Fender Squier Telecaster Custom

This guitar is a 2003 model with two covered humbuckers "crafted" in Indonesia. It has a bolt on 22 fret maple (non-lacquered satin finish) neck and fingerboard with medium/jumbo frets. The controls are 2 volume and 2 tone like a Gibson and the colour of the body and pickguard are black. The pickguard is a 3 ply shaped like a 70's custom tele. Pickups are selected with a 3 way toggle like a Gibson. The tuners are good and the bridge is a standard 6 saddle Fender string through the body style. I give this guitar a good rating for features because it does what I want it to do and I feel it gives the best of both worlds between a Gibson and a Fender. It plays like a Fender yet has smooth double coil sound, good for jazz as well as blues or rock. I also like to be able to blend both pickups using the volumes while the pickup toggle switch is in the middle position.

This axe suits my playing style just dandy! I play blues and some light rock as well as 60's & 70's soul and I don't use effects. I am currently using this guitar through a Roland BC 30 and it sounds pretty darn good to say the least. I have no complaints about the pickups or the the controls. Everything works fine and the pickups on my model are not noisy at all even with the Roland at full blast. If a guitar has good pickup output and can give me a variety of tones then I am satisfied and this baby does it. One reviewer posted that he had to change the pickups on his because of excessive noise. I don't seem to have the same problem so I guess he had a lemon...?

Set-up...? What set-up? The neck was in need of adjustment and the strings where 9's yet I really liked the neck shape and the frets so I new that with a minor truss rod tweak and 10's this guitar would play wonderfully which it does(I'm playing it right now). I can't believe how well this thing plays. I owned a 1987 American Std tele for 10 years and this guitar is pretty darn close in play-ability and neck feel. I like it even more that my Fender Japan Foto-flame tele that I also used for several years. The hardware and machine heads are good and the pickups and bridge saddles are easy to adjust. The controls are smooth in a good postition on the body and I don't have a problem accessing them. Suprisingly the factory intonation set-up was good. The guitar plays and stays in tune quite well. Overall, a very well built guitar. For the price, I don't think you will find a better one.

I have used this guitar on a couple of gigs already and at one rehearsal. I would not hesitate using this guitar live or in the studio. The neck is tight to the body and the body is not too heavy. The finish and paint job are brilliant. It lives up to Fender quality standards. The hardware is solid and I forsee years of enjoyment from this guitar. I would highly recommend this instrument to any working musician.

Never had to deal with Fender. Their stuff is always good.

I've been playing for 25 years and I also own a Jay Turser DC-134 an Epiphone Les Paul JR. a 1970's Univox Les Paul copy and an Art&Lutherie acoustic guitar. I bought this guitar because I really liked it's looks and the sound of two humbuckers. For years I used noisy single coil strats and teles (because I like the way they played) but for some reason I have become a convert to humbuckers and like I said this one has the best of both worlds. If my Squire was stolen I would try to replace it right away. It is worth it and right now it is my main guitar. I really like this guitar and it does inspire me to play.

This is an update of an earlier review.

First: Ignore the "3" rating under the "features" category.
As I say in the text, the ratings template in this section
is messed (can't see any numbers) so apparently the features
got rated a "3" by default. I'm repeating my "9" rating here.

Well, this was where I did my griping, so here's the good news:

The noise present with the stock pickups was driving me to
distraction, so I bought a pair of Stewart-MacDonald Golden Age
humbuckers, and their "How To Wire A Gibson Guitar" (this Tele's
electronics are more Gibson-like than Fender-ish.) I haven't
wired a pickup in 20 years, and I was formerly the world's
worst solderer, so for ten bucks extra it seemed like a smart
thing to do. It was -- everything went smoothly. Now to plug
it in...

Well, the noise is gone. The pickup switcheroo reduced the
buzz-'n'-hum by about 85%. And my speculation about lack
of a ground wire belies not only a poor grasp of guitar
electronics but also merits a big "duh" for my having made
such a judgement based on a partial removal of the pickguard
in a dimly-lit room. Black-on-black, anyone? So anyway, the
noise seems to have been coming pretty much entirely from the
stock pickups. Plan on replacing yours, at least if you plan
to record.

Sonically, the Stew-Macs are darker, or perhaps "sweeter"
than the cranky-sounding originals; the guitar now sounds
more like an older Les Paul than a Tele. I'm still toying
with the notion of replacing one or both with TV Jones
TV 'Trons (now that I somewhat know what I'm doing) but
the Stew Macs sound very classy, particularly thru my silver
Princeton Reverb. I find that my a Rocktron Austin Gold
overdrive brings forth a bit more "bite" to the sound as
well, so I'm going to stick with the 'Macs for now. They're
quite good for the price, and they look dead-stock.

Even factoring in the price of a set of replacement pickups,
this Tele is still an excellent deal. I do think, however,
that Fender should have used better electronics to match
the overall build quality of this guitar. A $179 Yamaha
RGS 121 I bought a while ago (also Indonesian, and quite nice)
is dead quiet when using the humbuckers. So it can be done...

Nonethesless, a really nice player if you can afford new
pickups on top of the price of the guitar, and highly
recommended -- now I really can't put it down.

(Just using this sectio to add the price of the new
pickups, and source of supply)

Indonesian version of a very cool '70's Tele variant.

Two humbuckers, w/ 4 control pots, like a Les Paul.
Strings mount thru ferrules from the back of the guitar.

Hardware is similar to most post-'70's Teles (6 modern-style
bridge saddles, non-slotted tuners) so aside from the
Gibson-like electronics, much like any other Tele. I've
never been a big fan of either the Les Paul's or the standard
Tele's control layout, but having used both I'd say
I prefer this Gibson-ish setup -- at least the toggle switch
is not at a 90 degree angle. (The ratings button on this
review template don't register, so I'll put my rating
here.) 9

Surprisingly spanky sound for humbuckers. I prefer
single-coil definition, but this Tele has a good deal of
bark and clarity, for a dual-coil design. Clean, but
well-balanced; no shrill treble, no honking mids, no
bumpy bass.

Sadly, however, the pickups do not "buck" the hum at all.
This guitar emits a ferocious amount of noise. I compared it
to my (very noisy) stock '78 Tele, and the '78 is quieter.
Rolling down the volume makes it hum even worse, and if you
take your hand off the strings, you can actually hear
the noise surge while you're changing hand positions.
It sounds as if it may not be grounded properly, or at all.

I took the pickguard off, looking for any evidence of a
ground wire runing to the bridge, per a wiring diagram
for an original '70's Custom, and I did not see one.
I didn't study the wiring to death, so it's possible that
the electronics are grounded elsewhere, or that the
wiring scheme is different overall from the older model.
All of that having been said, my single-coil standard '78 Tele
did not have a ground wire as-built either (I had one added)
so it may be that this baby doesn't have one either. I'll get
a better look during a string change, when I can completely
remove the pickguard and get a good look at the wiring scheme.

The last reviewer before me said his guitar was quiet, so
I'm going to see if I can test-drive another to see if mine
is not typical, or if there's a manufacturing flaw present.

Whatever the cause, the noise level is unacceptable for a
humbucker-equipped guitar. I like the sound of the pickups,
and would like to keep them if the noise can be brought
down to a reasonable level. 8 for the pickup sound, minus
3 for the excessive hum and buzz.

(The above sounds pretty negative, but I'll say here that
I still really like the guitar. Just give it a good listen
during your test drive, and let us all know what you think
when you do your own review.)

I needed to tweak the action down (half a turn with the
truss rod) but otherwise the setup was good. The hardware
is of decent quality; it felt positive and solid as I
adjusted the bridge height and saddle distance. The tuners
are unremarkable but they seem to hold pitch, with no
apparent slippage.

There were some slivers of plastic hanging from the
slots in the nut. If you see these, then smooch them with
some 600 wet-dry sandpaper at your 1st string change
so they don't find their way back into the string slots,
where they could cause binding.

The fretwork, neck installation, and other important
physical characteristics are all excellent, especially
in this price range. I am becoming a big fan of these
Indonesian Fenders -- I think they're the best bang
for the buck of all the foreign-sourced stuff. Setup
rates a 7, workmanship a 9.5. I weigh workmanship
as being the more important of the two, so overall a 9.

It's not quite as fortress-like as my old '78, but it's
still typically Fender-solid.

The pots and the toggle switch seem to be the only "cut
corners" and may not survive forever, but I'd expect
a long overall service life from this Tele. I like the fact
that the pickups are covered to keep out most sweat and crud;
a lot of inexpensive guitars have uncovered pickups.

I'm going to see how my inquiry into the electonic
buzz 'n' hum situation is handled before making a judgement
here. That will probably end up being resolved at the
dealer level, rather than thru Fender. Daddy's is generally
pretty good w/ customer support, so we shall see. I'll
post an add-on if anything ridiculously good or bad happens;
otherwise assume that things went well enough.

I wish the store had had fewer competing instrumentalists
present so that I would have picked up on and asked about
the hum situation. Always better to road-test a guitar
at 11am on a Tuesday if you want to spot all of the
sonic warts, but who has that luxury? Noise is, in any case,
fixable one way or the other. If it's a simple matter of a
ground wire, then cool. If I need to replace the pickups,
then less cool, but how great would this Tele sound with
a TV Jones TV Tron pickup (or two?)

However the noise situation ends up being resolved,
this is a really nice playing guitar, regardless of
price range -- it has a "vibe" that makes me really
enjoy picking it up. I have about 15 other electrics,
many of which are cool in their own ways, but I keep
reaching for this one. That says something. Overall,
I'm really pleased.

My bud had a '75-ish Custom. I still have some great-sounding
recordings I made in '82 using that for the rhythm tracks.
I've wanted one ever since, but the upward price spiral left me
on the sidelines until this little gem popped up out of
nowhere, in the pocket-money range. Best surprise of the
year, so far...

And if it wasn't at least a little noisy, it wouldn't
be a real Tele anyway, would it? Highly recommended.

This is a new model introduced by Fender/Squier in 2003. I pre-ordered it from Musician's Friend and it arrived earlier than expected. Specs: Agathis body (I believe the early specs listed it as alder but it's definitely agathis), bolt-on thin maple neck, 25-1/2" scale length, maple fretboard, 22 medium-jumbo frets, 2 humbuckers with separate volume/tone knobs, and black finish with 3-ply black pickguard. The hardware seems like a 'lite' version of what you'd find on a Fender Tele, but everything works and seems solid enough. The input jack, bridge, strap buttons, and pickup selector feel solid enough to keep stock. The tuners have a little problem keeping tune but nothing major. The only changes I plan to make to this guitar are cosmetic - replacing the pickguard with a red tortoise shell (has to be custom-made because of the unique shape) and the plastic knobs, which look a little cheesy, with dome knobs.

I play through a J-Station (limited to strictly headphone practicing with people around me) and it sounds great. Virtually no noise at all from either pickup, although the J-Station has a noise gate setting. While the pickups lack a distinctive character, they are not at all bad. I think they would sound pretty impressive played through the right amp and speakers.

I play mostly modern rock. The double humbucker design is what sold me on it without first playing it. I've owned a regular Tele and a Fat Tele in the past. This one has less of a twang to it; still with a nasally sound, but with more midrange. If you are into that Bends-era Radiohead sound (copied and modified a little by Coldplay) then this does it pretty well. It's pretty bright so it might not be everyone's cup of tea (e.g. for metal, even though it's all black and has two humbuckers).

Played perfectly out of the box (first Squier I've bought like this), I didn't have to do a thing. I know this is a luck of the draw thing, especially with cheaper guitars. However, I've never had a Squier that couldn't play well after a basic setup. Also, the stock strings (9's) were pretty limp, so I replaced them with D'Addario EXL110s and this made a difference.

Finish and fit were good. Frets were cut well and the bolt-on neck is tight.

I would definitely use it in a gig, if I could get one :-(. Nothing about it seems flimsy or loose at all. It looks like it will last for years.

Great guitar for the price, I strongly recommend it if you're considering it. The only thing I wish it had were more color options - black with a black pickguard is the only one currently available. My other electrics at the moment are a Fender Toronado and an Epiphone Sheraton II, and this one plays and sounds about 95% as good as them. Considering they cost 2x as much I consider this to be the better bargain.