Squier Affinity P Tuners

Squier Affinity Ps have always had the cheap, closed tuners, IIRC...

 

It varied from year to year. My 96 has open as do all the newer models.


I’d pass on the closed gear models 1) because they’re garbage and 2) you can’t upgrade as easily because the peg hole is smaller.

 

I picked up a 2003 Affinity from the local craigs for $50, and it has the open style. I know I've seen the closed ones as well, probably came with the early starter pack basses.

Anything is doable. If the holes are too small then you can easily drill out a larger hole.

 

I have a 2003 20th Anniversary Affinity P-bass. Closed tuners, and while functional, not really good. My bass is made in China.

 

My 2000 standard and 2005 affinity both have open back. I’ve personally never seen an Affinity past 2005 with closed. I think they phased them out in the early 2000s for the Affinities; I also think they still use closed on the Broncos

Here’s a thread showing detailed tuner replacement
MIK Squier II Precision Bass - Build Log

 

Most people consider the closed-type to be the "cheapos" and the open-type to be more desirable.

Why? See this '57 p-bass neck. If Leo had used Gibson-style lampshade tuners, people would find those more desirable.

 

Yea not sure why they bounced back and forth. Mine is from '96, made in china stamped on the neckplate and has open back tuners which are actually half decent. They've always kept it in tune. Getting a little stiff now after all these years but still perfectly functional.

 

Fender style necks look right with the big, open tuners -- but I much prefer the closed Gotoh GB-350 tuners. They are my favorite but are for the smaller hole size. So they might be a good option as an upgrade if your neck has the smaller holes. The GB-350 are lighter than the hip shot ultra lights and I think they feel better too - but the hip shots look more traditional and you can get the hip shots for either hole size.

 

I don't know what year my Affinity P was, but it came with the absolute worst open gear tuning machines I have ever twisted. The was the one feature of that bass that just sucked... the rest of it was pretty okay.

 

I had a cheap guitar with that style of tuners - most of the closed ones, you can remove the cover.

Although closed tuners have a bad reputation, some of them actually work just fine. Worm gear tuners are like AK 47's - it's a design that, even made with sloppy tolerances, actually works quite well most of the time.

 

I have an indonesian Squier Affinity and it has standard open tuners

 

The Chinese Squiers of 20 years ago used those closed tuners, funny shaped headstock, no skunk stripe over the truss rod. In general these were on the ugly side IMHO. Indonesian and Korean Squiers were better. Later Chinese squiers called Classic Vibe were clearly the best of all, closely followed by Vintage modified (Indonesian).

 

I've got a 2013 Affinity P Bass with closed tuners. I'm sure I took part in a thread on Affinity tuner replacement here many years ago, where advice was given about reaming the holes out to replace them with standard open tuners, but a poster warned of the possibility of the tuner backplates clashing with each other and having to be ground down. That put me off so I've stuck with what I have.

 

Yes, they look correct, but also it's that
Big, cheap, junky, open type worm gear tuners generally hold up better than little, cheap, junky, closed tuners.

(And cheap knockoff Gibson tuners are really bad...)

 

seems like an easy fix if you dont like them or if they're cheap...the affinity/squier tuning peg holes look small to fit more "manly" tuners....Just a little reaming of those holes should fix that. Seems like it would be a drop in replacement otherwise​