I was surprised how this came ready to play out of the box. Smooth fretboard and neck, feels nice to play.

Overall, very nice guitar. Minor setup needed, but zero issues. Neck level and fretwork good without issues. Easy intonation. Plays like butter. Highly recommended. Painted the Lake Placid Blue with a floral pattern as found on the early Japanese Strats.

This is my first electric guitar. I purchased this one based on the reputation of Fender and Sweetwater. I like the color and shape of this guitar. I like the way it sounds and I am looking forward to years of playing.

Yes, it's a keeper but.. The not so good.
Fret ends are sharp and need rounding/dressing. The one piece maple neck is not as strong as a laminated 2 piece, If i were buying again, it would be a laurel board. The slightest pressure on neck changes pitch. The tuning machines were loose, barely finger tight. Convex bow on the neck meant loosening the truss rod, as strings were laying on fret board when 1st and 17th fret were pressed. Bridge had to be lowered because even with saddles all the way down it had way too high of action (for me).
The OK.
Finish and craftsmanship were all excellent for price point. All electronics worked as they should. The tone control for the bridge pickup is a nice touch. Paint was good, satin urethane on the neck is slippery and lightly painted. Shipping and packing were excellent. High five to Sweetwater.
I guess my main takeaway is.. If this isn't your first rodeo, it's a great value.

Fit and finish is very good, frets are good, tuning machines are smooth and it stays in tune. Pickups produce good tones, but... sound good with my modeling amps not working so well with my tube rigs. Feed back and microphonic noises. Wax dipped them and it helped but didn't solve the issue. Overall a nice guitar, may need to upgrade the pickups tho'. The blue is darker than it looked in the pictures which, to me, is a good thing.

I loved almost everything about the guitar except the fretwork. The frets were soo bad that it looks like they sent it out without polishing or dressing the frets. Particularly on the 10th or 11th fret of the high e and b strings the frets were too high causing a buzz. The the frets ends were extremely sharp like they just cut them and didn't bother to sand them. It eventually costed me to get it setup and get fret ends dressed and the frets polished. The irony was that it came with a quality control tag. Other than that. After the work the guitar played like a dream. It sounds nice and pickups sounds ok to me. You have alot of options on upgrades. Oh and when you get it. You may have to retighten the nuts on the input jack and the tuners. Tremolo was actually great. I love this guitar. I just resent squire for sending it out in this shape. Just completely unacceptable.

Since the late 80's I been buying and playing the Squier series Stratocasters and Telecasters.
Presently I own a 2001 Squier Affinity Strat in red and a 2010 Telecaster in antique blonde.
Two of my fav guitars.
I bought this 2022 Squier Affinity Stratocaster from Swetwater to get a feel for Fender's contemporary approach on the Squier Affinity Stratocaster.... and because I love the Lake Placid Blue color.
Well, the instrument arrive the next day... (How does Sweetwater do that?) I am blown away.
It has a substantial weight and the unfinished maple neck plays like butter, right out of the box.
The finish is gorgeous and the hardware I would consider to be an upgrade over that of years past.
The stock single pickups, with raised pole pieces that match the neck/string radius, are crisp, clear and unbelievably responsive. The 2 point fulcrum tremolo bridge is a beautiful upgrade to the old style fulcrum.
I have to say, for those on a budget who want a quality instrument at a competitive price point, this 2022 Squier Affinity Stratocaster is a real gem.
This one is now part of my "Keep Forever" collection.
Hat's off to Fender for making such a spectacular and affordable Squier.

I've just started learning to play the guitar so many might wonder how I could possibly do a review on the quality of any guitar. You would be correct except for one thing, I just started learning which means my fingers still hurt from mashing steel strings on my acoustic. I received my Squier Strat yesterday and spent over 3 hours getting to know her. The difference it made on my fingers was amazing. Aesthetically, the craftsmanship is beautiful and as already mentioned, the playability is fantastic. I would definitely recommend this to anyone just starting out. Oh, and how bout that Sweetwater? I ordered this like on Friday night and received it the following Tuesday. Nothing but good things to say about both.

I love the lighter wood on the neck which mashes it easier to play. Also the frets were sanded down on the edges of the neck which is more common in more expensive guitars. I also like that the neck is unvarnished so that it doesn't become sticky. Plays well as well.

I like it required some setup and a string change.9s a little light for me.alittle truss rod adjustment.it sounds better than the bullet strat I have.nice guitar.

I bought this guitar to help me progress as a player,Several years ago I had a brand new Gibson Les Paul

And i really loved it but lost it due to money problems,so that is not going to happen this time.
This is a easy playing guitar and sounds great, I play it thru a Fender mustang lt25. Having Fun!!

I'm an experienced guitar player. My number one is a 1991 American Standard Strat with maple neck. It sounds great.

I purchased two Affinity Strats and an Affinity Jazzmaster to build after noticing the improved back relief on the Affinity Strats and their light weight playability.

I'm writing this review to clear things up a bit from another review I read on Sweetwater.

I've already changed the tuning keys to locking Schallers and the pickups to Texas Specials on one Affinity. It sounds great.

But if you are a beginner you don't have to do this to enjoy a very playable guitar. If you want a better sound you can change the pickups first when you can afford it. Check out youtube videos for single coil pickups. Enjoy the learning experience. I personally also like the new vintage ultra noiseless Fender pickups. Have your guitar shop install these. Not a big deal at all.


Lastly ... the bridge issue others have mentioned. This body is exactly 1/4" thinner than other strats although the length and width are about the same. More sustain can be had by simply having your local guitar shop add the brass short block made specifically for an Affinity bridge replacing the thinner block it comes with. And if you don't use a tremolo much you can have your guitar shop put on a state of the art hard tail for tuning issues. But for a beginner this is really not necessary. Pros are picky because they want perfection.

Again ... the purpose for my review is to put at ease those who are beginners and for parents who want to gift a guitar to a son or daughter. This is a great beginner guitar. Id day even super. And if you want to upgrade one bit by bit it's an inexpensive start.

Also look at Sweetwater's Fender Squier Classic Vibe 70s Jaguar. A great starter guitar ... even for experienced players with a few tweaks here and there.

I'll give this five stars for a beginner intermediate guitar. Easy to play. Lightweight and easy on the fingers.
.

I bought this guitar simply because I loved the color combination. I did not expect much at this price range and in that I was not disappointed. The good: This guitar looks beautiful. The neck was straight, the frets level and while you can feel the fret ends none were sharp. The nut was set in perfectly and the relief was spot on. That is where the good ends.

The bad: For starters just removing the plastic from the pickups was a chore. The plastic covering doesn't just sit on the top of the pickups like everyone else has. Nope. You have to remove the pickgaurd and lower the pickups because that plastic is wrapped all the way to the bottom of the pickup covers themselves. You cannot just pull the plastic off from the top. It will break and leave plastc sticking up through the pickguard holes. I had played this before I did that and found the electronics were basically garbage. My 5-way switch only worked in 4 posititions and the overall sound was only so so. Since I had the pickguard off anyway I decided to gut this guitar and do it right. I put in and Oak Grigsby 5-Way and another set of Fender pickups and some CTS mini pots as you cannot fit large pots in to the small cavity on this guitar. All that along with a real jack. I don't think the jack that comes with these would last very long. O.K so now it sounds like a Strat should. Now on to the trem. I ended uo blocking the trem off. The trem on this was very lacking and I wasn't about to put any more money in to this guitar. The trem came not set up at all. The strings were so freaking high the guitar was unplayable. Even after setting up this trem it was easy to see that it wasn't going to hold tune. I wouldn't buy this again.