The $299 Squier Affinity Telecaster FMT SH

The Squier Affinity Telecaster FMT SH Made in China

Out of the box the guitar appears to be well made.

My guitar weighs in at 7 pounds and 7 ounces or 3.394 kilos.

Measuring pickup impedance, the bridge measures 7 k ohms, both pickups together measure 4.09 k ohms, and the bridge measures 9. 46 k ohms.

Here are some of the specifications for the guitar.

Body is Okoume body with a flame maple top
Top Material Maple
Wood Top Style Figured Veneer
Finishes Gloss Crimson Red Transparent or Mocha

Neck Material Maple with a Satin urethane finish and a gloss urethane on the headstock face
Fretboard Material Laurel or Maple
Fretboard Radius 9.5″
Number of Frets 21
Nut Width 1.65″
Scale Length 25.5″
The tuning machines are sealed diecast with split shafts

Pickup Configuration SH
Neck pickup Ceramic Humbucker and Bridge is a Ceramic Single Coil.
6-saddle string-through-body tele with block steel saddles

Guitar MSRP is $299. Used pricing is not available yet.

The first experience with the guitar is…drum roll please…all six of the string ferrules fell out. The cool thing is that they actually set up this guitar with standard size 5/16-inch standard ferrules. The thing is they keep putting smooth undersized ferrules in the Squier guitars. I took a brand-new set of 5/16 ferrules with serrations and tapped them into place. They will not come out.

Observations and experience

When I am going through an affordable guitar I am evaluating for two different things. The first thing I am evaluating is the quality of the instrument out of the box. What is the quality and would it be a good out of the box experience for any level of player.

The second thing I am looking for is if the guitar is a good platform for the person who looks for an inexpensive/affordable guitar to modify into more of a permanent player.

My overall observation as to why Squier has released this guitar is that they have seen so many other companies (like Harley Benton and others) take Fender designs and add upscale features like flame maple top and binding and still sell the guitar for a low and affordable price being sub $300. It is a tried-and-true methodology of letting others prove the market viability of a product thus reducing your risks when replicating and entering the market with a version of the product of your own.

Electronics

The electronics are most definitely a target rich environment for upgrades as they are very inexpensive components that you would normally find in a budget/affordable guitar. One comment I should make is they moved away from the box pickup selector switch to a more traditional telecaster pickup switch. The result is when you cycle the switch through the three positions it sounds and feels like a traditional telecaster switch which is a great improvement.

Remove Pickguard and size of neck pickup route.

The very cool thing I found when I removed the pickguard is that the route for the neck pickup obviously can facilitate a full size humbucker as well as a standard telecaster single coil, a full size single coil, and the best part is it can also handle a p90 pickup.

Conditioned the fretboard.

I was a skeptic when I first learned about Monty’s Montypresso. I now find myself religiously using it on all Pau Ferro, Rosewood, and Indian Laurel. For Rosewood it seems to help with dryness and reconditioning. For Pau Ferro and Indian Laurel, it does this as well but also darkens the look of the wood, so it has a more traditional rosewood color and shade.

Amazing and happy find.

When I was looking at the bridge, I did not have high hopes as I assumed it was the traditional Squier low budget six saddle bridge. This is when I realized that it had four screws in front of the six string holes. I pulled the factory bridge off and placed a vintage style bridge in its place and it was an exact fit. This to me really changes how this guitar ranks in the evaluation for being a modding platform. This may in my opinion be one of the best Squier Telecaster modding platforms offered today.

When rubbing my hands on the edges of the fretboard I found rough edges at the 15th and 16th frets.

I found Fret rocking at frets 7 and 8 , 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20.

I really like the translucent finish on the back of the guitar. The exposed grain is beautiful.

I wish Squier’s version of a Satin finish on the back of the neck is in alignment with mine. It feels like bare wood to me without any finish,

The weight of the guitar 7 lbs. and 7 oz is really nice for me. I also appreciate the belly cut as it makes it really easy to sit with the guitar and play it.
This is a very upgradeable guitar and an excellent modding platform.

I did not intend to do a part two of this video but am now wanting to take my guitar and do some major upgrades.