What Squier Would A Fender Master Builder Buy?

hey guys today I'm at Tolman music with Ron thorn hey Ron thorn is the principal master builder at fender for the Custom Shop yep and he was so kind to do a challenge with me and the challenge is what's choir guitar would he buy if he had to buy a squire guitar and what would he look at and how would he we're gonna kind of see what he sees and why he chooses which other chooses but first I don't want to confuse you can you explain him what does principal masterbuilder mean Wow in addition to building Custom Shop guitars I also do custom tooling CNC tooling programming the inlay work a few other things I'm developing the Custom Shop school of lutherie gonna have employees be a part of a classroom which will be teaching that'll be happening later in the year so there's a few other duties in addition to just building guitars okay so we're looking at the Squires here first tell me what you're looking at I want to scribe all right out of the gate and I see eight strats to pick from at this point and it's a really good cross-section of not only colors pickup configurations controls when you look at strats are you traditional guy three single coils are you throw it to the window you don't care I want to I ideally I usually just use the neck and middle pickup I love the neck and middle in fact in the 80s when all the rage was the single bridge humbucker right mice grad had only the neck and middle pickup and I had no pickup in the bridge was the anti super strat at the time and you made it that way they didn't sell them no I made it that way yeah so you literally you just removed it and took it out any minute yeah that will be coming out next year haha 2024 yeah signature model yeah the wrong boy no no bridge pickup so not opposed one with a humbucker in the in the bridge okay I'll give it a shot it's it's a good thing to have if NB and I probably should have asked this before have you even touched any of the new Squires like have you you know cuz I'm I know you work at the factory stuff but I mean the Squires aren't really coming from that factory you get to see them to touch them up so much so that so that's why I want established these are new to you right do to me I'm not familiar with the models even sadly that's okay but that's not important I know what to look for I know if it'll feel good to me okay and and so could you pick I know we said you're gonna pick one but could you pick two or three and then yeah we'll walk through why the two or three and then the final one which you end up with you got it okay so let's do it one two the three I've diggin the orange one for a traditional so here the orange of the burst and I love this purple looks like a plum crazy right wrangle single hump with the matching head okay like that let's go with those Street wait what was the three orange orange blue earth and the burst and the matching head single single home okay so that's the three word yeah let's grab those for starters yep how do we grab them do anyone know [Music] so what do you need up picking ironically is an affinity a contemporary and a classic vibe and this is really cool and so let's let's walk you through obviously I'm guessing this was visual right you picked him for the visuals first yeah visual and this this is I'm intrigued by this and this I like that I'm not opposed to it Vint vintage II and vintage with a twist seemed like a good cross-section hadn't really considered that there were three different models in fact until we looked at it and I thought these were closer in model specs but right it doesn't look like it so if you tell us what matters to you like when you feel things sure well they're all rosewood boards which is fine and if one of these was maple I would have been okay with that too so I mean I like both both rosewood fretboards or maple fretboard so that's that's that's a given here but the neck feel to me is definitely the most important and that's very personal there's countless neck shapes some are even though I have fairly large hands I don't like a big neck so right out of the gate I can tell I dig this next shape immediately I can already feel that this I could get along with this if this had a giant neck I would it would immediately wouldn't even make it to the running I wouldn't even want to play it it could sound great but I would just have difficulty with it it wouldn't be comfortable for me for more than one song let's say so I like it it's small step one it's a satin finish on the back of the neck so it's very friction free and that's just all right that feels good smooth fast etc so so far so good right alright I'll just kind of if it's exceptionally heavy that might give me some issues taking this down this felt medium weight this is good this is this is real good yeah this is great when you when I said now when I asked you I said wait does weight matter when you say yeah extra you know open heavy is it because you don't like the weight the fields await or is it because you know something in about the wood or that there's something that a heavy guitar Flags you as a builder yeah both and also extra light I can't get along with really light guitars more so because of the tone I feel that there isn't enough grunt to it it just sounds a little wimpy and thin on super light guitars I'll get to playability in a second couple little things I just will do to sort of check the neck I'll use the string as a straight edge so I'll fret on the first fret and I'll put my pinky on the last fret and I'll look at that relief that is spot-on perfect that's really good on the treble side a little bit of clearance right there right that's good so there's no wonkiness to the neck which you'd hate to find that out later this isn't good so neck seems seems good so playability I would assume that's next squat down here a little bit kind of rock through some chords feels good it feels like the nut has been cut well that sound I mean that didn't fret out or anything [Music] that's way over a full step no fretting out cool plays good frets look good there's no popping out going on here which I'm not sure how the climate is here but it seems like the shop has got their act together there's no fret sprout and how that feels right the the board shrinks because of low humidity and the frets feel like they're popping out that that's plenty smooth so so far so good straight-up strat configuration give a saddle preference saddles I would I would choose that I like that string spacing this this looks good it looks like this might be the narrower spec 216th what what's well visually by the distance from the high Yee off the side of the neck so on you can see there's a fair amount of space between the string and the edge of the board yeah maybe even a little bit more that's a lot of real estate so you can do some vibrato and not fall off the edge a lot of vintage spec bridges or all the vintage spec bridges are wider here and that high e can get dangerously close to the edge especially if the tops of the frets are heavily rolled you're right on the edge of the cliff and it doesn't take much for the string to fall off so tuners look good sealed sealed gears they probably feel really smooth and yeah that feels good to string trees which is not vintage correct but for the fact that there's a space or underneath really minimizes that break angle over the nut so on I'll check how the nut is cut okay so you like yeah I'm a little surprised that it is dialed in as it is - this guitar is sub $250 so what the setup is and the setup on this is really good alright now this looks wow this is really light - this looks super cool matching headstock even the configuration and I like the two knobs just kind of simplifies it a little bit wait cool neck very similar it's small a little bit bigger but it's got the satin feel on the back [Music] similar similar spacing here again lots of room there the two-point trim that's cool too it's very modern right it's got a lot of modern features to it alright let's check it out I'll do that little routine there okay this has a little bit more relief than the first one so rod first a little trick on that Canadian as far as the order of how to adjust things train that's my little anagram yeah so it's tuned then the relief which is via the truss rod so you tuned it the relief then the action and then the intonation and then the N I came up with noodle and then start all over again tune it up adjust the relief adjust the action intonate it and then noodle away that's the order that's the order to do things because if you're doing it if you swap those around you're gonna be chasing your tail again we haven't heard them yet but playability wise that might play a little bit better this just needs a bit more of a setup but it's all there neck feels good etc yeah it is classic indeed yes the lightest of the three amazing this is this is alder I'm trying to see how many pieces it's like maybe a three or four piece alder feel the weight of that that is light so already do you hear that right there sticky okay because it has a gloss lacquer neck so I'd probably steelwill the back of the neck right away break that down a little bit maybe a little automotive carnuba wax apply that just like you would on a vehicle's no it would be order yeah if you put enough carnuba on here it would feel very friction-free but you just have to reapply it after each gig or after each session all right Wow now I'm getting nerdy it has to say pure carnuba nothing that says carnuba slash cleaner because anything with a cleaner has a little bit of pumice in it and that will scratch up the finish so pure carnuba I like McGuire's put it on with a cloth of aviva vivaz paper towel cloth or it says feels like cloth but Vives paper towel apply it let it dry 15 minutes buff it with a microfiber or a clean vivaz and you'll notice after maybe two applications that it's fast so you know strike one if there's gonna be a strike but I would address it it just feels a little a little sticky as far as the neck goes the next shape feels really nice this is probably the smallest of all three very shallow carve nice and round there's no shoulder so as far as the feel of all three of these I could I could live with all three of them the neck carve me yeah there was no big you there's no hard v nothing peculiar these are all small nice round carves okay this probably well you can see how much the the string is closer to the edge than the other one so maybe this has the wider string spacing I suspect its rolled a little bit more on the edges which makes it feel nice you can wrap your thumb around there and really get around it I mean that's I can get maybe I could fret the high e with my thumb and still no why would I do that no anyways okay this has the most relief over all of them this is a fair amount there and this looks like yeah it's tough to tell seven and a quarter maybe nine and a half it's not as flat maybe this is when they're saying vintage or classic this might have a seven and a quarter which usually you need a little higher action for otherwise it's gonna choke out right so like that right it's already choking out right there you hear that yeah I already took that so you know it could use a little bit of love right this wouldn't be for me for that reason alone if I have to have higher action than this to prevent it from choking out I would rather have something that feels a little faster this is definitely a vintage set up a rounder board wider spacing great for first position but for more stunt guitar work those two would be a little funner this is actually I'm pretty sure this is the most offensive the three still sub $400 when we were kids it's $400 guitar was these are amazing and that was it 80s money has the keys for a vintage looking instrument it really has to be this but performance wise the sealed gear boxes I think are better and the ratio is usually a little higher on these which means right eight let's say this is 14 to 1 you have to rotate this 14 times for those are likely 16 or 18 to 1 so you can it takes more revolutions but you can really kind of fine tune it a little easier I like the more ratios because when you're tuning especially the clip-on tuner is now I lower the gear ratio the more than you yeah you keep missing it going back and trying to exactly yeah so sorry guy you look cool you look the part knowing that I could dial this in a little bit more right I would opt for this guy because I think it's I love the matching head if for no reason alone I love the matching head and this can be really versatile alright Squire yes but it's alright my number one if any of you know we've all got our number one and this has been my number one since 1987 is an 85 Squire strat black basswood body maple neck and board that's my baby I love it like what all right I want to plug it in oh I want to hear this thing let me just at least we're plugged into a black face Style fender deluxe reverb classic classic fender ahem right position one or five right whatever you call it [Music] that's straight-out stride right there that sounds great [Music] my fave this is the first time you tried these right yeah yeah which is what is it call what is this is it doesn't say on the guitar it's called the contemporary contemporary I'm sure it's because it's a little bit of something old and wrestled in you know a bridge to point got some nice little mugs I want to name cannot Ron for doing this I hope you guys enjoyed watching it as Boies I just want to thank you for your time and until next time know your gear yes [Music]

Channel: Phillip McKnight

Views: 1,147,639

Keywords: fender, master builder, ron thorn, thomann, TGU19, that pedal show, rob chapman, fender custom shop, squier, know your gear, game of thrones, sharpen my axe, framus, Guitcon, NAMM 2019, NAMM 2020, Guitcon 2020, TGU20, Harley Benton, Sweetwater, Andertons music, Derral Bruan Guitar, Darrel Braun Guitar, sweetwater, gear fest, gear fest 2019, summer namm, gibson law suit, gibson video, gibson mark

Id: seI8BhXpBRA

Length: 18min 16sec (1096 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 17 2019