Description
Review of the Fender Squier Affinity Series Starcaster Electric Guitar
The Squier Affinity Series Starcaster is an offset semi hollow body electric guitar in Olympic White, fitted with two Squier humbucking pickups and a stop tail bridge. It runs a full 25.5 inch scale with a maple neck and maple fingerboard, and the whole instrument is designed by Fender. It is aimed at a player who wants the wider, airier voice of a semi hollow body without moving into boutique territory, and at anyone whose taste runs to indie, alternative and jangly rhythm playing.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Semi hollow construction, which adds air and a softer attack compared with a solid body, and reduces weight.
- Offset body shape, which balances differently on a strap and tends to sit more comfortably when seated than a symmetrical body.
- Two humbucking pickups, so the guitar avoids the electrical hum that single coils pick up from lighting and screens.
- Stop tail bridge, a fixed design that holds tuning well and is simple to restring.
- Satin neck finish rather than gloss, which does not grab a sweaty hand the way a glossy neck can.
Cons
- Semi hollow bodies feed back at high gain far more readily than solid bodies, so this is a difficult choice for loud, heavily distorted playing.
- The body is a large offset shape at 47 by 20 inches in its carton, which makes it awkward for a smaller player and harder to fit into standard cases and bags.
- Nothing in the listing indicates a case, gig bag, amplifier, cable or strap is included.
- The listing gives no detail on the pickup output, the nut width or the fret count, all of which affect how the guitar plays and sounds.
Detailed Product Description
The construction is the central point. A semi hollow guitar has chambers routed into the body rather than being cut from a solid slab. Those chambers let the body resonate more freely, which softens the attack of each note and adds a woody, open quality that solid bodies do not have. It also drops the weight considerably. The trade off is acoustic feedback: at high volume with heavy gain, a hollow chamber will start to howl in a way a solid body does not, which is why semi hollow guitars are so strongly associated with clean and lightly driven tones.
The body, back and top are all listed as maple, and the neck and fingerboard are maple too. Maple is dense and bright, so the wood choice leans the instrument toward clarity and cut rather than warmth. Combined with humbucking pickups, which are naturally thicker and darker than single coils, the two characteristics offset each other and give a balanced result.
Two Squier humbuckers are fitted. A humbucker uses two coils wired so that electrical interference picked up by one is cancelled by the other. The audible effect is a quieter guitar with a fuller, louder and darker output than a single coil, with more push through the middle of the frequency range.
The bridge is a stop tail. Strings anchor at a fixed tailpiece behind the bridge rather than passing through the body or over a floating tremolo. This is a stable, simple arrangement and it makes string changes quick.
What Comes with the Product
The listing covers the guitar itself in Olympic White with chrome plated hardware. No case, gig bag, amplifier, cable, strap, picks or tuner is listed as included, so the supporting gear needs to be bought separately.
Who It Suits
This suits a player who has moved past a first instrument and wants something with more character than a standard beginner shape. The semi hollow voice fits indie, alternative, blues, jazz and clean rhythm work particularly well. It also suits a player who dislikes the weight of a solid body, since chambering takes real mass out of the instrument.
It suits less well a complete beginner, because a bare guitar cannot produce sound without an amplifier and cable, and a starter package covers that ground more sensibly. It also suits less well a metal or hard rock player, where feedback from a hollow chamber at high gain becomes a genuine obstacle and a solid body is the more practical choice. Smaller players may find the large offset body difficult to reach around. Anyone comparing similar instruments should look at the Grote GTL-101 semi hollow and the IYV IJZ-300 hollow body, while anyone wanting the same brand in a solid body should consider the Squier Sonic Telecaster. The relationship between Fender and Squier is explained in the guide to Fender versus Squier, and the wider selection sits in the electric guitars archive and the full guitar review index.
How to Maintain
Wipe the strings and the fingerboard after playing. A maple fingerboard is usually sealed with a finish coat, so it should be wiped clean rather than oiled. Fretboard oils are for unfinished boards such as rosewood and will simply sit on the surface of a sealed maple board.
Take extra care restringing a semi hollow guitar. Chambered bodies sometimes have less accessible internals than a solid body, so keep tension on each string as it is fitted and change strings one at a time.
Tips and Recommendations
Stand at an angle to the amplifier rather than facing it directly when playing with any gain. Feedback from a semi hollow body is largely a matter of where the body sits relative to the speaker, and a small change in position often solves it entirely.
Keep the gain moderate and use the guitar volume control to shape the drive. Semi hollow guitars reward a lighter touch on the gain than solid bodies do, and rolling the volume back cleans the signal up quickly.
A modest practice amplifier is enough for home use. The guide to guitar amp wattage for home practice covers how much power is actually useful indoors.
Product FAQ
Is this guitar hollow?
It is semi hollow, meaning the body is chambered rather than fully hollow or fully solid.
What pickups does it have?
Two Squier humbucking pickups.
What is the scale length?
25.5 inches, the standard full scale Fender measurement.
Does it have a tremolo arm?
No. It uses a fixed stop tail bridge.
