Fender Tele vs Squier Tele - a few comparisons.

I will get round to a detailed comparison eventually, but for now, here's a few first impressions......

First thing to bear in mind - these are my two guitars we're comparing, so obviously I can't speak for every Fender and every Squier ever made. To date, I've played two Squier guitars - a Squier Strat which I bought not long after joining GN about 3 years ago when I was still utterly awful, and a Squier Custom Tele which I bought a couple of years ago when my playing had improved more than a little. The Squier Strat was a nice guitar - nice easy neck to play on, but it was, for me, a beginner electric. The Squier Tele has been my main guitar ever since I bought it - I hardly ever touched the Strat again, and sold it cheaply.

I bought the Squier Tele after seeing a Status Quo live gig....for those who don't know about Quo, they're a - basically - 12-bar blues/rock band. Both guitarists use Teles - the lead guitarist has his Tele fitted with an extra p/u, like a Strat configuration, and uses light strings - 9's. The rhythm player uses heavy strings - 13's - and uses lots of barre chords up and down the neck to about the 15th fret, adding 6th's and 7ths in the classic blues/rock shuffle manner. Anyway, I decided I had to have a Tele - and when I came into some money, I went to the local guitar shop with a full wallet to buy a Fender Tele. And came away with the Squier. It felt better and sounded better than its dearer relative - the Squier Tele cost £135, the Fenders were £335 - to me.

This time, I wanted another Squier Tele - with P90's instead of Humbuckers, what I wanted was a second electric to tune to open G. I'm playing a lot of slide these days.....

But when I saw the white Fender Tele, as I've said in another post, it didn't so much speak to me as SING to something in my soul...I knew I wanted it straight away. When I felt it and played it, it felt so good in my hands that I didn't need to even try another guitar.

So having had it for a week or so - though it feels like a long time, it's adapted to its owner pretty well - here's a few comparisons.

TUNERS. The Fender scores heavily here - it stays in tune beautifully. Took it out of a warm house into a cool evening (in a gig bag) into a really warm crowded pub....didn't need re-tuning. Although the top E needed tweaking once or twice - but not by much.

NECK. Little to choose between them. The frets feel a little easier to slide over on the Fender, but the first thing - the very first thing! - I noticed was there's more wood behind the first fret of the Fender - ie less of a slope between the headstock and the fretboard. That's down to muscle memory! I think the Fender neck is slightly more rounded - but again, not much in it. The Fender wins - but not by much.

PICK-UPS. This is where the Squier scores - seems more versatile than the Fender, ie there's a bigger difference between the bridge P/U and the neck P/U on the Squier. The Squier seems capable of any tone from Rock to Blues to Heavy Metal to Country to Fingerpicked. I can get a huge difference in tones just by addressing the tone pots. The Fender? Yes, there's a nice difference between the bridge and neck P/U's - but very little difference between the middle position and the neck PU.

The Squier sems to handle distortion better - maybe that's the difference between the Humbuckers on the Squier and the single coil P/U's on the Fender? - when the gain's fairly cranked. Bear in mind though, I'm still experimenting with settings, trying to find MY signature tone, if you like, on the new Cube 30.....

PLAYED CLEAN. This is where the Fender TRASHES the Squier - I've got some cool acoustic-ish guitar effects from the Squier in the past, playing with a bit of reverb and chorus - but the Fender is absolutely beautiful played through the clean channel. I can strum it like an acoustic, I can finger-pick it like an acoustic, I can almost do away with an acoustic guitar! (Nick - wanna buy an SPT?) (Forget it- I'm kidding - I'd NEVER get rid of that!)

BALANCE. Again, little to choose - but I can wear the strap a fraction lower on the Fender, it just feels that little bit more comfortable.

MY SONGS. I tried playing a few of my own songs with both guitars - played rhythm and lead, switched from bridge for lead to middle or middle and neck for rhythm. The sustain on the Fender is incredible - I thought it was pretty good on the Squier, hit a chord with distortion and it would hold without those beats - but it holds for longer on the Fender. Solos seemed a little easier on the Fender - but I'm so used to playing rhythm on the Squier, it definitely held its own.

ACTION/SET-UP - Had the Squier for two years. Originally, it was meant to be in open G - I raised the action slightly, it was just a touch too low for the light strings I prefer. But it's easy to adjust, and the intonation's pretty good. The Fender? The action seemed high at first, but I soon got used to the smaller frets and now it feels as smooth as water on glass. Both guitars were set up almost perfectly from the box.

PLAYING SLIDE. Haven't experimented much yet, but so far I like what I've heard from the Fender. I don't tend to catch the frets quite as much and rattle the slide. Haven't tried it in an open tuning yet - but it's pretty nice in standard. Thing is, I'm not going to pay so much money for a Fender then relegate it to slide guitar when rhythm is what I'm good at. So the Squier will probably end up in open G with the action raised just a touch to avoid that fret-knocking.

LOOKS - A white Fender Tele vs a Black Squier Tele - do I really need to go any further? Doesn't matter what anyone says about guitars, it's the look that draws you in first. I thought the white Tele was the most beautiful guitar I'd ever seen, so 'nuff said. Although the Squier Tele is pretty cool, the one gripe I have about the look is that the bottom pickguard seems cut off - doesn't extend all the way over the bottom "horn."

THE TELE TWANG - The Squier, contrary to what you may have read elsewhere, DOES have the Tele twang. But not like a Fender. The difference is like having fat-free, taste-free skimmed milk in your tea or coffee instead of proper full-fat milk with the cream.

OVERALL - The Fender wins. Let's face it, the Fender Tele is a true icon - along with the Strat, the LP and the SG, it's probably one of the big four when it comes to guitars. At least on this site. BUT - it doesn't win by that much. It's a beautiful guitar, no question - but the Squier Tele I own is also a lovely guitar, a well-made, well assembled piece of kit. I'd recommend the Squier Tele to anyone for a first electric. There's a big difference in price - the Squier Custom now retails at £175, the Fender Tele at £330......probably a fair bit cheaper in the USA.

I've waffled on a bit further than I intended - kept picking the guitars up and making comparisons between them. I love them both, but the Fender's definitely #1 now - money spent on it alone would justify that. But I wouldn't have spent so much if I didn't think it was worth it. Then again, I'm not about to throw the Squier away - it's been a fun guitar, we've had a lot of good times together, and I'm a sentimental so-and-so. It's just been promoted to #1 slide/openG guitar. And with these two guitars, I don't think I'll EVER need another..... honestly, I'm good to go, as they say in the USA.

I do NOT need another guitar.
I really do NOT need another guitar.
I don't WANT another guitar.

I just have to keep those last three lines in my head for a while.......

Hope you got something positive from this post.....

:D :D :D

Vic