On the bench today is the Squier Contemporary Jaguar HH ST. The HH stands for Humbucker, Humbucker and ST stands for Stopbar Tailpiece.
I have not been inclined to purchase one of the Squier Contemporary series guitars until now. I don’t know if I am a fan of modern looking guitars. The music I listen to is not normally played on highspeed 7 string speed machines. Am I sounding yet like an old man standing in my front yard yelling at the pesky kids while wearing shorts and black socks?
Aesthetically the guitar is very attractive, and it was difficult for me to choose between the two colors offered of Shoreline Gold (this Guitar) and Skyburst Metallic.
Originally released in 2021 and still being made in 2024. New the guitar goes for $469 and used the guitar goes for $272 to $375 depending upon condition.
My first observation is that the guitar is that the guitar is a little on the heavy side at 8 pounds and 11 ounces or 3.964 kilos. But there is a lot to this guitar with the broad offset body and all of the electronics and pickups.
The neck is made of roasted maple and is finished with a satin urethane finish except for the headstock face which is a painted gloss urethane. It has a C shape with an Indian Laurel Fretboard, 22 jumbo frets, a very flat 12-inch or 305 mm radius, nut width is 1.650” or 42 mm and the nut is made of graphite. The guitar’ scale length is 24 inches or 610 mm.
I REALLY like the neck on this guitar. It feels great to play with the satin finish and it is beautiful to look at with it being roasted maple. Also, there is a sculpted neck heal which is a modern feature and folks that like to play at the higher end will appreciate.
The tuners are modern Squier tuners but with a split shaft. For me that is almost the equivalent of having locking tuners. The action of the tuners is excellent, and I see no reason the upgrade them.
The guitar comes with two Squier SQR Atomic Humbucking pickups. Pickup switching is handled through a Telecaster like 3-position blade switch located at the bottom of the guitar.
Controls: Master Volume, Master Tone
Coil tap located at the front of the top control panel: this can be used to make the humbucker pickups sound more like typical Jaguar single coil pickups. Pushing it down causes it to enter the coil split position. Up position is in humbucking.
Series/ Parallel Switch located at the rear of the top control panel: pushing this switch to the rear activates the series circuit which is louder and boosts the mid-range. Pushing the switch forward activates the parallel circuit.
I found no fret rocking anywhere on the fretboard from fret 1 to fret 22. The edges of the frets are not sharp.
Measuring impendence on the pickups while in parallel mode without coil split the bridge measures 7.69 k ohms, the middle position of both pickups measures 3.91 k ohms, and the neck measures 5.18 k ohms.
