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

[Ace4eVer]

I was one of those who ran out and bought the Squier when Fender confirmed the discontinuation. I wanted to thank hmxHenry for the update since I was not opening it on the slim chance that a V2 was coming out. While the news isn't good, I appreciate the update as I think most consumers do. What this does to existing stock and non-US customers I don't know, but hopefully something can be figured out.

I've opened my Squier now and while I'm a bit worried about the reports, I plan to read up on the other threads and see if any problems I encounter can be solved. An official troubleshooting document from Fender or HMX would be great and might stem some of the returns.

I don't think we will ever know what really happened and when, but we have enough information to make educated choices for ourselves. HMX coming out and supporting pro mode still is one of the big items that should put a lot of buyers at ease.

[GRRRUMBLE]

hmxhenry wrote awesome stuff. Not good or okay or so so but awesome stuff.
It could mean many of our hopes are being worked out.
I just hope it's not spoons and washtub for redneck rock band .
We don't really know how sucessful pro has been.
We don't really know if there are a lineup of manufacturers hoping to get represented here.
What we do know is that they are very connected with our playing habits and scores.
They have data. They read some of the forum concerns.
We also know and they know how this whole pro guitar change from legacy went down.
The availability was x boxed while others waited. Would they do that again?
Todays top 1% for pro guitar ps3 is 157 meaning 15,700 actual players purchased either a
squier or a mustang. My local gamestop didn't even bother to unbox a display.
Look at the mustang box and know what's in there if your a kid or a parent not
interested in games. It should have been unboxed and window displayed, along with a squier.
15,700 in 6 months is a good start. It could be 20,000 next week if kids pass their grades
with a good report card.
Awesome stuff coming up

[Obi_Wan_Kenoli]

Again, with who? Would you enter into an agreement with them to make a product with the kind of low sales volume potential this has? This is assuming that whatever agreement they have with Fender doesn't preclude that they go with another manufacturer.

Never said it was an easy sell, but seeing as they invested a lot into it, it's late to get squeamish. You back it 100% at this point. Having a real instrument, present, is key IMO. Otherwise you is throw up your hands and let "real guitar" aspect of Pro die a slow, lingering death as the current supply on the market eventually dries up with no replacement option on the horizon; both for current users or option period for those that never got it in the first place.

I fell bad mostly for those that are dying for the thing and can't get their hands on it, while Best Buy's have them sitting on the rack collecting dust.

[mikeyts]

Never said it was an easy sell, but seeing as they invested a lot into it, it's late to get squeamish.

I think it's more or less an impossible sale. There's almost nothing in it for the manufacturer.

Having a real instrument, present, is key IMO. Otherwise you is throw up your hands and let "real guitar" aspect of Pro die a slow, lingering death as the current supply on the market eventually dries up with no replacement option on the horizon; both for current users or option period for those that never got it in the first place.

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. I don't think that the Squier or any other analog guitar would ever have amounted to as many as 10% of pro guitar players and I think that it will always be possible to get the electronic ones. I've heard guitarists state that they bought the Mustang because they aready owned 3 or 4 analog guitars and didn't feel the need to buy another. Many real guitarists--even guys in working bands--have had a ball playing the Mustang, learning to play songs that they could then perform on their real guitars. It was the real guitarists playing Mustangs who dominated the top of the pro guitar leaderboard with 5* and FC scores from the early weeks after launch and they probably still do, since joined by a few experience guitarists playing the Squier.

I fell (sic) bad mostly for those that are dying for the thing and can't get their hands on it, while Best Buy's have them sitting on the rack collecting dust.

That is somewhat tragic. Players of the game outside of the US are constantly being slighted.

[jimhenry]

Would it make sense for Harmonix to open up RB3 to real guitarists by patching the game so that it doesn't prevent seeing the Pro Guitar track and it doesn't play the guitar track, make miss sounds, or fail the guitarist if Pro Guitar hardware isn't present.

If Harmonix is willing be a little shady they could advertise play along with any real guitar and put "unscored play" in fine print. I would think a lot of real guitarists would find value in having the backing tracks and tablature, even if non-standard. This might take some of the wind out of Ubisoft's sails (sales?).

[Blasteroids]

Here's the situation as I understand it: due to significant manufacturing lead times and the quantity currently available in the retail channel, Fender has decided not to place any more back orders for direct fulfillment.

So although there is demand for the product, Fender is unwilling to make more because of a stupid exclusive deal with Best Buy. And who's fault is that? Certainly not the consumers.

There should be a sufficient quantity in the pipeline to meet the current demand, and when we get back into the office on Monday we'll begin next steps with Best Buy and Fender to help you track availability and assist in getting stock where it needs to be.

Awesome news. When you are back in the office on Monday, please let us people outside of the US know where we can find stock that can be purchased. Because every retailer I have contacted in the EU has the product discontinued because Fender has told them they will not supply them with any more.

[skyp1e]

This all takes me back to my original assertion that Yamaha is where HMX should turn to at this point.

Unlike Fender and Gibson, Yamaha can make quirky electronic instruments that are of *decent quality with a low price and do it in large numbers very fast.

*literally "decent" as opposed to high end worth $1000 but only costs $200 "decent"

I'm not a Yamaha fanboy. I hardly own any Yamaha gear (other than some DX keyboards, a reverb that sucks and some keyboard accessories), but facts are facts. They make consistent products just like all Big Macs are the same and they can bang out their widgets again like Big Macs.

[Icanutoo]

Eitherway, the value of my Squier just went up in value . I'm very happy to have it as a first guitar , and it works almost too well given my bass experience (Ibanez BTB 5-string is way more of a performance style instrument than the Squier, IMHO). I do agree though that there could be a more substantial guitar, like a high quaility Les Paul version with the gold finish, that would really take Rock Band to a new and professional level. Otherwise, rock on!

Fender did a lot to get us (players and HMX) to this point, but let's not forget that the Wii software still needs an upgrade to fully count our effort (yep, still upset with that HMX!)

[abynormal]

I took it as a fun happy corporate way of saying that it is discontinued due to poor sales.

The way I interpreted it was that Fender can't make it fast enough to fill the preorders / backorders / etc. in a reasonable amount of time so they have given up on that and are focusing on just making enough for retailers to keep some in stock.

[IndienStrummer]

There's a very real possibility that some manufacturer could create a midi guitar similar to the YouRock guitar, but with strings instead of the YRG's rubberrized fretboard. 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. Although with the YouRock you do have the benefit of hearing what you're playing through headphones, and neither the Mustang nor the squier can do that--yes, you can do this with the squier unmuted but not without sustains being broken and extra notes being registered, which I find way too distracting. Who knows, maybe there will be a second version of the YouRock that has strings along the fretboard. If the quality of that was decent enough then I could see that being an acceptable alternative to the squier.