I currently play an Epiphone Les Paul. I've always considered myself a Les Paul guy, but lately I've been getting more and more into blues and seeing as I'm going to be making a major guitar purchase next year (bday present) I've got an inkling to try a Strat to see how that feels compared to my Les Paul.
I've played strats before but it's been many years since I owned one and quite frankly I can barely remember how they feel.
I've seen a used Squier Affinity 20th anniversary Strat for £85 and I'm thinking that for the sake of £85 I might as well try it. But then I'm also thinking there's a reason why it's that price....
Will it give me enough of a feel for something stratty so that I'll know down the line where I want to spend more money, or is it so cheap that it'll end up putting me off strats for life?
Comments
Where abouts are you? I’m sure someone local would invite you over to try a strat.
Getting the affinity won't hurt, but you won't get a good representation of a good strat by trying it's cheaper companion. Just try the one you think you'll like man!
If you tire of the stock pickups, the pickup cavity routs should permit easy changing to other permutations of single coils and humbuckers.
In my opinion, the vibrato bridge on the Affinity STRAT is cheap 'n' nasty. It will provide no sense whatsoever of how a well set up Fender fulcrum vibrato should behave.
Since the Epiphone LP is your yardstick, a fairer equivalent for quality might be the Squier Vintage Modified and Classic Vibe ranges. Your birthday budget might even land you a pre-owned Fender (Mexico) Standard series instrument.
If I were in your present position, in search of greater sonic variety, with an immediate budget of £85 and the prospect of more in future, I would probably spend it on a pre-owned replacement pickup or two and better controls components for the Epiphone.
The other option is to get rid of the Epi and get a MIM or similar, just to see if the grass is greener.....
I'm not in the position to have multiple guitars ATM, so this option might work out best. And if I end up hating it I could always sell it and get another Les Paul!
Round objects. It took me seconds to decide that a Fender AVRI '62 was coming home with me. (Arguably, it took me decades of mistakes to arrive at the position to be able to form such opinions at such short notice.) If a guitar or bass does not make you grin almost immediately, it is probably not the one for you.
The obvious compromise choice would be a Telecaster with either dual humbuckers, dual P90s or HSH pickups.
i have heard the affinities have slimmer necks than standard strats for certain years (i think early 2000s?). if you are used to chunky LPs you may not want that. another strat may be chunkier necked.
the sound will be that love it or hate it strat tone (i'm not a fan). stock affinity pickups may (or may not) be weaker than other brands, but strat pickups are an as common as muck type, so easy to find affordable new-used upgrades for. i imagine most guitarists you know will have something spare in a drawer you can try out.
actually that's probably the best thing about strats & teles, imo. upgrades & options & mods easy & cheap. something like a gretsch or weirder & things get tricky & costly.
squiers hold their value because they are decent reliable guitars & everyone knows it. so maybe try it out for six months & if you don't get on with it, sell it on. you won't lose £85 so not an £85 gamble. you may even make something on it.
it's all learning. learning which gear suits you is as important as learning new chords in some ways. once you have levelled out re playing learning curve, recurve & learn about how new kit might affect how you think about playing.
I have one. I cannot recall whether I accepted it in a trade or bought it cheaply at a Sunday market stall. Either way, it needed extensive TLC but turned out nicely after a serendipitous occurence.
I confess myself a fan of neither the stock Affinity STRAT pickups and electronics nor the EMG-81 humbucker. Just for larfs, I decided to combine these two unloved things. It turned out wonderfully. I probably subliminally stole the idea from somebody who had fitted a white EMG humbucker into a Hello Kitty Stratocaster.
Im predominantly a metal player. I love my explorer, xj frets and high output pickups.
I wanted to try a tele, because I wanted one. I had no idea if I’d like the thing, the pickups, the smaller frets, the maple board.
Triggers were pulled and I bought a new affinity tele for £160 odd.
I love it.
But heres the predicament. I love it because it was a cheap and vastly different animal to my usual line up.
If I bought a £500 mim tele, would I get on with the neck on that? Would I expect it to be exactly the same feeling but £340 more expensive? Would I then be disappointed?
This affinity’s board is laquered so thinly its like its bare. Which I love! But I might really not feel comfortable playing a maple board with more laquer on for instance.
I guess what I’m saying is, you’ll get a feel for certain things on that particular instrument that may very well represent many things a more expensive version would, but its still its own guitar and you may or may not like it, which may jade your future thoughts.
Bear in mind a lot of things will feel better on a more expensive version, the fret ends possibly, the general feel of how its all been finished too.
For me I usually do just have to suck it up and buy it. Too hard for me to judge one instrument by another even if its the same style, brand etc!
Unless its esp, I pretty much like playing any of them so i know I can buy almost blind and will probably be happy!
if you have any callipers to hand, woud you be able to tell me the shallowness of your affinity neck at frets 1/7/12 (wood front to wood back just behind each fret)?
cheeky ask, i know. but may be useful info for the OP too, for reference.
i'd be interested to compare that with what i have to see if i should look out for a neck (bodies far too big & heavy for me). i am never sure when people say 'shallow' whether they mean 'shallow for a strat' or 'shallow compared to other guitar necks generally'.
am glad you managed to turn yours to account. my favourite squier was a jagmaster, which though it lacked fancy fender finish touches, was surprisingly not far off the real thing as a player under the fingers (woodwork-wise). obviously electrics sounded a bit different.
Could stop a lot of returns on new stock too (from previous threads there are varying views on the distance selling laws, mine is that the law is good but I wouldn't feel comfortable using it as a home demo then lowering the value of the stock purely because of my preferences).
Hopefully I'll be borrowing my mate's tele for a week to test that out - maybe that's an option for you OP?
Reality check, please. You appear to be asking a middle-aged bloke to produce honest measurements of wood. Have patience.
£250s not that far away from £85 is it.....
No
At that price, if you don't like it you can sell it on without losing much.