Squier by Fender Affinity Series Telecaster Beginner Electric Guitar - Race Green

Especially on a budget. I'm a lefty player for at least 25 years on and off, not a pro., and of course I'vealways had real difficulties finding decent lefty guitars, and places that support or service them properly,in some cases, and I've never been in the position to blow upwards of $2000 on a guitar, so, I have to stickto a budget or moderate price level instrument, which is fine since I'm no Eric Clapton, but I'm better withrhythm guitar and fingerpicking folk-rock style, etc. My main guitar is a budget-brand (but good quality) lefty 12-string ac. electric that I use mainly for power pop, 60s-80s rock, folk rock, and such. I also own a Takamine6 string acoustic electric that's starting to wear at the bridge a tad, but it's still playable, and some older Les Paul 100 Epiphones and a Squier basic Strat that is still in ok condition, but it's also showing some wear and tear by now. The Telecaster is a much-needed boost to my collection. I've got amps, tuners, pedals, and all kindsof accessories, cleaning cloths and fluid, so I'm good as far as that goes. Shipping was absolutely impeccable, carefully sealed and wrapped, and came with the 2 year Fender warranty card, and some allen keys for setup.You can definitely learn to do a setup on YouTube these days, but I would take it to a good shop with a goodguitar tech., if possible, if you haven't done one before, and, it also helps to invest in a good guitarneck stand before doing any work on it. Also, slacken those strings before changinga set, or one string! Will save a lot of heartaches. A really good guitar string winder and cutter isalso essential.My beautiful blonde wood Squier Tele arrived today, and I unpacked it, inspected it, plugged it into my wonderful Fender Mustang II modeling amp, tuned up, checked intonation and setup a bit, and it seemed to be set up pretty well at factory, which is rare and somewhat unexpected. Sounds darned good, plays very smoothly, and the neck is nice and narrow for my small hands and fingers. The finish on it is gorgeous, and the frets aren't rough or extended past the neck, which is fantastic. Pickup switch seems to be solid thus far, sometimes on cheaper guitars they are a bit wonky and finicky. The pickup top hat switch was a bit weird, it seemed like it should'vesat lower on the pickup switch, but it didn't, but it seems solidly seated now. I ripped through Springsteen's The Promised Land and it sounded like a Telecaster. Whether it sounded like the Boss is another tale,but it was in tune and had that shimmery, twangy Tele sound.Good enough for me! I would really recommend this Tele for lefties on a budget, or beginningwith lessons etc., or even moderate level players. I'll see how it goes, but out of the box, it's a greatvalue and a very smooth-sounding, versatile instrument. This Tele is also modest in body size, so it'skid, teen, or beginner-friendly for sure in terms of the guitar's modest profile. Has some weight but it'snot over the top like a real Les Paul Gold Top or whatever. Can't find any negatives thus far! The hardwareon it seems fine for stock. Of course, if you can, dropping better tuners and pickups in it will onlyimprove it, but that's true for most entry-level guitars (or any that aren't custom jobs to begin with).It's nice to pull a lefty guitar out of ship box and be able to actually just plug in and play, it's a real joy,and I'm already over the moon with this guitar. I would recommend bringing it to get a setup done,however, which I'm going to do as soon as time allows. Lefties don't have tons of great options,so I would heartily recommend this Squier Telecaster for those lefties on a budget or beginning,you cannot go wrong. I was going to pick up an Ovation lefty Balladeer (or lesser) ac. electric soon, but I was having a hard time finding one. The thing with electrics is, they require more yearly or evenmonthly, maintenance than most acoustic guitars, at least in my experience.Not comparing this to an Ovation, but heck, the Telecaster is a versatile guitar,and I'm satisfied with it so far. One thing beginners need to understand is electrics and acoustic-electricsare really two COMPLETELY different animals. The fact that you can plug both into an amps. and FXare where the similarities really end: both play differently, feel differently, and behave a lot differently.I find most acoustics a lot harder to fret, too, but I also don't have huge Jimi Hendrix hands! If you wantto just play rock, blues, folk rock, southern rock, pop, or some metal (if so, I'd go more for anIbanez, Dean, or Jackson, or something like that that's particularly intended for metal or speed metal), and have an easier time fretting barre chords and power chords, this is the guitar for you. You want to play along to Springsteen, or The Pretenders? This is, for sure, the guitar for you. It sounds particularly good via some chorus, reverb, or compression, or all of the above, with a bit of gain, to get a nice, shimmery, biting but cleankind of sound. I feel for you, my fellow lefties! Buy it! Now! At least it's a good guitar, and it's not $5000.The quality Fender puts even into their lower-end models takes some of the lefty frustration out of theusual mix, which is at least one obstacle cleared when you're trying to get a quality instrument fora lefty while still learning your craft. An unplayable guitar that doesn't stay in tune and buzzes likea B&D chainsaw, is not wont to keep students or beginners playing. This shouldn't do that to you.Also kudos to Fender and Squier for making some decent lefties available at various price levels,it's enormously helpful.

All right, for about $200 the Squier Affinity is a pretty good guitar. I mean you don't expect that much for the low price but you get quite a lot and it is a real decent guitar with a few reservations. Here goes. The frets are jagged on the edges and I played my hands nearly raw within 45 minutes of playing. The ends of the frets are almost like running your hands up and down barbed wire. Ok. That needed to be said as so many commenters ignore that part about this guitar. That being said it is not that hard to remedy. I found a video that showed how to fix this really quick using a foam sanding block which is easily attainable at most hardware stores. I got them butter smooth with about 10 minutes of sanding. This fixed the neck now feels good and plays very nice. The body finish is really good. I got the butterscotch and it looks great. The neck is narrow, I assume for younger players, but my hand is smaller so it works well for me. A person with large hands might not like this neck. The strings were not that great so I changed immediately to slinky's and the guitar sounds and plays so much better. The pickups are just OK, low end but adequate. I plan on changing them soon. This is the ultimate fixer upper guitar and worth fixing up, but it is playable as is except for the fret sharp edges. The tuners hold tune pretty well so no complaints there. The controls are OK, but might change those too just because I think there are better ones out there for not too much moola. For $200 you are not going to get the best components in controls and pickups. But like I said it is a very nice guitar to fix up. It looks great and the body is solid alder and that might be the best part of the guitar. It really looks great. The sound is fine. All in all I am happy, but still plan on doing a few more upgrades to components and then I will be real happy. Even with upgrading parts it will still be cheaper than a Mexican or American tele. Should you buy one? I'd say yes. But just realize that this is not the top of the line tele and expect to make a few changes in this guitar to make you really happy. Once you make those few changes you will be a happy camper.addendum 2023: I have made a few adjustments and upgraded to this guitar and now it is not too far off par with a genuine telecaster. I changed out the pickups to a set of Dimarzio's and that really improved the tone. I put Fender locking tuners on it and some brass saddles. I also put a 1950's style pick guard with 5 screws instead of 8 and think it looks pretty cool. I also put a round string tree to make it old style and a genuine Fender Coronado CA neck plate. I also plan to change the controls to a better them. The controls that come with the guitar are pretty cheap and have wires about as thick as a frog's hair. But the guitar now is close to a real tele. The Chinese tele affinity is a pretty good guitar for the money and going up, up in price. I paid $219 and they now 4 years later sell for $289. I recently got an email from another guitar seller stating all Fender products will soon be increasing in price. Get one before they go up even more.