Fender Squier Affinity Series Strat

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I have been playing for almost three years now. I play different music but I love to play blues. My review reflects this guitar's performance for Blues, Classic Rock, Modern Rock, and pop. This is an excellent blues guitar like any strat. This guitar is not a good metal guitar. It does not do great for jazz rythym but will do. I reviewed this guitar before and gave a harsh review. I did not have such discerning ears then and based my review on rumors of low quality and ridiculuos price. It wasn't until around three months ago that I really realized the excellence of it's sound quality. I've noticed that other oppions with lower ratings are written by people with crappy amps. I, a crappy amp owner, have to agree. This guitar does not sound its best through a crappy amp. Also, it is important to bring and use your primary guitar when trying out amps. My rating represents the sound in porportion to the sound. Yes, a more expensive guitar will probably sound better but for the price or any range up to 700 this guitar is a ten.

The action is low and has good intonation. I changed my strings to 10's and then 11's to give more mid-range and bottom-end. The stock action is perfect.

Built solid like any Fender. I gig without a backup.

The guitar is great for begginers or curious first time strat buyers. Squiers are not bad guitars. The affinity line is, in my oppinion, the best line. I have tried out the slightly more expensive Squier standard but my affinity sounds better for what I play. The affinity line has more color options now as well. I would recommend this guitar to anyone interested.

Made in China, 21 frets, 5-way selector, 3 passive single coil pick ups (traditional Strat), no Floyd Rose, just the basic and classic tremolo bar. Basically the standard Stratocaster you see anywhere (am I saying "this guitar is just nothing special"? Noooooooooo..... :-)

If you buy a Strat with single coil pick ups, you gotta be aware that you're not gonna be playing thrash metal or nything like that, so don't go out saying the guitar sucks. You just don't know how to choose the right instrument for your sound.

I heard people saying all the time: "don't buy Squier guitars, they suck". Is it true? Well... yes and no. Ok, it took me about 5 months to find the right Squier Affinity. Everytime new guitars came into the store there I was to see if they were good. Were they? No.

But one beautiful morning, I found my Strat among many others and for some reason that one was REALLY good, and the others were shit. The wood, the sound, the looks, the tuning... the quality in general was much better then the other Squiers. Why? I don't know. There was a Telecaster that was real good too. I guess Squier Affinity guitars are like that: some are horrible, some are great, just like top of the line americans. Mine is one of those. Great sound, great tuning, no problem with neck whatsoever. Excellent. Remember: I'm speaking for my guitar only. I've seen many others that really sucked.

Sorry about the short answer (as oposed to the other ones), but the only thing I had to change was that it came with 0.09 strings and I use 0.10. Since then (2 and a half years ago), no problems AT ALL!!

Guys, no kidding. Gigs and more gigs with no tuning problems. I have 9 guitars and my Strat is close to perfection when it comes to this. It will go out of tune if I really make sure I WANT it to go out of tune. I mean... I would really have to throw it into a wall.

Never had to deal with this. Can't say anything about it.

I've been playing for about 9 years and I own 8 other guitars: 1 Les Paul Standard, 1 Les Paul Custom, 1 Standard SG, 2 Brownsville (Impala and 12 String Semi-acoustic), 1 Explorer, 1 Fender American Telecaster, 1 Daisy Rock.

This is a japanese made Squier affinity stratocaster for $150 it's a great beginners guitar to learn the basics and has so many options to add modifications onto. It's a beautiful chrome red finish. It's basically a standard strat shape with tuners and a regular tremolo i installed a dimarzio fred humbucke in the bridge though. So i give it a 6 becasue there arn't to many guitar features.

It sounds ok but not the best pickups in the world

It is all great action and like i said a beautiful chrome red finish

It is incredibly reliable i don't gig yet but it's never broken down on me the strings have never popped and it stays in tune quite well.

Never dealy with them

I think it's a great value for it's price becasue there is so much room to upgrade but anyways i recommend purchassing one for just practicing and swinging around not worrying if it dents or anything.

I got my black Squier Affinity in 2001. It was my first guitar. 21 frets, rosewood fingerboard. Three fairly loud buzzing single coil pickups(which is pretty normal for singlecoil). It has 2 tone controls(one for neck and one for middle, I wish it had one for the bridge because its way too bright!), and a master volume. It has a really thin finish that dents and scratches way too easy! And a tremolo that gets out of tune real easy. The tuners actually stay in tune pretty well(unless you are using the tremolo bar). I gave it a 5 because it has most of the standard features but they don't really work too well.

I play mostly alternative and punk rock. It works pretty well for both styles. I play it through a Line 6 Spider 112(highly recomended)! It has pretty good tone for the price, that's about all I can say. The pickups buzz way too much, and the bridge pickup is way too bright.

The action is pretty good. But it's a little too low. It makes the open strings buzz. Mainly the low E and A strings. The finish is way too thin it dents and scratches easily.

This guitar's finish is not very durable. You just barely brush against something and there's a scratch. The finish will probably ware through within a couple of years. But otherwise it holds together pretty well.

If it were stolen I would definetly upgrade to something with humbucking pickups, because I'm sick of the noise. It's a pretty good starter guitar, but that's about it.

Artic White finish, looks great. Has a hum-single-hum routing similar to the new American series models. Vintage tremelo with cheap but ok pickups. Has everything epected in a Strat but stripped down for budget. Overall not bad.

I have been playing for two years now. I play a lot of different stuf but I love playing blues, mostly SRV. I play this through a peavey audition plus. The guitar sounds better than expected for its price and having been made in mexico. The neck and middle pickups are a bit deep but good for blues. Like most strats the 2 and 4 switch positions sound the best but the breidge pickup is good too. Overall this guitar sounds better than the price implies but still sounds cheap. This is an EXCELLENT beginners eletric but I will son upgrade to an American, probably the Texas Special.

Excellent setup for a beginner, the action is extremely low and the neck has a smooth playable feel. The only problem I had was with the intonation after putting 11 gauge strings on it but that was easily fixed. I also had some scrathy pots but a little electronic cleaner fixed that. The Artic White finish is Beautiful but it is extremely thick and I had to look closely to find wood beneath the pickgaurd. This is a very good beginnners guitar and I cant stress that enough.

Built like all other strats other than the finish. Will last forever if taken care of.

N/A

Great beginnners guitar sounds fairly good.

Mine's made in 2001 in Indonesia. 21 frets, SSS pickups. The body is made of Alder (probably cheap though), tremolo, semi-jumbo frets. I think the bridge is a 6 point one, which is cheaper but actually sustains better in my opinion. Basically everything you need in a strat. Minus one point for slighty less than stellar volume/tone pots and pickup selector.

Surprisingly bad at all. The stock pickups are obviously cheap, but at in this 20th Anniversary edition they sound quite convincing. The tone is even, if a little bright (even for a strat). The pickups are a little bit noisy on positions 1, 3, and 5, but they aren't that bad.

The bridge pickup by itself is terrific in my opinion. Maybe it's just me, but for *that* sound I've never heard a better pickup. I've played American and Mexican Fenders and the bridge pickups are incredibly tame compared to this Squier. For some people, tame can mean warm and dark, but for me it just seems a bit lifeless. This Squier pickup is very edgy, and just sounds amazing with a little reverb.

I play through a danoelectro EQ into a Behringer GX210 (terrific little amp by the way)

The guitar wasn't set up that well from the factory, but a free set up at Sam Ash did wonders. Now it plays absolutely perfectly, better than any guitar I've ever played. The neck feels exactly the same as real Fenders.

The paint job was perfect, if a little bit thick. I think I would have prefered a Highway 1 type finish, a little lighter and more breathable. The bridge on the guitar isn't great, but it gets the job done.

The jack plate comes loose often. That's about it, everything else is durable and feels like a Fender. The pickup looks like crap but does it's job.

Never contacted them.

Overall, I feel that the only significant difference between this squier and a real fender is the pickups. Everything else is only superficially different. I've been playing for 4 years only, but I've played extensively all different types of strats, and this one is not lacking.

Made in China(like everything you have in your house),5-way selector,3 single coil pickups........you heard it all before.

Sounds......great!
I mean its not 1000$ strat but it sounds ALMOST as the real thing,it is a copy afterall.I play it trough Roland Jazz Chorus 160,Dunlop Cry Baby,Marshall Blues Breaker II and sounds so bluesy,i love blues and Hendrix sound,well there you have it.
People who are dissapointed that their 100$ Squier doesnt sound as real Fender are not right really,this is budget guitar great for beginnners but everyone can play it.

Strings,neck and everything was setup perfectly for a beginner,strings soooo low you almost dont have to press it at all :)))
But for bends and sustain gotta have some height there,tremolo is great when used normaly not every 5 seconds,otherwise youre out of tune.

This thing will last long time,i think :)

This is a great guitar and amasing sound for 150$,play it trough a good amp and nobody will notice its a Squier.

- 21 frets
- 2 tone and a volume (I don't use the tone knobs. I keep 'em at ten)
- Cheap stock pickups
- Maple neck, rosewood fretboard
I bought it with the Squier strat pack for $279. It's a pretty good value for a beginner guitar. I've had it for about eight months and I really like this guitar.

I play almost everything- punk, metal, rock and some jazz here and there. This guitar can play alot of styles. It's a strat. What do you expect? The bridge pickup has a little too much bite. It's the only one I use. The middle and neck pickups are very, very dull. About two months after I got this guitar, I ripped the volume control shaft out of the pot and had it replaced. The guitar actually sounds a great deal better now. It's more clear and loud. I wanna get a new amp, a marshall maybe. I also bought a Seymour Duncan JB junior in December and still haven't got it put in yet. I think it will sound alot better with the new pickup.

For $150 bucks, you get your money's worth with this guitar. The wood is probably plywood with no sustain and the frets are poorly cut and they buzz but other than that, it's okay. I've banged this baby on the walls and floor a couple of times and it still looks and plays fine. The black paint has a few pick marks but it still looks fine. All in all, it's about an eight.

It's held together so far other than the control pot.

Overall, this guitar is a good biginner guitar. Definately not of pro quality but it's still an okay axe.

Ahh yes, the Squier Strat... First let me start by saying I probably owned this little guy longer than anyone else... So listen to what I say...

Alright, it has a 5-way pick-up selector, 3 single-coil pickups (neck, middle and bridge), 21 fret, a tremelo bridge, and large headstock. And... That's it...

Now for my favorite part...

I mostly play hard rock-metal (like MetallicA), which means that this is a terrible guitar for me. If you play what I play, get either an Ibanez GAX-70 or an ESP EX-50. The neck pickups on this are extremely muddy when distorted, and fairly muddy when played clean. The middle isn't that bad, pretty plain. The bridge, however, wasn't to bad in my opinion. It was the only one of the 3 that did not have a tone adjuster, yet the tone adjusters on the other 2 pickups sucked bad, and really didn't change the tone, so I guess one for the bridge wouldn't make a difference. The distortion really stank, I could hear a loud "HUM" or "buzz" when I played. YOU WILL NOTICE THIS! Strats aren't made for distortion or at least this one isn't. Get a double coil (humbucker) guitar for that.

The Squier I bought (eons ago) came with the world famous STRAT PACK. The guitar was made fairly well, not good, however it CANNOT HOLD TUNING. I had to tune this every time I played, and I hated that. The bridge needed adjusting every 6 months as well. DO NOT PLAY THIS WITHOUT A BACK UP. In fact DO NOT PLAY THIS ON STAGE. The action was good, but it had only 21 frets. Another thing, the neck's finish, was terrible! It could EASILY stain, scratch, and get marked. That was a big factor that made me dislike the guitar's manufacturing. The body's finish was alright. The body is made out of something called "hardwood" or "cheap wood" as I call it, it has a maple neck (good wood on that, terrible finish) and rosewood finger board (good).

DO NOT PLAY THIS LIVE, IF SO, DO IT WITH A BACKUP (THE BACKUP MAY BE BETTER THAN YOUR GUITAR, THOUGH!) The body has good finish, as I said, but the neck has TERRIBLE finish, and WILL WEAR EASILY! Strap buttons are solid, and hardware seems alright.

Never had to deal with Squier, never had to deal with Fender.

I repaired or relighned the bridge myself.

<sigh> Glad I got rid of it. Use only as a beginner guitar, or if play very rarely and are very unserious about playin' the guitar. I've been playin for a few years now, and I sold that Squier and it's accessories (that came in the strat pack) only after 1.5 years of playing guitar. I now have an ESP EX-102 and a Marshall MG-100DFX combo amp. It was easy to play, and that's all I have to say.
If was lost or stolen, I'd be angry that I lost MONEY and couldn't re-sell it, but the guitar, well, I could care less. My current guitar blows this away, easy. I only got this to begin playing guitar, and I commend it for that. If it had Fender American Series pickups or fat strat pickups, well, that would make it considerible better.

So, in conclusion, get this if you just want to begin playing guitar, but if you like hard rock and metal, look for something with humbuckers. There are better low end guitars out there.

Made in China 2002, a Twentieth Anniversary model, 21 medium jumbo frets, solid Alder body with Maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, the usual Strato pickups and controls with a 5 way switch, synchronous tremolo. Supplied with allen wrenches for bridge saddles and truss rod.

I play a variety of styles - standards, soul/R&B, rock and roll, blues, country. I find the Affinity Strat useable for all of them. I play through a Ampeg Gemini II and a Kramer K-15R when I don't feel like firing the old Ampeg up. I don't use external effects, just those that are onboard the amplifiers. The Affinity Strat gives me what I wanted in the sound department - a guitar that sounds like a Strato. It has the usual amount of single coil pickup noise when the selector is in positions 1,3 and 5. The reverse wound, reverse polarity middle pickup produces noise cancellation in positions 2 and 4. To me it sounds like a '62 Fender Strato a former bandmate has.

My Strato was playable right out of the box. It has one of the nicest necks I've ever played. The fret work and finish of the nut was very well done. All the parts are well made and the guitar was assembled correctly. The paint on the body is flawless.

I think this guitar will be reliable as long as its treated like a guitar.

I've never had any dealings with Fender/Squier. I do like the Mr. Gearhead website.

I've been playing close to thirty years off and on and have owned a couple different Fender Strato's and a variety of Gibsons. This Squier Affinity Strat is the nicest Strato I've ever had! I love the lighter weight body and the neck is great. I had to do alot of tweaking to get it to play the way I wanted to - I had to shim the neck a little at the heel but haven't had to do anything to the truss rod. If something happened to it I would definitly want another. The only thing I think Squier should change on this guitar is the way the body is routed for the pickups. Other than that this is a guitar that sounds, plays and looks like a vintage Strato in my opinion. I think the Squier Affinity Strat is the best one out there for the price! I also have a Affinity Tele and I love it! For the price of a Fender one can get a really nice Strato AND a Tele - Is this a great country , or what?!