The Essense of the Telecaster captured in a Wallet-Friendly Version

It was the Spring of 2007 - I had just gotten a bonus for saving the local Cell company a bunch of money with their tower testing and was looking to gift myself of a certain Squier Jagmaster that caught my eye at Kennelly Keys a few weeks before only to find it sold, but then I looked at the rack and saw this little Butterscotch Blonde Squier Affinity Telecaster - something I'd never seen before - hanging on the rack, fresh out of the box only 5 minutes. I picked it up, played it, and I could feel that with the right setup, this guitar had some "magic" to it that some guitars just have with certain people.

I pitted it up against 3 other guitars - a 1952 Telecaster Reissue, and a Custom Shop Telecaster, and a Telecaster Custom. The Affinity won out. Not sure if they are all like this, but this one had that inxplicable thing all great guitars have. The sound was there, the feel was there, I just felt this puppy sick from it's sea-faring adventure in a cardboard box needed some TLC and a good setup and it' would be a screamer - so for $158.99, I bought it, my first Brand New, never been owned or used before guitar - basically, the first "Virgin" guitar I'd ever laid hands upon that was not something I'd made in my own shop.

So I took it home, set it up, wax potted the pickups (whilst watching Crossroads, fitting movie to watch when wax potting Telecaster pickups), threw on my standard set of .009's and proceeded to use this guitar as one of my main guitars ever since.

Now here we are 10 years later, the only things I've had to change on it are the tuning keys and strings. The original pin-mount bolt-bushing sealed gear tuners started to drift after the pins broke after eight years of being played in the studio and live and used hard every time. Now it wears a set of Kluson Tone Pros with split shafts - which are way better tuners than what it came with originally, no more pricklies. It's well on it's way to looking like a good Bar Crawling 52' Telecaster now.

My only gripes with this model aside from the tuners is how the strings load - which is a problem on a LOT of chinese budget guitars - it has that messed up rear-loading thing that First Act used on their Wal-Mart guitars that makes getting strings up and over the saddles hard. I have plans to convert it to a through-body setup with a vintage-style lighter mass bridge once I decide what parts provider to go with.

Overall though, I'd say in this rather short review, that this guitar is great value for the money. I find them all the time in pawn shops for cheap and if I was more of a Tele guy I'd probably buy a few more as they are a great workhorse that does not cost a lot - they're like the Ford Ranger of electric guitars. - simple, solid, reliable, inexpensive, and easy to fix when they do have issues.

Really nice

My first guitar that was ever mine first. I had the lotus and it started getting old and worn. (It was a hand me down after all) So I took my christmas money, went to guitar center, and picked up a brand new Squier Tele. I had always loved the Telecaster body shape. I play this one alot, cause it sounds good both clean and with distortion. (Its also the main guitar I use for recording.)

great

I removed the pickguard, and the neck pickup, leaving the bridge pickup and the exposed open space from what was under the pickguard and where the neck pickup used to be. It now has a much more percussive sound, and on clean gives off a very acoustic like tone. I also put different items of personal importance on it, and I have written on it various times, it sometimes fades off after a while, making it easier to change what is written from time to time.

Great choice for this price!

For this price you really cannot complain. Sounds fine, looks nice, feels comfortable - what's not to like? Give it to a good luthier to take care of it (get rid of production flaws) and all of the sudden you get a decent instrument which will give you some pleasant moments. Of course it is far away from true Fender, but that is not the issue. Fender is Fender, Squier is Squier, and this is GOOD one!

Awesome Tele on a budget

Awesome guitar for the price. With a really good Tele tone and good hardware and electronic. The perfect budget Tele

dont remeber much

this was my first real guitar that i got. my parents bought it for me for Christmas over 8 years ago and its what started my whole career.

Sounds Awesome

It's a good guitar for beginners, with the neck pickup you can play very sweet melodies and with the bridge one you have the characteristic Twang of the Telecaster.

Very good for the price

You'll doubt the quality is from Squier. the eletronics and pickups are not the best (probably later you'll feel the need to change the,). but it's a great guitar for starters

the Squier Pack contains a different version to the regular butterscotch affinity telecaster

The Squier "Stop Dreaming Start Playing" pack that comes with a Frontman 15G amp contains an Indonesian version that is string-through and sports a skunk stripe on the neck

Great beginner's guitar

Bought as a set with the Fender Frontman 16g amp. Amazing guitar for beginners, especially when bought with the amp and leads