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$20 Upgrade to this Fender Squier Affinity Telecaster Bridge Made a Surprising Difference!
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- Опубликовано: 5 авг 2023
- Saddles in Video:
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09...
Size 10.5 mm
'I picked up a Fender Squier Affinity Telecaster in Blonde with a black pickguard. I know - you are surprised. It was an open box and I got it for $180. When it was delivered, and I took it out of the box I found it was a brand-new guitar and a good deal for what I paid for it.
Here are some initial observations. I own another Squier Affinity Telecaster and I have to say that this specific guitar is a much higher quality guitar than my other Affinity Telecaster. The tuners are much better and are a lot smoother. Not something I think needs to be upgraded at all. Especially with the split shafts - which I prefer anyways. The neck has a solid feeling Maple, 25.5-inch scale length, C shaped neck with a 9.5-inch radius, and 21 frets. It feels just like most modern fender necks I play and feel comfortable with. The neck’s Satin Urethane finish feels good to the touch. One note is that the headstock is finished in a Gloss finish and not satin like the rest of the neck. The only negative I can say regarding the neck is that it sorely needs to have the frets worked on, especially on the edges of the fret board. They feel rough as I run my fingers across the edge of the fretboard.
The body is made of poplar and is Blonde but a little off in color from what I am used to on my other Blonde Telecaster guitars. The body has a Gloss Polyurethane finish. The back of the guitar has a belly cut and the overall weight of this guitar is 7 lbs and 3 oz which is on the light side for a Telecaster.
The three-selector switch has a feel as you move through the positions that is VERY different from a standard Telecaster, but it is very serviceable - more of a click and not the smooth progression through positions. The three positions are as follows:
Position 1. Is the Bridge Pickup
Position 2 or the middle position is Both the Bridge and Neck Pickups
Position 3 is the neck pickup.
The knobs and layout are traditional Telecaster.
The two pickups are ceramic single coils and the two pot controls are Master Volume and Master Tone.
I put the Affinity on the bench and changed the strings to a set of Ernie Ball Regular Slinky guitar strings in 10 through 46 gauges. I put the capo on the first fret and depressed the 17th fret where the neck first joins the body when I put the feeler gauge in at the 8th fret, I found I could not slide the feeler gauge in without pushing on the low e string. After I adjusted the truss rod and then remeasured, I moved onto measuring and adjusting string height. I could tell by looking at the height of the saddles that the action was extremely high and needed to be adjusted lower for my tastes.
Oddly enough intonation was spot on and did not require adjustment.
If you are a beginning guitar player, you really need to either take the guitar into a qualified tech and have an initial setup done with the strings you choose or learn how to do it yourself. This guitar out of the box would be difficult to play because of the string height and you would experience a lot of string buzz due to the absence of proper neck relief. You can take an inexpensive instrument like the Squier Affinity Series of guitars and when setup properly they feel as great to play as most high-end guitars. That is something it took me a long time to realize, and I am grateful to the work I have done in the videos on this channel because it has really opened my eyes to low-cost guitars and how serviceable they are. I used to be a brand name snob and I have to say that working on lower priced guitars in the past year have really changed my mind. I was reading an article the other day about music stars that play Squiers on tour. That really should say something to you. These folks could play anything they wanted in most cases, and they choose to place a Fender Squier instead.
The real test is when you plug a guitar into an amp and the sound that is produced. I am continually amazed at how the Squiers sound. I don’t know if any of you have your deserted island list of guitars like I do. Mine is a rough list that answers the question - if I had to sell all my guitars except for five (or a few) - what would be left. Lately I have been thinking at least one of them would be my Squier Classic Vibe 50s Telecaster made in China. I love that thing.
I am sorry for the cheesy video thumbnail with the guy with the surprised face. He is actually not a real person and is AI generated. I always see videos with thumbnails like this on RUclips and they always crack me up. This is my tribute to all of them I have seen and laughed at.
@@contactusece7769 www.amazon.com/gp/product/B093SPPS5S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
10.5 mm size
Smart, simple and inexpensive upgrade - my preference is for 6 saddle bridges because they can be intonated more accurately over the 3 barrel standard Telecaster bridge. Individual string height adjustments, as well. Sometimes inexpensive tuners work well - nothing wrong with keeping them - and I do prefer the split post vintage style tuners, as well. Good video!
Thank you! Completely agree on the 6 saddle bridges. Watch your channel all the time!
Great review as always. Thank you !
Thank you
I've been contemplating a set of those brass saddles for my Bullet Strat hardtail as sure as i love the tonal difference they make, even the compensated saddles for the vintage bridge make the most deepest difference for me but as for those modern Strat saddles... WOW!
Speaking of modern, cheap guitars nowadays don't take much to improve their playability when you know how to do it yourself.
This was a great video, as like others, I have a 90’s affinity tele, I have a set of used graphite saddles in, not bad but lacking that edge, I will definitely look for those saddles and try them out!! A question please, how do the brass saddles sound with a little gain rilled on?
Thanks again for the great video, well laid out 👍👍👍
i put brass saddles on a guitar, and i felt like it changed the feel of the string when strumming, and i didn't care for that. it didn't add any brightness to my ears, so i swapped in steel instead. but anyways, budget guitars are cool
Totally with you on the value of cheap guitars..! Regarding the saddles, the brass ones certainly sound different - brighter, but I prefer the warmer sound of the stock ones.. I have a 2020 Affinity Tele myself 😊
I have that exact same affinity tele 2020 myself-I call it “Butterscotch.” The stock saddle seem to slip while I play it, ruining the action. I was able to keep it from slipping by applying nail polish to the screws, but I will see if I can replace all the saddles. The pickups are hot , and paying even $800-900 more for the MIM Fender is silly when this really has a fine neck and smooth frets
Steel saddles would be brighter, and brass saddles would be warmer. Not sure why you think the opposite.
Wow! Just bought a 2022, I dig it. Prob one of best teles I ever had believe it. But, what a difference! Huh?,! 🐝Great video, thanks.
I put Kaish brass bridge roller saddles on mine. They dropped right in. Also have roller string trees. I use brass roller bridges on all my guitars .
The quality has improved wirh Squier. Having said that, what is affected by the cheaper brand is Def the setup. Although, the attention to detail makes a setup a lot harder as the adjustability of the guitar can be affected. I've only found one or 2 that I could set up well but the amount that couldn't be set up well was staggering to me. I gave up on afinity and moved to classic vibe for the versatility of the interchangeable parts. My afinity was nice though as I remodeled several for fun and they came out so nice. The quality of the craftsmanship does matter to me cause specs matter and Squier drops the ball a lot there.
Completely agree with Affinity vs CV.
The biggest change on these new Affinities is the 42mm standard width neck. The older Affinities, bith Teles and Strats had thin 40 mm necks.
I have 2 Squire Affinity Telecasters it looks like I am going to make the upgrade I can really hear the difference great job!!
I just picked up a new Affinity Tele and found the vintage bridge fits. Video coming soon.
@@guitarcollectorguy I want to replace my bridge also with the 3 brass saddles do you know if it would fit on squire?
@@markadams3047 on the older Affinity guitars not without a lot of work on the guitar that in my opinion would make it not worth it. On the brand new Affinity guitars - yes. I have replaced the factory bridge with a vintage 3 saddle bridge.
Excellent video.. I order sets of dopro,both brass and stainless steel if you haven't tried this yet you might want to use brass saddles for high E, b, and G, and stainless for low E,A and D... It sounds amazing. Stainless brings definition to low E,A, and D, while using brass on high E,B, and G softens up spikey upper mid transits and warmup highs a bit. The stock saddles are zinc and hollowed which cuts sustain.. IV E tried everything but aluminum saddles while likely hava softer or Mellow top end. But rhus so far stainless steel and brass sound the best IMHO, I was concerned that stainless would be overly bright but they actually sound warmer than the stock zinc saddles. They may have more top end overall but it also are more balanced across the entire frequency spectrum. The brass and stainless seem to compliment each other really well. I couldn't agree more with you regarding what an 😮improvement saddles make. The best way I can describe it is a lot More of everything, a more solid foundational tone, and more sustain overall. I also change bridge pickups, and put a tusq graphite string tree. All that runs around 70 bucks . And takes the tone to The next level on par with min and even some of the American made telecasters I've owned . The new sonic esquier is astounding and a jump in quality from the bullet's which are nice as well and what i usually gig with.. anyways thanks for the excellent video and cheers 👍👍
Thank you very much. I never would have thought of mixing metals in the saddles. I am going to have to try this idea.
@@guitarcollectorguy right on, yeah you might actually like the tone of it.. a few players do this, I think Brad Paisley is one of them.. but yeah it definitely changes the fundamental tone..
There's a video on YT where by slightly loosening the screws on a bolt on neck, tapping the bottom of the body on a soft surface, and retightening the neck screws sits the neck better into the pocket and enhances harmonics throughout the guitar. I tried that on an old cheap Squire and I noticed a difference.
How can we find that clip? Thanks
@@BAsed_AFro ruclips.net/video/N5lTtDzR8eE/видео.htmlsi=Q_h8-ZdFFh7zk-2C
@@BAsed_AFro ruclips.net/video/5P802vhtccc/видео.htmlsi=GJgapZyQaxKCv6E6
@@BAsed_AFro ruclips.net/video/5P802vhtccc/видео.htmlsi=GJgapZyQaxKCv6E6
Thank you. Pretty wild.
i just installed a titanium alloy nut on my partscaster tele body/squire tele neck waiting on pots to get here and going to redo the pickups and electronics cant wait to hear how the titanium nut affects the sound
So what do you think ? I bought some titanium parts and it sounded awful . A saddle set I think . Sounded like metal pretending to be plastic. I was surprised, its super hard
@@terryenglish7132 it made the guitar way too bright , i ended up putting in a graphtech nubone nut .
Nice video. Which brand saddles? That would be helpful.
Thank you. Here you go - www.amazon.com/gp/product/B093SPPS5S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
Where'd you get the brass saddles ?
On Amazon
I have a Tele Affinity but the bridge is different, longer and does match any Tele after market bridges, it has 3 screws at the top not 4 and 2 extra screws at the pick up, is there anything I can do to upgrade?
That is a standard affinity bridge. It should match the bridge in this video - ruclips.net/video/AqU8t62s36k/видео.html
The saddles will work on that bridge as well.
That is the bridge, but it is very difficult to string, it does not have the holes through the back, just through the bridge, that is why I want to upgrade.
@@PantherJagger without drilling string holes and redrilling for a new bridge - not a lot. I wish they produced the Affinity Teles with a standard string through bridge. But they do not.
Van Dyke Harms has several models of barrel saddles, and accessories. Might be overkill, but look really beefy, and a lil pricey.
I just did a video on their hybrid bridge. Very nicely made bridge.
How do I know which brass saddles to purchase exactly? I had to put a shim(piece of a business card) in my affinity.
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B093SPPS5S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
This is what I used.
10.5 mm correct? They have both 10.8 mm also
FYI I installed a USA Tele Yosemite bridge pickup right into my Affinity Telecaster but I had to sand down the edges with a finger nail file (emery board) and I did install a Mojotone solder less wiring kit.
I used the 10.5
No link or info which bridge you got and where ?
Just the saddles - no bridge - Here you go - www.amazon.com/gp/product/B093SPPS5S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
What you needed, in my opinion, is better steel saddles. Steel is the preference of Kenny Vaughan, Marty Stuart, Brent Mason, Jimmy Page w/The Yardbirds/early LZ, etc, as well. Fender only installed brass saddles on teles until 1953. From 1954 on, they used steel saddles instead of brass. My 1956 tele has threaded steel saddles, sounds beautiful. *All* 1960s teles use steel saddles. Most of the classic Tele tracks you've admired over the years were probably played with steel.
Two of my 8 teles came stock with brass saddles, and I immediately changed over to Glendale steel. For the low E and A strings, I favor aluminum. Brass sounds dull to my ears.
Hi. Nice upgrade.
Did you use 10.5 or 10.8 as both are available?
Thanks
Thank you. I used the 10.5 size.
@@guitarcollectorguyGreat. Thank you.
@@stevie-con67 you are very welcome
It looks like the neck could have a heel adjust trussrod?
One of the first things I check once I restring. I have already pulled the neck and replaced it with a really nice CV Squier Neck and it is cool too. May be a trick of the video.
Whats the string spacing on these?
@@nickhutchinson9068 you can buy most string spring specs for the different saddles. These come in 10.5 mm and 10.8 mm. You can other sizes as well.
Like you, I wanted to change the entire bridge plate a for box type traditional one, mainly because I actually use the “ashtray” bridge cover to rest my hand on. Why oh why did fender (Squier) decide to make a new bridge plate that is longer than the standard? All the holes are in the wrong places and basically you are stuck with this thing. The brass saddles make a big difference so I will get some, but the ones I see have a string groove that is offset to the side compared to the nasty chrome ones.
The new Affinity line does allow for the bridge plate to be swapped out. You can see a little of the monster size routing for the pickup on either side with a standard vintage bridge installed. I have one and did the swap out. Been toying with whether or not to put it out in a video.
Very interested in the new bridge been looking for one so I can use the 3 barrels and all the original holes. (what & where?)@@guitarcollectorguy
@@roberthoover3805 Here you go - www.amazon.com/gp/product/B093SPPS5S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
Are they the 10.5 or 10.8?
@@toddwallace1277 I used the 10.5
I put a vintage bridge on my squire affinity fit perfect it is a 2022
Interesting. Maybe they have changed.
Looked at the pictures close up. About dang time they made this change. I just ordered one.
Where o where have been looking for one since I got the guitar, link please...😮
@@roberthoover3805 Here you go - www.amazon.com/gp/product/B093SPPS5S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
@@guitarcollectorguy these are nice saddles but I'm looking for a vintage bridge to replace the modern one on my Affinity tele, one with the three brass saddles. Had me going for a minute...
groovy, cheap guitars can sound great if setup
Yes, they can. :)