Squier Vintage Modified Fretless Jazz Bass review

Squier Vintage Modified Fretless Jazz Bass

While at Guitar Center to find a case for my custom Squier P-Bass, I found the beauty pictured at left. This is a Squier Vintage Modified Fretless Jazz Bass. It was apparently traded in by someone who apparently did not play it much because it was in absolute mint condition. The original owner had the thing set up beautifully with high quality flat wound strings. The best part was the price...Guitar Center was asking a mere $159!!!!



Needless to say, I snapped this thing up and brought it home with me. I had been wanting a fretless bass to emulate the sound of an upright 'doghouse bass' for some older style music my band currently plays at our live shows.  I was also intrigued by the possibility of working in some melodic fretless solos as I become more comfortable with playing bass.

I should clarify that I'm a lifelong guitar player. I've moonlighted on bass a few times in my musical career but stepping up to be a full time bassist meant a tremendous commitment. Now that I've been working in this role about 5 months, I can honestly say that I have found my feet as a bass player and beginning to develop my own style and approach to the instrument.

Back to the fretless. This thing is an incredible value! If you purchase it new, you can expect to pay a very reasonable street price of $299. The fit and finish compares favorably to a MIM Fender. If you get one new from the factory, it comes with round wound strings. Throw those away and install a decent quality set of flat wounds for the right sound and feel.

Once strung with flat wounds, the neck on this thing plays beautifully. You can get a very convincing upright sound by using the neck pickup only and rolling off the tone. For that punchy 'Jaco' tone use only the bridge pickup and roll the tone off just a bit. I'm getting a very useful tone out of having the bridge pickup volume all the way up, the neck pickup volume at around 80-90% and the tone rolled off just slightly. This thing responds beautifully to wide and narrow finger vibrato and it is great fun to 'slide' around the fingerboard for that 'mwah' tone you can only get from a fretless.

I did notice some eq adjustment around 2-4 khz really helps smooth the sound of this instrument. Because it is a passive bass, some attention to dynamics while playing and some judicious compression is useful for getting the best sound through the PA. The pickups are Duncan Designed and represent a phenomenal value for money also. The noise level is exactly what you'd expect from any other typical single-coil Fender-present but in no way excessive. This is an interesting contrast to my stock Squier Affinity P-Bass which was extremely noisy prior to some modifications. Perhaps the limited run models get a bit more attention? I don't know.

I picked this up right before a gig. I took it to the gig, tuned it up, plugged it into a SansAmp DI and Hi-Z'd out into a 300 watt Ashdown amp as a monitor.  I played several songs during the show on this bass-including "Stormy Monday Blues," and "Fool For Your Stockings." When I switched to guitar my second guitarist played it on "Red House" and "Gimme Three Steps" as well. He gave it high marks. The bass player for the next band up was on hand for our set and he complimented the sound of this bass as well. I had to play consciously to ensure that I fingered the notes accurately...two millimeters off one way or another is very noticeable. The fret markers make this process easy and painless.

I highly recommend this bass. For $300 new you simply can't beat it! I paid $159 for my gently used one set up with good quality flat wounds...so for me it was an even better bargain! If a fretless bass is on your wish list, this thing compares favorably with basses priced at $500-$600 easily. You won't find Jaco tone any cheaper!!!!

'97 Squier with '05 Player Strat electronics

After purchasing my '97 Squier Standard Strat to use with my Player's Strat electronics, I was ready to put everything together.

I removed the existing Squier pickguard with the all pickups and electronics still on the pick guard. I broke out the soldering iron and installed the brown pearloid pick guard with Vintage Noiseless pickups I purchased that came from a Fender Player's Strat. The pick guard aligned fine with the neck and the pickup pole pieces aligned beautifully with the strings. I did have to drill some new holes for pick guard screws as those did not line up exactly.

Since the Fender Players Strat had gold hardware, the pickup screws on my new pick guard are gold. I ordered some gold pick guard screws from eBay user guitar_hero2012 for a mere $2.50 US with shipping included. The shipment originated in Fanling, Hong Kong and took about 3 weeks to be delivered...but I have no complaints! These were exactly as advertised and matched beautifully.


All of the other hardware on this Squier is still the standard chrome. Since my plan over time is to replace the tuners, bridge and cable jack anyway, I am planning to order these in gold to match the guitar.

This is the guitar as it looks now. I will post a link to some YouTube video of how it sounds soon and will continue updating as I make further upgrades.

My first project-A 1997 Squier Stratocaster

This craziness all started with a couple of Craigslist purchases. Isn't that always the way?

First I responded to a Craigslist ad for a brown pearloid loaded Stratocaster pickguard with all electronics and Vintage Noiseless pickups still attached. It was advertised for $75.  I called the number in the craigslist ad and it turned out to be someone I knew-Terry Parker of the great local band Southlander! Check them out sometime-they are a truly great group! http://www.reverbnation.com/southlander After some friendly catching up, Terry made me a great deal and sold me the pickguard with electronics for $50. My intention was to use the pickups in another guitar I had laying around.

Fender Player's Strat. I purchased this exact pickguard and electronics from Terry Parker for $50!

After getting the pickguard home, I decided it would be a real shame to tear it apart. I decided it would make more sense to find a cheap Strat and assemble a "Partscaster."

Squier headstock w/ 'Spaghetti' logo. 

While perusing Craigslist again, I happened upon a black 1997 Squier Strat with a gorgeous maple fingerboard. This particular model had the "Spaghetti" logo on the headstock so I knew it was one of the better quality Squiers-probably a 'Squier Standard'. This seemed like a good place to start to make an inexpensive guitar for gigging. I met the young man who owned it in Fort Oglethorpe, tested the guitar and paid him the asking price of $100.

Squier as purchased

Upon getting the guitar home I did some research, it turned out my Craigslist find was a Korean Squier Strat with a KV serial number made by Saehan. From 1996-1998 Saehan turned out Squiers that were known for better-than-average bodies and gorgeous maple necks with the meaty 'vintage' radius that I prefer.
At this point I realized I had what I needed to make a great sounding guitar...for an initial $150 investment!! Stay tuned as I put them together!

Please allow me to introduce myself.....

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Adrian Coker, or Ace to my long time friends. I am a resident of the Chattanooga, TN/GA metro area and a working musician. I've played guitar since I was 11 years old. I am currently working as the bass player in a 5 piece Blues and Classic Rock cover band-Code Blue.

Like every other working musician, I want gear that gives me the sounds I'm looking for. More importantly, I need gear that works and is durable. I am a long time devotee of Fender guitars and basses, having owned many genuine Fender instruments-vintage, old and new.

For years, Fender has been the gold standard in instruments for working musicians.The simplicity and durability of Leo Fender's designs have stood the test of time. For most of my life you could purchase an American Standard or American re-issue Fender guitar or bass for a reasonable amount of money and be assured of a professional level of fit, finish and sound.

Unfortunately, those glory days have come to an end. While the fit, finish and sound quality of American Standard instruments remains indisputably uniformly high, the price has soared in recent years-effectively pricing me and lots of other working musicians out of the market. Even the Made-In-Mexico Road Worn and Vintage reissue series guitars are now close to $1000 street price and no longer represent a bargain for the working musician.

Since they began, the Asian manufacturers have been improving their quality control. These manufacturers, such as FujiJen, Tokai, Dyna, (Japan) Samick, Saehan, Cort, (Korea) Yako, (Taiwan) AXL, (China) and Cor-Tek (Indonesia) All of the above are capable of producing quality guitar bodies and necks in their factories, and over the years their guitars have been sold under multiple brand names-Including Squier.

In 1982, Fender decided to launch lower cost versions of their venerable Stratocaster (R), Telecaster and Precision Bass designs under the Squier nameplate. This was to counteract Japanese copies being made by Greco and Tokai that were excellent guitars and significantly cheaper than Fender's US made guitars. These early "JV" Squiers were made in Japan by FujiJen Gakki and are highly collectible today due to their high quality. From this beginning, Squier guitars have continued to be manufactured and many models have been made over the years with greatly variable results.

For most guitarists and bassists I know the Squier name is in their view synonymous with "crap." In defense of these folks, Squier has done much over the years to reinforce this view with several substandard iterations of various models-especially Strats. They've also made some instruments that were a great value and usable for gigging with minor modifications. Personally, I advocate evaluating an instrument solely on its merits and not dismissing something simply on the grounds it doesn't have the right headstock decal.

Squier's latest notable achievement is the "Classic Vibe" and "Vintage Modified" series of instruments. Since 2008, these reasonably priced ( under $400) guitars and basses have given players that like vintage Fender styling, hardware and sounds a viable option in my humble opinion.

I've made an executive decision that as I collect guitars and basses, I am going to identify and purchase  Squier instruments almost exclusively and share my experiences with obtaining, playing and modifying these instruments. My goal is to keep costs down while obtaining fun and giggable instruments. Fasten your seat belts kids...this is going to be an interesting ride!!!