Strat shootout : Squire Affinity vs USA Deluxe

V8

I really like the way he did this one :

Prefered the USA's cleans, but the squire sounded pretty good dirty!

nazarene

Really cool editing! Both guitars sound great!

Here is one of my fav youtube guitarists with a affinity into a ENGL combo amp

V8

I reckon the Affinity's ceramic pickups probably work better for the shreddy smurf style than alinco - the treble-y nature of them lends itself to pinch harmonics and cutting through the mix. I'm a fan of single coil sounds for drop tunings, the brightness/clarity counteracts the tendency for drop tunings to get muddy. Although, after messing around with the pimpocaster, I reckon piezo pickups are even better.

Anderton's had a shootout a while ago debating cheap guitar + expensive amp or expensive guitar + cheap amp. That was fun one, no definitive conclusions - but I'd probably go for a cheaper guitar and more expensive amp (if I needed gig rig and I could travel with my rig) - which is kinda opposite to what I thought initially.

But the gap between a cheaper/budget guitar and a mid range guitar has narrowed a LOT since I started playing - now you can get a decent player for a lot less. It's a good time to be a into music ?

nazarene

That vid just shows that a cheapy affinity that someone just took off of the wall in a guitar store can sound great and you can play really with it~

Ill remember that about the pickup magnets!

Wow yes ive never actually really heard a dropped tuned guitar through single coils, other than a strat tuned to DGCFAD
It makes total sense that it will counter the muddiness that you might get!

The guy playing is also just sooo extremely talented when it comes to neo classical, that does help XD
if you dig that sort of music, chek him out
https://www.youtube.com/user/kar98ksniper/videos

Oh yes I watched those shootouts Anderton's did!
Absolutely I will also go for a cheaper but good playing guitar and more expensive amp as well!

You are so right man! wow if I think on what utter piece of garbage I started out! And my dad still had to lay buy it from musicfest SA if you can remember that store.
It was one of their own "icon" branded strats. The body I think was made from toilet paper. Not plywood, if only it was plywood!! I still have the body, its some sort of wood that resembles balsa wood. I can write a book on everything that was wrong with that guitar.
My buddies bullet strat felt and played so much better!

So yes indeed today if a person can get a really nice and well playing starter guitar, especially if you go used.

V8

nazarene wrote: Ill remember that about the pickup magnets!

Wow yes ive never actually really heard a dropped tuned guitar through single coils, other than a strat tuned to DGCFAD
It makes total sense that it will counter the muddiness that you might get!

Merely my opinion! YMMV ?

I remember Musicfest, spent some time there waaaayyy back in the day. Not the most inspiring store, but there arn't many in SA. Was the icon their brand? Hmm, never knew that. It's right up there with the Ritmullers and Behringer's - except you can't wipe off the logo with your thumb like you can on the Ritmuller and Behringer :roflmao:.

I spied a Ibanez Artist 320 for R1900 this morning. It's about the same that I spent on a crappy 2ndhand BC Rich Warlock Platinum Series (plywood) in 1992. WhatTheFudge...that's a insane amount of guitar for peanuts (given inflation). ???

nazarene

Meron Rigas wrote: I remember Musicfest, spent some time there waaaayyy back in the day. Not the most inspiring store, but there arn't many in SA. Was the icon their brand? Hmm, never knew that. It's right up there with the Ritmullers and Behringer's - except you can't wipe off the logo with your thumb like you can on the Ritmuller and Behringer :roflmao:.

I spied a Ibanez Artist 320 for R1900 this morning. It's about the same that I spent on a crappy 2ndhand BC Rich Warlock Platinum Series (plywood) in 1992. WhatTheFudge...that's a insane amount of guitar for peanuts (given inflation). ???

Yip the icon brand was their "inhouse" brand, they used a chinese manufacturer of cheapo guitars to make a bunch of iconic guitars with their ICON logo on the headstock, ones i remeber were the jem, warlock copies, but they copied most iconic guitars by ibanez, fender, jackson, ESP, washburn. I aplyed on amny of those guitars as I used to hang out in the store a lot, they were all junk, feather light wood, wonky inlays, extremely cheap tinfoil hardware, especially the floyd rose copies!

My dad is friends with the guy who used to own the store, its actually sad as the shop used to sell a lot of high end guitars, they had many gibson and fender guitars there back in the day. When I stepped in there the first time they still had a gibson lP in there, it was a white if I remeber correctly, that was the last gibson they ever had in there.

They pretty much started to sell more just PA systems, TVs etc and then had cheap instruments in the store before they closed down, they were just not getting the customers they used to because of the area the store is located in. I still have some photos I took in the store shortly before they closed down.

haha sorry for the essay.

And the behringer and ritmuller strats smoked those icon strat copies ^^

wow yes R1900 for the artist 320 s really decent!! So many people gig with the artist series, especially those semi hollow ones if im correct, they get used a lot by reggae players.

I do have a arondite series ibanez, it has the same artist series inlay on the headstock, actually bought it at musicfest ? still got the box and invoice, its just extremely unplayable and has some damage. I will be starting to restore it tomorrow. Its ibanez adx 120
http://ibanez.wikia.com/wiki/ADX120