Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar Bass Special SS (Short Scale)  

I recieved my black vintage modified Jaguar Bass Special SS about two weeks ago and am now very comfortable with the guitar. At first I was dissapointed and thought I should've laid down the extra few dollars and bought the full scale model. I have no Buyers Regret anymore. In fact, I love the darn thing. It fits my thoery that Squier has really got it goin' on for a few years now. I have an Affinity Squire Tele, and it is neck to neck with my long standing favorite, a Riviera by Epiphone. So why should the bass be any different. the "Bones" are solid, and if wiring is not right, sent it back, or tighten it up yourself. The pick ups are cheap? Go get better ones, and you still have a cheap guitar that covers all the bases. I have not changed the pick ups on any new Squires. Old 90's ones, yes. For a short scale the bass booms. Glass rattled when I first plugged it in! the action is perfect. The balance is better than most basses, and it is my lightest guitar. Farwell to the bass I've had for 27 years ( a cheap Hofner rip off) and welcome to my new bass for life. I thee wed!

Like every one else, Can't beat it. The P. Bass/ Jazz Bass pick ups do not need a battery for the bombs droped and exploding everywhere by the p. and jazz pick ups.

Increadable deal, i will cherish for the rest of my life. And the greatest gift of all new Squiers, if it gets old, give it to a kid. Resale just isn't worth it.

The best deal I have ever played. I am a Squier Man now.

I'm giving this bass an 8 for features, not because it's lacking anything--it's not; but simply because there are basses out there that have more features, like active electronics, fancy woods, etc.  Nonetheless, this bass is balanced and versatile and can do all the basic things you need a bass guitar to do, with a p-bass pickup and a bridge j-bass pickup, a simple j-bass control set up, and all the typical Fender-type features.  So, in terms of features, it's not lacking anything--certainly not for a bass of this price.  It's a complete and versatile bass.  But it doesn't have a lot of special extra features, so it can't really be rated a 10 here.

I should mention here something about this being a short scale bass, since that's a special feature of this bass.  I've never been a big fan of short scale (30") basses, because all the ones I've played (Gibson, Gretsch, etc) seemed to lack the percussive snap of the 34" scale basses (especially the 34" Fenders).  I really love this bass, though, and would recommend it to anyone.  I actually like it more than my USA-made Fender Jazz Bass--I know that sounds crazy, but it's true, and it's why I'm writing this review.

This is the second made-in-Indonesia Squire bass I've played that has really shocked me in terms of it's quality, just totally blowing me away.  To be blatantly honest--and some people won't be able to accept this--this Squier Jaguar bass, purchased for under $200, is of better overall quality than my US-made Fender Jazz Bass, which I bought new around the turn of the millenium.

The sound is cleaner, the action is better, the neck is absolutely perfect, there are no dead spots or fret imperfections anywere on the neck, no sloppiness in the construction anywhere.  The only thing where the US Fender has a distinct edge is in the pickups.  The pickups on the Squire are a little bright for my taste and the p-pickup doesn't have the full tone and mellowness of a p-bass type pickup.  That's my ONLY knock on this bass, and it's pretty minor.  I could always change that pickup or put flatwounds on the bass if I wanted a more mellow sound.  All in all, this plays like a $1500 bass.

As I mentioned before, this is my second great experinece with a Squire bass.  I have a friend who was a new bass player who wanted to buy a Jazz Bass, or something that he could slap on, but didn't have the money, and I suggested he try out a Squire.  He bought a Squire Vintage Modified Jazz Bass, which I got to play a lot on.  I had a similar reaction to that bass--it actually performed better than my US-made Fender Jazz.  It did not play like a $280 instrument, more like a $1000+ instrument.

One caution I would like to mention is that, while the two Squiers I've played at length have been stellar, I've also seen a few in music stores that were not, and my friend who bought the Modified Jazz initially got one with a warped neck, which he had to return for the good one.  Still, the two good ones I have played were, in terms of quality, way beyond what I thought possible in a bargain bass.

I bought this Modified Jaguar Short Scale for my petite wife, who wants to learn bass, but I plan on using it myself for recording projects, and I have trouble putting it down.  It inspires me to play and I find myself coming up with interesting bass parts, inspired by the way it feels and sounds.

One of the things I love about this bass is the neck, especially the oil finish on the back, which makes the neck lightning-fast.  The finish is surprisingly good for an inexpensive bass as well, being an area where corners are often cut on cheap basses.  I could only find one very minor imperfection in the metallic red, on the back right where the neck meets the body.  And speaking of the neck pocket--it is perfectly tight.

This bass is hands down the best value I've ever seen in a musical instrument, in 25 years of playing.  This bass is in no way compromises quality for price.  It holds its own with expensive, "professional"-quality instruments.

Overall, this bass feels great, plays great, sounds great and looks great.  It is a mind-blowing value.  I love to play this thing and am having trouble putting it down.  If you are a kid and you need something that's a little smaller to start out on, this is the bass to get--you might never want to replace it with something more expensive, because it's just so dang good.  If you're a housewife looking for a new hobby--maybe you want to learn to play an instrument on the worship team at church or something--this is the thing to get; it's a great bargain, very smooth to play and easy to learn on.  My wife is loving learning the bass as I teach her and we're having a lot of fun together with this bass.

This little bass has a wide range of tone.  I was entertaining the idea of purchasing one so I decided to go play the guitar at the music store down the street.  Wow!  I was very impressed that a Squier would sound as good as it did and give me the range of tone that it did.  Playing it once sold me (it wasn't that expensive of a sale either!) and I bought it right there.  At the store I played through a Fender bass amp and found that when I plugged it into my Ampeg Micro it felt like I needed all the knobs to turn up to 11 to get all the range I felt I needed.

For as cheap as it was, it's amazing quality.  I can see some lines in the body where the pieces of wood were glued together (I belive it is 2 pieces on the body), my knobs didn't line up, it has a little neck dive, and around one of my pickups the paint doesn't go all the way to the edge of the hole, but beyond the pure asthetics, this bass feels like a tank.  Not quite as smooth as my Fender Jazz, but it has a real Fender feel.  I took the bass apart to put in new pickups and there's no way anything in there is going to break if you're treating it like you should.

I can't praise the value of this little guy enough.  For this price, I am willing to bet you cannot find a better bass, either in quality of guitar or sound, nor will you be able to crank out as many tones as this one can for the price.

This bass is a definite steal at this price.  I have invested about the cost of the bass in upgrades to get rid of the neck dive and give me the tone I thought it should have as well as a few asthetic things (DiMarzio pickups, new knobs, weighted P-bass Bridge cover, new strings).  Now that I'm at twice the asking price, it's still the best value I could find anywhere.  If you are a beginner looking for your first bass or someone who wants a way to expand tone, I highly recommend looking at this guitar.  It also makes a great platform if you are looking to get into guitar modification.

I like the passive PJ configuration offered on many different basses.

This bass is fairly light and the shape is convient and comfortable to

play. It has both body and arm cut. (adding to comfort). The painted

headstock is cool looking.

The fit and finish are a "10". It is very well done in most respects. One

problem I had was sharp fret ends. I am handy with such things and

had no problem doing a quick fileing and derssing on the fret ends.

The bridge is a standard bent metal bridge that is common on basses

of many price ranges. (nothing special) It has a hard plastic nut.

Tuning machines seem to work well. I like it so much, I have trouble

going lower than a "9" on quality. The passive pickups are like most

passive PJ configurations. That is, the P pickup over powers the J

pickup. The pickups have good output and a nice sound.

This bass shines as far as value is concerned. If you are looking for

a low cost, fun to play and good looking short scale bass that is

good enough that upgrades are not really necessary. This is a

great choice for young and old.

Overall, this bass is good enough to gig with. The stock strings were

terrible. I put some black nylon coated strings on mine and it made

it sound 10 times cooler. I would think the black strings look very

nice on all three color choices. I got the silver sparkle and like it.

This bass is comfortable to play for extended periods. It is hard to

put this bass down. I mean it is so fun it is hard to put down. Also,

for the price it is hard to put down as far as value and quality.

Simple and straight up, everything in it's right place.  A knob for neck, a knob for bridge-- use separate or mix.  Tone for both (would've been nice if they each had their own, but hey).  Great neck: comfortable, fast, smooth.  Frets that don't get in the way.  Solid machine heads.  Standard bridge.  Loaded with D'Addarios and set up well.  Comfortable body contouring and well-balanced shape.  Attractive design.  Excellent neck pick-up, the bridge could use some more punch when isolated, but and excellent pick-up for shaping and coloring.

Definitely carved, crafted, painted, glazed and installed well.  Very solid, no bad pocket or lazy cutting of the skunk stripe or bad lamination to speak of.  Assembled by Indonesia's finest luthiers.  Totally ready to go with no complaints as far as all that goes.  No bad frets or any other marks, dings, errors and shottiness.  It says "Crafted In Indonesia" and they do mean CRAFTED.

Absolutely ridiculous value.  You will not get a better short scale bass, (or bass or guitar, for that matter), for the price of this fine instrument.  Ibanez always builds quality, but for a Squier, this thing is totally first class.  They haven't produced an instrument of this quality since my ProTone Strat, 14 years ago.  Instruments like this can earn Squier a good name.  Probably the best value I've ever gotten on an instrument purchase.  This thing is comparable to $500 quality (maybe with some tweaks, the bridge pick-up could use some more punch).

Overall, I am pleased with the instrument-- HOWEVER-- I must add...  I bought this bass because my drummer had gotten one (also a bass player) and his was totally immaculate.  It was excellently balanced, like a proper blade-- you could feel it as soon as you held it.  It played beautifully and effortlessly and sounded like a freight train or a bass clarinet (however you needed it).  His was also flawlessly crafted, etc. such as I mention above.  But, when I got mine, there were some significant differences (perhaps to be expected).  Firstly, mine was NOTICEABLY heavier, and I do mean NOTICEABLY.  His was like wielding a samurai sword, with action that practically bounced off the finger and fretbaord.  Also, he had a nice, rich, chocolate slab of rosewood to work with, set in a flamed maple neck.  My fretboard was a little more "rosey" and textured and just a nice clean beam of maple to support it (I suppose, minor aesthetic differences, really, but disappointing).  The action on mine is great, but it is certainly more "work" for me to play it in comparison to his, which comes alive with each note.  A comparison of the bodies shows a thicker slab and it may even be of a different wood.  Overall, I am still very satisfied with the bass and totally recommend it.  But, you can't fall in love with a twin, ask a blind man.