Swap

Browse >>

Swap

Browse >>

Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang

Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged

VS

Playability

78

Sound

70

Build

59

Value

79

Score

69

FIND IT ON:

Playability

73

Sound

72

Build

74

Value

58

Score

73

FIND IT ON:

Set a price alert

Set a price alert

Had

Have

Want

Add to Compare

Had

Have

Want

Add to Compare

Side to side spec comparison >

Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang vs Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged

Price History Comparison

Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang Prices

• New from $429.99 >>
• New from $429.99 >>
• New from $429.99 >>
• New from $429.99 >>
• New from $449.99 >>

SET PRICE ALERT

Set a price alert for the Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang We'll send you an email if we find the price you want

Email

Price

From To

Also send me news, reviews, tips and exclusive offers and promotions from FindMyGuitar.

Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged Prices

• New from $6,661.19 >>
• New from $6,999 >>
• Used from $5,746.54 >>

SET PRICE ALERT

Set a price alert for the Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged We'll send you an email if we find the price you want

Email

Price

From To

Also send me news, reviews, tips and exclusive offers and promotions from FindMyGuitar.

These are affiliate links. We may earn a fee if you purchase after clicking. These prices are prone to error. Make sure you're buying the right product after clicking on a link from our site. We are not liable if you buy the wrong product after following these links. As an Amazon Associate site we earn from qualifying purchases.

Which One is Better Overall?

After going through our comparison algorithm, the results show that the Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged is probably the better product overall with its final score of 73 compared to the Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang's 69 score, although not by a lot.

The Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged wins when it comes to sound, build quality. On the other hand, the Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang has the upper hand when it comes to playability, value for the money.

If you got small hands, you'll probably feel that the Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang is easier to play.

Which One is Better for Beginners?

If you're looking for your first guitar to learn how to play, the Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang is the better choice.

The Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang meets 7 out of our 8 criteria items for beginner friendliness, while the Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged meets only 4. This takes into account the type of frets, scale length, nut width, bridge type, fretboard radius, and neck profile to determine the easiest combination for new players.

Nevertheless, when it comes to choosing an instrument, you should pick the one more compatible with your personal style. Still, below we'll try you to give you our results as objectively as it's possible to help you decide.

Sound Quality Comparison

The wood used in an electric guitar or bass is not as important to determine the final tone. However, some people prefer specific wood types, so we'll take a look at those first. Then, we'll take a look at the electronics to determine the versatility and sound quality of each instrument.

Woods Used in Both

Maple is one of the most popular necks for good reasons. It is a strong wood that is relatively cheap to make and looks beautiful. The highest quality maple is the hardest that comes from North America. Find out more about Maple.

Woods Used in the Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang

There are many types of Laurel, but East Indian is the most common for guitar building. Its color can vary from dark to light brown with black lines. Many people find its tonality similar to Rosewood, which favors the warmer frequencies. Find out more about Laurel.

Poplar is a cheaper and heavier alternative to Alder wood. It terms of tone, it emphasizes the low-end and has cutting mids. It's relatively soft compared to most body woods. Find out more about Poplar.

Woods Used in the Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged

Mahogany is a fairly rare wood nowadays. It's used mostly for bodies due to its relatively lightweight. Gibson popularized it with their Les Paul guitars during their golden years, so this wood has a lot of good reputation behind it. The most expensive type comes from South America and it's still used by Gibson even today. Find out more about Mahogany.

Rosewood is an almost purple-looking wood that is used mainly for fretboards since it's heavy, rare, and expensive. It's sometimes used on acoustic guitar bodies to create stronger warm tones. Find out more about Rosewood.

Winner: Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged.

Pickup Configuration

The Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang has an SS configuration while the Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged has HH pickups.

SS is the classic Telecaster configuration. It's used mainly for playing clean or with low-gain distortion, and it's very popular for the country genre because of their brightness. It doesn't give you as much versatility as a Strat SSS configuration, but you might like the cleaner look of a guitar body with fewer pickups.

On the other hand, Double Humbucker (HH) is the choice for people who want a fuller, more round sound with tons of mids and lows. Humbuckers also get rid of the hum noise that plague single-coil pickups. They can work out for almost any genre going from Djent to even Jazz.

Pickups Quality

The Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged pickups from a more specialized brand than the Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang. Its pickups should give you a fuller, richer sound, although it all depends on what type of music you're going to play. We recommend these pickups for Jazz and similar genres.

Both use Passive pickups. This is what's used for most music genres. They have a regular output and will serve you for both high-gain and clean tones. The alternative (Active pickups) offer a higher output that is mostly used for heavy music.

Winner: Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged.

Versatility Comparison

Some instruments offer you more ways to explore your creativity than others. Below you'll find how both compare when it comes to versatility.

Switch Options

Both are equal when it comes to the pickup switching option.

Only the Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang comes with some kind of pickup modification: Phase Out.

When the Phase Out option is activated, the pickups will ''work against each other'', meaning that they will cancel out their shared frequencies. The result is a very thin sound, instead of a full, rich tone. This is an interesting sound for genres like reggae or funk and has also been used in classic Hard Rock.

When evaluating versatility, we also take into consideration bridge and neck joint type, number of frets, switch options, amount of pickups and more.

Winner: Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang.

Final Sound Quality Scores

Build Quality Comparison

When it comes to build quality, we like to take into account everything used to build the instrument. This includes materials, hardware and the quality control expected depending on the country where it was built. Let's see how the Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang compares to the Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged.

Country of Origin

The manufacturing country can tell a lot about the build quality of an instrument. The Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang is built in Indonesia while the Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged is made in United States.

Indonesia is becoming the most popular country for guitar building because they can make good instruments for a low price. Some people think that they're 'the new China' when it comes to build quality. But the truth is that Indonesian guitars are more consistent, although Chinese quality has improved a lot in the last few years.

The United States is considered one of the best electric guitar manufacturers in the world. A guitar made in this country is supposed to have world-class quality control. Nowadays, guitars made in other countries can beat some of the ones made in the US, but most of the time, this country offers the best you can get. Of course, that comes at a price.

Winner: Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged

Nut Material

If you want your guitar to stay in tune and sound good, you need a well cut nut. Nut quality can be inconsistent even when comparing two copies of the same model. The best way to make sure you're nut will be well done is by getting a nut made by an expert company like TUSQ or Micarta.

The Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang has a Bone nut. It's a type of nut found in high-quality instruments. They sound similar to Ivory since they give a lot of sustain and a bright sound (at least when striking open strings). The only problem they can run into is that you may get a bone piece that simply doesn't sound as well as others because that's just how natural materials are.

On the other hand, the Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged comes with a Nylon nut. It used to be one of the highest quality materials for nuts (and still is), but it's rare to find nowadays because it's hard to work with. It's a very resistant material with very low friction, so it will keep the guitar in tune and will last for a long time

Winner: Tie.

Fret Material

Most fret wire is made of nickel silver. This material eventually wears down after a lot of use and most instruments end up needing a complete fret replacement. However, some expensive models come with stainless steel frets. This is what you should aim for if you can afford it.

Unfortunately, none of them come with stainless steel frets.

Winner: Tie.

Bridge

The perfect bridge for you will depend on your playstyle because they all have advantages and disadvantages. However, some bridges are more expensive—like Floyd Roses and Evertunes—and thus add more value to a guitar.

The Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang's brige is a Tremolo. Tremolo bridges give you more versatility than fixed bridges. They let you perform the intense vibrato effects that would be impossible with a fixed bridge. However, since the bridge floats and there's less contact with the body, the strings lose sustain slightly faster. They can also be a bit harder to restring and set up correctly than fixed bridges.

On the other hand, the Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged's is a Fixed. It's a simple bridge that is very beginner-friendly since it doesn't require any set-up. You can swap strings easily. It might also give more sustain since it doesn't have complex moving parts that make the strings lose vibration. However, it doesn't have the same versatility as a tremolo bridge.

Since we need to be objective, the most expensive type of bridge will be the winner of this section. In the end, this doesn't matter if you're not going to use the bridge for its original purpose, so choose the bridge that fits your playing style better.

Winner: Tie.

Tuners

Both come with regular tuners. The Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang's are Vintage-Style while the Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged's are Kluson Single Line Strip with Metal Buttons

Winner: Tie.

Neck Joint

Contrary to popular belief, the difference in sustain and tone that some neck joints give to a guitar is simply unperceivable—if they're all well built. However, some of them do have advantages over the others.

The Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang has a Bolt-On neck joint. This neck is joined to the body by 4 bolts that you can simply unscrew. This allows you to replace the neck or take it off for travel. It's the most common and cheapest way to build a guitar.

On the other hand, the Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged comes with Set neck joint. This neck is tightly glued to the body. They give you the least versatility because you can't swap them for a neck that fits your hand better if you want to, unlike bolt-on necks. Some people think this gives more resonance and sustain, but there's no real difference if the bolt-on joint is well built.

Winner: Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang.

Here is the list of features that were considered when choosing the winner in the Features subcategory:

Final Build Quality Scores

Playability Comparison

Let's now compare their playability. Bear in mind that the instrument will feel different depending on your hand size and play style. That's why you should always test before buying. But if you can't or want a second opinion on it, we can still take a look at each of the important measurements of the instrument for you. This way, we can predict how easy a guitar might be to play, or how different it will feel compared to the other.

Remember that, even though the difference might seem small, every inch counts when it comes to feeling of the instrument in your hands. Any variation can completely change how comfortable a guitar feels in your hands.

Nut Width

The nut width will affect the separation between strings at the nut. In this comparison, the Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged has the wider nut with 43mm (1.693'') vs 42mm (1.654''). This is a 1mm (0.039'') difference

This means that it will be more difficult to do bar chords on the Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged, especially closer to the nut. However, it's also easier to play without muting strings accidently. This favors people with big hands.

Scale Length

The scale length is one of the things that influences playability the most. This is the distance between the nut and the bridge and will affect everything from low action allowance, difficulty to perform bends, fret separation, and even tone.

The Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged has the longest scale: 24.75". The Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang is only 24" long. This is a 0.75'' (19.1mm) scale length difference.

This longer scale means that the strings need more tension to get in tune. This is good if you want to avoid fret buzz, which can happen when the strings are too loose and touch the frets while vibrating. This is especially important when playing in lower tunings. This will also let you reduce the gap between fretboard and strings (low action) to make them easier to press down. However, this higher tension will also make it harder to perform bends and vibratos as the strings will feel stiffer.

This also means that the frets have a longer separation between each other, so this will make it harder for people with smaller hands when playing some chord positions.

Another characteristic of a longer scale is that it makes the guitar sound 'snappier' or brighter. This is due to the extra separation between harmonics and overtones produced by the tension. This influences tone more than any other factor (except the pickups).

Lastly, remember that you can also affect the tension of the strings by changing your string gauge. You can use a thicker gauge for more tension and a lighter one for less tension.

Neck Profile

No single neck shape is better than others. However, most people tend to prefer a thinner necks because it doesn't get in their way when playing fast and most hand sizes can adapt to it pretty well. However, some people still prefer thicker necks for a better grip, especially if they have big hands.

Both the Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang and the Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged have a C-shaped neck. This is what you'll find in most modern guitars. Most people feel like the thickness of a C neck is simply the less intrusive one for playing fast, while at the same time allowing you to grab the neck easily for resting if you want to.

Fretboard Radius

Most guitar fretboards are not flat; they usually have a curve or arc across their width. A curved fretboard will make it easier to perform chords without muting strings, while a flatter one will make it easier to play single notes, which is good for bending and soloing in general. The best fretboards have a compound radius that varies across the fingerboard, but they're not common since they take a lot more work to build.

In this case, the Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang's fingerboard radius is smaller, which means it's more curved than the Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged's. This extra arc will make playing chords easier in this model. You won't be as likely to mute the strings, especially if you have big hands. However, playing single notes and bending will be easier on the Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged.

Hand Size Comfortability

Everyone has a different hand size, and that's why it's recommended to try a guitar before buying, even if others tell you that it's comfortable to play. However, we can know whether a guitar favors small or large hands just by knowing its exact measurements.

And after taking into account the scale length, nut width, neck profile and fretboard radius, we can conclude that the Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged favors large hands more than the Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang.

Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang:

Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged:

Fret Size

The Fender Squier Classic Vibe 60s Mustang has Narrow Tall frets, which should be taller than the Gibson 1964 Trini Lopez Standard Ebony Ultra Light Aged's Medium Jumbo frets.

Some people prefer taller frets because they result in more sustain since the strings get pressed cleanly without interference from the fretboard. However, if they're too tall—like Jumbo frets—, you might change the pitch of the strings accidentally if you press too hard because you won't be touching the fretboard with your fingers. This is also why some guitarists with a heavy grip prefer smaller frets. They like to feel the fingerboard to avoid pressing down too hard and getting out of pitch.

Final Playability Scores