NGD: Aztec Gold Squier Affinity Strat

[Big Monk]

It’s been a long time since I bought a guitar but I saw this for sale at a really great price and snagged it. FSR Color in Aztec Gold.

This isn’t anything fancy but it is pretty darn good sounding and playing for the Affinity Line. I retired my “Black Strat” and scavenged the entire wiring harness, the Fender staggered tuners and the old school style saddles.

I have Fender CS69 pickups in it wired in the style of the Eric Johnson strats, i.e. middle pickup unloaded and neck and bridge pickup tone controls. The CS69 is a non-RWRP middle.

The only change I made that didn’t come from parts I already had was the steel trem block to replace the cheaper on on the stock bridge.

Nothing fancy but it plays really well and sounds good and I needed to retire the old Squier Standard as it was having issues from previous repairs. Not a bad haul, time wise, on the old girl, as I bought it for $99 back in 2018.

 

[bluedmc777]

Although sparkle isn’t my thing she’s a good looking guitar and Squiers can be set up to be great players. I have a candy apple red affinity waiting for me to set up that I go for $75 buck. Feels great as is but I’m sure I’ll replace the hardware, pups and tuners mainly because I have all the parts to do so lying around. I’m not too big on ceramic single coils though and it probably has those little dime sized 500k pots making it even harsher. Congrats though! Looks like she’s set up pretty well already.

 

[jimilee]

I love me some gold guitars, nice?

 

[gtfields13]

Nice! My teenage son received (gift) a Squier Affinity Strat last year, and by my really horrible ear and playing, it's fairly comparable to my late 80's Strat Plus. I actually like the neck finish on my old strat (gloss) more than the matte finish on the Squier, but the Squier seems to be more on-trend with what players want today.

Did I mention I am a pathetic guitar player, though? I am really a keyboard player who's decided that building guitar pedals makes me happy.

And (as my build reports will continue to show) I LOVE metal flake finishes. I blame George Barris.