Getting a Great First Electric Guitar - That You’ll Want to Play - Squier Affinity Stratocaster

Yup, the one I got looks just like this, only better in real life

Here’s a popular story usually told by people who could not find their butt cheeks with both hands. They say “you cannot get a guitar that you will actually want to play without spending a thousand bucks”.

I’m going to call BS on this because I did my own research and found out that this old bit of nonsense is untrue here in 2021. You could even find that a new guitar of today is better built than that so called vintage thing from 45 years ago. Hence one of the reasons I chose a Squier Stratocaster for this purpose.

If you were around in the 70s, and I was, and before that too, it was known to musicians as the decade when the big builders didn’t care about quality. A Strat from Fender could be had new for about $900 and was actually worth about $40 at the time before you had to do a lot of work on it to make it playable. Today, I am holding, or more correctly, just put down a Squier Affinity Stratocaster that was on the wall with a hang tag of $299 CAD. Like most Squier products, this and other models are made in China and Indonesia. They are built by Cor-Tek who build instruments for lots of well known brands, including under their own name Cort. As an aside, I have an old Cort bass made of Wenge and it is still awesome after 20 years. Cor-Tek has been building guitars for decades and while their people are definitely paid less than North American workers this doesn’t make them bad builders. They use the same patterns and CNC process, but may go with a lower cost set of woods and controls.

A solid body electric guitar is built to be plugged in and this Strat has three single coil pickups called, big surprise, Strat pickups. Considering that a set of custom Strat pickups will cost twice what this entire guitar costs, the fact that they sound pretty darn decent out of the box is good news. Let me be crystal clear on this. These are good pickups doing a good job at being a Strat. They do not compare well against the pickups in a Fender Strat Ultra that sells for $2600 or a set of Bare Knuckle hand wounds from Tim Mills and Co, but anyone who wants to pick nits about that is being quite a tool, and not the useful kind of tool.

The Build

I found the fit and finish out of the box to be really good. Guitar stores work on fairly low margins and the whole COVID-19 online shopping as made things more difficult. If you sell a guitar for $329 at low margins and have to pay your staff to do a full setup on every guitar before shipping, you are likely to be losing money. I’ve tried a number of fresh out of the box guitars in this price point and at a much higher price point from other makers and will tell you straight up, that the Affinity Stratocaster was good to go with a reasonable action, proper neck relief one intonation out of the box. This is critical for both the retailer and the buyer because customer satisfaction is much likelier on a shipped product and it is far less likely that the buyer receives something that is unplayable and has to send it back. At that point, no one is happy.

The neck profile is what players would call a soft C. In English this means that most any player at any skill level will not find this neck hard to play and it’s not going to create a lot of pain as one starts playing. The guitar comes equipped with .009 to .042 gauge strings, what we typically just call “nines”. This is an ideal gauge for the new player because they will be able to press the strings without needing Hulk strength and the strings aren’t going to tear their fingers up as the new player builds up some calluses on the fingertips, needed for any stringed instrument. The strings are still thick enough that they are less likely to be constantly stretching out of tune or as prone to breakage as a lighter string. The tuning pegs are chrome plated, like the bridge so less likely to tarnish if the player isn’t really nuts about cleaning the guitar after playing. Chrome doesn’t wear away like polished nickel, so the guitar looks good for a long time. The finish is a gloss polyurethane, and while purists will whine about it not being “nitro”, the poly finish hold up really well, and handles the odd dings and raps better than a nitro finish.

The fingerboard on this model is a maple board glued to a maple neck. This means that the truss rod, which is used to adjust the neck is placed in a channel in the neck and the fretboard is glued over it. Old Fenders sometimes have the channel in the back of the neck with a darker piece of wood glued over it often called the skunk stripe. There’s nothing special about which way a truss rod is installed, all that matters is that it works, and unlike some Fender branded instruments, an owner can adjust neck relief at home using a simple tool and a YouTube video without having to take the guitar to a technician or remove the neck entirely and guess at the adjustment. There’s a reason most all electric guitars are built so you can adjust the neck without removing it. It’s faster and much more convenient. For those who consider not pulling the neck off heresy, save your hate mail, it just goes to the trash anyway. I happen to like the feel of maple necks and fingerboards. The back of this one is satin finished and is nice and smooth and does not get sticky over time. The finger board is sealed but not lacquered and has no aging toner applied. The frets are medium jumbo which are easy to play and the fret markers are black dots.

The tremolo system so named by Leo Fender (who got it wrong) is actually a vibrato and works just fine. It’s not built for dive bombs but if you want a little easy to use vibrato that comes back to tune when you stop pulling on it, this is a very decent little bridge system. It’s a six screw mount, the same style as on many classic Stratocasters. Some aficionados prefer the six screw system to the Ultra’s two screw system which is a lovely bar argument and not really important to most folks. This Strat has a functional Whammy bar, nuff said on that point. The tuners get the job done. If you’ve spent a lot of money on a guitar, they will feel stiffer than your expensive tuners and if you have not, you’ll never have anything to complain about. You turn them to tune the string and once tuned and the strings have stretched, the guitar stays in tune with good consistency. This is critical because I am constantly stunned by the people who buy a guitar and don’t get a clip on tuner for it. Playing out of tune is neither artistic or personal, it just makes the playing less fun and nauseating to those who have to hear it.

One of my critical tests for any guitar is to find out how hard it is to make an F barre chord at the first fret. This can reveal all manner of challenges and I am pleased to say that barring the F on this Strat is as easy as on many multi thousand dollar guitars. If a guitar is hard to play, it doesn’t get played. Getting a guitar that is inexpensive but poorly built and set up at the factory is a bad plan.

This Stratocaster has the 70’s CBS era headstock, also known as the “big” headstock. It has no impact on the playability at all. It’s just aesthetics, and while there are folks would like to argue about which one is better, in the words of the sadly passed musical genius Mr. Francis Zappa, “shut up and play yer guitar”

The switching is a bit stiff at first but works in quickly. There is a master volume and two tone controls. Like old style Fenders, the tone controls manage the neck and middle pickups respectively and there is no tone control on the bridge pickup.

The body wood is Poplar, a common and inexpensive hardwood with easy workability. Poplar is one of the softer hardwoods making it easy to machine but tough enough to hold shape for a long time. Poplar is commonly used in demanding structures such as upholstered furniture, drawer sides and backs and other utility projects requiring dimensional stability and warp resistance. While much is made of Alder and even Basswood as being better for guitar bodies, these claims are dubious. Alder is only marginally harder than Poplar and Basswood is quite a bit softer and more subject to damage. Wood does effect guitar tone, without question, but the more important query is can you hear a difference? Unless you have amazing ears and superhuman auditory memory, any differences between these woods is more likely in your head, and less likely in reality.

Playing Tests

It’s often common in some “review” scenarios to plug a $300 guitar into a $6000 amplifier. A decent player with a Two Rock amp can make a stick with fishing wire sound ok. My first play test which was really to get a sense of the pickups without any effects was to plug into my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Mk IV amp. I love the HRD and have two of them set up in my wet / dry / wet rig. The Squier sounded good, bright on the bridge, if not a bit bitey, and nice in the middle and neck positions. I did not get the quack that I would normally find in positions 2 and 4 on a more expensive Strat or a model with custom pickups but it was not a bad sound. I have heard far worse out of Strat clones at three times the price of this Affinity. Cranking up some reverb it sounded like what you might expect a Strat to sound like if you grew up listening to Sixties California music. However when I moved from an expensive tube amp (over $1200) to a pair of less expensive digital modelling amps (more on this below), I was positively impressed. One could get the guitar and a really nice digital amp for less than the price of a Hot Rod Deluxe Mk IV, and for starting out, one should.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the fret ends are well finished and after some aggressive punk style riffage, had no scars on my fingers from sharp frets. I have picked up guitars costing several thousand dollars with sharper fret ends and that’s not a good thing. This guitar is really good in this regard. The fingerboard edges are Fender like, not sharp edged but not heavily rolled either, a decent midpoint choice.

The switching and pots were very quiet and the pickups were not noise machines either, being surprisingly quiet even close to the amp.

I then decided to see what it would sound like overdriven. Since I choose not to have the constabulary pay a visit due to noise complaints I kicked in an old favourite distortion pedal called the Proco RAT. I like RATs because I like the sound but I also know that a lot of electric players are going to want a distortion pedal and not want to spend more for one than the guitar cost. You can get a RAT pretty widely for about $100 bucks. The Affinity sounded awesome, like a distorted single coil guitar should sound with a nice burn but retaining note clarity and no woofing.

However, I also respect that not everyone at this stage is going to spend over $1200 on a tube amplifier. You can get a really decent modelling amplifier for around $150 with more than enough power for home use. You could also get one of the just released Fender Mustang Micro Amps that plugs right into the guitar and plays back through headphones for play loud anywhere options. It’s also got a lot of nice modelled sounds and basic effects built in. I’ve only had very limited time to try one out but for about $130 that fits in your pocket it’s pretty incredible.

But I don’t have a Mustang Micro. I do however have a Yamaha THR30 II digital bookshelf amp. I also have a Boss Katana Air, and they are designed specifically for bedroom volume playing. Both can also be connected to wirelessly. First step was to confirm that the transmitter would actually fit into the jack slot for the Strat. Yes indeed, worked fine for both. So I played for a while and found that I was able to get that 2/4 quack on the Yamaha amp using the Modern Crunch setting with the Gain at 12 and the mids at 2. Really nice in fact.

Yamaha THR30 II (transmitter not included)

Boss Katana Air with Transmitter

It’s difficult for a new buyer to know if things will sound ok. To try to help, I recorded some very basic samples using the Affinity Stratocaster connected to the Yamaha THR 30 II via it’s wireless transmitter. The THR 30 II has a variety of amp emulations and I used Classic Crunch, Modern Clean and Modern High Gain to give a reasonable sample. All the amps were set with the tone controls at the midway point using the THR front panel controls. A bit of Reverb was used for all samples except the Modern High Gain amp where it was turned down.

I plugged the line output directly into my Apollo Twin X interface but also connected the THR via USB directly. This allowed me to use two different interfaces in case one was more coloured than the other. It wasn’t the case. All samples other than the Modern High Gain used the USB direct option, since most anyone could do that. The Modern High Gain used the Apollo inputs, more to prove that I could use the THR this way than for any other reason.

Each track was recorded with no guitar or amp emulations added in Logic Pro X. I did use the same Logic provided general EQ plugin called Guitar Sweetener which is pretty flat other than a slow rise from 0 to about 45 Hz where it levels off for the remainder of the audible frequency range. Each sample is named to indicate what it is.

So there must be some downsides right? Not as many as you might think, or candidly as I expected. I’m a long time player and an admitted guitar geek. The pickups are good but not what I would normally buy. However they are certainly better than those in most clone Strats. The guitar does not come with a gig bag or case, so plan on getting something to protect the guitar unless you plan on transporting it around in a cardboard box. Personally, I am not a fan of Fender gig bags. My local shop sells a line called Profile that are really good. It’s not a shot at this instrument but every player needs a tuner. Even if you think that there’s a tuner around, spend the $25 and get a Snark and put it in the gig bag. Lastly, while I think that the Nines are a great gauge to start with and may be even play for life, get an extra set or two of strings. This is my opinion on this point, but I really hate Fender strings. Spend the $16 or so on D’Addario NYXLs. They are coated and don’t rust out, they are super strong, and hold tune wonderfully. Never let strings that you don’t like get in the way of playing. Whenever I buy another guitar, I get strings for it. It’s a small price to pay for enjoyment.

When it comes right down to it, for about $300, you can get a Stratocaster from a Fender owned company that will outplay the zillion other Strat clones costing a lot more. You’ll also get the knowledge that there is an enormous company called Fender standing behind it and they will not risk their reputation on junk.

Is the Affinity Stratocaster as good as a Stratocaster Ultra? Not in my opinion, but if you can even find one, the Ultra that looks like the Affinity is about $2500 and maybe that’s the wrong place to start with a first guitar.

This piece would not have been possible without the support of the owners of The Arts Music Store. They worked to get me the evaluation instrument for this write up. I did not keep the instrument and was not paid or offered other consideration for this article. I like this store very much and encourage readers to have a look at your own pleasure and discretion. I have used links to their online store for the products that I have mentioned. I receive no compensation for using these links, I just like the store.

Until next time, peace