Good Times Bad Times with Squier quality control

[MattK]

Ordered a Paranormal JM XII and a Charcoal Frost CV 60s Jaguar from Thomann. Finally arrived, excited unboxing ...

Beautiful, beautiful XII - glass like finish, everything tidy and well put together, looks wonderful ... even an OK setup out of the box.
Attention turns to the Jaguar ... here's the fretboard.




I'm taking it up with Thomann, I will let you know how I get on. It's sold out and cost me several hundred to ship, so a return would need some serious reimbursement.

[ryland]

It’s disappointing to realize that they can clearly be as good or better than Fender, but then fail so badly. The XII is as good as the early JMJM was, which hooked me on their guitars…none of which was nearly as good until the XII. I can’t tell you how much work I put into my VM Bass VI neck to make it playable, same goes for the Starcaster.

[Fiddy]

The XII is awesome. Love the colour.

[MattK]

It’s disappointing to realize that they can clearly be as good or better than Fender, but then fail so badly. The XII is as good as the early JMJM was, which hooked me on their guitars…none of which was nearly as good until the XII. I can’t tell you how much work I put into my VM Bass VI neck to make it playable, same goes for the Starcaster.

Interesting - my CV VI had a *really* good neck out of the box, just needed some oil really.


And for comparison - the XII headstock in the same lighting as the Jaguar, with the same phone camera:

[Embenny]

Jesus, those frets and that fretboard look about as bad as any new guitar I've ever seen.

[MattK]

Right? Like some $100 store brand import in the 90s.
The rest is close to immaculate, by the way.

[IceBlueBoogaloo]

What? It’s just an ordinary Indian Laurel-OH MY GOODNESS

[javier-san]

Overall, I have found Squier guitars to have pretty consistent quality, but then you'll play one and it's pretty bad.

The shell pink Bass VI I bought had pretty poor QC. I had it in a box for a few months before I took notice of all the issues and at that point CME refused to do an exchange. Anyway, I had to get a new nut installed and had to get the vibrato route cut bigger to actually be able to use the wiggle stick and then the edges of the frets weren't super nice...

Anyway, not a Squier bashing because I've played a lot of really nice ones, but it does seem to happen occasionally. I'm sorry that you're having to go through especially on a more limited color and one that you had to purchase from so far away!

[Fiddy]

Cheaper for Thomann to ship you a replacement, and let you keep this one, than having you ship back a guitar they wont be able to sell back.

[MattK]

I think I'll hire you as my negotiator, Fiddy.

[Steadyriot.]

Am I the only one that thinks that 30 minutes with a razor blade, steel wool and some fretboard oil would have that looking great?
Doesn't seem that bad.
OTOH it's a bummer on a new purchase but OTOH you kinda get what you pay for.. lower QC is to be expected on lower priced guitars. It's a gamble.

[skeletonsmith]

The Fretbaord of my Shell Pink 60s Jag (2021 from Thomann) also looked pretty rough. But it's nothing you couldn't fix by yourself.
After polishing and playing the scratchy Frets for a while and putting some Oil on it every Time i changed Strings it's a very good Guitar.

But of course, i can understand your Frustration, especially when you imported it for a lot of Money.

By the way, all the Paranormals i have/had (2 Cyclone's, Toronado, Cabronita Thinline Tele) were pretty much flawless.

[Biloxide]

Mattewk,
It's a rosewood fretboard on your XII ?
Pretty nice.

[Arthon]

It’s disappointing to realize that they can clearly be as good or better than Fender, but then fail so badly. The XII is as good as the early JMJM was, which hooked me on their guitars…none of which was nearly as good until the XII. I can’t tell you how much work I put into my VM Bass VI neck to make it playable, same goes for the Starcaster.

I had a early JMJM. It was a really great sounding guitar, but it was a boat anchor. Sold it. I bought another one last mont. The fretboard is not as nice as the first one, very dry, but the guitar is so light. Lighter then my Custom Shop JM. Personnally, I prefer a ligth guitar with not so good fretboard to a beautiful neck on a boat anchor. So yeah, I think constancy is not the Squier strenght.

[ldp54002]

It's always been hit-or-miss (mostly hit) for me. I've had three pretty egregious examples, though.

The nut on my CV Bass VI was incredibly badly cut...like, they had to try to cut it that badly. The low E was pretty much off the fretboard, and the G and B strings were cut so low they were laying on the first fret.

The CV P bass was a pretty simple failure--the bridge ground was missing. No wire or anything.

The tuners on my CV '50s Tele were also comically bad. Granted, the guitar was sold to me at deep discount as B stock specifically because two of the tuners were listed as "not working", but I have never seen tuners this bad before. There was no consistency with the torque needed to turn any of them, and the D and G tuners were incapable of holding tune--the capstan would slip as soon as the string had any reasonable tension.

All easy fixes, and all relatively cheap fixes. They were just disappointing, as they went beyond the expectation of needing a good setup out of the box. All three were unplayable out of the box.