Squier Classic Vibe '60s Mustang Bass - Surf Green Reviews

Arrived on schedule, set up, and looked awesome. The action was nice and low. I changed strings to a lighter gauge and medium scale length. It took a few adjustments to set the new strings up, but no problem. Thanks to Tyler for his support. He's the best.

The good: This is a good bass. Feels good, plays good. Fit and finish is excellent. Excellent through a Rumble 500.

The bad: It needs proper shielding in the cavity. I did grounded copper tape and it is now dead silent. I also used a green scratch pad to rub some of the gloss off the neck and make it less tacky. Proper setup is always a must.

Bottom line: get it

I don't know how much better a Fender Mustang might be but this Squier fits the bill perfectly for me, and at lesser cost! Fairly well balanced with only a little neck dive, it has a good looking finish without flaws and a thin, sleek neck. I especially like that it has a 1.5" width at the nut and an older style 9.5" neck radius, which makes it comfortably sturdy, round and thin in my hands and easy to play. It has only the strings thru-body bridge though which means you have to use medium scale roundwound and flatwound strings, or the special LaBella MUS flatwound ones especially designed for Mustangs. I use the MUS flats and get a great old-school mellow thump tone out of this bass. If you want a neat short scale bass that can easily compete with almost any out there, you won't go wrong with this Squier CV60 Mustang IMO

Fender no longer makes a bag for this size bass. I got the G&L Fallout short scale and it works better than anything else I could find. #FalloutGBSSBs

I bought this bass as a birthday present to myself, and it has been so good for me. I love the sound, the look, and it just has felt so right. I would recommend this bass to everyone AND their mother. On top of that, sweetwater delivered the guitar to me so safely and perfectly. Loved the entire experience!

I've always wanted a Mustang bass but didn't want to spend the money on a vintage one. I'm not a fan of the P/J ones so this seemed like a good alternative. I am very happy with the look, sound and playability. It was pretty good right out of the box. I tweeted the action a bit lower but other than that it was great. Frets are finished nicely.
Matt Kreager never lets me down. It was packed like a champ and I received it in two days. Sweetwater is awesome!

Pick up this bass and other than the "Squier" on the headstock you could easily mistake this for an instrument that costs 3 times as much.

I own a Fender American Professional Precision Bass, so I have a pretty good baseline to compare this to. Top to bottom:

The tuning machines have very smooth action and rock-solid intonation. I'd say the plating on them is a little thinner than on a Fender, but from a distance they look great.

I do notice the nut groove for the E string is a bit narrow — the string isn't sitting all the way down in it.

The fretboard is excellent. One thing I was worried about was rough edges on the frets but there are absolutely none. It feels great to play. I'd prefer the satin finish on the back of the neck rather than this high gloss, but that's more just a slight personal preference. This neck is still easy to play. The short scale and narrower fretboard sit very well in my not-so-large hands. I've always played 34" scale basses but I could get used to this 30" scale *very* quickly.

The body, pickguard, pickups are all perfectly manufactured and free of defects. A couple years ago I bought a MIM Fender Mustang Bass and I actually returned it because of some manufacturing defects in the body. This thing looks absolutely perfect. And the through-body strings are a nice touch! Never expected that on a Squier.

Setup is another place where I thought there might be some problems but, wow, it just needed to be tuned — not surprising given it had traveled hundreds of miles in a truck in January. The setup is nearly perfect. Great intonation, action, neck relief, everything. It probably *could* be tweaked a bit, but it certainly doesn't need to be to be playable. I feel like I could take it on stage right now.

I did a bit of recording with the bass, and overall it sounds great. It doesn't have quite the perfect balance and clarity that you'd get from some higher-end pickups, but it has a great punchy tone that really cuts through.

I had been seriously mulling over buying the Fender American Performer Mustang Bass (that aubergine color looks better in person than on the website), but ultimately I decided that I needed to get a feel for how I would like playing a short scale bass before dropping that kind of money. I own a couple of other Squiers and have been pleased with them — especially my 5-string Vintage Modified Jazz Bass — so I figured it was worth giving the Squier a try.

A couple of other general notes:

Really, forget whether it says "Squier" or "Fender" on the headstock. I've played several over the past couple of years, and without exception, Squier's "step-up" instruments (meaning, not the Affinity line, which I haven't tried) are unquestionably *better* than MIM Fenders. They don't match the American Fenders, but again, for 1/3 of the price, they're surprisingly close. I think one of the worst things for young musicians is to make them struggle with a poorly made "student" instrument, but with Squier these days, you can get a really solid instrument for a low price.

If you order an instrument in the winter, heed Sweetwater's advice and DO NOT OPEN IT for 24 hours. Especially if the instrument has any unfinished wood, like the fretboard on this bass. The wood might shrink and you'll be left with a bunch of rough fret edges that need to be filed down.

When i first received this bass the pickguard had static issues.I was told to just use a dryer sheet to eliminate the static. Also had quite a bit of hum/noise from the pickups.Those problems aside it is still a good sounding bass with a good set of flatwounds on it.Until this week went to a band practice and no sound from the D and G string split coil Alnico pickup. Took it to my luthier and the pickup had failed not a wiring issue.Sweetwater support was helpful, but my options were limited Send it back to them probably $100 shipping both ways and weeks to get it back or take it to an authorized Fender dealer (Not to many around anymore unless you live in a big city I don't.So i just bought a Nordstrand vintage replacement pickup and had my luthier install it and also shield the cavity and pickguard while he had it apart.Sounds a whole lot better now but at a cost of $300.What I'm getting at here is that it is now a $700 guitar and for that price i would probably would have gotten the Fender Mustang bass with the p/j pickup.Hope this helps some Bass players make a good decision in choosing their instrument