Make Your Tele Play and Sound Better! | Squier Affinity Telecaster Setup 

Most comprehensive videos yet. Finally someone who knows how to explain the procedure to those of us new to advanced tuning. I look forward to bringing my new Affinity to the edge. Also, I plan to switch out the stock saddles to solid brass.

Missed out step 1. Truss rod neck relief adjustment. Set correctly, neck relief 'facillitates' the rest of the adjustments to give you the best range of action adjustment, especially low action. It has to be measured and set super accurate though with feeler gauges. Can't eyeball it.

i got one of the newest affinty teles and it was setup perfect and sick low action as well and it plays and sounds awesome

Thanks so much, I just unboxed this same guitar in sunburst and cannot get or hold tune. I'm a near 70 guy, cannot read music, taught myself by ear on my brothers 1953 Fender Telecaster. My wife passed on, so to keep myself bust I will relearn guitar at near 70 years old. Thanks, I unboxed and could not the strings by ear. I may be 69 but my ears still work perfect. Let's see if I can get my fingers working. I always played to music on the stereo. My guitar skills used to be a pretty decent hack. My dogs always liked me play and singing off key. It was hilarious to watch the ears and head telling me by their body language. I the gone off the deep end. But they did like it. Wife thought I was nuts.

Just bought another one. First thing I did was revisit your tutorial before I set up the new Squier telecaster. This still is the most informative and practical tutorial on this subject. Thank you again.😊

Great video walk through and tutorial. All aspects of setup in easy layman's terms . I setup my tele (same model as this one ) last night. It now plays and sounds amazing. Thank you so much for this pal. !!!

Man, that video is amazing. I really appreciate your effort. I learned a lot. Thank you!

did everything you said and the guitar sounds way better. thanks a lot man, very helpful.

this is one of the best guitar videos Ive seen thankyou for sharing your workflow and how and why ❤🎉

Thank you for this video! We appreciate the help explaining how to do it. Set up at home. Definitely helped my new squire.

Thanks boss right to the point and indepth. Love the camera angles too, the perfect tutorial. 10/10

Thank you, thank you for making this video. I own one of these Affinity Tele's and I love it. I got it 2 years ago for Fathers Day from my wife and son. Mine has the regular tele "slab" style body. I have checked out the newer ones with the contour cut on the back on the body, and I like them. They seem to feel lighter than mine. I also own 2 Squire Bullet guitars, a Stratocaster HT and a Mustang. The Mustang is very light. It's good to see how you can set up your own guitar with just a few tools. Thanks.

Nice work. Simple and to the point. Didn't have to show off, make it about you instead of the tutorial. Much appreciated. Yes, subscribed.

Excellent tutorial! I love you showed how to radius the bridge with the radius keys! You often don't see people do this, but it makes a huuge difference to how the bridge feels!

THANK YOU for all the information. This helps me out so much. Excellent channel!!!

About to purchase my own Squier Tele and this video was crazy helpful! Thank you!

Great video! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience. Greetings from Chile!

Brilliant video, nice and simple and well explained. Thank you

Great tuition so massive Thumbs Up!👍

This video helped me a lot. Thanks, man!

Super helpful video - thanks a lot!!!

Nice job going over the setup.

Great video. Thanks for the help getting my tele tuned up. Didn’t know how to do this before. Not many videos on this!

Great help, great video. subbed! Thanks.

Just wanna say, thank you so much, I bought this and after 2 days of playing, I started to hearing a bunch of buzzing noises from the saddle, which concerned me a lot since i'm a total beginner and this is my first ever guitar. Again, thank you so much for the video.

This is so informative. Thank you for sharing how to do this correctly.

Thanks! Very helpful.

Good and useful info, well done.

Thanks mate, awesome video!

Cool Guide! Liked it!

Very nice setup job!...Another tip...The nut on these guitars are cut for the size strings that come on the guitar which is 9s.. if you go bigger always use nut juice to lube it up so the strings don't bind.

Great tutorial video on setting up a guitar Kyle. Plus you didn't cut much of the tedious matters of adjustments, tune up, and check it then repeat until you get the desired objective completed. Thanks brother man!!

Awesome dude...thank you so much!

Just got myself this exact model, hoping to learn about guitar set up and this video was a great help, straight to the point and kept everything simple, thanks a lot

Thank you for doing this. I have a 2016 squier affinity tele and it is all sharp at the 12th fret and the action is too high. So this video is perfect for me. I am going to essentially do the exacts steps you just did. Thanks!

found my first squier tele rotting away in a friends garage, havent seen it in 18 years, rescued it and cleaned it, needed a new jack which I bodged in. I look forward to setting it up properly thanks to your advice.

Very helpful. Thanks.

Thank you for this video !

Great information thanks !

Thanks great tips.

Great job!!

Just got my one today just set it up plays lovely, I did wax the neck came up beautiful.

Great video, thanks.

you're a legend mate

Great thanks. Bought same guitar today!

Thank you so much for your video. It taught me a lot on how to set up my guitars. I just wish you didn't have music playing in the background so I can hear more about what to look for.

Thank you !

Great video. 👍

I love your videos. You always make adjustments on guitars look easy.....maybe even I could do it. I need to get some tools.

Hey Kyle! That is a very helpful video. Thanks! I’m still loving my Squier Affinity Jazzmaster in Burgundy Mist.

Excellent video!

I have one just like that... It's fun to play after you work out all the kinks. My truss rod had 0 tension on it from the factory and was warping up, but I caught it early on

Thank you so much

Got one of these this past March. Was surprised how much umbrella there was on the neck pickup the first time playing it.

Hehe gonna get my affinity next week hopefully 😊 if it needs set up I’ll defo come back to this though I’m a bit nervous cause this is my first time 😅

hi. that's really useful for this one, thank you so much, so when do we need to adjust the truss rod ? is it okay to do that right out of box ? which I should go first if there's lil buzz on the fret ? saddle or truss

That music in the background helps a lot

Awesome

I just got mine new. this afternoon. All strings' intonation was sharp but easy enough to adjust. Did you notice the close together volume and tone controls? That's actually a good idea as the volume knob doesn't get in the way of the pickup switch selector. I'm not sure if that would be possible with full size pots installed. I've never had an electric guitar that didn't have a too high 6th string. A bit of the bridge adjustment and a too high nut slot. Always, as though the fingerboard has no radius there.

Kyle...best tip I ever got for intonation...move the saddles the direction the tuner is pointing...if its flat, move the saddle to the left...if its sharp, move the saddle to the right (the direction the tuner needle is pointing)....easy breezy....great vid as always bro!!!!

Good coverage of adjusting action and intonation but you left out checking for neck relief. I would start with this (i.e. before action and intonation adjustments). I'm glad you mentioned about keeping the saddles level. This ensures optimal tone and sustain by maximizing downward force on the saddle. I've seen lots of folks who (mistakenly) think you should try to have the saddles following the arc of the radius, but you should always keep them flat or parallel to the surface of the bridge plate. Maybe that's a belief transferred from the vintage 3 saddle style bridge where you have no choice but to tilt the saddle to ensure proper string height.

Good information. Don’t forget about the nut height too.

Thanks man, I'm only a month into the journey, and I thought I was doing something incorrectly, hitting all the strings, not being able to barre properly, etc. Turns out my string action was cranked up to the max. Even eyeballing the height made a massive difference. I'm surprised shops don't offer you basic setup service at the time of sale.

Thanks, well presented ! Which Marshall amp is that ? Cheers

Great video... any videos on a neck/truss rod adjustment ? I got a new cheap tele..and the neck changed over months..not i got a bad bend..strings are way off fretboard now :(

Hi Kyle, any advice how to improve the feel of the neck of the affinity ie to lessen the raw wood feel?

I decided it was finally time to learn to set the action on my guitar. I've had the gauge for three months. But it turns out Squier set the action perfectly and I've nothing to adjust!! I would like to ask they the capo needs to be in place for this?

Can the pickup selector switch and volume/tone pots on the Affinity be upgraded to American CTS components? Is the routing deep enough? I'm thinking of using this guitar as a modding platform as I really like the tummy cut contour.

Where did you get the micro mesh? Would you mind dropping a link? Thank you.

What do you do if the saddle crews are poking out over the top and scratching your hands?

I have the previous version of the Classic vibe with the brass saddles and string through body. I think the neck is a little nicer than the new ones. I don't know what other things changed over the years.

Nice Mod! Do you know where to buy the replacement pickguard for this model? I have been trying out few other thrid party pickguard, but they all dont fit the Squier Affinity Telecatster.

Question. Are these tele affinities ok with even frets out of the box or do they need dressing?

Greetings from Montréal, Québec, Canada !!! Just bought the same model because I did not see the logic of spending thousands of dollars on an original FENDER guitar when a Squier could do the same job for me...or almost, being a recreationnal home guitar player. I noticed that the fret ends were a litle 'rough/scratchy, so they shall need a bit of filing and...noticed that altough I find the action HIGH, playing between the 7-12 fret, it seemed to buzz, soooo, shall have to have it looked at OR you could guide me into fixing it myself, Master !!! Ha Ja Ha Have a great saturday and Thanksgiving weekend, warm wishes to you and your familly, my good man !!! Cheers !!!

Great instructional video Kyle, really helps us beginners out a lot. I don't know if you remember back when you did the unboxing of this guitar that I had mentioned that I just got one off of Ebay from Adorama and was waiting delivery. Well, long story short, after waiting about 12 days I emailed them about my order and they said that for some unknown reason it was in their returns dept. They asked if I wanted a refund or to have it shipped out again and since waiting 12 days for nothing wasn't going to happen again I got the refund but sadly no guitar. I went on Amazon and they have it but the seller is, you guessed it Adorama, so I didn't order it. What I did order with the money that was going to the Affinity was 2 guitars both the same price of $109 each, one is a Lyxpro telecaster and the other is a Donner Telecaster. Both guitars arrived in perfect condition and is a world better than the Harley Benton nightmare I bought awhile back. The Lyxpro literally only needed tuning and string height adjustments, the neck was adjusted just right for me, no sharp and/or high frets the tuners needed to be changed out because the weren't very good so I put on some Wilkinson tuners and the pickups were okay but I changed them out also with some Wilkinson pickups, the strings were changed also. Now the guitar is good to go, as far as the Donner it came with a lot of back bow so I had to adjust that, all the frets were just a little sharp no high frets though so they had to be sanded down a little and polished, the tuners were okay but the ones on the Harley Benton felt a little smoother so those were swapped out, perfect fit too, the pickups were okay but the bridge one was too microphonic so those got replaced with some budget pickups from Amazon and lastly the fretboard needed some cleaning and conditioning. Now I have 2 guitars that can be played as is or used for future projects when I get to feeling ambitious again.

I had to lower the action at the nut on mine. It was way too high.

very helpful, but fyi I found the background music at 7:00 annoying because it competed with what you were demonstrating

Straight on video. Isn't it necessary to check the neck before all this? Buzzing could be caused by bend neck (?)

What about the truss rod?

It seems like in my case the bottom E string's saddle's "leg" (hight adjustment screw) goes already far over the plate screw beneath it, if I want to set up its intonation. Also the spring on this saddle is already squeezed all the way. Am I doing anything wrong here, please? Or is that okay like that?

Is it possible to add a tremolo arm to an Affinity Series Telecaster guitar from Fender?

Great tutorial. Explained things clearly. Just got this same model. I would like to upgrade to locking tuners. Any recommendations?

Hi when setting your intonation at the 12th fret do you hold down the string on the fret wire or on the fret ?

I’ve done this and when I play a D chord it sound out of tune please help

How do put the strings on those weird tuners

Mine came with frets rougher than a bears ass. Guitar sounds great, I can't complain at the price but it feels terrible. Just waiting on the 0000 steel wool to arrive now.

🤘🏽👽🎶

What is the name of the blue tape you are using

this is so cute!!!! (i am ukrainian i dont kow englisg XD)

would you prefer this over the affinity jazzmaster?

Gracias por tu conocimiento compartido. Saludos desde LimaPerú. Rock On!!!

👍🎸

Thanks for this Tutorial! Can you do the exact same with PickUp Height on that Aff. Tele? My Neck PU sounds like it has a HighCut EQ on it - like absolutly no Highs 🤔 I think I did sth wrong as a swapped out the Pickguard 😵‍💫 Like & Subbed

😍🙏🙏

Hi there first time viewer to the channel , Ive been playing Guitar for near 20 years now and ive noticed the QC on guitars is getting worse and worse , for example when i bought my USA Standard Strat in 2007 it cost me £750 here in England , for that i got a well set up guitar with Alnico Pickups , a Bone Nut , A special greasebucket circuit in the tone controls for that Clapton type woman tone from the bridge pickup , also a Solid steel 2 point trem which stayed in tune well and a bonus i even got a hard case from Fender , now in 2022 i would have to pay £1200 for same guitar and the QC will not be as good , Squiers have been getting really bad in my opinion , if your paying 200 or 300 for a guitar it should at least be set up with well polished frets but Fender/Squier are cost cutting , its really sad and they do need to improve as rival new brands like EART are making guitars that cost the same but have stainless steel frets , solid steel trems Mahogany bodies with roasted maple necks , so take note Fender/Squier.

U 😎

Thanks for the setup video! I got this model a couple years back . I guess it’s me but it’s my least favorite guitar and I have quite a few The neck feel is just weird and doesn’t quite fit the tone it should have and also it’s pretty heavy. I ended up getting a HSS player strat which is way more versatile and playable. I also got a contemporary Jaguar , it’s worth the price and feels way lighter with a roasted maple neck that’s fast and smooth If your just starting the journey this Tele is ok but try it first hands on I can’t even give mine away😂😂

So a set up on a Tele does not include checking the straightness of the neck or the height of the strings on the nut? Actually in that order before messing with the bridge … 🤔

Thanks, luthiers can be expensive

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