Squier
Squier is a trademark under which the US musical instrument manufacturer Fender has been selling inexpensive replicas of its own high-priced electric guitars and bass models since 1982 .
history
Jerome Bonapart (JB) Squier was an English immigrant who tried his luck in America as a farmer and shoemaker in 1881. In Battle Creek (Michigan) he also made European-style violins . These instruments soon gained an excellent reputation among European immigrants in America. Especially the son Victor Carol (VC) Squier earned the highest respect from the aspiring musicians' guild in the American West at the beginning of the 20th century. Squier's violins were in great demand across the continent. The quality and price were far superior to those of European imports. In 1890 Victor opened his first violin shop in Battle Creek and soon afterwards he had to look for larger premises because his shop was too small.
At the turn of the century the best violin strings came from England. Importing was complicated at the time, took a long time and was therefore expensive, and the quality suffered during the long crossings at sea. So Victor decided to start producing violin strings. At first by hand, later, when he couldn't keep up with production, industrially. Production quickly reached over 1000 strings per day. The good reputation for strings also spread in no time, and guitar and banjo strings were quickly added to the violin strings .
Around 1930 Squier also began making strings for the emerging electrically amplified instruments. In addition, pianos, radios and record players were now also traded. In 1950 Leo Fender - founder of the Leo Fender Instrumental Manufacture - became aware of the Squiers. Fender was in dire need of strings for his new solid body guitars. Squier became the official supplier for Fender guitars and later also for the Fender bass guitars.
In 1965 Leo Fender bought the VC Squier Company, shortly before he himself sold his company to the American finance company CBS. Squier was part of the Fender Instrumental Manufacture.
Squier as a trademark
The instruments from Fender were copied so often, especially in Asia, that Fender was looking for a way to stem this tide or to benefit from it itself. That is why Fender began in 1982 under the name Squier at Fujigen Gakki in Japan to produce exact copies of its coveted models Stratocaster , Telecaster and later also Precision Bass and Jazz Bass . Squier was also the only manufacturer of copies that was allowed to use the names Telecaster , Stratocaster , Precision Bass and Jazz Bass . The instruments were of good quality and affordable. With this, Fender managed to stem the flood of black copies first in the Asian market and then also in Europe . The Japanese-made instruments sometimes even achieved the same quality standard as the American sister products of the pre-CBS era, with which Squier competed strongly on its sister’s American market. Since 1987, cheaper models have also been manufactured by Samick in South Korea . In 1996, Tōkai Guitars and Dyna Gakki took over the production of Squier guitars in Japan. Production facilities gradually emerged in Mexico , Indonesia , India and China .
Web links
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