Squier Contemporary Telecaster RH - Gunmetal Metallic Reviews

Ive been gigging with this guitar for about 2 years now. And i can say its my favorite guitar that i own especially for the price. Spend the money on a good set up for it and youve got a very versatile axe

I bought this guitar for my 12 year old son to start his guitar journey with. I had the talented crew at Sweetwater do a set up on it and it got to me with awesome playability. My son loves it and it's held his attention more than any other Xmas gift he received. I've messed around with it myself and it feels great.

After researching what would be a solid all around quality beginner guitar I opted for the Contemporary Telecaster. The pick ups in demos sounded more in line with my tastes than equivalently priced guitars. The body color and maple neck are definitely my aesthetic. I'm happy to say the guitar is extremely easy to play, I love the belly cut and how easy it sits in the playing position. It looks incredible, it can sound huge and raw or subtle and smooth. I don't know that it's the most articulate sound but that's not really what I'm going for in my playing. I really like the bridge pick up, it has some serious bite and loves heavy distortion. Overall I'm very happy with the pick. I can't say I have nostalgia for any specific period of guitar so a contemporary/modern guitar suits me. I'm sure that won't be for everyone, but for anyone wanting to know if the quality is there for the cost I believe it is. The insert tuners make it easy to restring as well, and I have 0 complaints about the set up. I don't know that the reverse order of the knobs and selector will be for everyone either however. I've snagged a knuckle once or twice getting a little too excited with my strums, but I can't imagine an experienced player having an issue. The sound seems to fit heavy rock, metal, alternative, and blues extremely well. I don't really hear any of that Telecaster jangle or spank from the humbuckers so it's more in the vein of Telecaster deluxe from what I can tell. I do not plan on grabbing another electric and this seems unique enough to make my own given time.

Bought this Squier Contemporary Telecaster with a little input from my awesome Sweetwater Sales Engineer - Daniel Nesmith. It is a guitar that might easily find its way into anyone's Guitar Locker, but it may potentially not always cotton to hardcore Tele Traditionalists. That's a subjective topic. Regardless, the White and Gold colors have their own special appeal visually, but having seen and played the Gunmetal Metallic in person at a local store, I was smitten. Almost impossible to accurately understand these colors photographically, especially the Gunmetal. Colors are sparkly and in different lighting this one can range from a Grey to shades of Green/Blue metal flake. Paint's evenly applied and well finished, not dripping in nitrocellulose. No sharp frets on the one I acquired and set-up right out-of-box wasn't bad. The matching color headstock with raised 'Squire Telecaster' logo wording in Silver is sweet. Body shape's traditional Telecaster, except the back has a curvy belly-cut, instead of the 'Tele slab' and it's lighter (7-8 #'s) due to the Poplar body and contours. Yet, it's quite resonate and the Fender C-shaped, wider neck is comfortable and a slightly wider 12' radius gives it a most comfortable feel. I usually play flatter neck electrics, but this one is pleasing - somewhere between an Ibanez Wizard III and other Fender and Squire necks. The stunning lighter color Roasted Maple neck and Jumbo Frets make it a joy to navigate. After receiving it, all I had to do was change strings to preference and lower slightly by adjusting saddles. Stayed with Nickel 10's and always use D'Addario XL140's or Ernie Ball Slinky's. Both are good strings, IMHO.

The split shaft tuners stay in tune and are my favorites by far due to the ease of changing strings. They are the original 'locking tuners' and a great touch. This guitar's a hard tail and tuning is relatively stable. The SQR pickups are voiced for high output. Love the Atomic pickups and Fender has them on a few other Squier and Paranormal models from Factory too. The Rail Single Coil-sized Tele Bridge Humbucker is really hot. Reminds me of a number of different popular Hotrails. It is a good pickup. These pickups are most responsive and pair splendidly with a tube amp, pedals, or EFX boxes or boards and can cover a wide array of musical genres. You can readily hear detailed picking techniques, scratches, up sweeps, taps, and/or palm muting. Seems this guitar was designed to appeal to Metal players, but not why I bought it. It cleans up nicely and is ideal for Blues, Jazz, and can produce luscious Cleans. Again, tone control and volume knobs do a lot for this guitar. The reversed Tele Control plate's useful, as many Tele players turn controls "upside down" like this anyway. It gets the volume knob out of the way when strumming. The Contempo Tele can still deliver Classic Tele sound too, just a little hotter. That can be tamed if desired, though. As you may gather, I'm a Fan Boy and think this a worthy, useful addition to any collection of Solid Body Electric Guitars. It may be an 'Only Guitar' for certain Players, but for me it's a "Version of a Tele" and I always want some form of a Strat, Tele, and LP-type guitar on hand for my own playing enjoyment and recording projects.

I can't say enough about how well the new squire models are being built.
This guitar plays like a dream.the roasted maple neck is fantastic.
It stays in tune.
And the sustain on the pick ups in phenomenal. It will actually change your lead playing.
A solid guitar that you could easily step onto a live stage with and play a great gig.
I highly recommend it.
Great job fender

This is my first guitar purchase and I couldn't be happier with it. Sounds great, super comfortable, and so fun to play. The Gunmetal Metallic color looks amazing in person.

Amazing guitar for the money

Roasted maple neck feels sublime. Pickups have incredible range. Reverse controls make perfect sense. Comfort carves on the body are brilliant.
Squier has taken the finest solid body electric guitar in the world and made it even better!
Be careful. If you pick one up, you won't want to put it down.

For the price, this guitar is amazing. I just put a fresh set of strings on it with my preferred gauge, one small adjustment to the low E string height and it plays great. Intonation was was spot on out of the box. Love the color and especially the smoked neck. Highly recommended.

It reminded me so much of a 80s Kramer. And that single coil pickup will give any Humbucker a run for it's money. I have a 51 Tele. This is not a Tele it's a beast. Very beautiful guitar.

I've always thought of Squier guitars as low end, poorly made entry level instruments. Obviously, they've stepped up their game with these new contemporary guitars. I've been wanting a Telecaster style guitar for a while, and the one that really caught my eye was the Fender Special Edition Custom Telecaster FMT HH (which will most likely be my next guitar.)

After hours of looking at reviews of this Squier, I figured I'd take a chance and I was not disappointed. I'm very impressed with the quality of this instrument, especially at this price point. The roasted maple neck is beautiful and smooth. There was not one jagged fret edge and the neck feels very comfortable. The action was a bit high for my tastes out of the box, but that was an easy fix.

The rail pickup at the bridge is very hot. I've tried this guitar with amp sims (Amplitube and Presonus Ampire) and live through an Orange Super Crush 100 with an Orange 4x12 cabinet and it sounds great in both settings. I play mostly hard rock and metal and this axe delivers. Overall, this is a great instrument for the price, and dealing with Sweetwater's sales team and customer service dept. is always a pleasure. If you're looking for a more modern style Tele, this guitar is a great choice.

Lot of sweet options on this Tele. After looking at the 3 colors over and over, the gunmetal grey was my choice. Just unboxed it and the packaging was very good. The roasted maple neck and fretboard feels looks and plays awesome, and the guitar is weighted at a comfortable 6lb 10oz. It's a bad boy with the humbucker and hot rail pups. The ax will be getting a proper setup with nyxl 9-42 strings and a better quality 3 way switch.

PROS:Just got mine a week ago and I am blown away! I own several guitars (Gibson SG, Les Paul, 2 Jacksons and a Dean MIB) and this guitar blows them away. The roasted maple neck looks phenomenal and plays extremely well. The new Squier pickups are also incredible. Bridge pickup sounds like a Seymour Duncan Hot Rail. What surprised me was the Squier Atomic Humbucker. I love the tone and I normally only play the front pickup probably 10% of the time. And when you crank either of these pickups up, they roar and would hold their own against any shred machine.
CONS:
I received it from Sweetwater after their 55 point inspection and set up. It was only slightly out of tune but string height was good and intonation seemed in. I checked the intonation after 48 hrs. and after putting through the paces. I had to re-intonate 4 of the 6 strings but it's dead nuts in tune now.
I noticed just a hair of burring on the edge of the frets up and down the neck. Nothing that catches your hand or fingers but noticable if you feel for it.
I also originally ordered this guitar in July and just received it in late October so beware on wait time.
All in all, this is one great guitar from Squire especially for the price.
If you get a chance, buy this under priced gem of a guitar!

I really liked this guitar but after 5 months of very light playing it doesn't make a sound plugged in anymore and guitar was fine last time I played it a few weeks ago... I seriously have only played this guitar maybe 25 or 30 times in last 5 months because I have several other guitars and try to play them all a little bit and take very good care of my gear so I feel the problem is entirely Squiers fault. Going to have to go through whole process of sending it back for repairs which is a hassle I wasn't bargaining for. So you may want to think twice before you buy yourself a Squire...