- The speaker used to believe that Squier guitars were inferior to Fender guitars
- He changed his mind after hearing a friend play a Squier and realizing it sounded better than his Fender
- He met other musicians who also played Squier guitars and produced great music
- He learned the story behind his friend's Squier, which was given to him by Green Day during a concert
- The speaker acknowledges that not all Squier guitars are better than expensive guitars, but it depends on the individual and how they use it.

The video discusses how a professional player can make a Squier Classic Vibe sound better than an American Vintage 2 strap. The importance of learning how to use your gear and improving your playing skills is emphasized. The audience is asked to share their thoughts on Squier guitars. The video also thanks the host and provides links for more information on the gear used. The viewer is encouraged to like, subscribe, and have a fantastic day.

Andrew's Channel: @AndrewMasters 

SQUIER CLASSIC VIBE: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/1roKx6

MY GEAR
GUITAR: https://imp.i114863.net/BXrLNx 
OTHER GUITAR: https://imp.i114863.net/jW4j6b
MY LES PAUL: https://imp.i114863.net/LP37YZ
MY TELE: https://imp.i114863.net/Yg7DYR
MY ACOUSTIC: https://imp.i114863.net/rn3vdv
MY AMP: https://imp.i114863.net/ORNq2G
UA OX: https://imp.i114863.net/XxzB0G
DB BOOSTER: https://imp.i114863.net/DVEo95
D.I. BOX: https://imp.i114863.net/WD3rGM
COMPRESSOR PEDAL: https://imp.i114863.net/qnjGen
TUNING PEDAL: https://imp.i114863.net/kj54Ez
REVERB PEDAL: https://imp.i114863.net/gbdB9r
OVERDRIVE: https://imp.i114863.net/5b4BMN
MY MIDI: https://imp.i114863.net/mge4Bq
MY RESONATOR:  https://imp.i114863.net/rnVErQ
MIC: https://imp.i114863.net/yRQAk2
MY WALL HANGER: https://imp.i114863.net/LPJ0Bj

WIN FREE GEAR: 
https://imp.i114863.net/rnyxJ5 

DEALS ON MUSIC GEAR: https://imp.i114863.net/ZdzDqQ

Instagram: instagram.com/mikecoleat
Business inquiries: mikecolemusic@gmail.com
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mikecolemusic

All right, so really quickly, I need to ask you a question.

And if you're a guitar player, this is probably gonna be the easiest question that you answer all day, maybe even all week.

So in as few words as possible, this is all you need to answer.

And you might be like, well, Mike, that's a Fender Stratocaster.

That's 1 of the most iconic guitars of all time.

And if you said that, you would happen to be correct.

You see, not only does this bad boy happen to be 1 of many Fender Strats that I've owned over the years, but it actually happens to be 1 of a number of Fender guitars that I've owned over the years.

And I'm talking anything from Strats to Telecasters to that 1 Jazzmaster that I keep wanting to get but haven't quite decided on yet.

And tell me in the comments which Jazzmaster you think I'd like.

And despite all of those fantastic guitars, There seems to be 1 specific Fender, 1 very specific guitar made by them, that I've never actually owned.

And if I'm being completely and utterly honest, it's not actually a Fender.

It's kind of Fender's little brother company.

They're called Squire, and the reason I've never owned them is for a very specific reason.

And if you're really curious and you really want to know why, I can try and tell you the story.

You see, like a lot of people, when I first entered the guitar community, all I wanted to do was fit in.

All I wanted to do was walk into the guitar store with all the cool kids that I respected, and them look me in the eyes and ask me about a selected guitar, and I would have the exact right answer.

I would know what to think, how to think, and what to say to make them go, wow, that guy, that guy knows what he's doing.

So I tried to say all of the things that I thought would get me there.

And 1 of the things, 1 of the stances that I thought I had to take every single time was that Squier guitars are trash.

Real players play Fenders, the beginners, those guys who don't know what they're doing, who haven't quite gotten to the Fender level yet, they play Squiers.

And yes, I know how cringy that sounds, but you don't know.

That's what I thought it took to sit at the cool kids table for guitar.

That was until 1 very specific day in college when 1 of my friends, he had actually asked me to jam.

And this was a guy who I really, really respected his chops.

So I was like, of course, come over whenever you want.

So he calls me up, he comes over after class, he knocks on my door, he brings in this guitar case and I'm like, I'm ready to go because I've been playing for a year and a half.

And wouldn't you know, what do I see when he opens the case but a squire?

Now, like I was saying before, this is a guy who I really respected, so I didn't really know how to feel.

Like, is he just gonna plug in his doo-doo guitar, and then we're gonna be making noise, and then my RA is gonna come in, and he's gonna be like, never play again?

So he plugs this guitar in, and we start jamming, and immediately I notice that there are 2 tones going on in this room and 1 of them is not even close to as good and he's coming out of a Squier with a Vox Valvetronics.

I'm going out of a Fender American guitar with a tube amp and he sounds 12 times better than me, so I don't know what's happening because I thought that Squires suck.

And so of course I'm asking him 12 million different questions.

I'm like, Andy, what did you, like how are you making that guitar sound so good?

Any guitar that's been modded, you probably put like $3,000 pickups in that.

So of course I knew I was gonna be able to sleep soundly that night.

And I kept on thinking about it, day in, day out.

Even when I had graduated college and I'm moving on to bigger cities.

I'm visiting Nashville with my mother, meeting all of these different world-class musicians, asking them different questions about what gear they're using, hoping that 1 of them won't tell me they're using a Squire, because that'll validate everything that I'm scared of in my head.

And fortunately for me, as I'm meeting these musicians, they're telling me, Oh yeah, I play a 61 vintage SG.

And I'm meeting this other player and he's like, I play a custom shop Fender Tele that costs $6,000.

He says he's an engineer and he tells me he's worked in studios with, I'm not joking, some of the biggest musical artists on the planet.

I'm talking Justin Timberlake and Bieber and all the other Justins.

I have a squire in the moment I didn't know if I actually believed him until he actually showed me you see this is my friend Andrew Oh, hey, he's a recording engineer youtuber basically 1 of the most talented people I've ever met in my entire life.

And about 4 or 5 years ago when he was engineering 1 of my earliest singles, I walked into his studio expecting to use a bunch of different vintage electric guitars and he actually showed me the guitar that we were gonna be using was a Squire.

And I thought to myself I have to know the story behind this guitar.

I got this at a concert Okay From the band Green Day You've probably seen clips of bands who do this thing where they bring kids on stage Okay They have them play and depending on the show or the band, what they'll do is they'll let the kid keep the guitar.

That happened to me when I was 14 in Peoria, Illinois, Civic Center.

Went up on stage, they brought up a drummer, a bassist, and a kid to play guitar, and that was me.

But when I got up there, he gave me a hug and he said in my ear, do you really play guitar?

I'll never forget my response was, I can play Green Day.

And then he gave it to me and the strap was like all the way down to like below my knees.

You know, there was a drummer and a bassist already playing like something on loop and I just played along with it.

Before I got off stage, he came and had me talk for like, I don't know, 30 seconds or something and then said I could keep the guitar.

And then after the show, I went to get the guitar.

I didn't know really what to do, so we just waited by the stage, and some crew member came out with a box, like a cardboard box, and then this was just like sitting in the cardboard box like this.

This was like 20 years ago, so this was like Green Day in their prime, right?

This was right when American Idiot, the album, came out.

So it was like the American Idiot tour with My Chemical Romance.

About 5 or 6 years ago, I actually swapped out the pickups.

You said there's no pedals at all going on right now?

That's literally just this into the Vox with the top boost?

Wow, this thing is crazy man This is crazy, man.

This feels better than any Squier that I've ever played in my life.

And like you said, it could have been the setup, because it sounds phenomenal.

The action, you have the action super low on here, which I like.

It's like too heavy for like Hendrix stuff, which is amazing.

What is it that makes this feel different and sound?

Like, what is it that would make a Squier sound like super professional?

Well, actually, the first thing I think is this thing rocks as far as the tone.

You just plug it in and it just immediately, great rock tone, and it plays really well.

But it just reminds me of that story and that sort of moment in my life.

And now I have a son who's playing guitar and I would tell him that story, the Green Day story, as a bedtime story.

In the story I would tell him at the end of it was like, you know, then Andy grew up and had a kid and then 1 day he'll give that guitar to his son.

And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen, that is the story of 1 of the coolest Squire guitars I've ever seen in my life.

It really is 1 of those things where I think there were so many misconceptions that I had about gear and some of the biggest ones weren't just about like player series vendors but about actual Squires and seeing that they can sound really good even without any weird mods done to them.

It just depends who you are and how you use it.

Now, the big thing I do want to address is, I think there's a temptation to think that what I'm saying here is that you should only buy Squires.

Like, don't believe the hype about any of the expensive guitars.

I will never, on this channel, argue that a Squire Classic vibe is going to sound better than the American Vintage 2 strap.

That's not a thing, but I will proudly say in the hands of the right person, of the professional player, they could probably make that Squire Classic vibe sound better than American Vintage 2 in my hands ever could.

And if you end up giving them the American Vintage II, they can make it sound that much better.

I guess the moral of the story is when you really, really learn how to use your gear and really learn what you're doing playing-wise, when you take that step up, it'll make even more of a difference.

But in the end, it doesn't matter what I think, matters is what you think.

So let me know in the comments, do you have a Squier?

Anyway, thank you so much for watching this video.

Thank you so much to Andrew for just letting me come over to his studio and see what's up, see what the story behind 1 of the coolest guitars I think he's ever owned is.

Link to his channel will be in the description.

If you wanna know anything more about any of the other gear we used make sure to check out the links in the description you get it all from Sweetwater you know the spiel like and subscribe if you had a good time and most important like most importantly of all time have a fantastic day do you know anyone else with a squire

yeah you probably find a 1 or 2 people with a squad.


Speaker 0: All right, so really quickly, I need to ask you a question.

Speaker 1: And if you're a guitar player, this is probably gonna be the easiest question that you answer all day, maybe even all week. So in as few words as possible, this is all you need to answer. What is this? I'll give you a second. And you might be like, well, Mike, that's a Fender Stratocaster.

That's 1 of the most iconic guitars of all time. And if you said that, you would happen to be correct. You see, not only does this bad boy happen to be 1 of many Fender Strats that I've owned over the years, but it actually happens to be 1 of a number of Fender guitars that I've owned over the years. And I'm talking anything from Strats to Telecasters to that 1 Jazzmaster that I keep wanting to get but haven't quite decided on yet. And tell me in the comments which Jazzmaster you think I'd like.

And despite all of those fantastic guitars, There seems to be 1 specific Fender, 1 very specific guitar made by them, that I've never actually owned. And if I'm being completely and utterly honest, it's not actually a Fender. It's kind of Fender's little brother company. You may have heard of them. They're called Squire, and the reason I've never owned them is for a very specific reason.

And if you're really curious and you really want to know why, I can try and tell you the story. Long ago in a galaxy far, far away... Wait, that's the wrong story? Okay, Well, start over. You see, like a lot of people, when I first entered the guitar community, all I wanted to do was fit in.

And that makes sense, right? All I wanted to do was walk into the guitar store with all the cool kids that I respected, and them look me in the eyes and ask me about a selected guitar, and I would have the exact right answer. I would know what to think, how to think, and what to say to make them go, wow, that guy, that guy knows what he's doing. So I tried to say all of the things that I thought would get me there. And 1 of the things, 1 of the stances that I thought I had to take every single time was that Squier guitars are trash.

Real players play Fenders, the beginners, those guys who don't know what they're doing, who haven't quite gotten to the Fender level yet, they play Squiers. And yes, I know how cringy that sounds, but you don't know. That's what I thought it took to sit at the cool kids table for guitar. That was until 1 very specific day in college when 1 of my friends, he had actually asked me to jam. And this was a guy who I really, really respected his chops.

So I was like, of course, come over whenever you want. So he calls me up, he comes over after class, he knocks on my door, he brings in this guitar case and I'm like, I'm ready to go because I've been playing for a year and a half. My chops have got to be amazing. And wouldn't you know, what do I see when he opens the case but a squire? Now, like I was saying before, this is a guy who I really respected, so I didn't really know how to feel.

Like, is he just gonna plug in his doo-doo guitar, and then we're gonna be making noise, and then my RA is gonna come in, and he's gonna be like, never play again? Like, what's gonna happen? So he plugs this guitar in, and we start jamming, and immediately I notice that there are 2 tones going on in this room and 1 of them is not even close to as good and he's coming out of a Squier with a Vox Valvetronics. I'm going out of a Fender American guitar with a tube amp and he sounds 12 times better than me, so I don't know what's happening because I thought that Squires suck. And so of course I'm asking him 12 million different questions.

I'm like, Andy, what did you, like how are you making that guitar sound so good? And he goes, Mike, it's just a Squier. I've done a few mods to it. And I go, of course, that makes sense. You've done a few mods to it.

Any guitar that's been modded, you probably put like $3,000 pickups in that. Okay, you know, Squier still suck. Like this isn't me. So of course I knew I was gonna be able to sleep soundly that night. Except for, I couldn't.

I couldn't sleep soundly. I kept thinking about it. And I kept on thinking about it, day in, day out. Even when I had graduated college and I'm moving on to bigger cities. I'm visiting Nashville with my mother, meeting all of these different world-class musicians, asking them different questions about what gear they're using, hoping that 1 of them won't tell me they're using a Squire, because that'll validate everything that I'm scared of in my head.

And fortunately for me, as I'm meeting these musicians, they're telling me, Oh yeah, I play a 61 vintage SG. And I'm like, that makes sense. And I'm meeting this other player and he's like, I play a custom shop Fender Tele that costs $6,000. Bring it to the studio everywhere. And I'm like, that makes sense.

But then I meet this random dude. He says he's an engineer and he tells me he's worked in studios with, I'm not joking, some of the biggest musical artists on the planet. I'm talking Justin Timberlake and Bieber and all the other Justins. I'm like, what do you play? And he goes, Oh, I play a squire.

I go. Yeah, that's a funny 1 No, really. What are you playing? He goes no in my studio. I have a squire in the moment I didn't know if I actually believed him until he actually showed me you see this is my friend Andrew Oh, hey, he's a recording engineer youtuber basically 1 of the most talented people I've ever met in my entire life.

And about 4 or 5 years ago when he was engineering 1 of my earliest singles, I walked into his studio expecting to use a bunch of different vintage electric guitars and he actually showed me the guitar that we were gonna be using was a Squire. And I thought to myself I have to know the story behind this guitar.

Speaker 2: That's with no pedals on.

Speaker 1: Are you kidding?

Speaker 2: I'm not kidding.

Speaker 1: What are you going through?

Speaker 2: The AC30.

Speaker 1: What happened? How did you get it?

Speaker 2: I got this at a concert Okay From the band Green Day You've probably seen clips of bands who do this thing where they bring kids on stage Okay They have them play and depending on the show or the band, what they'll do is they'll let the kid keep the guitar. That happened to me when I was 14 in Peoria, Illinois, Civic Center. Went up on stage, they brought up a drummer, a bassist, and a kid to play guitar, and that was me. But when I got up there, he gave me a hug and he said in my ear, do you really play guitar? I'll never forget my response was, I can play Green Day.

You know, a 3 chord progression. And he was like, can you play this? And then he gave it to me and the strap was like all the way down to like below my knees. You know, there was a drummer and a bassist already playing like something on loop and I just played along with it. Before I got off stage, he came and had me talk for like, I don't know, 30 seconds or something and then said I could keep the guitar.

And then after the show, I went to get the guitar. I didn't know really what to do, so we just waited by the stage, and some crew member came out with a box, like a cardboard box, and then this was just like sitting in the cardboard box like this.

Speaker 1: This was like 20 years ago, so this was like Green Day in their prime, right?

Speaker 2: This was right when American Idiot, the album, came out. So it was like the American Idiot tour with My Chemical Romance. I basically used this as my main guitar. It's actually a fantastic guitar. Plays well and it sounds really great.

It's got the humbuckers down here. About 5 or 6 years ago, I actually swapped out the pickups.

Speaker 1: You mind if I play it? Yeah. You said there's no pedals at all going on right now? Yep. That's literally just this into the Vox with the top boost?

Speaker 2: I'm not using the top boost either. I'm just going into the normal input.

Speaker 1: Are you kidding?

Speaker 2: Serious.

Speaker 1: What do you know? Yeah. Wow, this thing is really good. What do you know? Wow, this thing is crazy man This is crazy, man.

That's the thing. This feels better than any Squier that I've ever played in my life. And like you said, it could have been the setup, because it sounds phenomenal. The action, you have the action super low on here, which I like.

Speaker 2: I have never adjusted anything. I have done nothing.

Speaker 1: It's like too heavy for like Hendrix stuff, which is amazing. What is it with this guitar? What is it that makes this feel different and sound? Like, what is it that would make a Squier sound like super professional?

Speaker 2: Well, actually, the first thing I think is this thing rocks as far as the tone. You just plug it in and it just immediately, great rock tone, and it plays really well. But it just reminds me of that story and that sort of moment in my life. And now I have a son who's playing guitar and I would tell him that story, the Green Day story, as a bedtime story. In the story I would tell him at the end of it was like, you know, then Andy grew up and had a kid and then 1 day he'll give that guitar to his son.

Speaker 1: And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen, that is the story of 1 of the coolest Squire guitars I've ever seen in my life. It really is 1 of those things where I think there were so many misconceptions that I had about gear and some of the biggest ones weren't just about like player series vendors but about actual Squires and seeing that they can sound really good even without any weird mods done to them. It just depends who you are and how you use it. Now, the big thing I do want to address is, I think there's a temptation to think that what I'm saying here is that you should only buy Squires. Like, don't believe the hype about any of the expensive guitars.

I will never, on this channel, argue that a Squire Classic vibe is going to sound better than the American Vintage 2 strap. That's not a thing, but I will proudly say in the hands of the right person, of the professional player, they could probably make that Squire Classic vibe sound better than American Vintage 2 in my hands ever could. And if you end up giving them the American Vintage II, they can make it sound that much better. I guess the moral of the story is when you really, really learn how to use your gear and really learn what you're doing playing-wise, when you take that step up, it'll make even more of a difference. But in the end, it doesn't matter what I think, matters is what you think.

So let me know in the comments, do you have a Squier? Was your first guitar a Squier? Did you think it was amazing? Did you think it was underrated? I wanna know what you think.

Anyway, thank you so much for watching this video. It was so much fun. Thank you so much to Andrew for just letting me come over to his studio and see what's up, see what the story behind 1 of the coolest guitars I think he's ever owned is. Link to his channel will be in the description. If you wanna know anything more about any of the other gear we used make sure to check out the links in the description you get it all from Sweetwater you know the spiel like and subscribe if you had a good time and most important like most importantly of all time have a fantastic day do you know anyone else with a squire

Speaker 2: in Nashville

Speaker 1: yeah

Speaker 2: yeah you probably find a 1 or 2 people with a squad.

See all Mike Cole transcripts on Youtube

Why Guitar Players Choose Squier Over Fender