Fender Squier Stratocaster
My Review Of The Fender Squier Affinity Strat
Like most young rockers out there the electric guitar seems to be the guitar they first purchase. My first guitar was very low quality made Kramer. I bought it because it looked cool! I had no clue what I was purchasing. It was just in my price range.
I still remember going over to one of my best friend’s brother-in-law’s house who had what I thought was an old beat up junky guitar. I thought to myself, “Oh, poor guy can’t buy himself a real guitar like mine”. Well, that old junky guitar turned out to be a vintage 1962 Fender American Made Telecaster. Ha! I look back and laugh now! But, I was very misinformed to say the least! That guitar today is probably worth $8000.00 or more depending on the buyer. So, I learned that you can’t judge an electric guitar by looks alone.
So, I want to knock out a few myths and explain to you what a good electric guitar is and how you can get one in your price range. This is what led me to review the Fender Squier Affinity Stratocaster.
“Here’s What I’ve Found To Be The Most Important Things To Look At When Purchasing An Electric Guitar”:
- What Type Of Wood Is The Body Made Of?
- What Type Of Pickups Are Installed On The Guitar?
- What Type Of Wood Is Used On The Neck & How The Neck’s Secured?
- How Many Frets Are On The Guitar?
- What Type And Kind Of Bridge Is Installed On The Guitar?
- What Type Of Tuning Machines Are Installed On The Headstock?
- What Should I Expect To Pay & What’s Included?
What Type Of Wood Is The Body Made Of?
Bodies of electric guitars are actually made out of wood. I know it doesn’t look like it. Even I thought they were made out of plastic. I had no idea that the body of an electric guitar could affect the sound. But, it does tremendously!
There are many different types of tone-wood used for electric guitars. Some of the popular woods have to do with how light the wood is and the resonance sound of the guitar. These popular solid body woods are: Maple, Alder & poplar.
The Fender Squier Affinity Stratocaster has an Alder solid wood body. Alder is a very lightweight wood that is very resonant and provides good mid to low ranges and high sustain. This is a very popular and very good wood to use on solid body guitars. Also, the Affinity has a thinner body and is lighter than a standard stratocaster.
What Type Of Pickups Are Installed On The Guitar?
The pickups on electric guitar are located in the top of the body of the guitar where you would normally find a sound hole in an acoustic guitar. Magnets are used with wiring to pick up the sound of each string on the guitar. There are generally two different types of pick ups for electric guitars. These are:
- Single Coil Pick-ups – Single coil pickups have just one coil of wire wrapped and tend to have a bit of a “hum” when turned up loud with an amplifier. These pick ups have a great high end thin clean sound and are very popular with such guitarists as Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix, David Gilmour, Yngwie Malmsteen and the list goes on…..
- Humbucker Pick-ups – Humbucker pickups were designed to cancel out the hum produced by single coil pickups. Basically humbucker pickups are double wound coil pick-ups. These humbucker pick-ups give a very smooth pleasant mid tone sound. Almost like a hollow sound. Some famous guitarist who play humbuckers are Jimmy Page, Slash, BB King, Chet Atkins, Joe Perry and the list goes on……
The Fender Squier Affinity Stratocaster comes with 3 single coil pickups. One next to the bridge, middle and neck. These pick-ups can be played single or in combination to give you different sounds and tones. Playing the bridge pick-up will give you a bright lead guitar sound and playing the neck pick-up will give you a smooth jazz tone.
What Type Of Wood Is Used On The Neck & How The Neck’s Secured?
There are many different types of woods that are used for the neck of an electric guitar. It’s very important that the neck of the guitar is strong. But, it also must be flexible to make adjustments to the action and intonation of the guitar.
the most common woods used for guitar necks are:
- Maple- The most common used wood on Fender Guitars. Maple is very strong, light weight and flexible
- Mahogany- Mostly used on acoustic guitars
- Rosewood- A very expensive wood that is most commonly used on the fret board of the guitar
- Basswood- A very strong extremely light wood that is most common in high end guitars
The Fender Squier Affinity Stratocaster comes with a maple neck.
How Many Frets Are On The Guitar?
This is something you’ll need to know. Many electric guitars just have the standard 22 fret neck. This is great for most. However, if some of your favorite artists are let’s say Steve Vai or Joe Satriani? you’re going to want to get a 24 fret guitar that gives you a full octave to shred on the high notes.
The Fender Squier Affinity Stratocaster comes with a 21 jumbo frets on the neck. Jumbo just meaning larger frets. This will give you nice uniform tone.
What Type And Kind Of Bridge Is Installed On The Guitar?
This is important! It is also very much a preference with the type of music you like to play. A tremolo (whammy bar) should only be purchased if needed. Why you ask? Tremolos make it difficult to keep your guitar in tune. Because the bridge of the guitar flouts so to speak. Very well made guitars do not have this tuning problem though. They’re very skillfully designed to withstand this use of the tremolo and still keep the guitar in tune. Usually very high end guitars have these tremolos.
The Fender Squier Affinity Stratocaster comes with a Synchronous Tremolo Bridge and I was very surprised at how well this guitar stayed in tune for this price range. Plus, fender guitars are strung through the body of the guitar that I believe really reinforce this tremolo action.
What Type Of Machine Heads Are On The Guitar?
The machine heads or tuners on the guitar are quite important. You need the guitar to be able to stay in tune. There are a few different types of tuners. Open, fully closed and various different types of chrome plating. Fully closed tuners are desirable since there is generally no maintenance. They’re fully closed and permanently lubricated.
The Fender Squier Affinity Stratocaster comes with fully closed permanently lubricated machine heads.
What Should You Expect To Pay & What’s Included?
The Fender Squier Affinity Stratocaster retails for $279.99. However, I’ve seen most online and walk-in stores sell this guitar for just under $200.
The best deal I was able to find was at Amazon. They have a package called the Squier by Fender Stop Dreaming-Start Playing Set: Affinity Special w/ Fender 15G Amplifier that comes with a Fender Frontman Amp 15G Guitar Amplifier,Stereo Headphones,Instructional DVD,Chromatic Tuner, Gig Bag,Cable,Guitar Strap & Pick Sampler.
What Others Are Saying At The Top Sites….
From Amazon
“You’ll find many reviews of this product. Some claim it is the worst of the worst, and some love it.
It is a beginners guitar set, so take it as that. The tones that can be achieved are very clear, and the single coil pickups are actually quite good for a cheap guitar. If you want a cheap 100 dollar ebay guitar, go ahead, the pickups will likely be totally unusable. These are usable.”
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“I saved up my money and bought this excellent guitar. Great pickups, rosewood fretboard, plays like a dream and the amp is great. I play ukulele and drums, but I get no pleasure quiet like turning up the amp and going out on the roof to play. Get a new strap when you’re in the store, this one is terrible and is constantly breaking! Other than that, absolutely no complaints.”
Rating:
“what do u expect from a cheap and worth it guitar .i just received it like a week ago and stuck playing it . the thing that u need to change is the string if u received the guitar . the amp is good ! fender product as expected . and what i loved is that this guitar is made is Indonesia and not CHINA !!”
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From Guitar Center
“This was my second guitar to go along with my SSS Squier Strat. I’ve had it now for 9 years, and if not for an ill advised stop at a ‘qualified’ technician’s shop (not affiliated with GC in any way) it would still be my number one.”
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“I’ve had this guitar a few months now, and the sound is amazing. I’ve also got a Fender ’62 reissue, but I love my Squier more! Squiers forever!”
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“I have been playing guitar for about 3 years. I bought this guitar about 6 months after i started playing, and let me tell you this is one of the greatest guitars I’ve played. You can get all kinds of different sounds with its 2 single coil and double coil pickups. There is very little feedback and it sounds great through my Fender 210R amp”
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More Reviews From Guitar Center
From Musicians Friend
“this guitar is simply astonishing, and if you take my advice on the coil tapping humbucker, it would be the most sonicly virsatile guitar in your inventory.”
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“This guitar is amazing. I picked it up at a local music store and was blown away at how good it sounds. If you want a quality guitar with good sound and have a low budget, you can’t go wrong with this guitar.”
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“The sound quality is tremendous, you can get some good acoustics, and with a distortion pedal, you can get amazing metal sounds. Even without a distortion pedal, the pickups sound amazing. The biggest reason you can do this is because the two dingle coil pickups and the humbucker pickup give you four different settings that you can choose to use for many different sounds.”
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More Reviews From Musicians Friend
“Any Complaints?”
There have been a few complaints that after time the guitar starts to sound dull. One person said that his 11 year old Son quickly out grew the guitar and when the volume was turned up it crackled a lot.
This is a classic amp problem. Amps will do this if they’re not played often. It takes a while to break them back in. They almost sound static. Also, the dull sound is an amp problem also. I haven’t been able to find any legitimate complaints so far.
Fender Squier Affinity Stratocaster Demo
“Here’s My Overall Thoughts of The Fender Squier Affinity Strat”
Sound
“Just like a Strat!” You will be amazingly surprised at how much this guitar sounds like an American made Stratocaster. It has the same awesome hollow tones and crunch at high volumes. Great clear tone. I really played this guitar for quite a bit clean looking for weak tones and I couldn’t find any. You’ll be impressed with the sound.
Action
Not too bad. I could really tell the difference between the American made one on the action. However, it is still good. Especially for a beginner. Only a seasoned Strat player can really tell the difference. I would rate this pretty high for the action on the guitar considering it’s made in China and I wasn’t expecting the action to be good anyway.
Reliability
These guitars have been around for years. I have friends that have had theirs 20 years and the guitar still plays nice. You have to consider that Fender is putting their name on this guitar. I don’t think they want unreliable junk with their name on it.
Impression
For a beginner…. This one gets an A+ in my book. If you’re a seasoned guitar player? I’d consider a higher end guitar. The guitar has everything a beginner would want. Especially if you purchase a bundle and get the amp and accessories with it. This would be one I’d recommend to my beginner students.
Here You Can Find The Best Price On The Fender Squier Affinity Stratocaster
Hi George,
This is a problem for every guitarist. Trying to come up with new licks from scales can be tough. If you haven’t learned Hammer ons, pull offs and bends? I’d start there. Here you can learn some Lead Guitar Techniques to help you with that. There is also some Em backing tracks that you can practice to.
One of the things that truly helped me was to learn “long pattern” scales (scales that use the whole neck) I know there is the traditional “box” for every scale. But, you’re going to want to branch out and play a long pattern scale down the entire neck. There is an example in my ebook at the end of learning basic lead guitar that has an example of this.
Does this answer your question? Let me know if you need any more help
Hello, I have a quick question. I play acoustic and always wanted to lean lead guitar.
Can anyone tell me what the secret is? I really dont know. I can play scales but how do I get good at being able to play along and be improvisionatial. Make sense? Is it Practice, practice, practice or memorization in putting it all together and being able to play any lead without mistakes or errors? I’ve got the musical skill, the ear but how do I get to become a seamless, effortless sounding lead guitar player? Whats the Secret?
Thanks Much and sorry for the dumb question. I’m already 50 years old and I wanna get good before my time here on earth is up!
George