Squier Contemporary Telecaster

The Squier Contemporary Telecaster immediately stands out with its reversed control plate, a feature familiar to seasoned Tele players.

This modification brings the controls closer to your hand, making volume swells easier—a practical upgrade borrowed from years of Telecaster tradition.

Next, you’ll notice the sleek pickups. The guitar features a full-sized SQR humbucker in the neck and a rail-style humbucker in the bridge.

Though the bridge pickup looks like a single coil, it’s a stacked humbucker similar to designs by Duncan and Dimarzio, giving this Telecaster an unmistakably metal edge.

The neck’s SQR Atomic humbucker offers impressive clarity, even under high gain, and retains a smooth, creamy tone when you roll off the highs. Meanwhile, the bridge rail humbucker delivers a powerful, midrange-heavy punch that excels in drop tunings, cutting through mixes with precision.

In the middle position, the pickups blend into an acoustic-like, “out of phase” tone that shines clean but sounds too mid-heavy with high gain.

Inside, the guitar features clean wiring with generic 500k pots, but no coil tap despite some misleading advertising.

Overall, the Squier Contemporary Telecaster impresses with its surprisingly clear SQR passive pickups, rivaling pricier aftermarket options. The neck pickup is solid, but the bridge pickup truly shines.