The absolute best accessory a guitar pedal addict can have
If you like pedals, you need this.
The one thing that's more annoying than anything else about pedal effects is powering them.
The absolute best way to power a pedal is by 9-volt battery because it eliminates a ton of noise in places where electricity isn't regulated that well. 12-packs of 9V batteries are readily available.
An alternate solution is to use a power supply adapter station with isolated DC outputs.
But what about power cables?
Oh, they thought of that. This thing has you covered.
This thing comes with a power supply and cord (obviously), ten DC power cables and two polarity reversal cables.
In other words, this one thing comes with everything you need to power all your guitar pedals, all at once, with one little box.
And if you're one of those weirdos that runs more than 10 pedals, well, I guess you'll need to buy two of these. Otherwise, this box powers all the pedals quite nicely.
Yes, it has short-circuit and overcurrent protection built in. Yes, it has noise filtering. No, it does not need an external power adapter just to run it.
In all honesty, it doesn't get any better than this if you're the type of player who prefers separate pedal effects.
Also, given the fact there are many mini pedals out there now that can only be powered by wire and not battery, a power supply adapter station is a must-have thing.
On going 100% Stratocaster
It's been a very long time since I've done this.
As of now, I only own 3 guitars, all Strats. A busted '93 USA Fender, my '89 Squier II (first guitar) that needs some work done to it, and now the 2019 Squier Classic Vibe '50s. This guitar needs nothing since it's new. In other words, the new one is my main guitar.
The last time I had only Strats and nothing else was most likely when I was a teenager. Probably when I only had the '89 Squier and '93 Fender.
Aside from my very early days of guitar playing, I always had guitars other than Strats whether they were played regularly or not. But now I've gone full 100% Stratocaster.
Am I okay with this? Yes.
Do I feel I'm missing out by not having something else? No. And the reason I can answer with a no is because over the years I've owned almost every guitar type that I wanted to try. Strat is what I came back to and I'm okay with this. But that doesn't mean my guitar journey has stopped. There are still a few types of electrics I want to try out.
Rather than list off all the stuff I've owned, I'll instead talk about what I've not owned yet and whether I'll ever get them or not.
I'll be listing these by type.
SG
The Ibanez GAX30 and AX120 were the closest things I ever had to an SG. When I had them, they were nice, but the necks didn't not agree with my fret hand so they had to go...
...but once you get a taste of that SG flavor, you can get hooked on it.
I would at some point like to get myself an Epiphone G-400 PRO. That's the one that speaks to me the most. Right look, right sound, and a correct SG.
Does it have neck dive? Of course it does. But I still may get myself one at some point.
Explorer
If I ever get one of these, it will be the Schecter E-1. I've talked about that model here before, and I sincerely do believe it's the best Explorer style guitar made right now - if you can even find one.
ES-335
I've owned a semi-hollow before with a Squier Telecaster Thinline, but never a "full size" 335 shape.
This shape, for the moment, really doesn't speak to me. But then again I've never really sat down with one for more than a few minutes.
For the longest time I was actually afraid of the 335 shape because it just looks massive. It's not. The guitar just has the illusion of being this giant thing when seen hanging on a wall at the guitar store. The shape is actually quite playable. Again, Epiphone would be my go-to here. They make a proper 335.
Mustang
I have a specific Mustang I want, the Squier Classic Vibe '60s Mustang. That's the model with all the old-school Mustang stuff on it, which includes the big vibrato plate and the slider switches above the two pickups.
I've done the Jazzmaster and the Jaguar. I tried the Duo-Sonic a while back and didn't care for it. I also tried the Squier Mustang HH but didn't care much for that one either, even if it is an awesome bargain.
Yamaha Revstar
To date, I've never seen one of these in a guitar store. Would love to play one, but nobody ever has them in stock.
Which Revstar? Any. Single-coil, humbucker, whatever, I don't care. What I want is to know how the body and neck feel and then listen to it plugged in after that.
The coolest looking Revstar is, of course, Japanese Denim. Very classy, and a nice reserved design. If I were to pick one, that would be it.
Do I plan on getting any of these guitars soon? No. All of these are just nice-to-have and not need-to-have.
Right now I'm just fine with my new black Squier Strat. And I'm not saying that as "It's okay but I wish I had something better". This black Strat is as good as it gets not only for a Squier but for a Strat in general. It needs nothing and no upgrades are required.
The guitar plays and sounds great. I feel no need to "upgrade" to a "better" guitar, because I don't have to.
There is also something to be said for just going with one guitar and sticking with it. Concentrating on just one puts more focus on making actual music (the whole point of having the guitar in the first place) instead of constantly bouncing around between instruments and not getting anywhere musically.
I think this is part of the reason I was okay going 100% Strat. Having a bunch of different guitars was different and cool, but served to be more of a distraction than anything else.
Yeah, I want other guitars. Of course I do. I always do. But right now I'm in Strat town and staying there because I want to get more music done.
The good and bad of the Squier 2019 Classic Vibe '50s Stratocaster
This is my full review on the guitar.
Now that I've had the guitar for almost a week, I can now give a proper review of this thing. (If you would like to hear me playing it, I made a video.)
"Classic Vibe" is the top-of-the-line series for Squier electric guitars, and this concentrates on '50s model. There are also the '60s and '70s models.
What makes a '50s Classic Vibe Stratocaster a '50s?
The '50s is the only model with a pine body, single piece all-maple neck and circle string retainer on the headstock. It is also the only one that has a single ply pick guard that is 100% white with no black "sandwich" stripe in the middle.
The best feature of the electronics...
...is that there is tone control wired to the bridge side pickup.
Traditional Fender Stratocaster wiring has tone control wired to only the middle and neck side pickups. Leo Fender, inventor of the Stratocaster, designed it that way. Ordinarily, Squier Strats will always have this wiring setup - but thankfully this one does not.
I say thankfully because the #1 electronics modification Strat owners do is wire in tone control to the bridge side pickup. With the new '50s CV you don't have to. Actually having tone control there when on the bridge-pickup-only pickup selector setting is so nice to have.
The weight...
...is light. My guess is that the guitar weighs somewhere between 7 to 7.5 pounds, which usually is the just-right weight for a Strat for most people, myself included.
Strats don't exhibit any neck dive when playing the guitar standing, but when you have one that's the right weight, playing comfort when standing gets even better.
With the previous generation of Classic Vibe Strats, some were very heavy. I once tried one, and when I picked it up, that thing must have weighed close to or over 9 pounds. This new CV is nowhere near that weight and it's a very welcome thing.
The sound...
...is probably the most "true" Strat tone CV has ever had. The pickups used all have alnico magnets (it is unknown if they are alnico 3 or 5), and they have an interesting stagger. High-E and B are flat to the pickup cover, G and D are raised, and A and low-E are flat to the pickup cover.
While true this isn't the vintage-correct Fender pickup pole stagger, the fact the CV even has one that isn't the usual follows-the-fingerboard-radius arc is definitely different. And I mean different in a good way.
2019 Squier Classic Vibe Stratocaster acquired
I bought one.
If you read my stuff regularly, you probably guessed I was going to get one of these. And if you did, you guessed right.
Does this mean the Schecter is gone? Yes. Traded out. As much as I wanted to connect with that guitar, it just wasn't happening. Great axe, great sound, great everything, but it just didn't have what I was looking for.
Does this mean I now own nothing but Strats again? Yes.
My main reason for getting the new CV '50s is that it is for all intents and purposes a new version of my original 1989 Squier II Stratocaster (my first guitar which I still own). And it just so happens that the new one has every upgrade I would have done to it otherwise.
My '89 has a gloss Dakota Red finish with no metallic, plywood body, one piece maple neck with 12" fretboard radius, single-ply pick guard, is urethane finished, the electronics have been changed so I get tone control on the bridge-alone 5-way selector, has ceramic magnet pickups, and the tuners changed to vintage slotted style.
The CV '50s has a black finish with no metallic, pine body, one piece maple neck with 9.5" fretboard radius, single-ply pick guard, is urethane finished, the electronics are stock but it does have tone control for bridge-alone setting on the 5-way switch, has alnico magnet pickups, and the tuners are already vintage slotted style.
In other words, the CV '50s as-is has all the stuff I wanted in a Strat.
Why black?
The four colors offered are Vintage Blonde, Sunburst, Fiesta Red and Black.
Originally, I was going to get the Blonde, but then upon seeing various photos of it... no. I was hoping it would have more yellow in it but it doesn't.
Sunburst on a Strat to me looks best with a dark wood fretboard, and the '50s has the all-maple neck. Squier does in fact make a dark fretboard sunburst as a '60s CV model, but it doesn't have that cool circle string tree on the headstock.
Fiesta Red is a gamble I wasn't willing to take because I was buying the guitar sight-unseen. This color, depending on how it's mixed, can either lean towards being pink-ish, purple-ish or orange-ish. If you do a Google Image Search for "stratocaster fiesta red", you will see exactly what I'm talking about. Lots of variations. Had to skip this option.
And this leaves black, which is what I went with.
Sight unseen?
You'll notice at the time I write this in December 2019, nobody else has this guitar. Not yet, anyway. This is because I preordered it from Guitar Center back in late November.
Again, at the time I write this, this guitar can't be bought from Guitar Center until January 2020. If you plan on buying this, that might be a good thing because by that time you'll be able to see the other colors in person.
I wasn't willing to wait. I wanted it now. :)
Full review?
I'll do that for my next article. Watch for it.
The 5 different series of Squier electric guitars
This is at least easier to figure out compared to Fender.
Before getting into this, when I say this is easier to figure out compared to Fender, I'm not kidding. The total number of series Fender has for their electrics is ridiculous.
It's 13. Technically 14 if you count the American Acoustasonic models which do have electrified stuff in them. Too many? Yes. And you can't even list them in any lowest-to-highest grade because it depends on the generation type and manufacturing country of origin. You'd literally have to create the pecking order separating by origin first, generation type next, then price point last.
Where Squier is concerned, there are 5 different series. This is the pecking order from lowest to highest grade:
- Bullet
- Affinity
- Contemporary
- Classic Vibe
- Artist
I'll explain why I list Artist as the highest grade first.
At the time I write this, Squier has 3 Artist a.k.a. "signature" guitars. J Mascis Jazzmaster, J5 Telecaster, Jim Root Telecaster.
While true there were some crappy Squier Artist models in the past, these 3 are all very well built with proper hardware and upgraded electronics. All of them are nonstandard builds and have things in them specific to the Artist they represent, but even so, you're getting something genuinely good with any one of the three.
Now I'll talk about the other series, from lowest to highest grade.
Bullet
I've owned several Squier Bullet guitars. These guitars are built cheap but sound great.
The weakest point of any Bullet guitar is undoubtedly the tuners. It's the thing on the guitar that says "CHEAP" more than anything else.
The second weakest point is that the pickups are typically noisy. Again, they sound great, but since the cheapest wire and only the bare minimum of shielding is used, noise gets through.
Where the pickups themselves are concerned, yes they are generic parts-bin ceramic magnet pickups. This isn't to say ceramic magnet pickups are bad because they're not. But the ones put in Bullet guitars were obviously slapped together very, very quickly. That's just the way it is - but it does give them a very specific Squier cheap-guitar tone character that actually sounds good.
Affinity
The first thing you notice about this series is that the tuners are far better compared to what's used on Bullet guitars. While the tuners do not have Grover or Gotoh level smoothness, most players including myself would be fine just using them as-is.
The second thing is something only noticed by those who have been playing guitar for some time. Nut width on the Affinity electrics is 1.60-inch/40.64mm. To the best of my knowledge, all the other series use a 1.65-inch/42mm but width. This does affect how the guitar plays because string spacing is different. You either really like this or really don't.
Overall build quality of the Affinity is better than Bullet. The guitar does feel more solidly built all around.
Contemporary
All of these are nonstandard builds. You can consider "contemporary" to be the same as "modernized".
Contemporary series concerning build quality is basically the same as Affinity, except you're getting more fancy pants features. For example, the Contemporary Active Stratocaster HH has a reverse headstock, matching headcap, Floyd-Rose R3 locking tremolo system and a pair of active humbucker pickups. The fretboard radius is also a flatter 12-inch.
Extra cash was spent to put the fancier stuff in these, hence the higher price tag.
Classic Vibe
We're now on the second generation of these guitars. They've been a big hit for Squier ever since they were introduced because they are honest-to-goodness decently built electrics.
Even though the Artist models have more fancy stuff in them, Classic Vibe is the top-of-the-line electric they offer that doesn't have some famous guitarist's signature on it. For some, that means the CV series is top-of-the-line Squier since they won't buy Artist models.
Is a CV worth getting?
Again this is the top tier Squier electric guitar for most people, so this is what they'll be going for.
Is it worth it?
Yes. Or to be more specific, it is now.
With the last generation, there were three things working against it. Weight, color choices and logo design.
The first generation CV Strats and Teles were total boat anchors. Very well built alder and pine bodies depending on model, but very heavy. The 2nd gen has lightened up quite a bit. There are already some listings of '50s model CV Strats weighing in at under 7 pounds. Very nice. The new '50s models have pine for the body wood, '60s are nato and '70s are poplar.
Color choices for the first generation were good but not great. On the Strat in particular, the design had an off white pick guard a.k.a. "parchment" and pickup covers that were basically very light brown. This was Squier's attempt at vintage-style color and it didn't quite work. And where the body colors were concerned, the Butterscotch Blonde on the Tele was a total winner but there were no standout winners for the Strat. This has since been rectified with the second generation. Both the plastics and body finishes for all the CV guitars now look proper.
Squier has bounced around back and forth with their logo treatment over the years. What Squier did with the first gen CVs was "fat gold". The logo was thickened up slightly, made gold and had a black outline. It worked but didn't totally work. The 2019 logo refresh is without question the best design Squier has ever had. It's sized proper for each '50s, '60's and '70s model. And FINALLY, after all these years, the stylized Fender logo has been removed from the front of the headstock and replaced with simple and small "BY FENDER" understated text. The stylized Fender logo is now on the BACK of the headstock where it belongs. Squier finally has its branding put 100% (okay, 98%) front-and-center. Yes, this matters.
Strictly speaking of the Stratocaster model, these new CVs may be the greatest Strats Squier has had since the JV series from the 1980s. Yeah, I know that's some big talk being the Squier JVs are the most collectible Squiers that exist (they routinely command over $1,000 on eBay). But it really looks like we may have finally made something that lives up to that JV standard.
No, the new ones are not made in Japan, but with the exception the dark fretboard models are indian laurel instead of rosewood and the fretboard radius is 9.5" instead of 7.25", new CVs are basically everything the old JVs were - and are in fact better styled than the JVs.
Seems to me the smart money is to put $350 on a new CV instead of $1,000+ on an old JV. You get everything you wanted with the new guitar that you'd buy the old one for in the first place.