A lot of Squires are basicly crap. I've played some fairly nice ones too. I think most new guitars now a days are hit and miss. Fender's absolute bottom line, DeArmonde is on average better than their American Standard Series, atleast as far as basses are concerned. I've been too discusted with the basses to try an american standard guitar. The same goes for Epiphone and Gibson. Many Epi's I've seen lately (excluding pickups) have been much better than many Gibsons at 3-4 times the Epiphone price. I've come to the point where if I go to a shop to check out new stuff, I usually end up going straight to the used rack.