Squier Vintage Modified 70s Stratocaster

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Tue Jan 17, 2012 9:55 pm

These look the dogs bollocks to me.

They're moaning on the Squier forum about them not having the three bolts AND being Basswood

Noirie. · Post by **Noirie.** » Tue Jan 17, 2012 10:35 pm

Fran wrote:These look the dogs bollocks to me.

They're moaning on the Squier forum about them not having the three bolts AND being Basswood

My Squier Venus is made of basswood. And it's easily the best sounding guitar I own. My other two being a Jaguar and a Les Paul.

<3 Basswood.

wadeaminute · Post by **wadeaminute** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 7:23 am

I have 6 Squier Vistas made of Basswood. And my Squier VM Jaguar is made of basswood, and sustains as well as my Les Paul. Love them all.
I have a 1977 Fender hardtail Strat with a rosewood board, and I am quite fond of it. The bullet truss rod is an important part of the look to me, and I love that my Super-Sonics have them, but I wouldn't dismiss this VM Squier 70s strat for that.

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 8:46 am

Basswood is one sort motherfucker, though. I love working with it. You can practically route a pickup route with a flathead screwdriver in basswood.

Try doing that in ash.

jagsonic · Post by **jagsonic** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 9:00 am

Oh no, not the old basswood discussion

there's nothing wrong with it. if you don't like it, play ash.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 9:44 am

I think my Nu-Sonic is basswood, I'm not so sure about my Batwing. For the Nu-Sonic, it bashes up incredibly easily which isn't something I mind too much on the Nu-Sonic, but otherwise it doesn't seem to make very much difference at all, other than having the blandest sunburst ever. It sounds and plays great.

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:40 am

I like basswood because it's super light and all my basswood guitars have sounded great. I have five guitars right now. Two are agathis, three are basswood, and they sound just great. I also have a basswood bass.

I'm just saying it's super soft. You can carve it with a flathead. I'm not exaggerating. It's precisely what I did to the Aerodyne Strat to get enough clearance for a larger pot (it's hard to describe if you've never seen the inside of the route). The downside is that it does ding easily. However, on my Daisy Rock the finish is so thick that I can't imagine it'd be easy to ding that thing.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 5:06 pm

I hate maple fretboards but that black strat is fucking sexy.

Billy3000 · Post by **Billy3000** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 5:19 pm

Oh yes... Squier put out a new guitar which means it's time for the old "is basswood good or not" arguement!

The only problem I have with basswood is, as ek already stated, it dents extremely easy so you have to be very careful with it. I wouldn't make a basswood guitar my main gigging instrument, as I would fear that it would get too bashed up too quickly. It's also quite unsightly when it gets bashed and dented. Paint chips off in a weird way compared to other woods. I used to have a 90's sonic blue mustang, and it got dented way too easy, my friend through a cable to me once and the input end hit the mustang and left a very ugly dent in the top of the guitar. I also dented it with my thumbnail pretty easily just to see if I could. I had a jag-stang that I got for free that was bashed up as hell, and the paint almost looked like it was being peeled off around all the chips and dents. I've been very careful with my '69 comp stang though and it looks awesome. As long as you're extremely careful with them they're fine, they sound great and are extremely light weight which is very important to me.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 5:58 pm

Were'nt Squier 51s basswood? no one moaned and some CV Teles are pine, nothing dents easier than pine.. its a soft wood.
It is all quite funny, some these Strat people go on about Japanese Squiers being awesome and some of them were made of plywood.

cur · Post by **cur** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 8:36 pm

These basswood guitars all have a poly finish, so they should not be that easy to dent.

Berto · Post by **Berto** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:08 pm

black on black+70's style strat logo=mega pants tent

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:35 pm

I really like both of these.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 11:49 pm

Plywood is fine. My Danelectro is made out of some sort of formica or something for fucks sake. It's still one of my favourite guitars, and not just for sentimental reasons. I kept coming back to it as I improved and moved through several different layers of snobbery. It's amazing the number of 30-45yr old guitarists who have yet to do that.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 9:59 am

cur wrote:These basswood guitars all have a poly finish, so they should not be that easy to dent.

I think you're overstating how thick poly finishes are here - it's hardly a plastic crash helmet like you're making out. My primary issue with basswood is that I don't like the sound of it, the feel and ding-attraction are secondary. Pine sounds and feels nicer than basswood to me, so I can forgive its softness. And it's the construction (semi-hollow) more than the wood that gives Dano's their signature sound.

I can appreciate I'm setting myself up for switchtips-style ridicule here.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 10:06 am

Yep, its Basswood

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 10:11 am

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 10:17 am

Haha. I could not resist it Tim.

dkoor · Post by **dkoor** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 4:32 pm

I'm anal about these things, but I don't dig the truss rod hole. They should made a bullet or just STFU and skip the otherwise excellent project.

Ankhanu · Post by **Ankhanu** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 6:39 pm

benecol wrote:...My primary issue with basswood is that I don't like the sound of it ...

I don't think you'd be able to tell the difference between two electric solidbody guitars that are identical in every way but the body wood without knowing ahead of time that one was basswood. You'll say you could, but, I'd need evidence to prove it