I recently bought a refurbished Squire Affinity Tele with a one year warranty, I have some questions about the pickups. I’ve also followed the following guide to setup (https://travelingguitarist.com/how-to-set-up-a-squier-telecaster-step-by-step/). The pickup towards the tuning pegs seems to be noticeably more quiet than the middle selection or the far pickup. Is this normal behavior?
Additionally, what are some beginner recommendations or tips? I have a crush mini amp and it works great for my needs so far. Should I look into getting some pedals?
I am a complete beginner and using Rocksmith a bit, but mostly using the Guitar for Dummies complete book. Starting with basic chord progression and strumming techniques and then start with blues music as I’ve heard it’s a good place to start.
Any advice is appreciated, thank you.
Yes the middle pickup is usually quieter than the bridge pickup, that’s normal. Some people use it as an advantage, i.e. play the chords on the middle (or neck) pickup and then switch to the bridge to solo. That gives it a little more bang and the bridge pickup usually “cuts” a little more, tone-wise.
Pedals are way fun, but expensive. I would suggest a cheap zoom all-in-one at some point so you can try each pedal sound out to see what you like. But there’s no rush. For just starting out the important thing, the most important thing, is to have fun. Make sounds you like. Play along with music you like. Everything else flows easily from there. Don’t worry about technique and gear. Unless you’re going to be Steve Vai, the fun is the whole point - the only real point of it.
I appreciate the help and advice a lot, could you explain the tone and volume knobs for me? I’m not sure what exactly tone means or does in relation to the sound and how tone/volume can make a different sound.
For example, should i leave the guitar maxed out both knobs and control it through the amp, or does it all change depending on what music I want to play?