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Squier Vista Supersonic

The Vista series was one of Fender's attempts to introduce new designs to the guitar market in 1996/97. It offered four models: the Supersonic seen here, the Jagmaster which came back in 2002, the Venus and its 12-string version, the Venus XII. These guitars offered new if not daring designs and were all produced by Fender Japan. While the instruments were pretty good and their looks generally well accepted, the Vista range only lasted about a year.

The Supersonic model we have here was offered in four colors: white, black, blue sparkle and silver sparkle. The light body is made of basswood and the neck has a 24" scale, equivalent to that of a Mustang. As with many Japanese Fenders, it is fairly shallow with a D profile, and the frets are narrow vintage types. It attaches to the body thanks to a trapezoidal recessed plate (very un-Fender). Controls are down to two volume pots with Jazz Bass-like knobs. The overall quality is high with a good attention to detail, especially considering the low price they went for and the Squier tag. The Supersonic is easy to play thanks to its short scale and hangs in a very natural position on the guitarist's shoulder. According to Squier's product manager of the time, the shape was inspired by a picture of Hendrix playing a right-hand Jaguar.

While the guitar plays great, it is let down by its electronics. The pick-up selector is cheap and wobbly, and the original humbuckers are high output mushy units. Despite what Wikipedia says, they were not Duncan designed by any mean (the writers may be confused with the Venus XII split pick-ups which were true Seymour Duncan units). Of course, swapping them for quality pups is fairly easy and if you do so, you end up with a great little guitar that works well for rythm and lead.

While the Vista series didn't last, it managed to grab the attention of a few famous guitarists, namely Omar Rodríguez-López (At the Drive-In) and Ace (Skunk Anansie) for the Supersonic, Crispian Mills (Kula Shaker) for the Venus XII, and Courtney Love for the Venus (the guitar was designed for her). Not bad for a forgotten guitar range!