo...

Love that!

 

Green finfishes ought to be more common.

 

Green has taken over as my absolute favorite finish over black, though sadly I own no green basses, yet.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...