The Pro Tone Page

"The build quality of this Pro Tone is of the highest order and, if you're still one of the dwindling crowd who believes that instruments hailing from the Far East deserve to be automatically ignored, then I urge you to open your eyes, ears and perhaps your wallet with due haste!"

Simon Bradley, Squier Pro Tone review, Guitarist magazine,(UK) June 1998

Welcome to the Pro Tone page!

This is a little extra that I have added to the site, mainly because there dosen't seem to be much information on these fine guitars out there.

Above Left: David Rumble with his 1997 blonde Pro Tone Stratocaster.  And above right, a sapphire trans blue (fast turning green!) 1998 Pro Tone Stratocaster.

Squier Pro-Tone guitars were produced at the Cort factory in Korea. and marked the first real quality Squier to come from there.  Made between 1996 and 98 and with a UK retail price of £339.95, the Stratocasters came in six finishes: vintage 'see through' Blonde (although some were very opaque with very little grain showing) Trans Crimson Red, Black, Three Tone Sunburst, Trans Sapphire Blue, and Olympic White with a White painted headstock.  The Crimson Red and Sapphire Blue Strats, including the Pro Tone Thinline Tele (aka the 'Bordellocaster'), came with gold hardware as did the Floyd Rose equiped 'Fat Strat' in Black with Black painted headstock. A few trans green Strat models were also produced (these are not the Sapphire blue turned to green versions).

There was also a Natural finish humbucker equipt Tele, with a Standard Tele in Blonde, Black, Brown, Sunburst and Midnight Wine, plus a Black Precision Bass with a red tortie guard, and a Trans Red 5 string Precision Bass with soapbar pickups, grover style tuners and gold hardware.  All had pearloid pickguards except the maple neck blonde Strat model, which was fitted with 'aged' plastic parts, to give a vintage look.  Left handers were also catered for.  For more details see the  Pro Tone Catalogue  page.

The Stratocaster bridge is a vintage style unit with 'Fender stamped' hardened steel saddles.  Machineheads/tuners for the 6 string models are Fender's own schaller lookalikes. Three staggered pole alnico pickups were used for the standard Stratocaster configuration.

Above Left:  Pro tone headstock.  A different logo script was used , and is unique to these guitars (a strange variation of this logo also appeared for some time....photo's to follow!).  Note the small 'Pro Tone series' decal on the tip of the headstock  Pictured Right:  The back of the headstock, showing the quality tuners that were used.

Above: As mentioned earlier, the different script used for this Korean made series, and above right the 'Pro Tone series' decal used on the ball of the headstock.

Pictured above left:  A Pro tone Thinline Tele with maple neck.  Above right:  A floyd rose equipt 'Fat Strat' with gold hardware.

"Given their classic lines and affordable prices, the Pro Tones should sell well.  The only dilemma now is whether  to go for the Mexican-made Fender traditional guitars or these frankly higher spec'd models without the 'F' word  on the headstock.  Spoilt for choice huh?"

Dave Burrluck, Guitar Magazine, July 1997

The bodies of these guitars were made from one piece,  all the way up to four or even five pieces of solid ash. (the example above has a two piece body)  Many of the Trans blue examples were fairly heavy, but the build quality was first class.  A lot of trans blue guitars have now turned to green, due to the ageing effect of the clear top coat which yellows over a period of time (blue and yellow =) The twenty one fret necks (available as all maple or maple with rosewood fingerboard, depending upon model) were 9.25"radius (except for the Fat Strat), matt finished, and are incredibly smooth and extremely playable/comfortable.  They have 'Crafted in Korea' written on the neck above the serial number just above the neck pocket.  Some numbers have a  'KC'  (Korea, Cort) prefix, with the first two digits  representing the year of manufacture, ie; KC97xxxxxx  = 1997 (eight digits), and some guitars were shipped with a seven digit number minus the decade digit (9) and 'KC' prefix, ie; 6xxxxxx =1996   The picture above far right shows the staggered pole alnico pickups fitted as standard.

Above left:  The licensed Floyd Rose trem of the Pro Tone Fat Strat, and above right, the Vintage style unit of a blonde Pro Tone Stratocaster.

Above left: A pro tone neck showing it's walnut inlay, and in this case a 7 digit serial number without the KC9 prefix.  Pictured right:  The painted headstock of the Olympic white model.

Truss rod adjustment is accessed via an Allen wrench socket at the headstock end of the neck, as shown above left.  Above right:  Another Pro Tone neck, this time with the KC9 serial number pre-fix and a factory fitted shim. 

Above:  These two photo's show the relatively high quality of the tuners fitted, (with screw tension adjustment, shown above right).

The two photo's above show more closely the gold finish on the hardware of some of the models.  This plating wears off very easily,  although the examples shown here have not seen much hard use.

This shot above shows the gold finish on the bridge assembly of a Pro Tone thinline Telecaster.

This photo above shows a perfect neck to body fit;  True quality!

Above:  A natural finish Pro Tone Telecaster with a rosewood neck.  The single coil neck pickup and black pickguard was fitted by its pevious owner, John Kaczmarek, who obtained the guitar with damage to the original pickup and red tortie guard (thank you John for the info!).

The pictures above show a trans red strat (rosewood neck as standard).  The beautifully figured wood of these red models appears to be a diffferent variation of ash compared to the trans blue guitars.  

 "......there was a time not so long ago where the Squier range came up and overlapped into the Fender range. We had some high-end Squier guitars that many people thought should be Fenders, and so to make it simple, we decided that it would be better for the Squiers to remain the entry-level thing"

Interview with Mike Lewis, Vice President, Fender,  for  Guitarist magazine, Aug 1999.

Above two photo's:  A really nice example of the sunburst option, with rosewood neck as standard  (photo credit: eBay sale).

This beautiful bass above is a trans red 5 string Pro Tone P bass, and is a perfect illustration of the amazing quality of these instruments.

Photo:  CHRIS' GUITARS

Above left:  A pro tone Precision Bass with black painted headstock.     

Above right:  A Pro Tone Fat Tele. 

Pictures above:  Pro tone Tele headstock.

Above:  Yet another example of the Pro Tone Thinline Telecaster.   I make no excuses for including these two photographs!......................Simply stunning!!

Pro Tone Stratocaster Stripdown!

Above:  Date stamps on both neck and neck pocket.  (Note that the neck pocket is almost green in colour; This, like the rest of the body, was originally blue, and has gradually turned to green over time.  This is not something you would expect to see, as it has been covered up by the neck, and has not been subject to UV rays).

Above left:  Pro Tone body rout - H/S/H.  Above right: These two extra holes were 'probably' used for tooling purposes.

Above left: Trem cavity.  Above right: 3 Alnico pickups, showing the centre pickup wired RW/RP (Reverse wound, Reverse polarity) with yellow and black wires.

Pictured above left:  This picture shows the general wiring layout of the Strat model,  and right, a close up of the 500k ohm potentiometers used.

Above:  A close up of the 5 way switch.

This shot above, shows the spring tensioned pickup adjustment used on these guitars, as opposed to the vintage style rubber tubing of the early export JV series.

The Pro Tone review below, has been reproduced with the Kind permission of  Guitarist magazine (UK).

The Squier JV Pages would like to thank 'Guitarist magazine editor, Michael Leonard, for allowing us to show you the original review.

Here is a sound bite which was played on the blonde Pro Tone Stratocaster pictured above and at the top of the page. 

Below is another short article on the Pro Tone models, reproduced with kind permission: Guitar Magazine (Vol 7  No 9)

Below is an article on the Pro Tone Fat Strat from Total Guitar Magazine, kindly sent in by Paul Butterworth.