2023 Squier Sonic Telecaster | The new best value for money Tele around?! In-depth Review & Demo

This is the 2023 Squier Sonic Telecaster in California Blue – possibly the most beautiful member of the new Squier Sonic Series of super affordable electric guitars and basses!

At Thomann: https://thmn.to/thoprod/561023?offid=...
At Sweetwater: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/PyWDJj

Launched in summer 2023, the Squier Sonic Series replaces the brand’s Bullet Series, making it Squier – and therefore Fender’s – cheapest line of electric guitars. The Sonic Series features Telecaster, Stratocaster and Mustang models, and the guitars come in a wide array of exciting (and not-so-exciting!) colors. Fender say the Sonic Series offers great guitars for beginners, but also for players at any stage on their guitar journey.

That’s where I come in! I’ve played guitar for years and have owned plenty of Squier and Fender guitars in that time, from Bullet Teles to my Classic Vibe Esquire and Fender Teles and Strats. I’m a huge fan of my Squiers, and when I saw the beautiful California Blue finish on the Sonic Tele – and the tiny €179/$199 price tag – I just had to grab one. (You can also get these Teles in Torino Red, Black and Butterscotch Blonde!)

The Sonic Tele’s specs are decent: you get a poplar body and a C-shape satin finish maple neck with an Indian laurel fingerboard with a 9.5” radius. The bridge is top loading, the hardware is chrome, and you get a pair of Squier-designed single coil Tele pickups.

But the ultimate question is: how good is the Sonic Tele? Does it represent great value for money, or should you go for more expensive model instead? In this video, I test the guitar out in as many different musical styles as I can, from country, folk and indie, to pop, rock, blues, punk, metal and more. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:

00:00 Hello!
00:20 Introduction to the Squier Sonic Series and Tele
01:42 Specs and info
04:23 Today’s rig and plan

Clean Sounds
05:50 Clean tone reference chords with all pickup options
06:11 Country ballad arpeggios
06:24 Strummed country chords (on all pickups)
06:43 Blues progression
06:54 Ringing open indie pop chords
07:08 Poppy barre chords
07:24 Cowboy chords with tone control test
07:51 Funk rhythm chords
08:04 Surf pop riff

Overdrive Sounds
08:22 Fat indie rhythm chords
08:40 Kings Of Leon inspired riff
08:54 Garage rock riff
09:11 Choppy barre chords
09:20 Indie rock barre chords (all pickups)
09:45 Volume control roll-off test
10:05 Poppy indie riff
10:12 Ascending droning indie rock riff
10:25 AC/DC inspired classic rock riff
10:41 Groovy rock riff
10:55 Airbourne inspired rock riff
11:07 Hendrix inspired riff
11:16 Classic rock riff

Heavy Overdrive Sounds
11:29 Hard rock riff
11:46 80s rock riff
12:06 Classic hard rock riff
12:24 Hard rock melodic lead (neck/bridge pickups)
12:46 Chunky alt rock chords
12:59 Alternative rock riff
13:14 Green Day inspired punk rock riff
13:27 Pop punk melodic lead riff
13:43 Punk rock power chords
13:57 Less Than Jake inspired punk riff
14:08 Progressive rock riff (Drop D tuning)
14:24 Modern rock palm-muted power chords (Drop D, all pickups)
14:51 Rage Against The Machine inspired groovy riff (Drop D)

Metal sounds (all in Drop D)
15:08 Metal chugging riff
15:25 Heavy metal lead sound
15:42 Hardcore punk riff
15:56 Mastodon inspired metal riff with country twang
16:08 Classic metal/sludge riff

16:44 My thoughts
17:44 First impressions out of the box
18:26 Weight
19:00 Build quality and hardware
20:18 Playability and the neck
21:00 Sounds and pickups discussion
24:01 What I don’t like
24:49 What other similar guitars are out there?
26:25 My conclusions on the Sonic Tele and why you should buy it

My setup was as follows: I ran the guitar into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, also using my Joyo Dark Flame pedal for heavy distortion sounds. The amp went from the Red Box DI straight into my Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, which went into Logic Pro X. That's it. No post-processing on the sounds was done.

Here’s some links to those bits of gear:

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H&K Black Spirit 200 head: https://thmn.to/thoprod/447827?offid=...
Joyo R-17 Dark Flame: https://thmn.to/thoprod/532055?offid=...
Focusrite 4i4 (the new 2i4): https://thmn.to/thoprod/467952?offid=...
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Enjoy!


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Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.

#Squier #SquierGuitars #SquierTelecaster #Telecaster #SquierSonic


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‪@fender‬