Marquee Pro

[geoff1711]

Maybe this should be in the Burns section, but I sometimes think it doesn't get read as often over there.

Last year I won, at a very silly price on Ebay, a brand new Marquee Pro, to be fair I wouldn't have paid the asking price for what I believed to be a tarted up Marquee.

But it has an upgraded Wilkinson trem, what feels and looks like the Marvin neck with the geared truss rod, engraved scratchplate and Marvin knobs, plus of course the Tri Sonics, improved machine heads, so whilst not having a very Shads sound a good guitar.

Having said all that, whilst surfing the Ebay goodies recently I see that the list price for the Marquee Pro has now increased to very nearly £800.

Compared with other guitars around this price it can certainly hold it's own in terms of build quality, playability and a beefed up Strat type tone, it won't quite do a Brian May because the pickups are in Parrallel as against series.

Standard Marquees sell into the Hank market as well as a number of Indie bands, however at £800 what do we think? will it sell? or will they all end up being job'd out and the model discontinued?

Has anybody bought one?

Geoff

[grayn]

Interesing post.

I've been looking at the Marquee Pro and they do look nice.

But I can't see there is enough upgrades to justify the price hike, from the basic model.

Also at the price, one only has to pay a little more, for a used Marvin. If you can find one.

Wilkinson do a number of trem systems, at various quality levels. I don't know which one is on the Pro.
In general, I've found Wilkinson hardware to be very good.

I probably would have gone for one, if they'd put a Rezo-Tube trem on.

Graham.

[geoff1711]

Hi Graham

it's a different guitar altogether from either a Marvin or a Marquee, has the look but sounds much beefier.

The trem is a high quality number with cast Stainless Steel saddles and a solid block with staggered drilling, twin post and a solid recessed top plate.

It's a very good guitar but £200 price hike? in these times? with a relatively strong pound?

But as I say if it's a Marvin sound you're after it's not the one for you.

The pickups aren't P90's but they're going in that direction.

In many ways given it's probable market do all the upgrades but put noiseless single coils on, with something of a Hank modern sound, might have been more attractive to a lot of people.

Geoff

[grayn]

The way you describe it, it sounds very much to my taste.

I've had a couple of guitars with Wilkinson trems. A Fret-King and a Cort and both worked very well indeed.

According to Sutherland Trading's website, the Marquee Club Series is £359.99 and the Marquee Pro Club Series is £849.99.
Nearly £500 difference

Graham.

[geoff1711]

but it's hard to describe, you can't really see where an extra £500 is, but pick it up and play it, if you like the beefier sound, the guitar feels great.

Geoff

[Rover]

Hi, I was looking for a low priced guitar and tried a Simon Neil Strat in a guitar shop at£335. It was nothing special and I was disappointed, little difference between the three pick ups and the sound was tinny. The salesman agreed and brought the price down to £299, but I declined. He then said try this Classic vibes 50's strat at £295. This was better, but still felt like a budget guitar.
I tried a Marquee pro in another music shop. Wow, this was much better, very classy and a much better feel. The price was £799 and the salesman wouldn't reduce the price. Sadly it was outside my price range. I think this guitar would sell easily if the price was more realistic, say£599.
regards Rover

[JimN]

That Biffy Clyro model looks great, but I agree with you that whilst the basics (the body and neck) are more than acceptable, some of the accessory components are dodgy (especially the trem). The Chinese-made Squier guitars are built down to those low prices by sensible cost-reduction which (importantly) can easily be addressed by the buyer. This has always been the case with Squier, even the Japanese-made examples. None of them have ever had USA-quality bridges and blocks, for instance.

If the pickups aren't all that good, it's easy, and not all that expensive, to replace them completely, with anything from Toneriders (c. £80 a set) to Fenders (c. £100 - £150 a set) or even Kinmans (£200 and up per set). As mentioned above, the bridge/trem system on those Chinese Squier guitars is known to be a (probably deliberate) weak spot, and a high-quality replacement can easily be fitted, from about £27 (Wilkinson, with steel block and push-in arm) to £90 (the real Fender deal).

As far as I'm aware, the Squiers' current tuners are perfectly serviceable, but better replacements are easily available at reasonable prices.

The guitar might be £275, the pickups another £75 and a bridge less than £30. The total is still well under the "magic" £500 / £600 figures.

JN

[RUSSET]

I have had a Marquee, from the very first edition, but now sold. I noticed the Marquee Pro, but decided against it as it had the Tri-sonics pickups. I must admit £800 sounds a bit over priced to me. I mean, most guitars seem to be made in China these days, & with the pound strong someone is making a fine buck these days. I did have one of the Cobra models a couple of years back, & that had Tri-sonics. Didn't like it much. I have an Anniversary Marvin, which is a great guitar, in a different league, altogether. I also have a Squier 'Simon Neil' Strat. I find it a great guitar, with decent pickups at a good price. Yes, it's a budget line guitar but, it's made well & at around £300 is good value for money. I did install a Solid steel full-sized Tren block & a normal length Trem arm, but apart from that I'm quite happy with it. Tone is not solely due to the guitar. It depends on how you set up your amp & effects too. I am so pleased with the Squier 'Classic Vibe' range that I have also bought a '50s Tele & '50s P.Bass.

[geoff1711]

I've mentioned this on another posting, but I'd always wanted a Jaguar but the price even for the Mex ones is around £750, Squier did the Jagmaster but I didn't want the Strat trem or humbuckers.

Then they issued a hard tail version, why????

But then recently they issued Jazzmasters and Jaguars in Squier form, correct wiring, pickups and trem, so I bought the Jaguar, £259.00 from Andertons, it has great tonal range and is a lovelly guitar.

If I paid an Extra £500 for a Mex or around an extra £1000 for an American I can't see where it would be improved to warrant the extra money, other than Fender on the headstock.

I tried a Biffy Clyro Squier when they came out and it sounded absolutely fine to me, I didn't buy it because I don't really need another Strat, but I am tempted with the Jazzmaster.

Trouble is I'd probably have to sell the Marquee Pro to find the space, so £495 and it's yours guv!!

Geoff

[RUSSET]

I tried a Squier VM Jazzmaster last week in B'ham. It is not bad at all; certainly for a mere £255. It has pretty good tone, a nice lightweight basswood body & some funky colour finishes. If they had got a White or Sunburst in stock, I think I would have walked out with it, but they only had that pale Sea Foam Green, so I wasn't tempted. The Trem unit has a drop-in arm which tends to swing about loosly, so not easy to grab like on a Strat. Needs a bit of PTFE tape around the end to tighten it in the socket. It also doesn't have a locking mechanism on the Trem unit. Still, great for the price.