Why not a Squire?

Watchie

Junior Member
Messages
178
As I peruse the various sites for buying a neck I find a great range of sources, from Warmoth/USACG/Musikraft and the like to those offered on the Bay, including necks off Squires and the like. What I would like to know is what differentiates these necks in terms of quality (build, tone, fit, etc.) given they can be made of the same woods (for instance, hard maple with a rosewood board).  Put another way, why not just go with a Squire?

All input appreciated.

W.
 
I know W offers a 2 year warranty if you buy a neck*
*finished by Warmoth (1 year otherwise) (for necks that require a hard finish)

Hard to find something like that from some others.
buys from the bay can always range in excellent to you-just-got-played, but have no warrantys

having never bought from musikraft or usacg i cannot speak about their quality or how much they stand behind their products.

It may go without saying, but the amount of options available to a player wanting a Maple/Maple neck from Warmoth are pretty staggering.
Do other makers offer differing construction, neck profiles, fret materials, inlays, nuts, and reaming for popular tuning machines?
 
if you can find every detail that you want in a squire then get a squire, those of us who do not fit the details of squires come to warmoth where you can get exactly what you want
 
Even if you find a same spec neck I'll bet the craftsmanship and over all quality makes the W neck a superior winner. 
 
If you were going to buy a Squire and replace everything on it but the body, why not buy something nicer?  If you were going to buy a Squire and replace nothing on it, why not buy something better?  In all actuality, not every Squire is a POS and not every $2,000+ Fender Custom Shop guitar is golden.  IME, it's been the quality of everything but the neck and body that have been cheap on a Squire.
 
a squier with a good set up and fret job could be someones Ideal guitar..  but you would still want to replace the tuners, bridge and pickups..
 
Compound radius and side truss rod adjustment are big pluses in my opinion. 

I personally went with options on my Strat you could never get on a Squire (raw exotic wood, stainless steel frets, Gibson scale length, etc...), but honestly, you have to play different guitars to understand the difference between something that was made with a lot of care vs. something that was made quick and cheap.  It's mostly something you have to feel. 

Not all cheap guitars feel and respond like crap when you play them, and some expensive guitars do, but I believe if you look at the big picture, you usually get what you pay for with gear.  I still have my first electric guitar.  It is a $200 beginning model Ibanez.  For what it is, it's a great guitar, but if you compare it side by side with my Warmoth Strat or LP, it just feels cheap, and it doesn't even come close in tone. 
 
I've played some amazing and some totally suckish squier necks. The quality and the measurements are inconsistent, so there is no telling what you will get if you just order one off the bay or something like that. With Warmoth, you are able to choose the finish, back contour, radius, and frets that you are most comfortable with and you can be confient that that is what you will get. My favorite neck, for example, has Stainless Steel frets, a compound radius, and a '59 roundback, which are all things that I could never find on a squire, maybe even an american fender, to my knowledge.
 
Cause Squire sucks. Really Squire and Warmoth are NOT on the same level. I bet if you get a s. neck you will be disappointed and eventually down the road you will end up getting a fender or warmoth and wish you had got it in the first place and not wasted money on the squire. Just get a moth
 
back2thefutre said:
Cause Squire sucks. Really Squire and Warmoth are NOT on the same level. I bet if you get a s. neck you will be disappointed and eventually down the road you will end up getting a fender or warmoth and wish you had got it in the first place and not wasted money on the squire. Just get a moth

Yeah, you pay X dollars for a less-than-ideal neck, thinking you'll replace it later, then when you do, you pay Y dollars for that. Should've just paid Y dollars in the first place; it's cheaper.

It only costs a little more to go first class, and you're never sorry.
 
the difference betwwen a Squire and a MIM Fender is not the same as you will have to spend to upgrade, get the MIM
 
If you can't tell the difference yet you should get the squire and a good pro setup, and spend the rest on lessons. Warmoth is for 1) custom stuff, original guitars 2) wood porn & exotic necks and 3) overall custom shop quality. If #s 1 & 2 don't matter to you, and you are just learning to play, get a used MIM or squier.
 
Although, this one $119 squire strat at my local Guitar center has a AAA flamed maple neck that is REALLY tempting, apparently sometimes you can get squire wood porn.
 
Squire, while not approaching the level of even an entry Warmoth neck, has come a LONG way recently.  Some of the VM instruments, I'd put them up against American Fenders, and they smoke mexican ones.  The pickups even sound good (Duncan Designed).  If you really want a Squire neck cheap for an existing body, pm me.  I keep building guitars for friends with Squier bodies and Warmoth necks, so my surplus keeps building up, no matter how many times I sell these for 25-40 bucks~

-Mark
 
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