I’ve been out of touch for a little while in terms of new releases, but I wandered into my favourite music shop on Friday and asked “What’s new?”
The bass manager pointed at the racks and said “Fenders made in Indonesia…”
Oh.
Interesting.
But then I looked at the price of the MIM Fenders and discovered that they were only about 100 dollars more expensive.
Well, that’s an interesting price point.
Given that the Squire line is already made in Indonesia, is the idea to strike another price point between Squires and MIM Fenders?
So I popped it off the rack and did my standard quick test of fret feel and look for overtensioned screws in the pick guard.
The frets felt pretty damn good, but the Squiers have lifted their game in the last few years.
The pick guard screws were nicely tightened with barely a warp in reflection around them.
Wow.
I have no idea how they sound yet, but the bass manager suggested that it was better than his Aerodyne. I’ll have to wait for a personal opinion.
It’s an interesting move by Fender.
Marketing is a strange beast that often gets lost. I guess we’ll find out what will happen in a few years.
Interesting…if the price was about 100 dollars lower than MIM then it would be quite expensive if you would compare it to Sire / Squier / Sterling by MM
There are so many good instruments coming out of indonesia.
I had a Squier affinity P bass that I sold and then I bought a MIM p bass that cost over 3 times more than the squier , in hindsight for me personally the difference was not worth it, but hey ….now I own a Fender
Fender loves to do what I often refer to as marketing with a carpet that covers all price points. As they upgraded the various MIM models and raised their prices it left a hole in the carpet.
They never seem content to upgrade the Squier CV models to let them fill that hole so it looks like they decided to produce some models just like them but throw a Fender decal on the headstock so they could charge more for them.
How successful they will be depends on how many are deceived. They did this once before and then ended up discontinuing those even though they were models not available in other series. To me it’s just Fender being Fender.
Yeah TBH I expect these to be better made than the MIM’s, and the only qualitative drawback would be if Fender decides to hold them back by using slightly nicer hardware and woods in the MIM’s and MIA’s. They currently do this to keep the MIA’s above the MIJ’s, because based on what I can tell, the MIJ’s are otherwise as good or better made.
I have owned more than one bass made in Indonesia that is as good or better than any MIA Fender I have tried. Taiwan and Japan are even better (unless you’re Fender, see above).
Honestly just rebadging those as Fenders would probably be fine as AFAICT they are as good as the MIM Players. They should probably either add a real binding to or remove the fake binding from the CV '70s if they do this though - that’s the one slightly cheesy thing I have noticed on them, the rest felt like a nice P-bass to me.
Both of my favorite P pickups are ceramic - the DiMarzio Model P, and the stock Yamaha YGD P pickup in the SBV550 and others. SD makes some too (Lightning Rod, Pro-Active, etc).
From the descriptions it looks like there are a couple of quality of life differences between the fender standard and the squier CVs, but if I was buying one they’re close enough I’d pick based on color. The satin neck on the fender is a point in favor of it though.
I’m also very much not the target market for these so I may be missing something enthusiasts find important lol
I haven’t played any of the new MIM models but there was a time probably 10-15 years ago or so when the Squier CV models coming out of China were better than the MIM models from Ensenada. Whether that’s still the case with the newer Player and Vintera models I can’t say. I don’t own one.
Although I may change my mind once I’ve seen and played one I’m gonna stick with my belief that these new models are pretty much Squier CV caliber with a Fender decal. They have done this before and I bought one of those models. It was pretty much as I’ve posted. CV quality with some different features and specs.
I don’t say this is bad and having a Fender logo may make them more popular and help their resale value but FWIW Fender always seem to be creating competition for it’s Squier CV Series without also creating a new product. These could be made by the same manufacturer just with slightly different specs and a different logo.
To me this is the whole point. The CV Series models have always been good value even at the higher price points they sell for now. Fender could choose to do as Gibson has done with it’s Epiphone models and simply offer more upgraded models that are still badged as Squier.
Instead Fender chooses to add one more layer to it’s product like to simply fill a gap in their pricing structure. They may change a few specs or offer different finishes but have they really produced a better product? It’s just the way they market that causes me to chuckle over these “new product releases”.
