Squier telecasters

siraxeman

p90fool said:

If you're just Telecurious the Affinity is fine. 

The neck pickup is a bit lifeless (unless you remove the cover) but the bridge pickup is great fun and very authentic sounding in an early 1960s kind of way. 

I thought the neck pup in all Tele's (*neck bucker type excepted) was a bit (lot) lifeless ?

That said I've not played a Squier Affinity Tele in years, but if they're as good as about 10yrs ago then they're a whole lotta guitar for buttons - a former kid student I had back then had a navy blue/maple Squier and it sounded great....so much it impressed me and left a mark in my memory! Sure it didn't feel anywhere as nice as my USA Tele...but the sound wasn't far off for peanuts money.

HAL9000

I believe Squier do make a butterscotch Affinity Tele with a black single-ply scratchplate.

The string-through bridge makes no difference to sustain - if you think about it the portion of the string that goes through the body is the bit that doesn't vibrate. Top loaders tend to feel more 'slinky' than string-throughs.

IMHO the only difference the thinner body makes is to the weight.

As others have pointed out the bridge pickup isn't at all bad. The neck unit does sound a bit 'thin' though.

The worst thing on the Affinity is the cheap pots and switch - not dreadful but not that great either. Fortunately that is also probably one of the easiest things to do something about.

Hope this helps.

TTBZ

The slinky feel thing with a top loaded appeals to me as a life long Gibson-style player! Is it really that noticeable though? I've never noticed much of a difference when adjusting string break angle with the tailpiece on my other guitars.

p90fool

Jim Campilongo's Tele is a top loader, it doesn't seem to be holding him back much! 

HAL9000

TTBZ said:

The slinky feel thing with a top loaded appeals to me as a life long Gibson-style player! Is it really that noticeable though? I've never noticed much of a difference when adjusting string break angle with the tailpiece on my other guitars.

Having played both, I'd definitely say it's noticeable.

darthed1981

thegummy said:

midlifecrisis said:

name on the headstock? the only people bothered are other guitarists, ive gigged squires, fenders, gibsons and epiphones, once you get over it you realise most people cant even see the name let alone care. ive just picked up a gorgeous epiphone 339, sounds divine, id say i prefer it to the gibson one as its got coil splitting and sounds sweet.   
the only thing i didnt like with the affinity was the neck pickup sounded mushy but the bridge one was ok. pick  an affinity up for £100 and you cant go wrong. 

The only guitarist I'm bothered about caring is myself, it's not that I'll worry anyone else will judge.

To be completely honest, although I'm open to accepting that some Squiers and Epiphones are decent, I'd doubt they were as good as guitars double their price.

Does any serious person truly think they are?

It depends how you define "as good as" and what you are happy to pay for.

Personally, if you can easily afford the guitar that is twice the price, it is the guitar you want, and owning it enhances your life, then why not buy the more expensive model?

However, if the guitar that feels best to you, that makes you want to play and sounds how you want happens to cost a lot less and have Squier on the headstock, you'd be pathological to buy the more expensive one just because of name snobbery.

I often mention it, but I picked up a Squier Bullet strat earlier this year on a total whim, and I far prefer playing it to my 2003 Mexican Strat.

thegummy

darthed1981 said: 

thegummy said:

midlifecrisis said:

name on the headstock? the only people bothered are other guitarists, ive gigged squires, fenders, gibsons and epiphones, once you get over it you realise most people cant even see the name let alone care. ive just picked up a gorgeous epiphone 339, sounds divine, id say i prefer it to the gibson one as its got coil splitting and sounds sweet.   
the only thing i didnt like with the affinity was the neck pickup sounded mushy but the bridge one was ok. pick  an affinity up for £100 and you cant go wrong. 

The only guitarist I'm bothered about caring is myself, it's not that I'll worry anyone else will judge.

To be completely honest, although I'm open to accepting that some Squiers and Epiphones are decent, I'd doubt they were as good as guitars double their price.

Does any serious person truly think they are?

It depends how you define "as good as" and what you are happy to pay for.

Personally, if you can easily afford the guitar that is twice the price, it is the guitar you want, and owning it enhances your life, then why not buy the more expensive model?

However, if the guitar that feels best to you, that makes you want to play and sounds how you want happens to cost a lot less and have Squier on the headstock, you'd be pathological to buy the more expensive one just because of name snobbery.

I often mention it, but I picked up a Squier Bullet strat earlier this year on a total whim, and I far prefer playing it to my 2003 Mexican Strat.

The way you're putting it suggests that there isn't anything objectively better about, say, a £900 Fender and a £450 Squier, it's just that they're different so it's just what one prefers.

Surely that isn't actually that case? If it was then it would be a real bummer for someone who happened to prefer the feel of the expensive one and they'd need to really prefer it if the guitar isn't objectively any better.

What about in the £3000 range, do they become objectively better or still just different feel to a Squier?

stimpsonslostson

thegummy said:

darthed1981 said: 

thegummy said:

midlifecrisis said:

name on the headstock? the only people bothered are other guitarists, ive gigged squires, fenders, gibsons and epiphones, once you get over it you realise most people cant even see the name let alone care. ive just picked up a gorgeous epiphone 339, sounds divine, id say i prefer it to the gibson one as its got coil splitting and sounds sweet.   
the only thing i didnt like with the affinity was the neck pickup sounded mushy but the bridge one was ok. pick  an affinity up for £100 and you cant go wrong. 

The only guitarist I'm bothered about caring is myself, it's not that I'll worry anyone else will judge.

To be completely honest, although I'm open to accepting that some Squiers and Epiphones are decent, I'd doubt they were as good as guitars double their price.

Does any serious person truly think they are?

It depends how you define "as good as" and what you are happy to pay for.

Personally, if you can easily afford the guitar that is twice the price, it is the guitar you want, and owning it enhances your life, then why not buy the more expensive model?

However, if the guitar that feels best to you, that makes you want to play and sounds how you want happens to cost a lot less and have Squier on the headstock, you'd be pathological to buy the more expensive one just because of name snobbery.

I often mention it, but I picked up a Squier Bullet strat earlier this year on a total whim, and I far prefer playing it to my 2003 Mexican Strat.

The way you're putting it suggests that there isn't anything objectively better about, say, a £900 Fender and a £450 Squier, it's just that they're different so it's just what one prefers.

Surely that isn't actually that case? If it was then it would be a real bummer for someone who happened to prefer the feel of the expensive one and they'd need to really prefer it if the guitar isn't objectively any better.

What about in the £3000 range, do they become objectively better or still just different feel to a Squier?

Didn't Andertons do a blind test where Lee or Chappers picked a Squier as the expensive one from a Squier, MIM & CS Strat? 

kt66

having just watched their APPALLING Danelectro dem, I don't think can trust anything those two say 

thegummy

stimpsonslostson said:

thegummy said:

darthed1981 said: 

thegummy said:

midlifecrisis said:

name on the headstock? the only people bothered are other guitarists, ive gigged squires, fenders, gibsons and epiphones, once you get over it you realise most people cant even see the name let alone care. ive just picked up a gorgeous epiphone 339, sounds divine, id say i prefer it to the gibson one as its got coil splitting and sounds sweet.   
the only thing i didnt like with the affinity was the neck pickup sounded mushy but the bridge one was ok. pick  an affinity up for £100 and you cant go wrong. 

The only guitarist I'm bothered about caring is myself, it's not that I'll worry anyone else will judge.

To be completely honest, although I'm open to accepting that some Squiers and Epiphones are decent, I'd doubt they were as good as guitars double their price.

Does any serious person truly think they are?

It depends how you define "as good as" and what you are happy to pay for.

Personally, if you can easily afford the guitar that is twice the price, it is the guitar you want, and owning it enhances your life, then why not buy the more expensive model?

However, if the guitar that feels best to you, that makes you want to play and sounds how you want happens to cost a lot less and have Squier on the headstock, you'd be pathological to buy the more expensive one just because of name snobbery.

I often mention it, but I picked up a Squier Bullet strat earlier this year on a total whim, and I far prefer playing it to my 2003 Mexican Strat.

The way you're putting it suggests that there isn't anything objectively better about, say, a £900 Fender and a £450 Squier, it's just that they're different so it's just what one prefers.

Surely that isn't actually that case? If it was then it would be a real bummer for someone who happened to prefer the feel of the expensive one and they'd need to really prefer it if the guitar isn't objectively any better.

What about in the £3000 range, do they become objectively better or still just different feel to a Squier?

Didn't Andertons do a blind test where Lee or Chappers picked a Squier as the expensive one from a Squier, MIM & CS Strat? 

Knowing Andertons they probably had a load of Squier teles to shift that week lol

Even in a sincere blindfold test, it's not really going to tell much about how good a guitar actually is to play, it's just a novelty game.

I doubt whichever of the two got it wrong started buying 400 quid guitars lol.

What I would love is for a very knowledgeable luthier to explain what the actual real physical differences are between a Squier, a normal Fender and a custom shop. I mean when all the specs are the same. If, for example, a different grade of wood is used, what difference does this actually make.

stimpsonslostson

"I doubt whichever of the two got it wrong started buying 400 quid guitars lol."

Actually, you might be surprised- Apparently Chappers bought one of the Gretsch Streamliners after he demo'd it recently & really liked it. One of the other guys (Rabea I think) mentioned it in passing during another vid. 

impmann

stimpsonslostson said:

"I doubt whichever of the two got it wrong started buying 400 quid guitars lol."

Actually, you might be surprised- Apparently Chappers bought one of the Gretsch Streamliners after he demo'd it recently & really liked it. One of the other guys (Rabea I think) mentioned it in passing during another vid. 

No I'm not surprised.

However, if you think that the Andertons vids are anything other than sales videos... I would be surprised.

thegummy

stimpsonslostson said:

"I doubt whichever of the two got it wrong started buying 400 quid guitars lol."

Actually, you might be surprised- Apparently Chappers bought one of the Gretsch Streamliners after he demo'd it recently & really liked it. One of the other guys (Rabea I think) mentioned it in passing during another vid. 

I'll see if he's using it on the next Dorje tour

p90fool

thegummy said:

The way you're putting it suggests that there isn't anything objectively better about, say, a £900 Fender and a £450 Squier, it's just that they're different so it's just what one prefers.

Surely that isn't actually that case? 

I recently did a comparison between the whole Tele range except the Custom Shop while helping a mate choose a guitar. 

The (£1300) US Std Fender was objectively a better guitar than the CV Squier in terms of finish and hardware quality, but was objectively and blindingly obviously a much worse Telecaster. 

It had almost no Tele characteristics to the sound at all, it was just "generic single coil guitar" in tone. The MIM Std was similar, ALL of the Squiers were sonically better Teles, and the Baja was ok but clunky-feeling and a bit dull-sounding. 

AVRI and Mex Classic was a dead heat, so we went home with the latter. 

Don't be fooled by price. US Std Strat and Teles are good guitars, but if you want that bounce and grit when you dig in hard just like originals had then look elsewhere, both cheaper and more expensive. 

HAL9000

p90fool said:

The (£1300) US Std Fender was objectively a better guitar than the CV Squier in terms of finish and hardware quality, but was objectively and blindingly obviously a much worse Telecaster. 

Interesting that you should say that. I own a 2005 American Std and agree that although it's a great guitar it is very generic. IIRC the bridge pickup doesn't have a baseplate, and it really hasn't got that Tele 'spank'. My previous Tele was an Affinity which though a cheaper and lower quality instrument definitely sounded more Tele-like.

robgilmo

I have a Squier Standard, its twangy, spanky, sparkley, it makes a telecaster noise and does it very well. It feels like a quality guitar when you pick it up, its well made, finish is everything you would expect from a new guitar, the satin neck is lovely, its got a chunky neck compared to my Epi Lp, frets are a little too big but I got used to them in no time. The hardware is pretty good, I cant fault it. I just feels right when I'm playing it, nothing feels wrong about it.
I had to replace the nut, it was too high, but set up out of the box wasn't bad.

I have a funny relationship with it, sometimes I love playing it, sometimes I would rather play the Epi, If I had to choose one and loose one I would choose the Tele. 

darthed1981

thegummy said:

The way you're putting it suggests that there isn't anything objectively better about, say, a £900 Fender and a £450 Squier, it's just that they're different so it's just what one prefers.

Surely that isn't actually that case? If it was then it would be a real bummer for someone who happened to prefer the feel of the expensive one and they'd need to really prefer it if the guitar isn't objectively any better.

What about in the £3000 range, do they become objectively better or still just different feel to a Squier?

I guess what I mean more is that the objective improvements up the range (better hardware, better finish, more bling, nicer pickups etc) probably are not as important as what you actually like, which is not necessarily dependent on price.  For example there are many, many £1000 guitars that both subjectively and objectively could be considered better than the now £2300 Les Paul Standards.

Once you are getting to 3k that is mostly very high end, custom stuff that the law of diminishing returns set it on long before, but they carry an exclusivity and cachet all of their own.

But in terms of going gigging, maybe a Squier or Epi is the best guitar of all, because when you drop it or it gets nicked, you curse and buy another, while your expensive instruments stay home!

thegummy

I wish I could be happy with low end brands - I really quite fancy a Les Paul and a Tele but unlikely I can afford to get both, at least in the near future, but could get a Squier Tele and Epiphone Les Paul lol

p90fool

thegummy said:

I wish I could be happy with low end brands - I really quite fancy a Les Paul and a Tele but unlikely I can afford to get both, at least in the near future, but could get a Squier Tele and Epiphone Les Paul lol

For me it's not about brands, it's about the things which go to make up the sound I'm looking for.
Despite my Tele post above I'm not an inverted snob. I can build/buy a cheap Tele which works perfectly, but in my experience there is no way you can do that with Les Pauls, you just have to spend decent money on huge chunks of real mahogany and maple to get the full effect. 

TTBZ

I dunno about that, I'd take a mid priced Japanese one over an American Gibson any day of the week. My Pearl LP was the one of the best LPs I've ever played apart from the weight and it cost £250. The Edwards and Tokai guitars I've tried have felt and sounded awesome as well.