Fender Squier current status & availability - IMPORTANT INFO - HMX update to OP 6/27

[mikeyts]

I personally preferred the mustang to the YouRock, only because the buttons on the Mustang are similar to strings in that you can feel something being pushed down when you're fretting, as opposed to the YouRock's fretboard which has no give to it.

I take it that you've actually used the YRG?

The game controller function the YRG is a minor part of its capabilities and most of the people who purchase it don't purchase it for that. I've heard its fretboard described as being like a guitar with an impossibly low action. I've seen clips of people doing some pretty incredible things with it. (You can see a review of it by a professional musician named Dan Mumm here. He runs down the differences between playing it and an analog guitar and demonstrates a piece that he created, playing all of the parts, including drums, with the YRG. He loves the fretboard, because its "impossibly low action" lets him play faster than on almost any standard guitars).

As you mentioned, as an RB3 Pro controller the YRG has the advantage that it can be hooked up to an amp or headphones so that you can listen to yourself play along with the game without any effect on its function as a controller. I've actually run a cable from the headphone connection of my AVR into the YRG's audio-in and plugged headphones into the YRG and listened to myself play its internal guitar patches along with the game without making any noise anyone else could hear other than the sound of my strumming its strings.

They're working on a second version of the YRG, but it's not going to have strings on the fretboard. What it will have is a full sized wooden body and neck, which would make the prospect of playing it on stage a bit more appealing.

[skyp1e]

I'm planning on buying the YRG for my daughter on her birthday contingent on how well she does with my Mustang.

I think that the benefits of the YRG outweigh any shortcomings and I would prefer it if her first real stringed guitar wasn't the Fender.

Don't misconstrue this as my not being frightfully disappointed by the turn of events for the Squier. I think that it's tragic what Fender is putting HMX through and I believe that the guitar itself although not what I want for MY purposes is the best thing most RB3 players could want in a peripheral.

[Dark_Al]

What about Rockband 3 players from overseas? I'm located in Australia, and I know that many like me have been waiting for a Squier to be on sale here since March! And after WAITING MONTHS for so-called 'back order', vendors here are now saying that it won't be arriving after all since Fender has 'discontinued' the item!!! How can HMX sell a game if it can't even ensure that there's required peripheral support??? It's not like I can simply import one (even if I want to do so, Best Buy does not ship internationally!). I was extremely enthusiastic about the game and was one of those who bought during the initial release.... and now I'm TOTALLY LOSING MY PATIENCE and I really regret buying it!!!!! And I've wasted all my money and time downloading 'PRO upgrades' in anticipation (which are now simply useless files without the Squier)!!!!!

[Obi_Wan_Kenoli]

I think that you Squier-or-die people vastly overestimate your importance. The price point of the Squier is prohibitive for most of the people who take an interest in it and I don't think it would ever have sold enough to get the price down through economies of scale.

And I'd agree with that opinion except for the fact of back ordered items being cancelled and international consumers not being ever able to get their hands on the product at all. You're entitled to your opinion on opinions, and are free to speculate on how the product "coulda/woulda" performed ultimately have performed by whatever metric you choose.

But you're attributing a lack of demand in your theories for what actually seems to be really poor distribution from what is actually said regarding the events that actually transpired, the actual statements of Fender and the Retailers that have refunded the deposit on backorders.

The fact is there are people that want the instrument, and there are currently instruments on the market, but a fair amount of those apparently can't or ultimately won't be consumed because of different forms of inaccessibility, not because people don't want them. They can't get them.

Stores aren't returning deposits because analysts at Fender said "we looked at the leaderboards and theorize that 10% of all pro players would ever pick up the thing, so we quit, return your customers money". They're returning deposits because Fender feels they have produced enough to fill demand, ignoring the distribution in relation to the demand. Again, actual statements from customers regarding droves of retailers not being able to stock the item to even meet their order demands, especially internationally, while someone else who has no interest in it can find 3 on a shelf at Best Buy suggests more of a distribution problem than the logical leap for me to attribute this primarily to some demand problem. The latter just makes me have to ignore too much of what is actually observable, and place too much stock in speculation and armchair statistics. Lex Parsimoniae.

To me this points not so much to a lack of people wanting to pick it up, but more of the same logistical issues that plagued some of the hardware for RB3 since release. You're free to agree, or disagree as you like.

[BrutalBrian]

There's a Fender Squier sitting at the Taylor, MI Best Buy Store for anyone that wants it.

[GRRRUMBLE]

I was a guitar store regular visitor. There is variety in them. I walked past the squier brand , just walked on by. Now all of this talk is Squier like it's the ultimate. The waters were tested with this brand and fender owns a few brands.
An exclusive deal with one company logo on all controllers never seemed right to me.

[Santa Claustrophobia]

What about Rockband 3 players from overseas? I'm located in Australia, and I know that many like me have been waiting for a Squier to be on sale here since March! And after WAITING MONTHS for so-called 'back order', vendors here are now saying that it won't be arriving after all since Fender has 'discontinued' the item!!! How can HMX sell a game if it can't even ensure that there's required peripheral support??? It's not like I can simply import one (even if I want to do so, Best Buy does not ship internationally!). I was extremely enthusiastic about the game and was one of those who bought during the initial release.... and now I'm TOTALLY LOSING MY PATIENCE and I really regret buying it!!!!! And I've wasted all my money and time downloading 'PRO upgrades' in anticipation (which are now simply useless files without the Squier)!!!!!

You should look into the definitely-not-at-all-discontinued Mustang.

You also should not have purchased the upgrades before either getting a Pro guitar or without accepting that it will make it easier to play those songs with others who do.

All HMX can do is ensure that Fender met the terms of the contract. Maybe try and get somebody else to make a compatible guitar.

[KMO_2000]

All HMX can do is ensure that Fender met the terms of the contract.

Or more usefully, they could start figuring out a way to get the existing guitars down from the shelves of this "Best Buy" shop and distributing them to the people who want them, but can't get them. Which is what hmxHenry's posts suggest they'll look into.

(What is a "Best Buy", by the way? I've been wondering for some time. Can anyone translate that into UK English - what's our closest equivalent?)

[Santa Claustrophobia]

Or more usefully, they could start figuring out a way to get the existing guitars down from the shelves of this "Best Buy" shop and distributing them to the people who want them, but can't get them. Which is what hmxHenry's posts suggest they'll look into.

(What is a "Best Buy", by the way? I've been wondering for some time. Can anyone translate that into UK English - what's our closest equivalent?)

It's a 'Big Box' store. A place to go that sells home electronics and other similar crap.

Distribution of third party gear is not HMX's responsibility.

[grizzlymaze]

Its like Comet or Dixons but American so bigger.