Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar Metallic BlueRosewood Fretboard

Comments about Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

for less than 2 Franklins, this particular Stratocaster version, is in my humble opinion, quite a nice guitar (for the $$$). I got red with maple neck. It looks and "plays" nicer than the 2 MIM Stratocasters I have previously owned. I like the "big" headstock. I cancelled an Epiphone guitar I had on order after getting this guitar as a (somewhat early)Fathers Day gift from my oldest son. I dig it,not much more to say.

Comments about Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

This guitar plays OK out of the box. The action came setup fairly high. The tuners work fine & the guitar stays in tune pretty well. I did not find any loose frets & although the fret ends could use some filing, there were not any excessively sharp (slice your fingers type)fret ends. I have not setup this guitar yet. The tremolo came adjusted all the way down & I have not set it up or used it as this is definitely helping keep it in tune. The pickups work like they are supposed to but like everything else, they will need to be adjusted (height). The neck pickup pole pieces do not align over the strings perfectly, the middle & bridge pickups do. The finish (blue metallic) is flawless & very nice for a budget guitar. This Squire (Chire=china)came with a pickguard that was all scratched up. I'll be replacing it as it seems to be made of an inferior material. I plant my picking hand on the pickguard & it's getting gouged up from my nails after about 40 hrs of playing. The string slots in the nut are cut way too low & the entire string(s) are in the slot. Other than the pickguard, there were no cosmetic issues. This is a light guitar, good for my old back. It's a fun little guitar to play & would make a nice starter axe for someone on a budget. It IS playable out of the box but you WILL NEED A SETUP. I'm a hobby guitarist & have owned many guitars since I was 17 yrs old. I'm 54 now. Want a sound sample ? I just loaded a recording on reverb nation using this guitar. This recording is with the original strings & the axe as it was shipped. I recorded a guitar track to a SpiderJam song track. Go to reverbnation-dotcom. Search bruce landis & listen to SpiderBlues-01. This little guitar is definitely good enough to capture your inspiration on a recording.

Comments about Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

I bought mine used from a guy who didn't know what he had. He had tweaked the pickups so they sound awful. Fortunatly there are cheap replacements to be had. The maple neck with rosewood fretboard is faster than the american models. It looks amazing. it is perfect for a musician on a budget or anyone looking for a good backup guitar.

Comments about Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

I've been playing 16 years.
That's a 2001 MIC and it's very good, on par with Fender MIJ.
Expect 2 things:
-variability in quality, that's why you want to try it before purchasing;
-to set it up, learn how on youtube, and you'll end up with a decent to good one.
I'm a picky guy and I'm really happy with this one: 8/10, see pros vs cons.

Comments about Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

I got this guitar from a young lad that thought it would handle his death metal music. It will not. If you play Vintage rock, blues or country, buy it. I did a complete setup on it as you should on ANY new guitar and it stays in tune great, has good sustain,tone and has that vintage strat chime and quack that you want from a strat. I've had it for two years and as the wood ages it just gets sweeter. I've been playing for fourty years and played or owned lots of quality instruments. This one is a keeper.

Comments about Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

Had a squier standard strat, but sold it. Then I regretted it. So when I had a chance to buy an Affinity strat (it was in kind of rough shape) at a pawn shop for [$], I jumped at it. There's nothing wrong with the neck or body. If you shop wisely, you can buy new tuners and a pre-wired pickguard to upgrade this puppy for under $100. You'll end up with an axe that approximates a MIM strat. Seriously, you can believe the other reviews about upgrading these models. My friends in the band think the upgrades look and sound great.

Comments about Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

Again, you cannot own a better Strat-style guitar for the money. This guitar, like the other Squiers I have owned, plays well and sounds pretty good. And, these little things can take a ton of abuse and keep rocking!
I have the red one with the rosewood fretboard. All in all, it is a good guitar with good sounding pickups as well. Has all the features Strats have had since 1954, basically.
This guitar (and all Squiers) are the best bang-for-your-buck. They are imported, and made of cheaper parts for sure, but they won't fall apart or crap out on you either. Fit and finish is usually very good on Squiers, and mine is no exception!
You will never own a better Fender Strat-style guitar without buying the real thing. I have owned 3 over the years and have played many many more. I do have several USA Fenders, but I always keep 1 Squier around.

Comments about Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

Overall I love my Squier Strat. I did not buy it to be my main guitar. Just to lay down bluesie backing track, noodle around with some news blues dvds, and have good quality fun jamming in a new style(for me). However once I make the above mentioned changes I would have no problem using this thing on about the 10% of songs I would play during a standard gig. I play a tricked out Gibson Les Paul Studio, studded out with EMGs as my Main guitar. I also play a Takamine acoustic/electric for about 15% of my gigs. I'll never be ashamed of the fact that I bought such a beautiful playing, sounding, and looking guitar EVER!!!! This guitar has made me not care about what's on the headstock, but instead shown me that it's about sound and feel when making "real" music.
Not too many "Features" on this guitar. Just a very beautiful finish(mine is the 2-tone burst), and the best fender tremolo I've ever used. BTW...It's not meant to have dive bombs done on it, just add that suttle tremolo sound i.e. John Mayer and SRV's Lenny.
Without a shadow of a doubt this guitar has earned it's "9" rating from me. I was in the local music store looking to buy a "Fender Strat". I just had to get one! I owned a Mexican made Strat when I was 11 (first guitar) and I hated it. I know now I hated it because it wasn't that "Hard Rock" "Guitar God" instrument that everyone wants to own when they first start playing. I was playing the American Strats, but couldn't afford that price tag. Then i moved to the Mexican Strats, but they weren't "doing it" for me. I then picked up a Squire Tele to show my wife the difference, and it played like a dream! But I didn't want a Tele, I wanted a Strat. So I figured, if the squier Tele sounded/played great what if the Strat was the same. I looked around and, no lie, they only had one Squier Strat in the store. I plugged it in to the same American Fender twin reverb I'd been playing for the past hour or so and.....BAM!!!! i was getting ALL the tones I could have ever wanted from it. Yes better than all the other, to include the American Strats!!! The maple neck (a first for me) is so smooth and fast I couldn't believe it was me playing these phrases with such ease.
I paid almost the same amount for the road worthy case for this guitar that I did on the guitar itself!!!! If you read the above "Quality" rating you'd see that I truely feel the value is high. Now I know I've gone on and on about my Squier Strat, however there are a few things I would/am going to change about this guitar. NOTE: these things are not to deter you from a purchase. Instead need to be known as truths when purchasing any guitar for this price. 1) The pick-ups are cheap! I'm going to change them out for either the American Fender noiseless pick-ups or the EMG David Gillmor signature pick-ups (that come already installed on a brand new pick guard just needing to be switched out.) 2) the pick-ups are single coil so therefore inherently noisie.....Thats how "Humbuckers" got their name. They "Buck" the "Hum" that single coil pick-ups create. Don't let any of these things stop you from "stealing" this thing away from you local guitar store! I paid $216.00 for the guitar and I'll gladly pay another $100-$250.00 for new pick-ups and still spend a total of $420.00 or less for a guitar that would cost well over a $1000.00!

Comments about Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

Overall, I'd give it a seven. If it didn't have the minor issues I talked about before I'd be content to give it a nine.
I got this guitar one or two years ago as my first electric guitar and so far this Indonesian made rocker is going strong without any major issues.

The look is great; it's just like a Fender Strat. In fact if it had a neck with the Fender logo instead of the Squier logo then I reason people would be convinced it was a Fender just by looking at it.

The one I've got's made out of what I think is agathis but it could be maple or alder, silver tuners, a maple neck, rosewood fretboard, a tremlo bridge, 21 frets, 3 single coil pickups, a five way pickup switch, a volume knob and two tone knobs.
Most factory set ups on guitars are pretty bad but this guitar has a good low action and I havent needed to alter the nut or bridge height or get it set up by a store yet.
The pick-ups are pretty ordinary. Im not sure of the brand but I think theyre just Squier pickups. They are good but not great at playing all types of music. It's a very all rounded guitar. But I wouldn't recommend this guitar or any other Fender style guitar for shredding or fast soloing as the neck is far too chunky for that.

One of the most impressive things with this guitar is how solidly it's build. The thing's like a Russian tank! I've dropped it a few times, banged the headstock against my desk, let my friends (who have no idea about playing guitars) play it, strummed very aggressively, hit it in frustration and thrown it down on my bed and yet there's only been one tiny dent and no damage to the sound quality, nut, neck or anything!

It also stays in tune very well without the whammy bar. I have an electric tuner and test it to make sure its tuned almost every day and I dont have to tune it up for about a month. But unless youre using a song that involves whammy do not under any circumstances use the whammy bar! I usually never have it on the guitar because it goes out almost every time you use it.

Even in the 1 - 2 years I've had it I've only had to change the strings once and it hasn't had a service. Mainly because no problems that would require a service have arisen since I've started playing it. Even though I bought this guitar for only $250 or so I think it's going to last a very, very long time.

But even with the great features there are a few minor issues with this guitar.

The tone knobs really do nothing. They act like they're not even there. Also this guitar has almost no natural tone and sounds quite tinny and cheap sometimes.

When turning the volume knob when the guitars plugged in you can hear a crackling sound come out of the amp. This doesnt usually happen with other guitars Ive played.

The E, B and G strings sound pretty tinny. The bass strings sound good when strummed but the high strings sound cheap. That could be due to the strings themselves though Im not entirely sure.

There are only two of the five pick-up selections that don't hum when selected.
Now don't get me wrong here with these minor problems. For this price, you're not going to get a perfect guitar. There are going to be some slight problems. But I was actually really surprised with this guitar because without even a service or set up there have been no issues that would make me stop playing and take it in to get fixed or serviced. I play for at least 40 minutes every day and I'm also surprised with how little wear and tear this guitar has had.

I'd recommend this guitar to anyone who wants to start learning electric guitar but not to someone whos professional or even for second guitar buyers. For people looking for an amp I'd also recommend the Laney LX 12. It's what I got when I bought this guitar

Comments about Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

This is a great no nonsense Stratocaster with good playability. It was my first guitar and still serves as my favorite. The single coil pickups provide a good tone for treble leads and the 5-way selector switch allows for multiple styles. Even without tuning locks the guitar rarely goes out of tune and the tremolo offers a steady resistance.Good guitar for beginners or intermediate player wishing to bulk up their arsenals.