NBD: 2022 Squier Affinity Series Jazz Bass

[Sharko]

You can tell if it’s Affinity series by the width of the body. Affinity series have a thinner body than others fenders/squiers, easiest place to check is the neck pocket.

ppl seem to be misunderstanding me. I’m not saying the body is a different shape or the neck pocket isn’t the same shape, I’m saying the slab of wood on the affinity series was slightly thinner than other fender/Squier instruments. The neck pocket is the easiest place the check because the distance from the fretboard to the neck plate is visibly smaller on the affinities I’ve owned (strat and PJ)

that said, this may have changed recently. Someone on Another forum says the body slabs were made thicker in 2021 (but no source was cited), but the fender website still advertises “thin lightweight body” on the pages for affinity basses, so it’s unclear to me.

 

[sonojono]

Nice record collection too.

Thanks!

 

[ejaggers]

I bought a used Chinese Affinity for $120. It lasted about 6 months before the mods started. First it was the addition of one MM pickup. Then a VM neck. Then a preamp. Then a 2nd MM pickup. Then Hipshot hardware…
View attachment 4622512

I also bought an Affinity body specifically to build a fretless
View attachment 4622513

View attachment 4622514

I'm surprised you had to replace the neck.
The one on my AFN P is sweet,
and is one of the few stock parts left.....057912

 

[elgranluis]

I think your affinity might be a VM in disguise. The body shape right there at the back of the horns is the exact same as my
VM bass. Plus , if they actually moved production to china , then they’re probably simply using the same manufacturing line for the new affinities/ Minus the block inlays, of course.

 

[eastcoasteddie]

I'm surprised you had to replace the neck.
The one on my AFN P is sweet,
and is one of the few stock parts left.....057912

I didn’t really have to replace it. I defretted the original bought the VM neck as just a 2nd neck.
I later sold the defretted neck on eBay - I did a miraculously good job on it - the best ai’ve ever done out of probably 5 de-frets…

 

[ejaggers]

I think your affinity might be a VM in disguise. The body shape right there at the back of the horns is the exact same as my
VM bass. Plus , if they actually moved production to china , then they’re probably simply using the same manufacturing line for the new affinities/ Minus the block inlays, of course.

I have that same suspicion.
I haven't been able to tell the difference between my AFN P neck
and the VM P's I've tried.

In fact, my VM Jag I bought new needed fretwork,
whereas my P was almost perfect.

Since I modded the crap out of it, I took it to a luthier (not a tech),
and told him to make it perfect.

He checked it and said, "It could stand a little work,
but it's so close I'd just be taking your money".

I admit, I bought it used though, so maybe someone else worked on it....057912

 

[eastcoasteddie]

I didn’t really have to replace it. I defretted the original bought the VM neck as just a 2nd neck.
I later sold the defretted neck on eBay - I did a miraculously good job on it - the best ai’ve ever done out of probably 5 de-frets…

However, what I failed to mention is that I defretted the original neck because the frets were wearing out faster than you can imagine. After 6 months, they looked worse than the frets on my 20 year old Stingray’s frets.
I posted about them back in like 2015, I’ll have to see if I can dig that post up..

 

[ejaggers]

However, what I failed to mention is that I defretted the original neck because the frets were wearing out faster than you can imagine. After 6 months, they looked worse than the frets on my 20 year old Stingray’s frets.
I posted about them back in like 2015, I’ll have to see if I can dig that post up..

After 6 months???
What in the world are you fretting with, vice grips???........057912

 

[eastcoasteddie]

After 6 months???
What in the world are you fretting with, vice grips???........057912

Here is a close-up photo of one of the frets.
I bought the bass in 2015, it was a 2014 model in brand new condition. It had D’Addario Pro-Steel’s on it…not sure if it was because of the super-hard strings or if the fret material was trash. But I had the bass about 6-9 months before defretting it.

 

[ray_castro]

Don't know about black stuff on strings. Some kind of tarnish? Or a protective oil?
Here's the thingy, those basses are surely shipped with strings that are meant to be lower cost and who knows if they are any brand. I'd bet they are not a string set you could replace even if you liked them. Deal with them until you replace them and then use your favorite. Is the residue dry or is it oily?

Congrats, nice looking bass. Don't sweat the model, we all have different hand shapes. There's no best.

Thanks! I couldn't tell the consistency of the residue, but it seems to have gone away after a few days of playing.

I actually like the sound and feel of the strings. I'm wondering if these are genuine Fender 7250M strings? Can anyone tell from the picture?

Factory Strings on 2022 Squier

• ray_castro
• Mar 17, 2022
• strings

The spec for this bass on Fender's website says it comes with Nickel Plated Steel (.045-.105 Gauges).

 

[KJMO]

Thanks! I couldn't tell the consistency of the residue, but it seems to have gone away after a few days of playing.

I actually like the sound and feel of the strings. I'm wondering if these are genuine Fender 7250M strings? Can anyone tell from the picture?

Factory Strings on 2022 Squier

• ray_castro
• Mar 17, 2022
• strings

The spec for this bass on Fender's website says it comes with Nickel Plated Steel (.045-.105 Gauges).

I used those on my Squier, and replaced them with genuine Fenders, and they seemed the same to me. They are made by D'Addario, sound good, and are cheap, so I think they are a perfectly legit string.

edit: I called them the wrong model in my previous post, sorry.

 

[C Stone]

Thanks! I couldn't tell the consistency of the residue, but it seems to have gone away after a few days of playing.

I actually like the sound and feel of the strings. I'm wondering if these are genuine Fender 7250M strings? Can anyone tell from the picture?

Factory Strings on 2022 Squier

• ray_castro
• Mar 17, 2022
• strings

The spec for this bass on Fender's website says it comes with Nickel Plated Steel (.045-.105 Gauges).

Yes, NPS 45-105

 

[sunyata]

Has anybody swapped pickups on one of these new Squier Affinity Jazz basses? I have one I picked up new at the end of 2022, and it's pretty much become my favourite. Black pickguard on black body, and I replaced the hardware with all-black (Hipshot tuning machines, black string retainer, black Hipshot bridge), so it looks pretty slick. Put on nickel roundwounds, plays and sounds great (notwithstanding some ground buzzing, which I'll deal with via an upcoming cavity shielding project).

However, I was looking at possible pickup replacements, and due to the size of the stock pickups I am coming up empty on anything that seems like it would fit. I've measured and re-measured to make sure I've not lost my mind, but the stock pickups appear to be:

Bridge: 3.66" wide, 0.67" high (to clarify, I mean height when staring at the pickup face straight-on, not height when measuring from the wiring side to the exposed pole side).
Neck: 3.54" wide, 0.71" high

I can't find any aftermarket pickups that hit these dimensions, and I'd prefer to not get into routing.

Can anybody confirm/deny these pickup dimensions for one of these 2022 Squier Affinity Jazz basses? If I'm correct in my measurements, anybody have suggestions for aftermarket pickups that would fit one of these?

 

[KJMO]

The squier affinity jazz I had (mic) had jazz sized pickups. I swapped a normal set of fralins into it without an issue at all. Unless you have a contemporary jazz, which I didn't think was an affinity.

 

[Goffy]

Greetings to the Squier team! I have had my Squier Affinity jazz bass 5 for about 4 months. And I can tell you that I adore him, in these 4 months I had almost every weekend performance with him. That bass is an excellent real jazz bass 70s sound. Pleasant to play, keeps the tune perfectly, the neck is calm regardless of the changes. Unlike my Music Man Stingray 4hs which I always had problems with. These new affinity have a real original jazz bass tone, unlike some American models I tried in the store and a fender jazz bass player that was excellent, but nothing better than my affinity. That is my personal experience. I don't know if I found a good bass guitar by chance or if they are all so good, but the one I have is phenomenal. I also had a Sire v7 vintage and I could never get that 70s jazz bass sound that I have on the affinity with it.

 

[KJMO]

That's a great looking bass. I mean look at it! Ridiculous value. People also seem to agree the 5-string is a little nicer than the 4. I don't know why that would be, but I kind of believe it.

 

[Goffy]

The truth is beautiful and enjoyable. I'm not ashamed to play with him anywhere. Maybe I'll do a small upgrade later, but it's purely for its own sake, because it doesn't need anything, everything works as it should.

 

[rpangelov]

Let me tell my story short:

I play in 3 bands - different styles, different tunings. So I always assumed that I need to buy expensive active bass because of the versatility. After being completely dump I ruined the neck of my bass so I needed a new one as I had gig after 2 days.
Short on a budget, I wanted something affordable but trusted. So I avoided the shop brands, because they didn’t had any proper review, I got my attention at Squier.
I went to the shop and I took the Affinity, ClassicVibe and Contemporary JazzBass. plugged them in 4x10cab with 3500 Hartke. EQ out. I took my setup - a sansamp preamp pedal and dark glass overdrive. I tested all 3 models with and without the pedals on.
The contemporary bass had a very nice finish, but I did t enjoyed the eq. Aside of that - it’s an active bass and it has this typical “digital” sound so to call it. While playing it, it suddenly stopped. I plugged in another model and it started working. So the first I had just stopped out of nothing - battery change didn’t solved the issue. Not a nice first impression.
Then I took the classic vibe jazz bass. It had a really nice finish and I really like the shiny neck. It looks very deluxe. Anyway - I was searching for sound. I didn’t care even if it was a pink bass. The classic vibe has more warm doomy sound. Less bright maybe…sweet mellow sound. Nice and very very recognisable but this wasn’t the sound I am looking for. It’s nice to listen to it when playing solo but it won’t cut through the mix the way I want.
Than I took the Affinity - it was the most affordable of all 3 so I took it without any expectations. I switched from Ibanez SR505 - not a premium class but more than 3x the price of Affinity. Once I took it, it was lighter than expected - still heavier than the Ibanez but nothing extreme. It felt really , really well - the neck is very smooth, the frets are not sticking out or something. The strings felt a little rough but nothing special. The moment I plugged it in, this bass sounded good. Just as it is. I was really blown by how this bass sounds. Even before putting the preamp and overdrive on, I just kept playing wondering when I will hit something which won’t sound right. Except my mistakes - it sounded better than my Ibanez did ever - I don’t want to say Ibanez is bad, sound is matter of taste. But this bass have such a bright sound - very balanced sound and a very simple setup. I turn the bridge and neck pick-up all the way up and the tone 100% as well. Sometimes I turn the neck pick-up at 75%. The knobs are very responsive in all the levels. I plugged it home in my interface and it sounds amazing without any interference. The setup was good just out of the box, but still I let it check and setup if needed in the shop. After no more than half hour of playing - just out joy…you know that moment when you made your bass sound exactly the way you wanted to? This was that moment….i went out and I didn’t even doubt about the classic Vibe or contemporary. This affinity bass just felt and sounded the way I was looking for. Even switching from Ibanez SR505 and Spector, this Affinity doesn’t feel or sound bad at all. It’s a perfect instrument - just straight forward without too much knobs you don’t want this. You want to get your sound right as fast as possible.
The day after I went to the gig. After the show was done, lots of people came to ask about the bass sound - everyone which spoked me was positive about the sound. One guy didn’t even believed me that this was squier. Until I showed him the bass. I just love the Squier Affinity Jazz Bass. This is and will remain my only gigging instrument as I sold the Spector as well. The affinity can achieve really low action. I raised it up a bit so I can dig in the strings - this bass is made for digging the life out of him. That’s when you get the typical passive sound attack recognisable for Fender. Hands down and lot respect for Squier bringing such a products at such a price on the market!

 

[bass12]

Today I went bass shopping for a friend who wants to take up the instrument. I tried out a bunch of basses, including several that were strictly out of curiosity on my part (basses that were much more expensive than my friend’s budget would allow for). I tried out several Squier CVS and Affinitys, as well as several Fender Pro IIs (Precisions and Jazzes). In terms of evenness of tone across the strings and fretboard - and overall tone, the active Affinity the store had in stock beat out all the others. Just a reminder that, ultimately, it comes down to the individual bass and not just the specs and tier of the instrument.