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:

1. Bullet
2. Affinity
3. Contemporary
4. Classic Vibe
5. 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.

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Published 2019 Dec 10