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Squier Affinity Jazz

#41
After buying a Squier CV Jazz it's hard for me to see how the higher price for a MIA Jazz is justified by anything other than labor as a cost of manufacture. If the Squier Basses are using virtually the same bodies, necks and other components as their American Standard counterparts the quality should be comparable and so far I've found that it is.

It's possible that the QC of the American made instruments may be better but that isn't a guarantee of a better instrument. Like any other guitar there will be variations in quality from one to another and by picking them up, looking them over, and playing them you can find the best ones whether of US or Foreign manufacture. For the most part the Fender MIA label adds more to the snob value and potential resale value than it does anything else but if you're not a gear snob and you don't intend to sell it what difference does that make?

I own a 95 MIM Telecaster and I've heard many comment that the QC of these guitars was pretty poor during the 90's and to buy the ones produced after 2001. This Tele looks and plays perfectly and with the exception of my Custom Shop 51 NC it's as good or better than any other Tele I've owned including a 69 with a bad neck I once sold for ridiculous sum.

I'm far more interested in how my stuff sounds and plays than what name is on the headstock or where it was manufactured and this comes from someone whose never had anything other than MIA Fenders before.
 
#42
soulman969 said:
After buying a Squier CV Jazz it's hard for me to see how the higher price for a MIA Jazz is justified by anything other than labor as a cost of manufacture. If the Squier Basses are using virtually the same bodies, necks and other components as their American Standard counterparts the quality should be comparable and so far I've found that it is.

It's possible that the QC of the American made instruments may be better but that isn't a guarantee of a better instrument. Like any other guitar there will be variations in quality from one to another and by picking them up, looking them over, and playing them you can find the best ones whether of US or Foreign manufacture. For the most part the Fender MIA label adds more to the snob value and potential resale value than it does anything else but if you're not a gear snob and you don't intend to sell it what difference does that make?

I own a 95 MIM Telecaster and I've heard many comment that the QC of these guitars was pretty poor during the 90's and to buy the ones produced after 2001. This Tele looks and plays perfectly and with the exception of my Custom Shop 51 NC it's as good or better than any other Tele I've owned including a 69 with a bad neck I once sold for ridiculous sum.

I'm far more interested in how my stuff sounds and plays than what name is on the headstock or where it was manufactured and this comes from someone whose never had anything other than MIA Fenders before.
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See - right here's where the wheels fall off of this kinda logic.

The quality is relative to (in most cases) the dollars spent. Even though I am a staunch Squier advocate - I KNOW that there are better basses out there in the MIA and CS version - but they don't do it for me in the situation in which I find my needs and desires.

My Fenders are really nice - but so are my Squiers and even my home-builts.

But - let me digress a lot here for you, so you can see where my logic works for me.

The wood means little to nothing in musical reproduction on a solid body, much the same as a HM will be or do. So there's that to consider.

NICE wood that actually shows through the body color is always appreciated, but it has no mystical properties nor can it talk, sing or resonate for all intents and purposes in this situation.

Here's where I think you miss the mark:::

If the Squier Basses are using virtually the same bodies, necks and other components as their American Standard counterparts the quality should be comparable and so far I've found that it is.
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They DON'T use the same bodies, nor even the same wires (not that that makes any difference either) nor do they share the same electronics.

They may LOOK the same and even interchange - but let's face it: they are different.

I think some of the confusion is that Fender/Squier interchanges their parts numbers and one may think the parts are the same - which in many cases the AFTERMARKET parts may be.

But the OE parts as they installed on the individual assembly lines are NOT the same. Not to the 'counterfeit' end of the spectrum, but they are either made in a different country or even from that country's indigenous parts/materials available to that country.

If one were to buy a CS-Reggie, fer example, then one would expect it to reek of quality and attention to details.

When one opens the hard case in which it arrives, one would be knocked off their feet/chair and after picking one's self off the floor, one would just KNOW that they are in the midst of God's personal instrument. But would it actually sound better than the lower-priced Reggie version?

Maybe yes - maybe no.

Last point: I bought an Ibanez SR500 at GC over two years ago.

Now ----- I know everyone says that the QC on Ibanezzessesses are somewhere near north of perfect - and they might be so - but only that ONE SR500 was the one I bought when I had tried a few others of the same exact make/model/date of manufacture and even (yay- the exact same) country of origin.

Yet that ONE SR was the only one that felt right. That ONE SR was the one that sang to me. That ONE SR had the features I wanted and with which I felt most comfortable.

'G'wan' you say?

Nope - it's a perceptional-thing and even though they may ALL have been exactly the same - only ONE fit me right: the one I bought.

Let's face it: we're all tone/attitude and perceptionally challenged and as such we are all whores to the basses we have or need to have, no matter how much they are like the last bass we bought but it just 'didn't do it for us' and we flipped it or keep it in the attic like our crazy aunt when company comes to visit.
 
#43
JPMo said:
has anyone on this forum taken an affinity jazz and stripped the paint off it leaving the natural wood? I would like to see whats it looks like? I wanna make my bass look like a vintage modified! :bassist:
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I've seen pics of it done before, in the tricked out Squier club threads I think. Some people liked it , I thought it looked kinda funky in kind of a cool way.

edit** here it is http://www.talkbass.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=228703&d=1316580634 belongs to bassistjoe93
 
#44
JPMo said:
has anyone on this forum taken an affinity jazz and stripped the paint off it leaving the natural wood? I would like to see whats it looks like? I wanna make my bass look like a vintage modified! :bassist:
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Yep - Not too bad looking under those Affinity Jazz bodies IME. The bodies seem to be 7-piece Alder body with a thin veneer of Alder on the top. Although I should have known better, I tried my amateur hand at staining it a dark color (mistake). The veneer on the top of the body was just too thin to take an even stain & I ended up with blotchy patches - just not good. But this is no fault of the wood, just my staining inexperience & diving into the project headfirst without thinking about it too much. So I am keeping the body for a rainy day project until I can either decide to sand it down & remove all the dark stain that is now on it - which is just too much work than I'd care to get into with it, or more likely, paint it solid color. But the underlying body is not too bad at all. In retrospect, if I do this again, I will strip the body clean & just shoot some clear coat over it & call it done. It would have turned out great had I done that from the start. :)

By the way, I tried some CitriStrip on the body & it wouldn't even phase the paint. I had to use a heavier product called KleanStrip, and even that was kind of tedious, requiring multiple coatings & a lot of scraping. I think next time I'm literally gonna take a tin foil turkey basting pan, buy a couple of gallons of KleanStrip (enough to immerse the body in for a day or two) and just let it soak for a day or so. I think the paint would come off way easier that way than in repeat coating/scraping sessions.

Project pics using Affinity Jazz V body:

103_2394.jpg

103_2399.jpg

103_2402.jpg
 
#45
I have a Squire P bass that I bought about 2 years ago from a friend for $70.00! It's about 12-14 years old now and it's a great player. Stays in tune, plays great and other than occasional "seasonal adjustments" it's fine. Got an old set of Fender flatwounds on it and they are NOT coming off!!

This is the first "P" bass I've ever owned, so I really can't compare it to other Fender P models out there. Is it better or worse than this or that Fender model? I couldn't tell you.
 
#47

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