Squier Classic Vibe Starcaster Maple Fingerboard Electric Guitar 3-Color Sunburst

I'm not a professional musician just a hobbyist. I have way too many guitars for one person in that context but when I got this Squier I instantly fell in love with it. The fit and finish by comparison to most of my budget guitars is so much better. It's the guitar that I pick up and play most often. I'll even play it unplugged sometimes, it's that good acoustically. The only downfall is that the pickups aren't the traditional Wide Range that Fender has and advertised it having. They are great sounding non the less. It gives some really nice mellow tones down low but you can still crank up the dirt if you so desire. I would recommend this guitar to anyone looking for an instrument that is versatile and stylish without breaking the bank.

I purchased this guitar in the sunburst finish back in August of 2021, so the honeymoon is long over. The guitar that I received was nicely constructed and absolutely beautiful. Not one fault. Thank you Squier. I tuned it up and played it right out of the box and left it that way for about a month. Finally, I did a full setup on it and string change. That just made it better. The surprising part about this guitar is that the fake wide range humbuckers (they are just regular humbuckers with a different cover on them to make them look like the real deal) actually sound really good. They shine when it comes to clean to medium gain on my amps. Once you go more than 12 o'clock on the gain knob then they just start to sound awful to my ears. That's fine for me as I'm typically in the clean to medium gain range anyway. I really like this guitar. Here's where things went wrong. I got that itch that so many of us get from time to time and decided to buy a set of Fender's real CuNiFe Wide Range Humbuckers. Hey, if the stock pickups sound so good, then the real CuFiNe pickups have to sound better right? Those pickups cost almost as much as the guitar. I wired up a vintage spec harness and installed everything. I was expecting to be blown away by the tone difference, but unfortunately, it was a meh experience. The tone difference was minimal at best. That means that Fender/Squier did a GREAT job voicing the original humbuckers that come in this guitar. Definitely NOT worth the swap from my experience. Epic fail for me, but hopefully a money saver for you if you are thinking about doing the same thing. Oh, and on the CuNiFe bridge pickup, some of the strings are not centered over the pole pieces. It's probably f spaced for a trem. It's a minor cosmetic thing, but wanted to point that out. Buy this guitar and just enjoy it as it is. It's got plenty to offer. Hope this review is helpful.

It's a pretty good semi-hollow guitar, I've owned this model and the active contemporary version. I much prefer this guitar to the active one, the pickups are about the same as my wide rangers in my Fender 72 deluxe telecaster reissue - they are a bit dark, but not too dull, I'd say almost forgiving in a way. The offset body gives this guitar a bit of a unique look, however, I prefer my Epiphone Emily Wolfe Sheraton in both looks and sound. I would suggest trying this guitar alongside some epi es-335s, Sheratons, maybe even a tele thinline with wide range pickups. And when you do try it look at where the neck meets the body, there is a weird angle that looks incorrect - it's where fender angles the neck like on Gibsons, but doesn't align the body to the angle, this creates this very odd looking part of the guitar where the neck looks almost like it has been drastically shimmed to a ridiculous angle.

Actually better than 4 stars but the strings were horrid. At first I thought it might be the tuners. I liked it so well I would have replaced them if necessary but a switch to quality strings fixed it immediately. I can't understand why they do this; it seems this would lead to lost sales and returns from the beginner and intermediate players it is aimed at. The build is excellent. The shape is far more ergonomic than any other hollow or semi- hollow body especially if you set down to play. I've wanted one of these since the last millennium. The original was always too rich for me. I play acoustic almost exclusively but I changes coming. I gave away a Gib 135 a few years ago because I never bonded with it. Did I mention I like this guitar?

I'm still in the beginning phase of my guitar learning and this guitar is letting me do things that other guitars made me struggle. I'm getting closer to getting those bar chords now! It sound great too!

Sounds great! Feels really nice to play, no sharp frets. Did notice a couple of tiny blemishes in the finish but so tiny you have to be putting it under a microscope to notice. Other than that, the finish is absolutely beautiful.