Squier

V.C. Squier Company was a strings manufacturing company for violins, banjos, and guitars. It was established in 1890 by Victor Carroll Squier in Battle Creek, Michigan. In 1965, the company was acquired by Fender. By 1975, Squier became defunct as a manufacturer and a brand name for strings, as Fender opted to market its strings under the Fender brand name.

In 1982, the Squier brand was reactivated by Fender to become its brand for lower priced versions of Fender guitars. Squier guitars have been manufactured in Japan, Korea, Mexico, India, Indonesia, China and the United States.

History

V.C. Squier Company (1890-1975)

Jerome Bonaparte Squier, a young English immigrant who arrived in Battle Creek, Michigan, in the latter part of the 19th century, was a farmer and shoemaker who had learned the fine European art of violin making. He moved to Boston in 1881, where he built and repaired violins with his son, Victor Carroll Squier. To this day, their violins are noted for their exceptional varnishes, and they command high prices as fine examples of early U.S. instrument craftsmanship. Indeed, J.B. Squier ranks among the best-known U.S.-trained violin makers and is often referred to as "the American Stradivarius."

Squier (surname)

Squier is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

Squier '51

The Squier '51 is an electric guitar made by Squier, a subsidiary of Fender. The '51 is notable for being one of the few original designs made by Squier, which normally manufactures less expensive authorized copies of Fender's popular guitars and bass guitars.

Construction

The '51 combines aspects of several of Fender's best-known instruments. The body and neck pickup resemble that of the Fender Stratocaster, while the single-ply pickguard and the control plate is borrowed from the original incarnation of the Fender Precision Bass. The neck and headstock design are reminiscent of a Fender Telecaster.

The '51 uses a humbucker in the bridge position and a Stratocaster-style single-coil pickup in the neck position. The bridge of the '51 is slightly narrower than most US-made Fender guitars in order to line up better with the polepieces of the humbucker, which are designed for the narrower string spacing of Gibson-style guitars. The bridge pickup has a coil split, activated by pulling out on the volume control knob, to switch between single-coil and humbucker configuration. The second control knob, which normally would operate as a tone control on a Telecaster or early Precision Bass, is a three-position pickup selector switch for choosing between the neck alone, combined neck/humbucker, or humbucker alone. It has a six-saddle hardtail top-loading bridge.