New Squier Affinity Series

[Mossman]

I got an email about this from MF... Looks like Squier revamped their whole Affinity line. They're not even on the Fender website yet. I have to say, they look pretty good. The color options on the whole are kinda 'meh', but there are a few standouts. For starters, it looks like they finally managed a proper Butterscotch finish:



And I've always wanted a Tele (or anything, really) in Lake Placid Blue:



Also... a belly cut? Pretty swank.



This PJ in LPB has got a bit of a pull on me too:



There's also a Jazzmaster, but without the traditional vibrato, I'm out:



There's a Strat too, but you have to go to Sweetwater to see that (it's not on MF and Sweetwater doesn't let you pull pics from their site): https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... ingerboard

But holy-moly... Did anybody ever think they'd see an Affinity with a flame top?





Just don't look on the back... it's kinda ugly. I'm pretty sure that's basswood:



And did Affinities aver have a 3TS? Or a 5-string bass? I can't remember, but this looks pretty nice:



The rest of the colors are black, white (yay!), Burgundy Mist and Charcoal Frost if you're into that sort of thing:





There are also a few "Limited Edition" models, but they don't have pics up of those yet.

[bleys21]

Man, sure is a good time to be a guitarist...so many options, and some insane deals out there that just seem priced too low.

And that Strat with the greenish flame, ok...that's some serious lovely guitar right there. I think I need one of those...

[littlebadboy]

I like. A lot.

[Partscaster]

Can anyone here compare poplar vs alder strat bodies and sound?
First strat stated body was poplar.
Gone are the alder dominant strat days?

[Chocol8]

Poplar and Alder are going to be fairly close tone wise and weight wise, probably more variation piece to piece vs between species.

Alder doesn’t have the best looking grain which is why Leo went with ash for transparent finishes and alder for painted. Poplar grain is generally worse, and is probably best for painted finishes or veneer tops.

I wouldn’t hesitate to own a Strat made from either.

[Mossman]

I like. A lot.

I had a feeling you'd like that one, for some reason.

[Mossman]

@Chocol8 is right. Poplar and Alder are very similar, except Poplar is strictly a "paint-grade" wood. It tends to have a greenish tint to it, and I've never seen a piece of Poplar that had any kind of grain to speak of. Alder is hit-or-miss. It can have some really nice grain, but low-grade Alder can look pretty awful, with a lot of mineral streaks, and not much grain at all. I think if you have an Alder body with nice grain, it's best to do a burst, or a trans finish on it. The grain is more subtle than Ash, so a natural finish looks kinda boring on an Alder body, IMO, but some dye/stain really makes the grain come out. I would never paint over grain, unless it's turrrrible.

[uwmcscott]

That's indeed a great looking lineup. The butterscotch tele looks just like it should, and that Tele deluxe looks great too. I already scratched my tele/strat itch many years ago but would have definitely considered some of these if they were available at the time.

[nomadh]

So the drop the deluxe line. (Standard line too?) Then for some reason upscale and expand the affinity line? Not sure why companies do this. Did they add the few mm back on to the neck and body too?

[Mossman]

So the drop the deluxe line. (Standard line too?) Then for some reason upscale and expand the affinity line? Not sure why companies do this. Did they add the few mm back on to the neck and body too?

I think the Standards have been gone for a while now, but I don't know what deluxe line are you're referring to. The reason for this new line is money, I reckon... These Affinities cost $279, as opposed to the $229 of the previous Affinities. Bullets now cost what Affinities used to cost ($179), so I guess they're just sliding everything up. Maybe they'll keep the lower-cost Affinities in the line-up as well, to cover more price points.

[correction]

It looks like the new ones are actually either $249 or $279. So the price range goes $229, to $249, to $279. I think they'll probably dump the original Tele and Strat Affinities at $229, though. They're still on the website, along with the new ones now, and they're listed separately, but there's nothing to differentiate them. They'll probably disappear from the website when the inventory is gone.

[nomadh]

So the drop the deluxe line. (Standard line too?) Then for some reason upscale and expand the affinity line? Not sure why companies do this. Did they add the few mm back on to the neck and body too?

I think the Standards have been gone for a while now, but I don't know what deluxe line are you're referring to. The reason for this new line is money, I reckon... These Affinities cost $279, as opposed to the $229 of the previous Affinities. Bullets now cost what Affinities used to cost ($179), so I guess they're just sliding everything up. Maybe they'll keep the lower-cost Affinities in the line-up as well, to cover more price points.

[correction]

It looks like the new ones are actually either $249 or $279. So the price range goes $229, to $249, to $279. I think they'll probably dump the original Tele and Strat Affinities at $229, though. They're still on the website, along with the new ones now, and they're listed separately, but there's nothing to differentiate them. They'll probably disappear from the website when the inventory is gone.

The deluxe was much loved. Some thought it was the best neck squier ever had. Rolled fb maybe? I loved the std. It just seems strange they drop all these models then kind of expand and make everything an affinity?
Why? Because it was so loved? The affinity was always the cheaper oddball. The neck cant be swapped. Bridge block sticks out. On the forums it's the one most say to skip over. It's like fender goes out of their way to make a marketing mud pie.
Mustang: old student model guitar or new modeler amp?
Starcaster: new uber cheap Walmart strat or older high quality semihollow classic?
Just irritating.

[Mossman]

The deluxe was much loved. Some thought it was the best neck squier ever had. Rolled fb maybe? I loved the std. It just seems strange they drop all these models then kind of expand and make everything an affinity?
Why? Because it was so loved? The affinity was always the cheaper oddball. The neck cant be swapped. Bridge block sticks out. On the forums it's the one most say to skip over. It's like fender goes out of their way to make a marketing mud pie.
Mustang: old student model guitar or new modeler amp?
Starcaster: new uber cheap Walmart strat or older high quality semihollow classic?
Just irritating.

When was that line in production? The only Squier that I know of that was called "Deluxe" was the VM (now CV) Telecaster Deluxe, but that was a model (after the '72 Tele Deluxe with WRHBs), but I never paid much attention to Squiers until I got my CV '50s Tele a few years ago.

From a business perspective, I suppose it makes sense to consolidate your product line and have starkly defined tiers. It avoids consumer confusion from having too much overlap between products. I figured that's why they got rid of the "Vintage Modified" line (or rather folded them in with the Classic Vibes). I always thought the line was kinda blurry between VMs and CVs, and the price differences between the two were minimal (about $50 less for VMs in most cases). I don't really see why a brand like Squier needs multiple product tiers, anyway. Now they have three levels... Bullet, Affinity and Classic Vibe, and that seems like enough. Instead of expanding vertically by adding a tier between Affinity and Classic Vibe, it looks like they're expanding the Affinity line laterally to fill the gap.

Now that MIMs cost almost $800, they may also be planning to launch another product line above the Classic Vibe to fill the $600 price point that MIM Standards used to occupy.

I feel the same way about Fender recycling product names. I remember when those Walmart Starcasters first came out. A friend of mine called me one day and said he saw an ad in the newspaper for $89 Fender Strats at Best Buy, and asked me if I wanted to go check it out. I said they must be Squier Bullets, but he was adamant that the ad didn't say "Squier", it said "Fender Stratocaster", so I agreed to go with him. When we got to Best Buy and saw them all in their window-box glory, I said: "STARcaster!!", as I slapped him upside the head with my hat.

I wasn't aware of the semi-hollow Starcaster until I saw the new ones in a store a few years later, and wondered why they would give it the name of a bottom-tier student guitar.

[Mossman]

I found out last night that the new Affinity Teles are a full 1.75" thick, if that matters to anybody... I assumed the bodies would remain 1.5" thick and I didn't really care. I have a Tele that I built from what I suspect to be an old Affinity body, and it barely even occurs to me that the body is thinner. I don't think it affects anything but the weight, but if that was a deal-breaker for you, it's not anymore.

[honyock]

I remember when the Affinities were like $129 and you could pick them up for almost nothing on Craigslist. I imagine this will make people start selling those old ones for like $200 or more thinking they are the same thing...

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

[Mossman]

I remember when the Affinities were like $129 and you could pick them up for almost nothing on Craigslist. I imagine this will make people start selling those old ones for like $200 or more thinking they are the same thing...

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

Yeah, that always happens, whether they're hip to the changes or not. People will always use the current new price to justify their used price, not the price they paid for it.

[mickey]

Yeah, that always happens, whether they're hip to the changes or not. People will always use the current new price to justify their used price, not the price they paid for it.

There have been times I've wished it worked like that with selling used cars!

[Mossman]

Yeah, that always happens, whether they're hip to the changes or not. People will always use the current new price to justify their used price, not the price they paid for it.

There have been times I've wished it worked like that with selling used cars!

Yeah, and I wish I could have marketed my old Saturn as "rare" and slapped a ridiculous upcharge on it because they weren't being made anymore, as people do with garden-variety guitars that have been discontinued. I don't care that Epiphone stopped making the Dot Studio... That doesn't make yours worth $800!

Seriously, if they're going to upgrade the Affinity line to this extent, they should have given it a different name, like: "Affinity II" or: "Affinity Plus" like they did with the Professional/Player lines (and what major upgrades did they make to the Professional series, again?? Did they give it a different switch? ).

There are other ways to tell it out, like the string-through holes, additional contours, glossy necks and different colors/finishes, but not everyone engages in such anal retentive attention to detail as we do. Even among my guitar player friends who have more than a passing familiarity with guitars; most of them have a hard time telling a Mexican Fender from an American one without reading "Made in Mexico" on the headstock.

[dabbler]

I have an older Affinity tele (CAR). but more relevant to this thread, you can never have too much LPB, IMO.

[Mossman]

I have an older Affinity tele (CAR). but more relevant to this thread, you can never have too much LPB, IMO.

IMG_20200601_112224.jpg

IMGP1229a.JPG

You have soooo much LPB, and I have none... It isn't fair!

[edit]

Wait a minute... How is that more relevant to the thread??

[BatUtilityBelt]

IMGP1229a.JPG

If there's any piece of music I never wanted to flash back to, it is the "Eight Is Enough" theme song, but the pic of your bases did that to me.