The Joys of an Affordable Guitar: My Squier Jazzmaster Story

In this episode, I share the surprising advantages of owning a budget-friendly guitar, specifically highlighting their beloved Squier Jazzmaster. Despite owning high-end models like a Stratocaster and Telecaster, I details why the $600 Squier, purchased at a local music store, stands out. From its unique Aqua Green finish to its comfortable neck and reliable tuners, the guitar's features provide excellent value. 

Also, I recount my memorable trip to Seattle, meeting Pearl Jam's Mike McCready, and how these experiences are immortalized through stickers on the guitar. Ultimately, the episode advocates for choosing guitars based on personal connection and aesthetics rather than brand or price, emphasizing the joy and freedom a less expensive instrument can bring.

00:00 Introduction: The Joy of Affordable Guitars
00:13 Discovering the Squire Jazz Master
01:04 Comparing Costs: Squire vs. High-End Guitars
02:00 Craftsmanship and Modifications
03:02 A Memorable 50th Birthday Concert
04:21 The Seattle Grunge Tour
07:50 Emotional Connection to Guitars
08:32 Final Thoughts: Choosing the Right Guitar

Transcript

whoa. I finally realized the big advantage of owning a fairly affordable guitar. I own a Strat right there. I own a telly. I love them. Don't get me wrong. But this squire, I gotta say, is one of my favorite guitars of all time because I just got nothing to worry about really. And plus, I love this. I picked this up a couple years ago, saw it out my local music store, and I just checked the website.

The do not make this. Specific model. I think it's like Aqua Green. They have a J masses one, uh, the, uh, singer and guitar player songwriter for Dinosaur Jr. His is really nice too. It has the same color, Pickard, but he has a beige, it's a beige body and uh, I think a darker neck as well. I'm not sure if it's Ebony or or what, but um, yeah, this one, you can't get this anymore and I'm so glad I did.

It's a [00:01:00] Squire jazz Master. And crafted in Indonesia. So craftsmanship of course is nothing like the made in USA Strat that I have or the telly, but I'm telling you for the price, I paid $600 Canadian for this. And just to give you a comparison, my Strat over here was almost $3,000 Canadian. So. Check out that price difference.

And my tell, I think was around 2000. So for $600 a guitar like this, I mean, you can't get better value than this. First of all, the look is amazing. I just was absolutely drawn to the look first and foremost. And then when I picked it up, man, the neck was so comfortable. And I just love these, these pickups.

So initially I thought these were P nineties. I've been told and corrected by my community. Thank you. It's not P nineties, it's just special pickups that, um, that were made to look like P nineties on the outside. [00:02:00] And you know what? The craftsmanship, the knobs are are fine. They're great. They look great.

The only thing I have to say about it is that when I got the neck wasn't the easiest to play with. So I actually had to take it in and they had to. Believe it or not, sand it down a little bit. But since they did that what was that? Like 150 bucks for the work for that. It sounds amazing and it plays amazing.

The feel is really good. You know, if you take that into account, so that's $750 with that little fix up here. Man, the value of this is amazing. The look, this is like, kind of like a stainless steel color, if you can see that these tuners as well, and they stay in tune. I don't have any issues with tuning.

Love this kind of gold pick guard. That's it. I mean, my only complaint was that little glitch there. In terms of craftsmanship, it wasn't the best. Uh, but once you fix that, honestly, I, I, I, love this guitar. I, I, in terms of [00:03:00] playing live, nothing beats it. So let me tell you a story.

So for my 50th birthday, I organized this, uh, concert that me and my friends did. And all my buddies brought their expensive and amazing Les Pauls to the stage. But it was fairly like an intimate venue and so people can easily kind of just reach anything from the stage. Right? And obviously we weren't there all night.

We were just playing for an hour and, uh, the rest of the night we left our instruments on stage. I can see their paranoia having those really expensive guitars very close to people. And you know, they didn't know a lot of people in a crowd, so they were always kind of like checking it out. And for me, I had no care in the world.

I rocked this sucker on stage, didn't really care to ding it or knock it over or whatever. I just put it right there and had a good time, didn't really worry about it. And so that's the advantage of having these. Guitars you can knock around. I've always wanted a guitar [00:04:00] where I can buy and just stick a bunch of stickers on it, you know, and just, uh, bang it up and not really care about it.

With the Strat, obviously I haven't done that, as you can see, don't wanna ruin it. I love it. But this, immediately, as soon as I got it, uh, I slapped on these stickers and there's a story behind this guitar and these stickers too. I actually went, when was it? 2023. I had the most amazing trip of my life.

I went to, uh, Seattle to meet Mike McCready. An amazing highlight of my life. That's another story. But I did a kind of a grunge tour. So we went to London Bridge Studios. We, they recorded 10 sound garden, recorded some albums there. Temple of the Dog, Alison Chains. Had a tour of the studio, sat on the same damn couch that Vetter and Chris Cornell sat.

I was in the same damn vocal booth that Chris Cornell and Eddie Veder laid out. All those amazing iconic tracks. [00:05:00] The technician there at the studio actually played us the raw tracks of 10 because it, it was recorded there and they still had the master tracks. And just listening to vet's raw vocal tracks, man, it gave me goosebumps.

Goosebumps and I, we saw we were at the park, if you remember when Kurt Cobain killed himself. I think it was the day after or shortly after a lot of people gathered around this park. And I remember watching this on tv. Courtney Love was there and she was obviously sobbing and apologizing to the fans.

But we actually went to that park and I did not know, but that park is right beside Kurt Cobain's house. So I, I got to see his driveway and, and, um, his house. So he shot himself at the top level, and you can actually see that. That area where he shot himself. And in that park there's this bench and there's this commemorative bench of Kurt Cobain where, uh, a lot of people left, [00:06:00] candles, notes, um, all this memorabilia for him, and, uh, also visited.

What did I do? Uh, Chris Cornell was inspired to write Black Hole Sun at this park. There was a structure there, the sculpture. At this park. So I saw that it was unbelievable. I'm a huge Pearl Jam fan and Pearl Jam played, uh, what's it called? Easy Street Records. Played Easy Street Records live, and I have that vinyl.

They played this intimate show there, so had a chance to check out Easy Street Records. And what I didn't know is that upstairs is actually a restaurant, like a little breakfast diner, and on there there was like a Eddie Vet's favorite dish. So I had to order that. But such a, a memorable weekend. And to top it off, like I said, I.

Mike McCready Pearl Jams guitar player. So he did like a, a very intimate charity show and my buddy was kind enough to, uh, buy some tickets and we got to see the show. He was rocking out. [00:07:00] Two feet away from me for an hour. Uh, he played with this band called Thunder Pussy, an all girl band. Very cool. Go check him out.

And then I got to meet him at the end of the show. And we talked for a bit. I met his wife, his kids, and he, he gave me some pics. What a memorable night and a memorable weekend. And I got these stickers. This one here, London Bridge Studio I got from the actual studio when we got that tour. And then this one, and this one is from.

Easy Street Records right here. Easy Street Records. Got it from the vinyl store where Pearl Jam played at Iconic show. And, uh, this is just, uh, the, it's one letter podcast sticker right there. But, ooh, you know what? I don't care. I don't care. I only spend $600. Ding all you want. But yeah, you know what, so I, I slapped on these stickers, so this is my Seattle.

Guitar and every time I pick this up, I think of the joy of that trip and, uh, man, it, it just brings me so much joy to [00:08:00] play this guitar. So there you go. So, you know what, don't always think the expense of guitars is it? I, man, I, I would, I would. This is, I'm, this is not leaving me. I'm, I'm, this is, there's no way I'm selling this.

And at this point, this is probably the emotion and the sentiment of this guitar is probably the same as my Strat right now. My Strat is very sentimental. I got on my 40th birthday, so that's a whole other thing. But this has emotion and memories attached to this guitar. So that's it. You know what I mean?

Like if you find a guitar, I guess the lesson I'm trying to. Tell you is that if you find a guitar and you love the look, who cares? If it's not a Fender, who cares? If it's not a Gibson, who cares if it's not a PSR? If you like the look, you like the feel, you like the weight go for it. You know what I mean?

Guitars, these days for six, $600 for $600 guitars. These days, you can get a pretty damn nice guitar, and I've seen guitars cheaper than this for like [00:09:00] three, $400. As well. And nowadays with computers and robotics and the quality of these countries, Indonesia, Korea, Vietnam, China, obviously they're the pros at it now making these type of guitars top notch.

So don't let the, uh, cheapness fool you. It's a great bye, especially if you can attach some sort of emotion to it, like I thankfully did. But yes, this is the squire that I will, I won't say bring to bring with me to my grave, but hopefully this inspired you to just find a guitar that you just love the look.

At the end of the day when we walk into that music store, we just want to find a guitar that looks freaking cool. Price aside, brands aside, does it look cool or not? There's no point in buying a 4,000 guitar if you're not really excited to jam on it, and so this is what [00:10:00] did it for me.

Hopefully this inspires to just go ahead and just grab one of these, or one that you love, the look, okay. The brand. Squire. All right, Kramer. All right. You know, I mean, uh, what else is out there? Epiphone. They're all great guitars right now. As long as you love the look, don't be afraid to try it and to buy it and to just play the heck out of it.

Not really worrying if it gets knocked out, knocked over if someone takes it, whatever. Honestly, like at that show, I was like, whatever, if someone takes it, it's fine. I'll just go get another one, you know? But for the Les Paul, like if someone would've took that. I would be crying for two weeks straight, this one. Okay, maybe, maybe a couple of days 'cause there's some, there's some memories attached to it. But there you go. Hopefully this story inspires you. Rock on one louder and I'll see you on the next [00:11:00] episode.