Affinity Squier Telecaster with Hidden Problems!

[HankC]

A beautiful, two-year-old Squier blonde Telecaster, and it looked like it had hardly been played. My customer brought it to me for a setup.

He usually does his own setup work, but this one had given him fits, so figuring I could use more gray hair, he brought it to me.

The strings were nearly laying on the frets, yet the saddle screws were standing as tall as California Redwoods!

I think we’re going to need a neck shim, I proclaimed with confidence that would soon be shattered. For an interesting and informative read, click for the full article on GuitarsDoneRight - https://guitarsdoneright.com/affinity-squier-telecaster-hidden-problems/

 

[John Stephen]

Wow, that's a lot of stuff. Kudos to you for figuring it all out!

 

[tintag27]

That's a thrill-a-minute ride there...
Job well done - thanks for posting that entertaining and enlightening episode, Hank!

 

[Jazzman1955]

Excellent website Hank. I bookmarked it and read many of the blogs. Great information!

 

[Fendereedo]

Excellent read, and great remedy. Website duly bookmarked.

 

[TomBrokaw]

Well done. I'd never have figured the neck issue out.

I also read the article about bad info coming. Good on you for calling out that FuelRocks site. It's pure crap, but it's often at the top of Google results. I even saw it linked to here once. Gonna be a lot more like it, too.

 

[gitarzan]

That was a fun read. I call projects like that a “Monkey Puzzle”.

 

[Peegoo]

Neck screws not dropping through the body is a common issue with cheaper (and sometimes not so cheaper) screw-neck guitars. It causes all kinds of issues.

 

[Boreas]

Neck screws not dropping through the body is a common issue with cheaper (and sometimes not so cheaper) screw-neck guitars. It causes all kinds of issues.

I think this is more common than most of us realize. Virtually every Fender neck I have had body holes that were too tight. Often simply finish schmutz, but sometimes the threads are actually grabbing wood. Is this so hard for Fender/Squier to deal with? When I get a new Fender/Sqier, this "procedure" is part of my first string change. It takes me about 2 minutes to clean the holes. Another 2 minutes to clean the excess finish schmutz out of the neck pocket and done! Immediately turns a wonky neck into the stable neck Leo designed.