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Fender Squier Affinity Stratocaster Reviews  3 / 5 based on 3 reviewsI bought this guitar at Mars Music, and payed about $200 for the guitar, a 15 watt amp, strap, picks, strings, a video, and a tuner. It was my first guitar and it seemed like a decent price for a beginners guitar, and seemed like a decent copy of a real Strat.
It's got all the features of a real strat, it's light, small, I like the floating bridge and tremolo, and the guitar is seemingly well put together on the outside. You can get a variety of sounds from the three different pickups, and, if you're a beginner, you won't even notice the difference between playing the Squier or a real stratocaster. Also, the tuners aren't that bad, considering that they seem to be chrome-covered plastic. It keeps it's tune fairly well, despite all the bending I do. However, using the tremolo fairly often will take it out of tune pretty quickly.
This guitar just didn't have the right sound for me, and after playing for a year I went and got an Epiphone archtop, a very beautiful and very sweet-playing guitar. However, if you're a fan of strats, you'll certainly like this. Also, the wiring on the inside is shoddy, I had to re-sauder it. The rosewood fretboard hadn't been polished up enough for my taste, but, you can always coat that down. The pickups buzzed a little and the feedback you get with distortion on can be pretty nasty sometimes, but, it wasn't too terrible.
It was built quite well on the outside, but the wiring on the inside was terrible. I had to re-sauder it once on mine and twice on my friend's, who also owns a Squier Affinity Series Strat. The pickups buzz a little, and aren't very sensitive, but you can replace them. Overall, if you've got a saudering iron, this is a great guitar to learn on, and you can buy the guitar alone for about $80.
I would definetly recommend it to a first-time guitar player if you're looking for a strat, but you've got a tight budget. It's got decent strat-like tone, and is very playable. Go to your local music shop and plug one in, give it a couple licks. When you need something cheap, it's a great guitar. Chris Redding rated this unit on 2002-12-19. I purchased the guitar as part of the Strat pack at a local music store. I paid about $295.00. I was interested in playing the guitar and didn't want to spend a lot of money just yet.
I like the fact that you get everything you need to start playing. I get good tone out of the guitar. It seems to be well constructed. I like the feel and the action of the guitar. The amp is not bad for the money. The distortion switch really produces some good sounds.
The guitar constantly needs to be tuned. I get a terrible buzz from the amp when I use the cord that came with the pack. The volume knob works good, but the other knobs have little or no effect on the sound of the guitar.
The overall quality is very good. The guitar has been dropped a couple times and still plays well. I have notice no defects in the construction of the guitar.
For someone interested in starting the guitar, the Squier Stat Pack is a good buy. I'm 38 years old and just started taking lessons and my instructor has made several positive comments about the guitar. Steve rated this unit on 2002-07-06. I bought the squier strat as part of a strat pack. I think paid about CDN $325 for the whole thing (guitar, crappy amp, gig bag, etc).
I liked the fact that it was cheap and that it came with all of the accessories I needed to start plaing.
I really like the neck on the squier strat. It has excellent playability despite being poorly constructed (the fret edges are poorly done). I've dropped the guitar numerous times, taken it on planes and in the car, and it is still working - so that's gotta be a good thing...
The machine heads are brutal. The guitar is constantly comming out of tune with even the most tame solo. The bridge has been nothing but trouble: the saddles, no matter how often buffed and filed, will constantly wear at the strings and hence go through too many sets of strings (as in one string per session). The bridge pickup is entirely too weak and has the lousdest buzz I have ever heard from any strat.
It's tough to get good tone (And I'm playing through a Marshall 100W Head...)
There are numerous problems with the construction.
The bridge rattles constantly despite being packed with foam and having been serviced numerous times by a good tech.
The frets are not all properly seated in the neck, some of them have sharp edges which can catch the string on a bend that goes too far (had I known what I was looking for when I bought the guitar, I wouldn't have bought it...)
The body has stood up to considereable beatings, which is good. The pick up selector died after 8 months. The volume dial doesn't make a difference past 3, and the tuners are sub-standard.
If you are looking for a guitar to start with, and don't consider tone or durability to be your biggest deciding factors, then go for this guitar. However, if you are looking for a strat to add to your collection and you care about the sound that comes from the guitar, go for the Mexican strat - much better quality and tone for not too much more money.
All in all, this guitar is exactely what you should expect from a cheap guitar that comes in a brightly coloured box...
Matt rated this unit on 2001-06-27.
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