The Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar has a proud heritage and a sweet price. The contoured solid alder body is the same world-renowned style that fueled the fires of Hendrix, Clapton, SRV, and thousands more. Pure vintage tone comes pounding out of 3 biting single-coil pickups, taking on flavor from a classic rocking tremolo and 5-way switching. Genuine die-cast tuners provide unprecedented tuning stability in this price range. The headstock is the classic '70s "big" style. The maple neck plays fast and feels great. When you trade up, your Affinity Series Strat will be worth far more than any no-name copy.
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Contoured solid alder body
Die-cast tuners
Maple neck
Classic '70s "big" headstock
Vintage 6-screw rocking trem
Rosewood fingerboard
21 frets
3 single-coil pickups
5-way switching
One volume, 2 tone controls
Don't delay, rock TODAY!
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Hey, I love this thing. All the neg reviews I've seen really address things that would be expected at this price range and easily remedied. Tone is a product of your overall setup, and not easily attributed to a bad guitar. Set up work is part of owning a guitar. When you buy a mass produced guitar, you should expect to tighten a few nuts or screws. Noise in the PUP is part of using single coils. Maybe you want a les paul copy or a noise gate if thats teh problem.
Perfect first electric and great upgrade potential. Or maybe just to have a strat copy in the house just in case you feel the need or as a back up.
You'll only be disappointed if you expect to buy a cheap guitar and not have to address some initial setup issues or tighten something.
All the bells and whistles you'd expect in a strat copy. I haven't used the trem, though, so no comment there.
I've read the neg reviews, so let me clear up some confusion. Single Coil PUPs hum. That's part of it. If parts are loose, you may have to get out a screw driver or a pair of pliers and snug them down. These things I don't feel should be part of the evaluation. That's part of owning a guitar.
So to the evaluation.
Mine stays in tune until as well as any guitar I have owned. I check it with a digital tuner, and maybe once a week I get to turn a peg due to change in humidity and temperature, not the guitar. The tuners are touchy compared to others I have used, but that's not a critisizm. Just something that stood out.
The PUPs are the lower end. Duh, did you see the price? They are suffecient to have some fun and/or learn the guitar. No upgrade required until you want to hit a stage. Might want to think noise gate if your going to use a single pup often.
Fit and finish leaves little to be desired. The frets could be cleaned up a little on the edges of the fretboard, but it's not bad enough I've done anything to resolve the problem. I bought mine used, so I can't speak to the initial setup. Again, I feel like the initial setup should not be part of the review as we all set them up how we prefer anyway, dont we?
The guitar is only a small part of your tone, but I have been able to get some great sounds from mine. I love this thing!
Sustain is better than I expected in this price range, but nothing to go on about.
This is not a kids toy. This is a cheaper version of the real deal, and is very enjoyable.
Unquestionably one of the best values on the market. A playable guitar for cheap. And the upgrade potential is limitless.
Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar Black Maple Fretboard
.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.
Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar Black Maple Fretboard
.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 $1000.00!
Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar Black Maple Fretboard
.I have been playing for a long time and have owned many vintage guitars (all collectively and never simultaneously...I am not rich) many of them early fifties and sixties teles and strats.
This current run Affinity Strat has solid alder body, albeit 1/8" thinner than usual (but that is a plus to me), a smooth satin maple neck that is very straight and easy to play, decent pickups, I will swap out the bridge pu but the other two are more than fine. In short this is a Strat of some renown. NO, it is not boutique but it is very playable for gigs and even recording...I looked under the hood to find nicely finished pups and full size pots...no dime-siZe cheapies....I LIKE THIS STRAT...AND WILL PLAY IT FOR AS LONG AS IT LASTS...AND THAT SHOULD BE A LONG TIME...
Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar Black Maple Fretboard
.I got this guitar from a young lad that thought it would handle his death metal music. It will not. If you play Vintage rock, blues or country, buy it. I did a complete setup on it as you should on ANY new guitar and it stays in tune great, has good sustain,tone and has that vintage strat chime and quack that you want from a strat. I've had it for two years and as the wood ages it just gets sweeter. I've been playing for fourty years and played or owned lots of quality instruments. This one is a keeper.
Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar Black Maple Fretboard
.Had a squier standard strat, but sold it. Then I regretted it. So when I had a chance to buy an Affinity strat (it was in kind of rough shape) at a pawn shop for [$], 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.
Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar Black Maple Fretboard
.I bought this guitar a while back as a starter guitar not expecting much out of it. The more and more I played it, the more and more I was impressed with squier. I haven't changed the pickups since I bought the guitar and they are perfectly fine. I play everything from blues to hard rock to some metal. This guitar does very well with the blues and rock, and it even does well with metal. Pinch harmonics scream with this thing, especially with the bridge pickup.
This guitar is very versatile. It does everything from a warm thick tone on the neck pickup to a very twangy bridge pickup and everything in between.
The tuners have been the most impressive part of this guitar. They hardly ever slip out of tune. I even have the whammy bar on mine and use it quite often. Tuning stays the same.
Overall this guitar is an amazing starter guitar that can actually be used a bit more than you would think.
Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar Black Maple Fretboard
.I've bought 4 or 5 Affinity Strats, one Affinity Telecaster and an Affinity Musicmaster. I grind down the radius of the neck on all my guitars and I have done the same thing for several other musicians. I don't want to risk ruining an expensive guitar so I bought the Affinities. For the price I have found them to be absolutely excellent. They all have had at least one fret that buzzes but I find that acceptable on a practice guitar. I have two that sound so good I use live and to record so I fixed the fret problem--not an easy job but do-able. The Strats are slightly smaller and lighter than a standard Strat but that is one of the features that I like best--making them an excellent choice for a smaller (or older) person.
Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar Black Maple Fretboard
.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.
Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar Black Maple Fretboard
.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.
Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar Black Maple Fretboard
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