I spend a lot of time on Reverb. One of my past times or hobbies is looking for special run, vintage modified, or other unique Fender Squiers. You would be surprised – there are a lot of them.

I love older Fender Squiers with Rosewood fretboards and Seymour Duncan designed pickups. Not only are they wonderful guitars but they are also pretty good collectable guitars in the manner that they hold their value and most increase in value over the years.

Recently I was on Reverb and saw a guitar for sale that only had two pictures. Both pictures were taken with the guitar sitting on the floor of a storage locker. I reached out to the seller, and this is what he told me.

We were cleaning out my stepdad’s house and storage lockers to sell what we found. We kept unearthing all of the guitars he's been collecting for 20+ years. Lately he has been ill and not able to play. We found a lot of guitars under piles of junk amazing though - most in pristine condition. I think he had bought this guitar at a shop and literally never took it out of the original box because it looks virtually brand new.

The seller had it listed for the going market value of the guitar which starts in the $500s. I purchased it, and it showed up a week later.

I was really intrigued to get a guitar that is basically a time capsule. A guitar that has been sealed in the original box for the last 19 years. Pretty damned cool.

This guitar is from a Fender Squier series of guitars called the Squier Master Series, that came out in 2005/2006 that sported set necks, Seymour Duncan designed pickups, and other higher end features not normally found on a Squier guitar. Too be honest not found on a Fender guitar.

Some referred to the series as Squibsons because they carried forward the Squier Series 24 Gibson emulation. Looking at the wiring circuit and the attributes of this guitar it is very much like a Gibson.

Seriously, what is not to like about a guitar with the following features: Set Neck, Chambered Body, Satin Platinum Hardware, White Binding on Top of Body, Pearloid Block Position Inlays with Abalone Inserts, Matching Painted Headstock, and Gold and Silver Squier Logo.


Here is an overview of the specs on this guitar.

Model Name: Master Series Chambered Tele
Body Material: Chambered Mahogany

Neck Shape: C-Shape
Neck Material: Maple (Satin Polyurethane Finish)
Number of Frets: 22
Fret Size: Medium Jumbo
Fretboard Radius: 12” Radius (305mm)
Fretboard Material: Rosewood
Nut Width: 1.625” (41 mm)
Scale Length: 24.75" (628.65 mm)

Electronics
Pickup Configuration: H/H
Pickups: 2 Duncan Designed Humbucking Pickups

There is a tone and volume control for each of the two pickups.

Hardware: Satin Platinum

Bridge: Adjusto-Matic Bridge with Anchored-Tailpiece

Observations:

For a chambered guitar I expected it to be lighter. Mahogany is a very heavy wood so 7 lbs and 12 ounces I guess is much lighter than a unchambered version of the guitar would be. Probably would be in the 9 lb range.

The tuners surprise me. Normally the non-vintage style tuners on a Squier are the first thing I want to replace. The tuners on this guitar are very smooth and the guitar really holds tune well.

I absolutely love the brushed nickel (what they refer to as satin platinum) finish on the metal parts of the guitar. It is striking and really adds to the overall beauty of the guitar.

The pickups are great. There is not a Telecaster sound coming out of the guitar for a hundred miles, but they are really nice humbuckers. The neck is smooth and clean and measures 7.71 k ohms. The bridge is a screamer of a pickup and measures at 17.37 k ohms.

The neck is very playable, and it is wonderful to have rosewood on the fretboard. The Pearloid Block Position Inlays with Abalone Inserts pattern is very 1980s in looks but none-the-less beautiful.

The only criticism I have in that it would have been cool for them to install a graphite black nut instead of the black plastic nut. They put all this effort into putting together a beautiful guitar with very high end accoutrements and the nut is plastic. Just saying. My dad you to say if you are going to put the effort into doing something put the effort into doing it right.