Fender Squier Affinity Series Strat

contoured hardwood body; maple neck; late '60s "big" headstock; rosewood or maple fingerboard; 22 frets; 3 single-coil pickups; 5-way switching; 1 volume, 2 tone controls; single-ply white pickguard; tremolo.

i play everything from shred to metal to jazz to rock to classical. my main guitar is an ibanez jem7vwh. i purchased this guitar as a practice guitar, or secondary guitar. this guitar, for my purchase price, is an excellent practice guitar. it does not sound nor feel anywhere near my jem, but, for the money, it's a decent sounding axe. i do however think that it's little brittle in the clean channel, but overall the sound is decent. it's nothing specatular, but decent. before deciding on purchasing this guitar though, i looked at a few yamahas, arias, and jacksons. this squire blows them away!

the action is just okay. it's not on the fast side though. u can't really dig into the notes, but they always come out sufficiently.
the tremolo though throws your guitar out of tune. i would not recommend using the tremolo at all.
the finish is a bit fragile, but i guess i got what i paid for.

for the price i paid, it's seems like a pretty robust guitar. i'm sure it'll last me a few years or more.

if u have a more expensive axe, and are looking for a practice guitar. this is definitely the guitar for u. like i said, it sounds brittle in the clean channel, and the finish is a bit cheap. still, this guitar plays well enough to warrant u to bring along to practice sessions.

I got this guitar in the Fender Strat Pack. This is a great deal for ppl starting out. It came with all cables, amp, tuner, extra strings, strap, and picks. Its a great deal for the price i paid. I would suggest buying a better guitar cable, then the fender one that comes with it.

It has a good sound for how much you pay for it. The pickups seem to buz a lot but i play in front of my computer while looking up tabs. I played a blackie eric claptons and that doesnt pick up the sounds that you dont mean to play but barley hit like this does. Id say to make it easier to start out buy a better guitar. I play witht he Squire Champ 15 which came with the Strat Pack i bought.

When i got the guitar half a year ago it was ready to play as soon as i got i out of the box. Everything on it seemed to be perfect. Although there was a small indention in the wood it wasnt noticeable. Over 6 months later everything is still fine on it but the back gets scratched up easy by my belt buckle. Ive dropped it and it still works great.

I dont think i would use this for a gig unless i had an effects pedal. It stays in tune great and i can go a week without tuning it again. Its pretty dependable in my opnion.

Never delt with fender, or had to make repairs.

Nice guitar, but after playing for about 6 months I want a new guitar with better sound and features. If you are just buying a guitar then id save up and get a better one, even just a regular squier strat would be better then the affinity series. If it was stolen id be happy so my parents would buy me my new guitar faster.

I got this guitatr in a strat package so it came with everything i needed to get started. Tuners are a little crappy, but you get used to it. Its got three single coil pickups that are noisier than a crowded New York Street, but this guitar is a beginner so i wouldn't worry about it.

Like i said, very noisy. But can cover a good range of music for the beginning guitarist. I like the neck pickup put it is very muffled and the bridge is too bright. I can play many types of music including heavy stuff like godsmack and alice in chains. I use it most for alternative like offspring, green day, etc. Great sound for a beginning guitar, but you wont be able to get by with it your whole life

I noticed no flaws in the guitar and liked it very much.

This is were the guitar scores big. It is sturdy enough to stand up to a ceiling fan(dont ask, long story.) This guitar will last a lifetime. You could take this guitar to a gig and through it into the audience and whoever caught it would enjoy it for years.

Never had to deal with fender.

Great beginner guitar. It will last a lifetime and get you started on the guitar the right way.

This guitar, made in china this year has 22 frets and has an alder body on rosewood neck. all three pickups are single coils and their make is unknown to me (but they aren't too good!). otherwise this guitar contains standard strat features (vol, tone and tone pots etc.) the pickgaurd is single ply white plastic but seems tough enough to me.

Because of the mediocre pickups, the original sound of this guitar on on some pickup combos, it sounds crap in a grungy sort of way. but in other settings, it sounds just like a real fender strat! because of this, I am seriously thinking about changing some of the pickups. the bridge pickup is noisy and a little too sharp sounding but the other two are pretty damn nice. I usually play rock / grunge music and am playing through a fender frontman amp and this setup suits me perfectly!

excellent! in tune straight out of the box! the guys who I bought it from were really helpful. the finish on this guitar is black and was done perfectly. the pickups seem to have been mounted well. the frets are medium sized and well made.

it seems pretty sturdy to me. the strings do not seem to go out of tune easily unless you use the trem arm which is a bit of a novelty anyway. the finish does not scratch easily at all. the wood of this guitar is extremely strong and has withstood collisions which would write off any other guitar. because of its slightly dodgy pickups, If playing on stage, I would keep a backup merely because of squire's reputation.

never had to use them

straight out the box, this guitar will do very nicely as a starter. throw in a few, simple modifications and you've got yourself an amazingly priced beautiful machine! either way, this guitar is slick beyond words. in my opinion, fender strats are the perfect guitars, and, no matter what others say, this is a fender strat! and at this silly price?

A standard strat from fender. 5-way switch 3 single coil pickups setup S/S/S ...21 fret maple neck bolt non-locking tuners.

OK This is why im putting my info in. I cant stand people complaning about it being "TOO DISTORTED" Why the hell are you even using distortion?? ITS SUPPOST TO BE FUZZY AND ALL CRACKLY!!!! Yes, ill agree the microphonics arent great on 1,3,5 but put it through a good amp and it sounds identical to a stratocaster.I play Nirvana,Offspring and other punk, alternative and metal. I found out if you raise the bridge and neck pickup up about 1 mm from the strings and put the middle pickup as low as possible it give it a much richer tone and stops the humming when your idle.Ive played stratocasters and compared the sound--ITS THE SAME!!!!!

I guess I got a jem of a squier cause of all the other complaints about it. Well mine had no flaws and the factory setup was perfect.Ive beat the hell out of this guitar and its still in great condition..I dropped it once and a chip of the finish came off but that would happen on any guitar.

This guitar would withstand alot and especially live playing.The hardware would defitnaly last and almost never gets out of tune if anything its the High E string...I would replace the strap buttons cause there not big enuff to hold my leather strap...I know the finish will never wear unlike the old strats like 60's...I kinda want mine to wear off alittle to give it "character" hehe

Nope so far so good its been one year...

Overall this is a great guitar... Very solid and great sound.As someone said before if you want a stratocaster just get a squier and write -ocaster next to strat. There the same guitars!!!

The standard Strat stuff: 3 single-coil pickups, hardwood body, maple neck, rosewood fretbaord, standard tremolo

I am a rythm player who play lead. As a rythm guitar it sounds okay, but when I the use the bridge pickup alone, the sound is way too sharp and treble. Not powerful enough for lead. An okay guitar for amateur players. One thing: the pickups are quite noisy for a guitar this price.

Well, nothing much to say... what can this price offer?

so far, so good. owned this guit for over 6 months and it never gave me any problems. However the pickups are tempremental... sometimes they sound as good as a real fender, but sometimes sounds worse than a brandless guit. The tremolo tends to fail once in a while (esp on wet days)

Well, if you are a beginner, you won't mind owning one. If you are a pro or a performer like me, you will not like it... If is stolen, I will probably invest in a Fender Califonia Strat or a Fender Tex Mex. But this guit sounds very good for the price...

Made in China, I think.
22 frets

It all depends on what kind of amp you have, if you have a cheap piece of junk amp, it will sound like a piece of junk. It's all in how you want it to sound. If you get the right amp it sounds just as good as any other guitar, maybe even better. I have a Crate Frontman Series GX-15 amplifier, and it sounds awesome.

The guitar was made very well in fact. I don't see why anyone would pay the price for a Stratocaster unless they just wanted it to say "STRATOCASTER" on it. If it makes you feel any better write "-OCASTER" out beside "STRAT". Only Difference.

I've dropped the guitar, smacked it into doors,walls, and just about everything else and it has sustained all that so I bet it could last a very long time.

Fender is very good about Customer Support.

The Squier Strat outpreforms most other guiatrs I have played. If you starting out, this is the guitar.

just like all the other strats but with generic switches and tuners and stuff

Everyone says it has a buzzing sound when you put it on the 1\3\5 switch.I noticed that too but it only does it when the tv is on in the room next door.also when my cd player is on in goes thruogh my amp so i would turn off all appliances before playing this guitar.the pickups are also noisy so i would buy some on ebay you can get at a great price.after you get past all that i think this guitar pretty good.I think for price you would have a hard time finding a better deal.i like playing some of the heavy stuff and i can get some pretty good distortion out of this thing

everything was fine except the third string rung against the fretboard all i had to do was buy some new strings and it was fixed

ive had it for over a year now and it works like its brand new even after droping it a dozen times

fine i guess

overalll im happy with this guitar but if i saw a good deal i get rid of it quick

1998 Fender Squier Affinty Series. Made in Korea. General Strat features. Really poor quality single coil pickups. Trem. bar use results in tuning problems that render the guitar useless. Don't even try to use it. Cheap fretwork, tuners, wood, hardware; your basic wanna-be-a-real-strat Squier.

If you own a Squier, you know what they sound like. Extremely poor sound. All single pickup positions (1,3,5) are microphonic and VERY noisy when distorted. If you use distortion, you must use position 2 or 4. Bridge position is very trebly, almost no bass. Neck setting could almost make a decent blues sound with tone down and a little distortion. No sustain to speak of. (Running through a Fender Frontman amp)

The guitar was set up fairly well considering it was done by a starving Korean 9-year-old kid. The wood(alder?) is pretty cheap; you can see some blemishes through the finish. Finish is decent, hard to scratch. The pickguard is somewhat warped.

This guitar can be dropped over and over, whether it is and accident or intentional. (After playing it, the latter might be more likely. I don't gig; I never would get on stage with this beast.

never dealt with Fender

it is a beginner's guitar and nothing else. play it for 1/2 a year, then sell it to some unsuspecting sucker. I just graduated high school and have been showered with money, so I will buy either a USA Fender Strat or an Epi LP.

I am a pro player who has been playing for about 17 years. I recently won one of these guitars at a local store. They normally retail for $100-$150 new. I'm going to try to detach myself as much as possible from details and go back to basics; otherwise it would be like having a vintage car aficionado review a Yugo for performance. It's a brand new maple neck/rosewood board made-in-China Affinity Strat with a late 60's-70's style large headstock. The finish is kind of a basic Royal blue, looks like car paint. Traditional Strat configuration (S/S/S), 6-screw trem, enclosed tuners. Medium frets, fairly fat neck. I believe the body is plywood, as Fender does not mention what sort of wood is used in their ad copy, so I'm assuming the worst. Nothing included as I won this guitar. I give it an 8 for features only because it's a Strat and possibly one of the most versatile guitars ever, but NOT for any preference for this particular model.

I'm primarily a blues/jump/swing player. I play straight through either a Deluxe Reverb or a Super Reverb, both '68s. The stock pickups in this guitar actually are not too bad compared to others in its price range; they are better tonally than Mexican Standards - much clearer and a little brighter. However they are HORRENDOUSLY microphonic - the slightest touch or tap on the pickup cover, pickguard, or even the guitar itself gets amplified - you can speak into the pickups and hear it coming out the amp. Also, you can hear the selector switch moving between positions. It sounds reasonably like a Strat should, for blues.

Action was okay from factory, no buzzing, however the 12th fret action compared to first fret action was very noticeably higher and it became progressively harder to chord as you move up the neck; however this could be a matter of personal preference and not a flaw per se. Finish is very cheap but has no real flaws i.e. orange peel or anything. It looks like something I could have gotten out of a Krylon spray can, however. It's very likely plywood. When I took off the back trem cavity cover because a ball-end of one of the strings had gotten caught in the trem block, I noticed that they had apparently already started to install the trem when they realized they still hadn't painted the guitar - some of the metal parts were sprayed blue. The tuners are real cheap enclosed tuners and are difficult to turn but hold tune okay. Nut was cut okay, no burrs in saddles or loose screws. However there was the aforementioned problem with the microphonic pickups.

This guitar is going to be a "couch" guitar. I would not recommend it to anyone, really - even students. I'd say save a few extra dollars and get something better. I doubt it would withstand a heavy gig schedule, the hardware is dubious at best - this guitar would need 300$ or more in upgrades to make it good enough to tour. I wouldn't use this guitar even AS a backup, never mind gig it without one.

N/A never had to deal with them, probably wouldn't be worth the trouble for a disposable guitar like this one.

I'm going to place a little note that says "thank you" in the pickup cavity of the guitar just in case anyone steals it. I love the fact that this guitar will take the knocks of my 4 year old son and save my other guitars from such a fate.