Squier Special Strat Pack

2007 (pretty sure its 2007) squier stratocaster
love the guitar!
21 frets, easy access to the high frets, plays beautifully.

three single coil pickups, worked perfectly so far - i have owned it for two and a half years now.

5 way pickup, gives good variety for a beginner to change styles and tone very easily.

3 knobs - one volume control, two tone knobs
tone is fairly good, though when using the tone knobs the sound goes from one extreme to the other.

whammy bar, though mine just broke off a couple of weeks ago.. my own stupid fault, tried to loosen it and used too much pressure and snaped it :(

came with a whole pack:
amp - Squier SE-10, 10 watts, with built-in distortion, lots of buzzing when put in distortion (that might have to do with guitar pick-ups though). ive also found with the amp that it is very loud when you practice at home, especially with the distortion on, i rarely go over volume level one with distortion at home. the amp has a volume knob, on/off setting for distortion, and two EQ knobs - bass and treble.

strap - bought a better quality one, but it good for what you pay for
3 picks, lost all of them
instructional dvd, very helpful
tuner - broke within a week
lead - worked very well for the first year then broke.

all in all a very good pack for what you pay for. can be played straight out of the box.

perfect for beginners who have yet to figure out their style - very versatile. pretty much all genres sound very good with the right settings.
i just use the amp that came with it, as mentioned above a Squier SE-10. as i said above it is very loud when used with distortion but you get used to it, it also has a loud buzz when using only one pick-up on the settings but im pretty sure thats just got to do with the single-coil pick-ups.
it has a bright sound with out any effects, but with the use of the tone knobs can be changed very easily.

the only downfall of this guitar is the buzzing that comes from the pickups. its terrible when you have the volume up loud, the rest of the guitar is amazing.

the action is perfect, you can play barre chords really easily.
the pickups are single coil, which i am not a fan of. i would rather maybe two single coil and atleast one humbucker, or double coil to have one channel without buzz.

the finish was lovely, the paint was smooth... everything was finished really well for a lower end guitar.

this guitar - with the right amp and effects would play really well live, though i wouldnt go without a back-up just in case.
the hardware has been really good, only broke one string so far.. my high e which cost $2 to replace.
this guitar has been through hell with me - im a really clumsy person and always seem to drop or knock it against something yet it still looks as good as new.

never had to deal with them

i have been playing seriously for about 3 and a half years and on and off for about 2 years before that.
i also own a cheap ashton acoustic guitar, which i do NOT recommend.
if i had a choice to buy it again or buy another guitar i would still go with this guitar, it is a extremely good guitar and you get more than what you pay for.
my favourite feature would have been the whammy bar, it gave such a good sound it was great.
the only thing i wish it had was a humbucker or a doublecoil to reduce the amount of buzzing.

this guitar is perfect for every beginner, it is so versatile and easy to play on.

it is a 2007 model strat
it has three single coil pickups that sounded pretty good(before one stopped working and the other fell off so i had to ducktape it back on)
it has two tone knobs (only one works now) and a volume knob. it was a 21 fret (but one fell off)

i don't know what it sounds like because the input jack were you put the cable in fell off

this guitar was pretty nice, it had 5 tuners on it so i had to buy one

this guitar has been good to me the only problems i had with it was the bridge falling off from time to time, and the frets are loose (only some of them fell of)

i have never had to deal with customer support

overall i think it's a pretty good guitar to have

Looks just like the real thing!

Good sound for a low priced guitar.

The action is great. It is easy to switch bar chords very comfortably.

This was my first elec. guitar, and it has a great sound. The amp in the package is nothing special, but great for a beginner who doesn't have an ear for good vs. poor amps yet. I use a cry baby pedal with the set-up. Overall, it is a great deal for the price.

This is the cheapest Squier package available (by package I mean a box that contains everything you need to get going so it has an amp, lead, plectrums, etc. as well at the guitar).

I have a black stratocaster with a white pickguard. It has all the features you would expect of a lower end strat - vintage bridge, non-locking tuners, three single coils but if you compare it to an affinity strat it has 22 frets (as opposed to 21), a slightly smaller headstock and appears to be a touch heavier. The neck is also slightly thicker. The bridge has been set up to be slightly floating (which may cause tuning problems in the long run depending on the quality of the bridge) and the finish is very consistent.

The amp included is a Squier SP10 which I will feature more thoroughly in another review.

I bought the package through onlyguitars.co.uk which has some pictures of the pack and details of the affinity strat pack which I mention during this review.

Everything you need is in this package to get going. You get a bog-standard lead, a case, an amp and a tuition DVD so I this category gets a high rating.

The combination of the Squier amp and guitar give you a good estimation of that typical Fender sound in the bright clean sound with plenty of variation possible using different pickups and combinations of pickups.

It will only struggle slightly when going for very heavy rock sounds with a lot of distortion but then this guitar isn't really built for that so you can't complain. The pickups tend to have a bit of hum at high volumes and with a lot of distortion but this is unavoidable with single coil pickups.

For what this package is (a beginners package) the sound cannot be faulted.

Unfortunately the fret job is a little uneven on this guitar on one side leaving some slightly sharp edges which had to be sorted out before I was comfortable playing it.

The action was also a little high but again, a few minutes spent sorting it out (with the allen keys provided to change the saddle height at the bridge) it was absolutely fine.

It is a shame this might but off beginners though as I feel they should be able to play their guitar comfortably straight out of the box, but with guitars in this price range that is sometimes hard to find.

My experience of strat copies (especially as first guitars) is that they are practically indestructable and this strat certainly feels solid enough. Rest assured should anything go wrong with the guitar they are simple enough inside to find out what went wrong and they are common enough that if you do not feel comfortable fixing it yourself you will not have a shortage of people that could fix it.

The amp is small and more likely to go wrong and suffer at the hands of an eager teenager because of some of its plastic components but with a little bit of care it will last plenty long enough.

I have not had to deal with their customer service.

I bought this package for a friend who is a beginner and I have played for a number of years, and own a large amount of gear myself which is why I was trusted to help him out.

If I was buying it again I would actually recommend he spent a little bit more money (??30 or so) and went for the Affinity strat pack which I feel is a nicer guitar and comes with a 15 watt amp.

If you are looking for a budget guitar pack for a beginner do not hesitate to look at this but I would recommend also considering the Squier Affinity Strat pack and also checking out the Yamaha packs as I rate their Pacifica guitars very highly.