Squier Jazz Basses

There are two types of experiences that bassists love to experience and Squier Jazz Basses can provide one of them – want to find out what it is? Read on my friend!

First, lets get the basics out of the way, Squier is the entry level bass and guitar line put out by Fender Instruments. These instruments have a lot of the same styling and materials as their Made in Mexico and American Standard instruments, but at a fraction of the cost. Of course, in order to keep the prices low, there are some compromises made in the quality and types of materials used, and the products are often made and assembled off shore to take advantage of the cheap (yet skilled) labour available elsewhere.

Now, I admit to being a bit of a bass snob; I started out with a really poor quality bass guitar and learned right off the bat that you get what you pay for. My first bass was a Fender Precision bass copy – with no name on it at all. I had nothing but problems with that bass and it caused me to avoid anything that looked remotely Fender-like for years. However, now that I’ve mellowed out a little bit, I’ve come to respect Fender basses for their look, their history, reliability and legacy they bring to the bass guitar. I still don’t own a Fender bass, but I find myself yearning for one every few months.

Enter Squier basses. I’m not sure if they were around when I was first starting on bass, but I can see now that if I could have saved up for a Fender Squier jazz bass from the start that I wouldn’t have had anywhere near the amount of problems that I had with my precision copy.
Checkout this guy demoing a Squier Jazz 5 Bass (also known as a Squier Jazz V).

Today there are many different Squier basses to choose from including the Squier jazz bass standard, the Squier jazz bass fretless and the Squier jazz bass affinity. For those who like the classic look of the original Fender basses, there are Squier jazz bass vintage finishes to choose from (scroll down to the bottom of this post to see a retro looking Squier in Olympic White!) Even the heavy metal crowd can find a Squier to call their own with the Frank Bello model (technically it’s a p/j bass – but we won’t quibble at this point – it’s still a Squier!) that comes with a pretty cool paint job of a giant skull on the body with skull inlays on the neck. It has very simple controls: just one volume knob each for the neck and bridge pickups, just crank it and go!

As I was saying earlier, there are two great moments for bassists when it comes to getting a new instrument: there’s the type you finally get that expensive bass of your dreams that took you forever and a day to save up for. The only problem with this is you become paranoid that it will be stolen or damaged! The other great experience is finding a terrific bass for extremely cheap. The Squier basses may qualify (the one played in the video clip sounded pretty dang good – course it doesn’t hurt that the guy doing the demo was a great player!).

Squier jazz bass guitars have that classic look, feel and dependability that Fender is renowned for. They do have to cut costs somewhere, so you can expect the hardware (the bridge and tuning pegs) will be lower quality and the pick ups may not be as clear or have quite as much headroom as you may like. But, if you want that classic Fender look for cheap, you’re looking for a beginner bass or a decent backup – check out a Squier jazz bass review or two and take one out for a test drive at your local music shop.

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Click to find great deals on these fab Squier jazz basses (starting at $229.99 US)