Fender Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster Bass Guitar
Any thoughts on these?
Maybe a bit muddy?
I like the idea of them…
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Tele Headstock much nicer than usual Fender battleaxe
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I can’t comment on how this one sounds but, a) I prefer the Tele headstock over the standard Squier / Fender headstock, and b) my Squier CV 50s bass (the one with the Tele headstock) really rocks…
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Doesn’t help that I am on a bit of a Tele bender, I like Dusty Hill’s tele basses also.
I had never seen one of this. Interesting.
I don’t understand the shape of the pickguard. I supposed its function in this case is mostly aesthetic, for the visual style? It protects everything but the picking area.
What did you mean by muddy? The sound?
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Battleaxe! Haha, so true! I sometimes wondered why do they have to be so big. Especially in a jazz bass with a slimmer neck the headstock seems somewhat out of proportion.
Just wondering, the pickup is right up against the neck like on the EB0 and EB3 and I hear they can be muddy.
However I have a Viola bass with a very forward neck pick up and it sounds nice and thumpy but not muddy
Now I see what you mean. I didn’t notice the pickup was so close to the neck. Yes, that will affect the sound. Maybe would work better for jazz than for other genres.
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That is a good question. 
Aesthetic… 
The reason for the pickguard is it’s vintage
This is a 70s era original tele bass. Fender hired the pickup designer away from Gibson and made a new humbucker. I had a new Vintera model for a while and it was one of my favorite basses ever. But soon after I injured my wrist and couldn’t play it so I sold it. Sadge.
I liked the bass and glad that Squier has a version.
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There’s the sort of answer I am looking for.
So it sounds like they put some work into the pickup and it sounds good yeah?
Hmmmm ashtray cover too…
Pickup sounds good. Same pickup as in the Squier Rascal, and there’s plenty of good reviews on that.
Here’s the Fender version
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Been interested in these for a while and one showed up in the local shop. Got to spend some time with it and have to say I was surprised at how low the output was.
For reference, I run tapewounds on everything. The Telecaster with round wounds was too muddy for me. I had the tone rolled wide open and was playing through a Rumble 100 in the shop because it’s what I play through at home. Even with the mid high’s and treble boosted at the amp it was still super muddy and quiet. It’s not a deep, thumpy growl like a Stingray or a Pbass rolled off, it’s just…dead.
Tone wide open, mid high/treble boosted on rounds and a tapewound guy was still looking for more highs. Cool bass, but I think it would have a very specific purpose. Maybe if you really needed that upright sound to just thump along with some bluegrass or something.
Looking at the pickup I assumed it would be a standard P pickup and have a typical Fender P bass sound, just really warm and thumpy due to the pickup placement. Maybe the pickup cover affects something in regards to being able to pick up string signals. Had the gain up to about 75% and the output was still low and there’s no definition in the lower notes. Anything in the first 3-5 frets on the E and A string was just a blur of noise with no good distinction between notes. What what I expected at all. A standard P bass on tapes with the tone rolled off will blow a Telecaster away. Very interesting instrument.
I’m trying not to say it’s “bad”, because it’s just an instrument. But it’s certainly and very muted, soft, specific sound that I don’t think most bass players would have any use for.
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Is this one new in stock? Haven’t seen this one yet.
I’m actually saving up money to hunt this rare relic: Fender Modern Player Telecaster Bass (see pic below).
The sole reason to buy this one (despite still having my doubts) is the extra humbucker at the bottom. Also, the current price (same as when it got out in 2013’ish) is around 800 euro’s, and that for a high quality Fender (despite being a rare relic made in China)!
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For my money, if you want a wide range humbucker, a Fender Pawn Shop Mustang is the way to go. The mid placement of the humbucker is ideal to me. I owned a Telecaster Bass and much prefer this
The pickup is not at all muted, but this one is from Curtis Novak. They generally go $1500-$1700 USD on Reverb
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Yeah that neck pickup isn’t gonna sound great IMO. It will have similar issues to the EB-0. Hopefully the HH models are better.
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This actually sounds really good, and better than that Modern Player Telecaster Bass. I expected a muddier sound from a Humbucker, but surprisingly this kind of reminds me of a P bass. I’m gonna keep an eye out for that one on the local marketplaces!
When the humbucker is placed very close to the neck, it is bound to sound muddier.
I tested this - routed a large “swimming pool” and tried out every possible Humbucker position in 0.5cm steps:
I found the sweet spot for the neck humbucker, which gives me a very low growl without being too muddy!
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Those HH Stingray’s with the coil splitting switch will confuse you and destroy all our intuition on neck pickup sounds. Running the neck pickup on split coil has a very smooth, thumpy sound but it’s far from being muddy or dead. Still has definition in the lower notes and a nice growl.
I didn’t know why I didn’t own one, really. Not sure what the model is called exactly. Of course the neck pickup on those isn’t smashed all the way against the fretboard either.