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Fender Squier Stagemaster Reviews  4 / 5 based on 3 reviewsI purchased this item on Ebay. Most people may be slightly worried about purchasing on Ebay but as long as you buy from a respectble company, you cant go wrong.
The company i bought it off of was Oasis Musical Instruments..or vaguely similar..i was paying more attention to the guitar, and if you decide to keep reading, you'll see how.
I bought this guitar due to 3 main reasons. I saw the look of it, and it struck me, an amazing WOW factor because it looked like it was so clean and crisp to play and had a proffessional quality image it. Another reason was the Floyd Rose locking mechanism, i couldnt resist the possibility of no longer having to awkwardly retune strings on my guitar cos someone decided to play with the machine heads. The final main reason was familiarity with the company - Fender, a very good make in my opinon and the image associated with it, eg like Matt Bellamy of Muse sort of but still with an original quality to it.
rated this unit on 2003-12-10. I purchased this item on Ebay. Most people may be slightly worried about purchasing on Ebay, perhaps your thinking you'd be better off buying it off the back of a lorry, but as long as you buy from a respectable company, you cant go wrong.
The company i bought it off of was Oasis Musical Instruments..or vaguely similar..i was paying more attention to the guitar to be honest, and if you decide to keep reading, you'll see how.
I bought this guitar due to 3 main reasons. Appearance, Sound, and Playability.
I saw the look of it, and it struck me, an amazing WOW factor (excuse the cornyness) because it looked like it was so clean and crisp to play and had a proffessional quality image it. Another reason was the Floyd Rose locking mechanism, i couldnt resist the possibility of no longer having to awkwardly retune strings on my guitar because some curious little git decided to play with the machine heads..not many people can say thats never happened lol.
The final main reason was familiarity with the company - Fender, a very good make in my opinon..stop laughing...it may have squier in the name but its too superior to be compared to the original cheapo fender squier which doesnt even deserve to be called a guitar (no offence to people who have one). Also the image associated with it, e.g like Matt Bellamy of Muse sort of but still with an original quality to it.
I paid around £230 for this guitar, when it usually costs around £350 appox. So the deal just swayed me. Also the night before i bought it, i went to a local music shop and played a lower model, and it was the best guitar id ever played..until i recieved this one of course. Id recommend trying one out, even if your not going to buy it (just dont tell them that, *wink wink, nudge nudge*)
Now to the bit most people want to hear and are most interested in, the quality, so i shall be more serious.
I've already mentioned the look of it, and incase you missed that part, it is clean, proffessional, familiar yet unique i feel and is an appropriate image no matter what style of music you like to play. It is of traditional shape for most fender squiers. My one is silver..which i believe to be the best colour for this item. Also, you'll have to be a bit more careful when rocking out with 24 frets, giving you a many more possibilities when playing.
Next the sound. An example i can give is: the other day i was playing guitar with a friend, he asked if we could switch amps for a short while and his is of lower quality, so i was reluctant but did nonetheless. I played and i still got practically the same quality as i had through my amp, due to the qualities of the guitar. The guitar is good for playing from heavy metal to indie, to jazz. You can still get the sound you're looking for, it won't disappoint. Also with the locking mechanism, you dont have to worry about tuning and you can play without the awkward pauses to retune. If you want to tune to drop D every so often, thats fine, just leave one of the bolts unlocked, this will enable you to tune to and from drop D and similar tunings dependant on E and A strings.
This guitar integrates well with various pedals and settings, it is very versatile in sound and is particularly good for lead guitaring.
Next, playability. The strings are so close to the fretboard, i found chords, previously impossible, so much easier to play. Im not the best guitarist but the guitar alone has improved me so much more, i now feel im getting somewhere and maybe its a good job it looks so proffessional eh? hehe. The fretboard is smooth making it easy for slides and changing chords. I also found bending notes and other such additional things guitarists like to do to add variations in sound, a lot easier to do than many other guitars.
This may sound like i am just saying this to convince you to buy the item..but there isnt really much wrong with this guitar at all. Fair enough its not the best guitar in the world, but to be honest i think its greatly underpriced and buyers need to act fast if you are keen on this item already.
One problem id say is the locking mechanism, but this applies to any guitar that has this so its not very specific. Its going to be very complicated to get it restrung, but i can get my local music shop to do it, ask a friend, or i can just get tips and get the experience for myself, its not impossible and everything in life is hard until you figure out how to do it.
Another is the position of machine heads..but with this negative comes a positive. I find it more awkward to just stop playing and quickly tune because they are on the opposite side..this may be due to my familiarity with guitars with the other way. It just takes some getting used to, but its less likely for me to knock it and aggrovate the tuning.
The suspense is good but im used to my other guitar with lots of it> Dont get me wrong as its still good, just not perfect but then again if you want a perfect guitar you need to be paying hundreds and hundreds..this is a bargain.
This guitar is of great quality, i have told you about the sound and appearance and you'll have to agree that it appears to be a very good buy. For the money, this guitar is underpriced..it could be sold for much much more and if you've played it then you would expect to be paying a whole lot more.
I've said pretty much everything you need to know about the guitar. Your probably thinking, yeah its another guy who knows nothing, bragging about his guitar wanting to believe its great because its all he could afford. This couldnt be more far from the truth. I love going to various shops trying out guitars i might one day get, and i have to say this is so much better than ones ive tried out that are more well known and cost much more. They dont have the factor where you pick up the guitar and immediately think..hang on..this is something special.
If you have read this review and you're intrigued just think..you've not even played it yet probably or maybe not even seen it and if your already impressed then take the opportunity to try one out for yourself, i strongly recommend it.
Im not writing this purely out of personal gain, look at all ive written to give you a great insight to this guitar and all this shows how much i love it. This is my first review because out of many..this is the first guitar worthy of being reviewed and thought about.
Even if you dont buy it or cant afford it..go down your local music shop and have a play, you cant condemn this guitar. I believe many guitars need to refect your own preferences, but this is not specific in that way, it can suit so many players and genres of music.
I hope this has interested you, please have a look and perhaps a play, you may agree or disagree but just give it a chance before just ignoring this review. I apologise its so long, lol..i couldnt help myself, but here is a great guitar at a cheap price, its a bargain and especially being christmas time...i emphasise even more how important an opportunity is to buy a product like this.
(btw this guitar may also be called a showmaster in some cases).
If you dont buy this guitar you'll soon regret it when you see me standing on the stage playing the best music you've ever heard..*cough*...well..you'll regret it at least. Thanks for reading my review ;) Dan Pebody rated this unit on 2003-12-10. I had 'GAS' (gear acquisition syndrome)one day and decided to peruse a well known 'carry everything music store'.I really hadn't planned on 'buying'anything but was simply being a professional 'LOOKY LOU'.I had been eyeing a certain amplifier the last few months and thought I'd give it a go.The nice thing about large chain music stores is they let you play the more expensive quality instruments of your choice.I played your PRS and your Gibson Les Pauls and just havin a good ol time,when I picked up a Squier Stagemaster.I had heard people talk about how they just happpened to play an inexpensive instrument and loved it.There was no price tag on this beauty so while playing it I thought it was about 3-5 hundred bucks.I put it down and was getting ready to leave when I asked the guy how much it was was.....$119....I'm thinking that if I don't buy it I will be up all night wondering if it got sold before I could back.If I did buy it,I'd have it and be glad I did,but with questions.What,me the Grand POO-Ba of electric guitar knowledge, buy a cheap guitar.Well,I played an inexpensive guitar and yep....just loved it.......Sam Ash and me....we be buds.
The 1st thing I look for when playng a guitar is the neck feel or playability.When I picked this up it instantly melted in my hands.It just felt right.It's rare for a guitar to be setup to the string height that you like right out of the box.The pickup configuration was SSH and just seemed to work for me giving me the best of both worlds.Having a Humbucker in the bridge position is a good choice for lead work.The single coils didn't sound cheap and tinny but full and clear.This unit is simple with no locking anything,just plug in and play!
The one thing I don't care for is the top part of the body is not contoured enough for my arm.The slope starts a little further dowm the body than I would like.The squared off edge is a little sharp but acceptable.
When I'm seriously looking for an instrument I will study up on it to get all the information possible such as the wood used,pickup brand and compare products etc.I would spend hours and days mulling over the info I had gathered.I would never buy anything before I read about it's reputation and quality.While playing this guitar,all of that suddenly didn't mattered.This guitar felt solid and visibly there were no paint flaws.The marbeled rosewood fretboard is just what I like.The 2nd thing I look for in a guitar is how the pickups sound.I always figure if I bought a cheap guitar I could change the pickups to a more quality set.No need on this one.They sound just fine.The strat body is comfortable and light.The sealed tuners stay in tune and I'm a happy picker.
While walking out of the shop I was experiencing mixed emotions of why I had a cheap guitar in my hand while I could afford any guitar in the store.I was happy yet perplexed why this appealed and played so well for me.Shouldn't I have bought that PRS or Les Paul because they were played by succesful musicians and built with better materials and more expensive?I let my heart lead me and not get swayed by the emotional madness of 'GAS'.......and will remember to never say never. Ken rated this unit on 2001-07-15.
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