Squier Classic Vibe '70s Jaguar - Black Reviews

Ignore everyone saying "It's a Squier so everything's bad quality". This isn't 1984. This guitar is worth every penny and then some. At most you may want to upgrade the tuners. My guitar shipped almost completely set up. No fret sprout, decent action. If you haven't heard about the tape on the bridge posts trick do yourself a favor and Google it. The pickups sound incredible, especially the neck. I was going to drop some Burns Tri-Sonics in there but I'm having second thoughts. This guitar wants you to buy it and you should listen.

Love this guitar, and this line of Squire. I bought the 70s Jaguar and the Tele, AND the Candy Apple Red 60s Vibe Strat! Love them all! For these prices and quality of this Squire Line, i plan on buying the Jazzmaster too!!

This is a great guitar and I have several high end guitars. I thank my salesman at Sweetwater Joseph Pryor for suggesting me give it a try. 5 stars for my guitar and 10 for my salesman.

I have played for many years. I have high end guitars and wanted a jaguar so I thought I would give this guitar a try for the money. I wrote music for 4 songs the first 45 minutes it was in my hands. It's fun to play and the neck was so smooth up and down the frets. This is a high quality guitar and I highly recommend.

My favorite guitar is a black Jaguar, so I just had to get this!
This is a fantastic guitar for the price, and provides a great platform for modifications and customization, which is something I enjoy doing on all of my guitars. Sweetwater was amazing as always, they continue to impress!
In all fairness, this is a Squier model Fender, so be prepared for lower quality hardware such as nickel plating, and tuners. Those are easy parts to replace, so no worries there.
Also, the electronics do leave a lot to be desired as far as clarity and overall punch. I excepted this going in, and Im currently in the process of swapping out the wiring and pickups. Again, no worries there. Squier's are really great guitars, but can be drastically improved with some new pots and pickups.
Overall, this is a gorgeous guitar and a tremendous value.
So glad to have this guitar!!

Everything was good right out of the box. Really the only thing I did was putting thicker strings on it and that's typical of most any guitar I've purchased.

95% setup out of the box, Just a few tweaks, but I could have played as is.
Best deal for the money.
Great service, (as always), from Sweetwater.
I did a few mods later as the photo will show.

Folks this guitar made in Indonesia is a Quality guitar right out of the box with the 55-Point inspection that Sweetwater does lets you have confidence that the guitar is in good to go shape.Beautiful tones you can get from this machine!The guitar came with 9 strings I suggest you change to 10s or maybe even 11s for better bridge brake. Other than that you will dig this Squire!

Squier has been on a roll in recent years. Let's start with the good - this guitar is very well made, especially at this price point. Fit / finish is good, electronics are in good working order, the hardware is decent and most everything feels tight. This is about as good as it gets for $. I purchased this for my teenage daughter as she wants to start playing electric in addition to acoustic and she needs something short scale / easy on the hands. An easy 5 stars as it relates to value. HOWEVER...

I had to make a few easy modifications to make it play its best:

I shimmed the neck one half degree as there was not enough pitch to maintain decent tension on the strings. The old Jaguars / Jazzmasters had significant pitch in years past.

As I raised the bridge (it arrived flat on the body out of the box) and the screws would not hold it at a higher height consistently. Added some blue Locktite thread locker. Problem solved.

Although the guitar played much better at this point, I still had issues with rattles, strings leaving the saddles, etc. I installed an Allparts Buzz Stop to the vibrato to further increase the string angle and it worked like magic.

All in all, $ in parts and about 30 minutes of labor which was all well worth the effort. 3 starts as it relates to stock conditions out of the box / minor design flaws needing labor and cost. Blend the two ratings together, and this is a solid 4 star instrument.

This guitar has that feel you want. The new bridge makes a Mastery upgrade unnecessary but you still need to shim the neck as the action isn't level at all from nut to final fret and the bridge is slammed to the body(even so it is actually playable like this and I haven't changed anything yet). The fret ends aren't finished and the fretboard feels like sandpaper it is so dry. The pickups sound really good but I'm having problems with one switch on it that Sweetwater's techs are addressing(I won't return it due to the lightweight and dark fretboard). Recommended if you don't mind adding a neck shim to even out the action and addressing the rough fret ends. Very happy overall!

Just bought one of these as I always wanted a Jaguar but couldn't really fit one into the budget. Squier hit it out of the park with this highly affordable model.

A lot of reviews mentioned sharp frets and/or string buzz; but I get the sense that those are regional issues. Sharp frets are usually a shrinkage of the wood in dryer conditions, you can fix with guitar humidor and a trash bag. (Don't buy a guitar in/from the desert.) Fret buzz is a quick fix with the bridge if you end up with it; there is a youtube video for that exact issue and all it takes is a bit of tape.

However, mine came in perfect condition and it plays great. There is a possibility I just got "one of the good ones", but this thing is awesome! At this point, even if I had $1400, I would probably still buy this again and spend the rest on a new amp or recording gear.

Here is the good/great. Since I am attempting to have the grunge/alt Fender trifecta of the Jaguar, Mustang and Jazzmaster. I decided to get the Classic Vibe Jag from Sweetwater. Ordering it couldn't have been easier. Nick, my sales engineer was prompt in responding to my questions and was very helpful when I asked about the Plek process and my other questions. Five stars for the sales experience.

Shipping was prompt and I took delivery in a little less than a week. Five stars there too.

Here is where my problem starts. After I had the guitar for a couple of days it started developing a bad buzz on the low E string. A little googling I discovered that there is a known problem with the bridge tension. Given the known problem with the wiggling of the bridge on CV Jag, I would think that Sweetwater's 55-point would pick that up and proactively correct this. I let a friend of mine who's a tech look it and few winds of electricians tape on the bridge posts and the buzzing is now corrected. As a matter of fact, there is a Youtube video titled "THE BIG MISTAKE Fender made with this Jaguar bridge. It was there that the electrician's tape hack was discovered.

So, five stars for the sales and shipping experience, five for the guitar itself, but three stars for the inspection process. Would I buy another guitar from Sweetwater, heck yeah!