Squier by Fender Contemporary Telecaster Electric Guitar - HH - Maple Fingerboard - Dark Metallic Red

In the ten odd years of my playing guitar on and off, I've spent a lot of time at music stores and played A LOT of guitars. During a lot of my visits to such stores, I regularly noodled around on guitars that had double-locking tremolo bridges, but never bought one.It was either I didn't like the neck, didn't like the pickups, didn't like the aesthetics and feel of the body, or a combination of all those.This Squier immediately caught my eye. Double locking trem, active pickups, a C-shape neck that isn't wafer thin (not dissing on thin necks, I simply don't personally like them), and classy straightforward looks. I watched a video of it being demo'd, and for ONCE, the gentleman demoing the guitar used a CLEAN amp tone (sorry for the rant but I am disgusted by the number of "guitar demos" that feature someone mindlessly shredding away trying to look cool). It sounded good so I took a chance and bought one here on Amazon.Thanks to FedEx, the guitar came late AND was damaged. The potentiometer for the Tone control was literally smashed in, leaving a gaping hole in the pickguard. Before I put the guitar back in the box for a return I noticed the frets were protruding beyond the neck slightly. That's normal in some cases but I noticed that some frets protruded further than others.Amazon got the replacement to me on time and thankfully it wasn't damaged. The fretwork is much cleaner on this one as well, no sharp fret ends protruding from the neck. I did have to re-set the bridge but the intonation was close enough and the action is fine for me.Since I've not owned a guitar of this type, I can't rate it with the amount of confidence and experience I could with other guitar types that I've owned and currently own. Be as it may, I am happy with this guitar. It sustains very well given it's bridge set up, and while it's inherently bright given it's hotter pickups and again, the bridge set up, I can still get a smooth overdriven tone or a nice, glassy clean tone with this guitar. I do notice that the pickups get muddy with carelessly set distorted tones though. I might, MIGHT replace the pickups with something different once I get more exposure to active pups, but I am in no hurry to do so; These pickups are fine for the price of this guitar.So I finally got a guitar that has the hardware and looks I wanted, at a price I find reasonable. Is it perfect? Nope. Will it compete against a higher end Jackson? (which I think is a better comparison that a standard Strat) Eh, it'll keep up, but the more expensive Jackson will be nicer. Is it worth the price tag? I think so. Could it be improved? Sure, anything can.Bottom line, if your wants and tastes are similar to mine, in that you want a guitar that isn't all dark and goth-y, has a more substantial neck, but still features active pickups and a double locking tremolo bridge, this is an excellent choice.

I saw a review of this guitar on You Tube by Phil McKnight of Know Your Gear. I had already been looking for an HH Strat, and Phil gave this a high rating. This is Squier's version of the Charvel, which runs about $850. The humbuckers kick, and give you a very percussive sound dirty, but especially so clean. This is a big deal for me, as I'm not much of a pedal guy. You could go from jazz to metal with them. The whammy is the best I've had on any Squier or Fender. No tuning issues so far. The neck is completely unfinished, which is not an issue for me, but you can rub some lemon oil in if it's too dry. Also, it's a 3 way switch, not 5. Even though it's an HH, it still sounds like a (more forceful) Strat. No single coil noise. The ruby red finish and matching headstock are a good look. At some point, I'll change the strings to Elixirs, but no hurry as the stock strings are pretty good. Starting with last year's models (see the white HH Jazzmaster) Squier has really stepped up its factory setup, and this Strat was good to go out of the box. McKnight said based on viewer emails, the Squier contemporaries are the most requested guitar review. Easy to see why.

Guitar arrived in an almost playable state. Setup was good as was the intonation. The negative factor was the obvious fret sprout. Actually, the entire neck, to be honest. The frets were smooth except for the bottom edge. Fret sprout? Probably, but an easy fix. However, the skunk stripe has a noticeably felt edge the entire length of the neck. That should not have left the factory in that state. I have had several Fenders and Squiers over the course of a few decades, and have never felt the skunk stripe edge on any other guitar. I will be returning this one in hopes of having it replaced with one that sports a playable neck,

This is a very nice guitar. Looks and plays great and the "set up" was pretty much spot-on out of the box. Neck plays fast and slick with low action. Some guitars have pots that are way too sloppy loose but these have a nice resistance to them and I couldn't find a flaw in the finish.I've played and owned guitars costing over twice as much and prefer this one. Doesn't have a 100% traditional Tele sound due to the humbuckers but that's a good thing to me.Some people may want to swap out the tuners or pickups to meet their needs or preferences but they seem just fine for me.

Great purchase, good beginner guitar but as with all tremolo bridged guitars there will be a learning curve for beginners while tuning and maintaining the guitar. Keep that in mind if you are buying for a beginner. Other than that, the tone is definitely not the best but you will get a decent classic strat sound out of it if paired with a decent amp.

Not as impressive as the pictures make it look. Typical Squier Strat body dimensions (thinner than any Fender Strat). Craftsmanship is okay, but it looks cheap. Head stock looks very thin, scratch plate and knobs flimsy. Three way switch is very thin metal. Haven't looked at the electronics yet. Active pickups seem to be very low output compared to others I have installed and tone control doesn't seem to have much affect on highs/lows. Floyd Rose trem is not stamped "Special", "Licensed" or anything other than "Floyd Rose" on the base plate; so don't know what kind of Floyd rose this is. Guitar came with the Floyd Rose pushed down on bass side mounting post (not positioned on post fulcrum). I had to detune strings and remove springs to get it back in correct position. Luckily the knife edge was not damaged (as far as I can tell). Came in the original box, with no additional packaging and that box was CRUSHED on the bottom; thanks UPS. Thought for sure that the bottom of guitar would be damaged, but it wasn't due to a thick piece of multi-layer cardboard inside the package. Questioning if this thing is worth $400. IMO, G&L Tribute series a better buy.