Squier Affinity Strat RW

The Squier Affinity Strat represents amazing value for money. For about a hundred quid you get a strat endorsed by Fender with a great neck. This is a guitar streets ahead of all those cheap Chinese copies (which you should definitely avoid!)… but it's not all good news, a couple of cheap components let an otherwise great guitar down.

There are hundreds of strat clones out there but all they do is form a mountain of plywood trash… ...
...and that is Fender's own Squier Strat with alder body and maple neck. I bought one recently to experiment on. It was only supposed to be a cheap guitar for me to practice setting up, adjusting the truss rod on etc. but I ended up loving it.

The Affinity is thinner than a standard strat and the first thing I noticed was how light it was compared to a Fender. You could have the Affinity round your neck all night and it wouldn't cause ... more

The Squier Affinity Strat represents amazing value for money. For about a hundred quid you get a strat endorsed by Fender with a great neck. This is a guitar streets ahead of all those cheap Chinese copies (which you should definitely avoid!)… but it's not all good news, a couple of cheap components let an otherwise great guitar down.

There are hundreds of strat clones out there but all they do is form a mountain of plywood trash… forget them. There is only one decent copy of the Fender Strat and that is Fender's own Squier Strat with alder body and maple neck. I bought one recently to experiment on. It was only supposed to be a cheap guitar for me to practice setting up, adjusting the truss rod on etc. but I ended up loving it.

The Affinity is thinner than a standard strat and the first thing I noticed was how light it was compared to a Fender. You could have the Affinity round your neck all night and it wouldn't cause you any more discomfort than a polo neck sweater. Light is good but there is a downside. When you play it unplugged, it has a reasonable volume but a very thin sound to it. Plug it in and it sounds even brighter. This is the brightest guitar I have ever heard and it needs taming with a lot of hi cut, so turn down the treble on your amp to compensate. This is not just due to the thin body however, the pickups are a weak point in this guitar. There was a huge improvement in tone when I replaced the bridge pickup with a Hot Rails pup. It delivered a much fuller and meatier sound, even when coil tapped, leading me to believe the stock pickups are poor quality.

Another negative point is the machine heads. These are dreadful components with cheap plastic ferrules. That being said they do seem to do their job and the beast stays in tune.

Now for some good points! This guitar came extremely well set up and needed minimal adjustment to perfect intonation and action. The frets were perfectly filed with no rough edges. This was one of the best "out of the box" guitars I have ever played! The neck was very comfortable, nice modern slim profile and once adjusted, the action was low, allowing for easy playing of fast runs. I can play this guitar all day without tiring and it actually feels like a professional guitar. It is very stable and stays in tune (despite the cheap machine heads). If only it had a better tone! These guitars hold their value fairly well and offer you a reasonable return when you decide it's time to move up.

Summary: This is the best beginners electric guitar on the market. It has a nice modern profile neck and is ideal for a beginner. Intermediates who plan to gig may want to replace the machine heads and the pickups, in which case it might be time to upgrade to a Mexican Fender. 

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