Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster FMT HSS Electric Guitar - Sienna Sunburst with Maple Fingerboard Reviews

Bought this as my first guitar and it's been awesome. Glad I got it!

I purchased this guitar from Sweetwater and I love it. I have 4 other electric guitars of different brands and this one is my favorite. Light weight and sound and overall beauty of this thing is amazing. Plays really well, and as I said the sound it gives is amazing. Had a real good experience with the sales engineer Mike Soaper. Answered every question I had about guitars in general and this one. Really great guy. I have since buying this guitar purchased another guitar from Mike. More expensive, but the Strat is still my favorite. Highly recommend this guitar no matter how skilled you are on guitar or just beginning. You'll love it.

I bought this from Sweetwater a couple months ago; the experience was so good that I've been on a bit of a guitar-buying binge. I'd bought a MIM Telecaster over a decade ago, iirc it was direct from Fender, and that was a good experience as well, so I knew it was possible to have a good guitar-buying experience online, but each purchase/shipment is its own thing, and you still never know, right? Well, I needn't have had even that much concern, as I've not gotten a guitar yet from sweetwater that's been poorly set-up or inspected.

But onto the guitar… I wanted a Strat, but had never bought one before, although I know what the general sound of a Strat is. This Affinity Strat had (20) 5-Star reviews, so I read thru some to see if there'd been any major issues that I might find extra-frustrating; there were none. I pulled the trigger…while I'm not a rich man by any stretch, and I'll probably never own a Gibson worth thousands of bucks, not that that bothers me, and even a guitar novice knows that the price (when I bought it) isn't a lot of money for a nice guitar. This guitar, for me, was a very good purchase, thanks to the quality of the guitar and the Sweetwater inspectors/set up crew.

The Siena Sunburst is a beautiful finish (before this i had only my Ice Blue Metallic Tele and my Epiphone Les Paul in black, which was my first real grown-up electric guitar, and which I'd bought from a coworker (more on Epiphone in future reviews; I own a few Epis now; A great company!), so the Affinity Strat was already improving my collection simply by extending the range of colors in my guitar collection. The ceramic pickups sound great to me, I won't be replacing them anytime soon, like so many reviewers here say they will do seemingly every time they buy/review a "budget guitar". I'm still a novice (all that really means is, I have all the good stuff about learning guitar still ahead of me), but I've at least learnt that every guitar is not for every player, and the price of any guitar has nothing at all to do with whether or not I like it, which is the absolute only thing that matters. Afaiac, the Affinity Strat could sell for much more. Now, I realize some players need that "Fender " or "Gibson" on the headstock; i couldn't care less if I'm playing a Squier or Epiphone, in fact, for all I know, i might not even like an exorbitantly-priced guitar.

I really feel like the Affinity Strat's maple fretboard helped me gain confidence enough to get better, and relatively quickly. It's not going to make anybody Clapton or SRV, but it can help you improve just by playing up and down that neck once or twice, by instilling more confidence, I can attest. Maybe it's at least partly that I was simply ready to expand the guitar's place in my life, but I'd swear that buying the right guitar - right for you - at the right time - can really help you wade a little farther out into the sea of guitar. This one helped me, is all I can really say for a bottom line/summing up.

The Affinity Strat by Squier likely won't even be the last Strat I ever own - I've got my eye on a couple Strats with the classic Three Single Coils Pickup configuration (the Affinity Strat is technically a "fat Strat", with a humbucker in the bridge position). I'm not champing at the bit or anything, I've got enough for now to keep me occupied, I'm happy with my Squier Affinity, but the Squier Classic Vibe '50s in Fiesta red and the Fender Player Strat in Capri Orange look really amazing. But I wouldn't even be thinking about buying future Strats if the Affinity Strat hadn't opened up that vista for me. If you're on the fence and aren't sure about buying this guitar, all I can really offer is that my experience with Sweetwater - thanks Victor Gomez and all those who inspected my guitars before shipment - has been uniformly excellent, and the Affinity Strat was my first buy from them. If this had not been such a joyful experience, I likely wouldn't even have returned to their website.

Delivery was spot on.
Thanks Sweetwater.

This beautiful guitar was built with pride and care. The finish is much more spectacular than pictured.
It is functional art at a very affordable price point.

The fit and trim is perfect in all aspects. The neck is silky smooth. The frets are well placed and pose no negative issues.

The four pots and five position pickup switch are all of good functional quality and will last the duration. And they look cool.

The HSS configuration offers loads of options and
delivers really great sounds too.

It was a couple months after delivery before there was time enough to really sit down and get to know this instrument.

Wow. What a joyful feeling. This guitar was just waiting to be awakened from its journey. It was and still remains in tune even after shipping during last summer's heat and humidity and only being first played several weeks later.

Sweetwater's 55-point inspection and their careful handling of this guitar made for a fantastic buying experience as well. Thanks again. You're the best.

Plug in.
Turn it up.

Superb action, tone, and playability. This guitar has many sweet spots.

I own about 10 guitars. Gibson, Martin, Fender, Hondo, etc. This Squier Strat holds up to any of them.
Price does not always make it better. This guitar has good action,feel,tone, overall playability.
If you have the money buy one, you will like it I am sure.

Very nice Strat for the price.

Never owned a strat but had to pull the trigger on this one. It's as good as it looks. Set-up and action perfect for me. The best part is the neck...amazing.

I have been looking for a strat and not sure if i should get a squire or a standard and i played it and i feel in love better feel to me then most standards and played great can't beat the price for this it is legit

Ok, I'm just going to say this, however controversial: if one can't find a tone that suits one's style with this guitar.... well, chances are the guitar isn't really the issue here!!!! I'll get to that in a moment, humor me for a bit first....

I'm not gonna lie, when I first saw this guitar online, its LOOKS were what caught my attention, and it actually had me doing a double take, since it looked freakishly similar to some much more expensive Fender models already available with that same "Sienna Sunburst" finish. Once I got past that initial shock, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this was indeed a Squier model, with very nice features and an incredible price.

The whole pandemic thing didn't help matters at all, but I said to myself "if I get a chance to buy this guitar", I will!" And SO I DID! I won't even try and upload pics and/or videos of it, trust me on this one, they wouldn't make it justice: if the pictures and videos made by professionals barely do, now imagine what would happen if I were to try my hand at photography with my crummy cellphone.... naah, the guitar is simply beautiful, period. But aesthetics aside, it is also beautifully AND painstakingly well made: perfect fret work, nice, thin neck finish, impeccable paint job, low action, with fully functioning hardware and pretty much ready to go out of the box.

Now, for the most part I consider myself a 24 3/4' scale, tune-o-matic + stop tailpiece, humbucker, 12' radius, rock/hard rock type of player, but the reality is that nothing beats a good Strat/Tele when it comes to glassy, chimey, bell like tones, so I've always kept a Strat handy to "color outside the lines", if you will. But up until now, if I wanted to have both sounds present in a single song, I had to use two different instruments. So once I got past my infatuation phase, and realized that this guitar, by way of its pickup configuration, would offer something I didn't have within my guitar toolkit other than looks, the deal was sealed for me.

And so it is with great pleasure that I report that I couldn't possibly be happier with this purchase: for those old enough to remember the "good old days", when even the lightest touch of the tremolo arm of a "budget guitar" would inevitably lead one to cringe with the "cricks and cracks" emanating from the bridge, this guitar will be a revelation. For those too young to even imagine, let alone understand what I'm talking about, well.... Squier has officially delivered you all from that evil!!!! And don't even get me started on impossibly high actions, terrible fret work, crummy hardware, and the cheapest possible sounding pickups on Earth....

As anyone who has played guitar for some time knows and will confirm, there is no such thing as a perfect, one-size-fits-all, Swiss army type of guitar: no ONE guitar can do it all perfectly ALL THE TIME, simply because different styles of music, and different songs within a single style, will call for different sounds, which are determined by the physical limitations of each instrument. But having said that.... this guitar comes pretty close, I'll tell you that: I can't imagine anyone being unable to find AT LEAST a "good enough" sound to cover pretty much any type of guitar-infused music. The single coils will cover clean territory with room to spare, and the humbucker in the bridge has plenty of bite to cover all things overdriven. With this guitar, one can easily go from Hendrix, to Clapton, to Blackmore, to Malmsteem, to Eddie "Fast" Clarke, to Stevie Ray territories without breaking a sweat. Hell, this guitar will even manage "VH I/Eruption/Frankenstrat" sounds with flying colors, and as long as you don't go all "shred metal dive-bomb crazy" with the tremolo arm, you should be able to stay in tune. And that neck, people, THAT neck! It is a delight!

Now, does that mean that this is a rock-only guitar? And if so, is it only suited to emulate Strat sounds? Rest assured, that is NOT the case at all: name dropping all those illustrious, guitar greats from the Strat-wielding pantheon was only meant to give you an idea of what you can achieve with this guitar, but that does by no means preclude you from branching out and reach for all those sounds oozing from your head and fingers, as chances are this guitar will be able to keep up. And sure, rock players such as myself will definitely enjoy it a lot, but this is far from a one trick pony!

Who should get this guitar, then? Beginners, of pretty much any style of music, would do well to give it a try before spending more money on other brands. But again, this is by no means a "cheap beginner's guitar" AT ALL. It is an impressive feat of craftmanship, one that even seasoned players can come to appreciate if they keep an open mind, and that's even before you plug it in! Plugged in though, it is a comfortable, lightweight, great playing, great sounding, versatile instrument the likes of which were unimaginable 20 years ago in this particular price bracket. I'll say this much: had this been my first guitar, I NEVER would have sold it to buy my second guitar! Cheers!

I am amazed that at this pricepoint, this guitar can provide such excellent construction, very good electronics, a comfortable neck and fingerboard. The only thing that needed adjustment was for my own preference, a little lower action. No buzzing frets, pickups are powerful and responsive. I've only owned Gibson electrics up til now, so I thought I'd give an affordable "Fender umbrella brand" a try. I can't imagine there's a better deal for quality, playability or bang for your buck anywhere, if you're looking for a Stratocaster model. WOW — highly recommended!

Everything is perfect on this guitar. Tuning stability is good. The tuners feels like good quality. The nut is cut well. Action straight out the box was very good. Bridge and saddles looks good, they don't look cheap and have bubbling in the metal. Frets are done well. Maple neck and wood grain are nice, the neck doesn't look cheap and it feels really good in my hands. Very similar to my Performer Strat, which I'm going to sell because of the Affinity. There's not (1) QC issue to report. Fit and finish is perfect. Even all the screws in the guitar were screwed in straight, I notice these minute things, smh. Pickups sounds really good but when I play my other guitars with better pickups I really notice how harsh sounding the Affinity's are but that's no big deal because I'm going to make the configuration SSS with some Dimarzio pickups. I'm really blown away by this guitar. It sounds great unplugged and plugged in. The finish is gorgeous too. I've a Squier SuperSonic and I had but sold an Ibanez AZES, great guitars and they're in the $ range, how wonderful is that. One thing to keep in mind is that not every guitar will leave the factory great no matter what price range. So everyone's experience will be different.

Excellent instrument. Delivered quickly and safely and arrived in perfect condition. Beautiful sound and easy to play.

I am blown away with this guitar. I have purchased,played and sold many guitars in the past 25 years. Stratocaster has always been my favorite. A co worker refered me to sweetwater and rather spend a crazy money to check out the squier strat. This guitar is SO UNDER PRICED .. out of the box it's set up perfect and amazingly in tune... I can't put it down. The only thing I will change is put locking machine head's and maybe?? a bridge pickup. But it sounds great out of the box. again I am BLOWN AWAY !! The playability and feel blows away a lot of guitars I have played and owned in my life. BUY ONE BEFORE THE PRICE GOES UP! thanks sweetwater.

Great guitar for the money.richard

I would bye again

I was totally blown away by the quality of this guitar. The fit and finish, action, playability and tone are remarkable. I was not expecting this from the price point. I have owned Gibsons and Fenders in the past , this Squire is impressive. If you are considering this guitar- stop hesitating- it's the best value in market right now.

I am a longtime Fender and Gibson owner/player. I recently decided to pull the trigger and buy this 2021 Affinty HSS Stratocaster Sienna Sunburst. I'll admit that I didn't need a new guitar but I was totally won over by the finish, and the ability to pick out the exact guitar that was going to be shipped to me really helped seal the deal. Not only is the finish spectacular, but the guitar itself exceeded my expectations in terms of playability and fit and finish. It even sounds good unamplified. The fretwork is very good, setup, including intonation, was very good right out of the box. I love the satin maple neck and I even like the ceramic pickups. And the thinner body helps keep the weight down. The only thing I did was put some graphite in the nut slots. I was a little concerend about buying the guitar without actually playing it, but Sweetwater's 55-point inspection and great customer support helped me get over that concern.Now I just have to control myself and not buy an Affinity Tele!

I recently purchased this guitar, and have been loving it. It is very easy to play, and feels great in your hands. One of the most impressive features is the sound quality. I have a Spark 40 amp, and on my Van Halen preset, this guitar sounds really really good. I also own a fender guitar with Alnico 5 pick ups, and this guitar is right there with it. Due to the lightness in weight, you can play for hours with zero fatigue. Workmanship is also very impressive. For a guitar in this price range, I would expect less. The fit and finish is really nice. I own several guitars and this by far is ranked very high against the others. Grab one for yourself today before the price goes up.

This is a great, versatile, instrument. It was good to go, right out of the box, but I always get a setup from my local luthier on all my guitars. After a comprehensive setup, it plays like a dream. Initially, the open G-string had a ringing harmonic that would continue even after the string was silenced by my hands, no matter where I touched my fingers on the string to quiet it. I saw a review on youtube that also encountered this issue. So I took a 1/2 star off for that minor problem that I was able to have fixed by my luthier. The fingerboard and neck are comfortable and easy on the hands, the pickups are solid, the trem works well, and the guitar stays in tune consistently. It certainly qualifies as a budget guitar, but sounds and looks a lot more expensive. The weight is quite comfortable, there's no neck dive, and all of the electronics work well. Highly recommended for those who are on a budget, or even those who are not on one! I've attached a photo of it in a lineup along with my other electrics, in my music man-cave.

I received my guitar less than a week ago, and it plays great. Comes out of the factory with 9's which are easy to play, but would definitely upgrade to 10's later on. The sound covers all genres of music whether it be metal, blues, jazz, etc.. It all sounds great. I have a Spark amp that I have tweaked to make this guitar sound like Eddie Van Halen's, and it's very close. The fit and finish is exceptional for something in this price range. You can see that they spent a little extra time with the craftsmanship. It feels great in your hands as well. I like the neck and I'm not sure if it's bare wood or if it's a flat or matte finish, but it has a very nice fast feel. I definitely recommend this guitar for beginners and longtime players like myself. Trust me you will not be disappointed. Grab one today.

This is a very nice guitar & it could ave gotten a 5 star review but it has one major flaw. The head turners do not hold the strings in tune. After play only a few minutes most of the strings were not of tune. I tuned them again & made sure they were properly stitched & they were out of tune again after playing only a few minutes. I plan to get lockdown head turner to stop this, however Fender should use better head turner on their guitars.