How Bad Is This Squier Affinity Tele? (Review!)

00:00 Intro
00:34 What I Don’t Like
02:17 Setup
02:35 Nut Install
03:09 Setup
03:25 Bad Tuning Machines
03:35 Poplar Body / Neck
04:22 QA Issues
04:36 Bridge
04:57 Ceramic Pickups
05:22 Let’s Plug It In
06:07 With Pedals
07:40 Let’s DI
08:03 Jam
09:12 Final Thoughts
11:44 Old Squier Was Better
12:04 Outro
12:26 Don’t Watch This

[Mguitar]

I just bought an Affinity Tele for $250, shielded it with copper tape and installed Tex Mex pups. It's fabulous and sounds better than my other guitars. It stays in tune remarkably! No regrets

[robettinger]

I have one and it's a good playing and well set up guitar..you have an attitude that's obvious in your tone of voice . It's a great buy and a joy to play for me...😇

[michaelbrohl]

Love my Affinity tele. $259 bucks and less than an hours work, and it's a great guitar. I see no reason to spend more money on something else.

[TexanUSMC]

I bought an affinity Tele Deluxe from Sweetwater a few years ago. It was a display so it was probably setup. It has full size pots. I put some SD Phat Cats on it. Plays great.

[geebeed]

Squire Affinity Telecaster retails for $260-ish (Dec, 2022).

Do a setup on the guitar (level and crown the frets, and put some mineral oil on the fretboard), replace the plastic nut with a bone nut remove, the stock pickups and install an aftermarket set (anywhere from $65-$250+, depending on what you get…though why you would throw a set of $250 pups in an Affinity is beyond me) and for possibly under $350 you will have a solid great playing and great sounding telecaster.

Look up some videos on how to do the setup and do it yourself. Same with the pickups. This stuff isn’t difficult, you just need to get away from the ‘gram and sit down with the guitar for an evening. You’ll get it done, and every time you play it, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself, not to mention that you learned a new skill along the way.

[charleslanphier]

Complaining that a $250 guitar isn't as good as a $1, 000 guitar is not a review

[roopgill]

Just bought one a month ago. Love everything about it for the price I paid. Really invigorated my love for playing and learning.

[johnwelch]

I have an older one with alder that a few short years ago was $129
It's terrific guitar. None of those issues and sounds excellent. It more Tele than my elite from two years ago, believe it.
I'm 72 with a collection of guitars in every price point and have gigged 85% of them over and over again. No more gigging for me. Fun for the comorodery, trash talk, etc but not for working....
I only needed to lower the action slightly and balance the intonation.
Anyway, I've used it for gigging hundreds of times and recorded over 150 songs.
I think you got a lemon. Many problems for manufacturers during the bluster of Covid days.
Several of my buds have used it and most picked one up immediately thereafter.
Oh well....Thanks!

[visual]

I have one that I bought as a 'modding' platform, with a view to replacing the pickups, tuners, strings etc. But, guess what, I have not had to do any of that. The guitar has exceeded my expectations in every respect. It punches well above its budget price. You either have got a rogue sample, or you have something against Squire Affinity guitars. And judging from other comments you are in a minority of one.

[Hornet]

“Tone wood” oh boy, way to call your credibility into question.

[longbow]

I have an older model. Plays and sounds excellent. I took a sanding block to the fret edges. Simple solution to fix the fret ends. After a couple of yrs I put Fender classic pickups in it and a 4 way switch. Took the pg off it due to scratchiness in the winter months even in a humidified room. Sounds great and plays great. stay safe

[rhykko]

I bought one a while back and it has changed my I got lucky, but few problems with mine,
nice lightweight profile works great for my medium hands, and with slight tweaks of pickup
height got a superb did have to work the fret ends a bit (tons of videos showing how to do this on
have many much more costly guitars and I return to this one because it is just more FUN !

[FingalPersson]

lol i just ordered a Squier Aff Tele after i tried it and compared it to a vintage MIM, a player series Tele, and a Pro series Tele, and the wost was the MIM player series, the second worse was the vintage... the pro came out as a little thicker on the neck and had a round nice sound to it, but i liked the squier aff tele more, it had more of a bite to it, yes the frets was not rounded like the pro series, but thats not the hardest fix to round off the frets. But as is, i really enjoyed it so much that i choose the Squier Aff Tele and bought a small tube amp to go with it rather than buying a Fender MiM that was NOT cutting it for me, at least not the one i tried, and the Pro series... i can buy 6-8 Squier Aff to the price of one pro series tele, that's just NOT happening.

[albertofernandez]

Thank you for this in-depth check. I keep on looking for a tele-like guitar that doesn't cost me a fortune, and every now and then I hear about other brands that do better than Squiers Affinity.

[HappyHermitt]

I never understand the high expectations on a $200 guitar.

[matt-fngr]

I just got one, the only real problem was setup, the neck and fret edges was really good. Fretwork level and crown was playable but not good. Pickups ok for beginner but I will want to change.
The poplar body with comfort cut is really comfortable, this guitar is probably best for somebody wanting a project guitar

[jdmcdorce]

Two items associated with intonation. In my experience having a sub $1000 guitar or bass be intonated "out of the box" (or when I brought one home that was already out of the box) falls into two categories: blind luck or someone where you bought it from doing at least a partial setup. Doesn't matter if it is Squier, Fender, Epiphone, Ibanez, Jackson, Schecter, Yamaha, LTD, J&L, etc. The second is the six saddle vs. three saddle bridge on the Telecaster. Overall, Fender seems to be moving away from the classic three saddle Telecaster bridge across the lineup. The only reason I can think of is having to compromise intonation on the paired strings with the three saddle design.

[barbmelle]

From LeoM; I always recommend playing a guitar in person before you buy it. You do not like the looks, the feel, the hardware design, the maple neck or the pickup specifications. Sounds like you did not buy what you wanted. Spending minimum is always a compromise, with anything. A $250 guitar in today's market is pretty close to the bottom shelf. Carefully buying a Tele that has the features you want and spend at least $750 for the better detail work will probably make you happier. We used those in our lesson rooms for years and they held up fine. I still have one. BTW, the Squier Classic Vibe series are really impressive for a low priced instrument, .

[thatpodcastchap]

Agree, I bought two HB Tele recently and already had the Rosewood one, did bone nut new control plates with Switchcraft switch and CTS pots and Kent Armstrong Alnico vintage pickups, and a set of Schaller locking tuners on both the HB TE20s and they now play like $2000 guitars.

I also got the Artist TC59 Tele with the two humbuckers and that eats this

[Allie-wl]

Can you please zoom out slightly so we can see the knobs and selector switch while you play, and perhaps also show what pedals you are using? That would be even more helpful for beginners like myself. Thanks!