Squier Classic Vibe '60s Telecaster Thinline - Natural Reviews

There really is nothing negative to say about this Thinline Telecaster. The finish is nicer in person than the photos show. It's light and both the bridge and neck pickups give great tones. Neck is typical Fender wonderful. Maybe a little too glossy for those that prefer a satin style neck. The frets are better overall than my made in Mexico Stratocaster. I currently have 4 Classic Vibe Squires and an Affinity Squire and all actually have smoother fret edges than my Strat! I do feel that currently the Classic Vibe series feels like a much better deal overall to the Player series currently. This particular model is a no-brainer!

I was never a "tele guy". I don't play country and they always sounded too twangy and the neck pickup kind of bored me. But I played this model at a few different stores and every time I couldn't put it down. It was begging to come home with me. Finally I pulled the trigger when Sweetwater had a sale, and the guitar that came looked exactly like the picture. Fit, finish and setup was perfect.

What I love...

The guitar is light, and easy to travel with. The neck pickup is really interesting. It doesn't sound like a Strat. Maybe a little closer to a P-90 in a Les Paul. It sounds SOOOO good through a clean Fender amp. Bridge pickup is beefy and twangy but not like a solid body Tele. It has more honk to it. With some gain, the middle position is all Jimmy Page. Everyone I show it to loves it. It's a gorgeous guitar and it sounds even better.

What I don't like...
The neck pickup is microphonic. So if you play live, you either need to wax pot it or change it. I plan to pot mine because I love the tone. The traditional saddles don't allow for perfect intonation. I changed mine out for some quality compensated brass saddles. Easy and inexpensive fix.

This thing is bad a$$.Been looking for something like this for a while. Plays right out the box. Played it on stage out of the box and it did fine.

The Best guitar I've ever owned! Sweetwater and Andy Miller are awesome!! I've purchased higher priced guitars and not had it set up as great as this guitar is!!

Once again Squire did a great job. Right out of the box this guitar was perfect. No finish flaws, no sharp fret ends. Well worth the dollars. You could gig with this guitar the same day you get it. No regrets here.

I own a variety of electric guitars, mostly under $800 range, because the hobby is already expensive enough. Buying this cheap of a guitar was the first time since my first electric guitar. I've always wanted to have a tele and I've always been attracted to the f hole on these thinlines. So I took a chance during a Black Friday sale and let me tell you, its been 3 months and I've liked this guitar since the moment I started playing. The fingerboard quality is better than my fender player strats. I have barely touched the strat since purchasing this guitar, in fact, I'm convinced I need to replace the strat now. The sound quality is great, especially for the price point here. I'm so happy with my purchase, if you don't wanna break the bank for a tele thinline, this is an obvious choice. Highly recommend. Also, this was my 2nd guitar from sweetwater, great Black Friday sale and arrived fast, ready to go out of the box. Great job guys!

Light, resonant. Pickups aren't half-bad. Neck and nut were in great shape out of the box. I replaced all the internal electronics with higher quality components, but didn't feel like the pickups needed to be swapped.
Kudos to my sales engineer, Mehir, on this!

This is my 4th Squier Tele and first Squier Thinline. It replaces a 2007 mahogany MIM Fender Thinline which grew legs somewhere between SF and SC.

I love these Indonesian Squires. Across the Fender line, it's hands-down, the best bang for the buck. I own or have played Teles from Japan, Mexico and the US and the build quality on these Indonesian Teles is comparable. Not surprising as the robot cutting the necks and bodies in Surabaya is the same as the ones in Corona and Ensenada.

Although the body looks like mahogany, it is actually nato which is a soft hardwood. The sound is brighter than my other Teles which range from ash to alder to poplar to basswood.

The gloss polyurethane neck is super slick and great for those fast, full octave slides. The factory setup is better than the Squire Bullets. This one required some minor bridge adjustment. Otherwise action is low and intonation is spot on.

Two surprises: First, the neck is stained to look roasted. Both the Fender and Sweetwater sites depicted a blonder neck but I prefer the darker aged look.

Surprise number two: I love Thinlines because they are light and this one comes in at 6.2 pounds - a real featherweight compared to my 8 pound Baja or Les Paul.

All in all, I am extremely pleased given one can be a bit nervous about buying a guitar unseen and un-played. I paid $ for my Mexican Fender Thinline in 2007. This was half the price and is every bit the guitar, guts and hardware included. Finally, props to Chris Leonard, Senior Sales Engineer at Sweetwater for the gender reveal pix prior to shipping. Nice touch and great customer service!

Attached are the actual pix Sweetwater sent me of my new ax.

My favorite guitar. I have 10 guitars from USA telecaster, Firebird, Les Paul Custom, Flying V and I like this the best. It is super light and comfortable to play and with practice you can learn to make a telecaster play in many types of music.

I was super nervous about buying a guitar online. I did my research and decided the Classic Vibe '60s Telecaster Thinline was the model for the sound I was looking for. I played one a while back at guitar center but the setup was off. I had read good things about Sweetwater and hoped I would not be disappointed. With the guitar coming in at a decent price I decided I could always shell out $60 at my local Luthier for a decent setup. How surprised I was to find I didn't need it. The guitar plays excellently. It is my first tele, coming from a Les Paul and dabbling with an Ibanez. Super smooth neck finish on a par with my Epiphone Les Paul. All the bad things I read about Squire are now case aside. Great guitar, Great service from Sweetwater. This will be my goto store form now on. Shopping cart already filling up for next order.

I picked up this Classic Vibe 60s Telecaster a couple of weeks ago. First thing, the service at Sweetwater is always so good. I know I had to be driving Kyle crazy with all my questions about 2 or 3 different guitars I was considering. But he had the patience of a saint. When I finally pulled the trigger on this I ordered it on a Thursday and it was delivered on a Sunday! That was fantastic! The guitar was way more than I thought it would be. I have three other teles all of which cost more than this one, but I have to say, this is easily the equal of any of them. It is very playable. Years ago I had an '83 top loader tele that I loved. It was one of those stories, the great guitar I can't believe I sold. You know. This guitar is the closest I've ever found to that guitar in terms of playability. I even has a hybrid bridge for top loading which was not mentioned anywhere in all the descriptions of it. I wish all telecasters had this option. The pickups are fine, a nice tele sound as one should hope for when buying Squier/Fender. I'm a big fan of the Vintage noiseless pickups I have on my Deluxe Nashville Tele, but I'm in no hurry to swap them out of the CV. I really can't believe the quality of this guitar for the price. If I were paying 2 or 3 times as much for this guitar, the only thing That could possibly be different is the pickups. The quality og this build is outstanding. I've heard that guitars from Indonesia are great because of the Indonesian work ethic and I can attest to that. I have this guitar from Indonesia and a Telecaster FMT HH with a set neck. Check these out at Sweetwater as well. Fantastic guitars for a moderate price.

I'd just say if you're cosidering a Classic Vibe 60s, go for it. You won't be disapointed. They are a great value, you can't go wrong for the price.

I've owned numerous "prestige" guitars including a 1961 SG, Country Gentleman, Rick 12, Line 6 Variax and a 2019 '61 SG Standard. I bought this guitar hoping that it could fill a hole where my really nice Hondo Telecaster copy used to sit before I sold it sometime in the 90s.

It exceeded any expectation I had for a guitar this inexpensive. The fit and finish are excellent, it plays great and the tone, especially on the neck pickup is outstanding.

If you've got an extra few bucks lying around and want an added dimension for playing country, rock and recordings, this is an excellent choice.

Great guitar! Love the light weight, and the good looks.
The setup was perfect, and it plays like a dream.
Don't let the Squire" name intimidate you.
This is a very well made guitar, and you get a lot of bang for the buck.

Shout out to my sales engineer, Josh Trumm. We spoke on the phone, and he answered a gazillion questions on e-mail with me, before I made the purchase. Sweetwater's staff is second to none.

This Squire Thinline is an incredible guitar for the money. The pickups are great stock. The Tuners are vintage style and hold tune well. The neck has rolled fingerboard edges and the fretwork is impeccable! The body is Nato I didn't really care I just needed a light weight guitar and I wanted it Telecaster shaped. The pots and the switch work very well. It cleans up beautifully! This guitar could be all you need to get through a set. You don't have have to worry about it at a gig. I had a Baja telecaster that weighted 10 pounds, and this was 5 pounds 10 oz! Plus it has better fret work than the Baja.

Great Guitar for the money. I wanted a 2K Fender thin line but did not want to pay the money. I upgraded the neck to a fender neck and upgraded to locking tuners. Also changed out the pickups with Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Tele Set. It now plays and sounds just as good or better than a 2K guitar.

Sweetwater delivered a very playable guitar, and I love the fact that it was inspected before being sold, and I got to choose the one I wanted. Usually Squires show up factory sealed and it's a lottery. It played and sounded great right out of the box, but I bought it to mod it.

I suspect this thing is a little ugly on purpose, probably to limit sales due to higher costs of production. But the word is out on the CV series and this is a hidden gem. See for yourself, look for a Fender Thinline with a 9.5" radius neck and get ready to spend a great deal more. So what's the secret? Well, I replaced the pickups, electronics, saddles, pickguard, and tuners right away, without having to do any alterations - the specs are dead on (and I would have done the nut too, but it isn't plastic and may actually be bone). With a little more polish I sharpened the heck out of this axe (KYG!) and it is astounding how impressive it is now. If Squire sold these in different colors I'd probably want one of each, so it's probably a good thing for me that they only offer this one option.

Beautiful, probably my best lookin guitar,love it. Plays like a dream. Great service & super fast shipping

I was looking at buying a Telecaster and bought the deluxe Nashville Tele and was able to purchase the Squier Thin line for the same money instead of buying the American brand. I am very impressed with the Squier Thin line. It has a different warmer sound but still has the twang of the Tele if you are into chicken picking.awesome guitar for the money. Can't beat the guitar for the price. I normally always buy American but decided on buying two for 1 and got the bang for the buck. Love it!

This Thinline Telecaster is a must-have. Don't let the Squier brand name fool you. I was very surprised when it outperformed many of my other guitars, some of which are at a higher price range. It is quite a unique instrument and certainly different from your standard telecaster.

Pros:
- Significantly louder than an unplugged solid-body electric guitar (but not as loud as an acoustic)
- Excellent, simple setup - built to last
- Stock pickups sound great for the price
- Beautiful aesthetics
- Lighter than a typical telecaster
- Good neck (Some classic vibes can have overly sticky, glossy necks that interfere with sliding. My Thinline did not have this issue)

Cons:
- Slight neck dive (albeit, nowhere near as much as a Gibson SG)

These 2019 classic vibes are just blowing my mind. I already own the '60s strat and now the thin line tele (and probably soon the reg. tele). This is the best fretboard edge rolling I've ever encountered. And I've played quite a few custom shops. It's feather light, the pickups sounds better than previous year cv's, and all the switches knobs and jacks feel very solid. The neck profile is thinner than what I'd generally go for BUT it's not a toothpick. My hands are very large and they don't cramp at all on this neck. Somehow the narrow tall frets balance out the profile just perfectly. It's a very fast and precision playing experience and feels very slinky to play. Bends are a breeze. The hollow body adds some resonance and low mids to make for an ever so slightly beefier sound than a normal tele. Also it is freaking loud when you play it unplugged.

You truly have to go all the way up to the American Professional line before you see any improvement in sound or playability. No joke, I've done very thorough A/B tests. GET THIS GUITAR before Fender realizes they are too good and discontinues them.

(*disclaimer- I did not purchase this guitar from Sweetwater but from a local guitar center. But rest assured the 2019's are very consistent across the board in playability and sound. Much more so than the current Mexican fenders)

Bought mine a few months ago, the frets needed a bit of leveling and setup to play better, so I had a Mexican Fender Stratocaster neck laying around and bolted it straight on with no modifications needed! Eventually I'll have the original neck back on and professionally setup. Adjusted the pickup height to get the sound I wanted, definitely will not be replacing the pickups or electronics. Thinline body gives great sustain. Amazing how a guitar at this price point can deliver so much. Very happy with my purchase!

I've been playing this Squier CV Thinline Tele since I got it a few weeks ago and I'm really enjoying this guitar. I have been playing over forty years and consider myself a fairly decent intermediate player. I play many varied styles mostly for my own personal enjoyment. The build quality on this guitar is very good. It is well made and a good value. I was really impressed with the neck on the guitar. It has a gloss urethane finish front and back. Some might not like the gloss on the back but that's easily fixed with a little steel wool. The fretwork is good with no sharp ends and the frets seems to be fairly level end to end. The action was a bit high out of the box but not outrageous. I lowered the action and tweaked the intonation a little and it plays very well now. All the controls work well and the pickups sound good. It has that nice bright, jangly Telecaster sound on the bridge but also has good lower end on the neck and middle positions. I am playing through a Fender Mustang lll amp. The intonation isn't perfect but being a three saddle Tele bridge it's not bad. I plan on installing some compensated brass saddles later to see if I can get it dialed in better. This is a great guitar to mod and make improvements on or play as is. It compares well to the Fender MIM guitars and maybe even some of the more expensive Fender line. This is a nice little guitar not only for the price but a nice guitar period. I think it would be worth spending the extra to get a professional setup on it IMO. Also Sweetwater seems like a very reputable company to deal with. A good experience with purchasing a guitar from their guitar gallery and I can't say enough about the way it was packed for shipment. They packed it like I would have. Hope this review helps someone that may be on the fence with getting one. I think you'll like it.

I bought a Squire thinline tele a year or so back, and I love it! It's very well made. I found no defects. It arrived very well set up. I also own a MIM Baja tele, and a MIM Standard tele, and I play the thinline more than the others. It does not have as true of a classic tele tone (spank) as my others. It does sound like a tele, just not as much as some, if that makes any sense. I think a little fuller sounding. The semi hollow body may contribute to that. I play a lot of jazz and jazz/blues and this guitar is great for that. And the weight! It's much lighter than an Ash plank, and I appreciate that.
I should mention that mine is made of Mahogany, whereas this years is made of Nato, but they are similar woods.
I was a Strat, Les Paul, 335, and jazz box player for many years, but in the last 5 years or so teles have really grown on me.
I was initially hesitant about Squire guitars, but I think they are great instruments for the price. However, I'm talking about the Classic Vibe series. I'd stay away from the Affinity and Bullet series.
As always, Sweetwater and my sales rep Ed Nystrom took good care of me.

I've had this guitar for a little over a month now and am still as happy with it as the day it arrived! Its light weight makes it very comfortable to play. I wasn't sure about the tall narrow frets, but I don't notice a lot of difference from the medium jumbos all my other guitars sport. The neck is great; radius perfect for my hand and the fret work is top notch. The pick ups sound good, pots and selector switch substantial and smooth. My only criticism (and reason for not giving a 5 star rating) is the tuning stability isn't as good as my only other tele (G&l tribute ASAT). However, overall, this guitar is well worth the price and definite keeper.

Purchased last fall after a flash sale from Sweetwater. I have been playing guitar for over 50 years and own about a dozen, mostly Gibson's. Very playable neck with nice action. The neck pick-up sounded a bit dull initially and never changed. The ashtray bridge started buzzing recently and could not be corrected. I replaced it with a stew mac bridge with 6 saddles and replaced the stock neck pick-up with a DeMarzio twang king. Also replaced the electronics with Mojotone pots, switch, and input jack. Sounds pretty sweet so far; I think it now is definitely a keeper.

Tone monster! This guitar has medium tall frets which are great for string bending & vibratos. This makes a great blues guitar. Workmanship was solid. Mine is darker than the site photos. I also modified mine with Duncan pickups, Gibson style 3-way switch and a black pickguard.

As usual the shopping experience with Sweetwater was awesome. The guitar has a good tone and setup was nice but there was a problem with some of the fret settings so the high E string would get caught under them. My local luthier is working on it and I'm sure it will be a five star guitar once that is sorted.

So fat I've enjoyed this new addition to my guitar family. It quite playable, has great sound, light on the shoulder and is beautiful in appearance. It doesn't seem to stay in tune long though. And I can't seem to get the harmonic ring where I should. For these issues I think I'll spend the $ for a setup with my preferred strings and see how that works out. All in all, a nice guitar.

Frist thing I notice is that the frets were way too wide; I could really feel the ends of the frets when sliding my hand up and down the neck. Because the frets are too long, when bending the first string and it slides off the finger board (another issue), the string has been getting caught under the fret. I worked about 2hrs to file down the ends of the frets down, but I probably have to put another hour or two into it.

The first string does have the tendency to 'falls' off the fret board fairly easily. The width of the fretboard could use an addition 1/16 of an inch. I have a cheap IYV telecaster and a Squire StarCaster and I do not have this issue on these guitars.

(The Squire StarCaster also had very long frets that I had to file down.) Both the Starcaster and the IYV guitars sound warmer and nicer to my ear. The Squire telecaster does have a better "telecaster punch" than those two, but doesn't seem have the quality "punch" I was hoping to hear in a telecaster.

So I give it 3 stars. There is no buzzing, the action is good, intonation was good, and the variety of sounds you can get out of it is good. It is a pretty good looking guitar also.
The guitar is good for a beginner or in-house practicing. I would not want to play it at big gig. I have better guitars for that.