Squier Mini Stratocaster Electric Guitar - Dakota Red with Laurel Fingerboard Reviews
The Squier Mini Strat solidbody electric guitar makes a great instrument for beginners, youngsters, and travelers. This 3/4-size instrument might be cute, but it's also capable of becoming a tone monster when you plug it in. Like its big brother, the Squier Bullet, the Mini Strat uses three single-coil pickups, volume and tone controls, and 5-way pickup switching to give you an array of great sounds. It also includes a comfortable maple neck, an Indian laurel hardwood fingerboard, and a chrome-plated hardtail bridge. It's perfect for smaller hands and sized just right for taking on the road.
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Highest Rated Reviews
Great for kids; second life as a travel guitar
This was perfect for introducing both of my kids (10 and younger at the time) to guitar. Although I might not recommend purchasing just to be a travel guitar (the nut width and scale length are just a bit too short for an adult with mid-sized hands - there may be better options with full scale length), if you are considering getting one anyway, it actually makes for a decent travel guitar (even if you can't play quite as well as with full scale length). It travels well on airplanes with the optional gig bag made specifically for it.
If you are buying for a child, note that it will likely benefit greatly from having a setup done on it (this is very much a real guitar, but any guitar at this price point is less likely to play great right out of the box; with the one I bought, I thought the pickups sounded pretty lousy until I adjusted the pickup heights). For a travel guitar for an adult, you may consider putting 10s or 11s as strings on it; I found it took 10s without any changes to the nut.
Fender Squier Mini from SweetWater
Awesome Customer Service! Jon Chordas is true Professional! Followed up with order All the way through until delivered. SweetWater's 5 point Inspection is Great! This has been my Second Purchase from them and wouldn't go anywhere else moving forward for any gear! Keep up the Great Service and Great Gear!
Nothing
This guitar is perfectly great after you put good strings on it. I suggest 11s,and with heavier strings you get the similar tension and feel as a full-sized Fender. The pups are decent, and the setup it comes in is perfectly fine. I've used it to record songs at home. It's the cozies, most super-playable guitar ever. It's a real Strat, for all practical purposes. Mine is in the bloodiest, deepest red I may have ever seen, and looks very cool. At under $, just get it.
love it
it great my grandpa got me this guitar and i love it
Grandson loves it!
Sounds, plays and looks great and the most important thing
Is our grandson loves. Thank you Sweetwater.
Gift for my son
I bought this for my son's 7th birthday and it is perfect for his age. At the quality it offers it is something that both he and I can play on, but at a price where if something happens to it, given he is a 7 year old, it will not break the bank.
Also, the customer service from Sweetwater is top notch, which made this experience really easy and buyer friendly.
Great guitar - FedEx shipping was despicable.
This is a great guitar. Purchased for my son, and it fits his hand perfectly. I did change out the strings from the start as the ones that come with the guitar are not that great.
The downside is shipping. FedEx exceeded their incompetence day after day. After transiting from facility to facility for 2 weeks, FedEx sent out a truck for delivery - but forgot to include the actual package. It took going to the local distribution point and waiting an hour for them to locate the package. I'd buy the guitar again in a second, but refuse to ship via FedEx again.
Mini Strat...maxi sound
Big things come in small packages! This little power house cranks out big sound and feels good while you're playing it.
Amazing how 60's rock riffs just flow !
Little guitar, little price, big sound.
Thanks Sweetwater and you too Adam.
Good guitar for youth beginner
With consideration this is a youth guitar, I'm not going to review the tone/sound aspect. It's a Stratocaster, it produces Stratocaster tones. Moving on....
My dad bought this for my 5yo daughter for Christmas. Arrived in good condition, minus a few factory paint flaws on the front body. There were no sharp fret ends. I read about folks complaining that it wouldn't stay in tune - this one stays in tune, and very well. Why? I tightened the nuts on the tuning machines and cut the nut to .020 1st fret after I removed the factory strings. The fretboard required oil and fret polishing, which is standard for many guitars, not an issue. The neck relief required just a tad of adjustment. Again, standard practice for ANY guitar at ANY price point. Intonation was close on 4 out of 6 strings, but all 6 were dialed in using a strobe tuner. Overall it sounds good, but I wanted playability first and foremost for my daughter to know what a dialed in guitar FEELS like. There's no noise from the knobs, jack, or switch. It's a good guitar that I tuned up and made a great guitar for a child to learn on. For those who stated it won't stay in tune - do some work on it, no guitar is perfect out of the box, or case.
in response
in response to jim huges in texas, the answer is buy a full size squire...... unless your grandson is 2 feet tall the full size will be fine.... the portion of the guitar he will be focusing on is only 25 inches long.....that is manageable for anyone :)
. also, as soon as he gets his mini, he will want the real deal...... check out your standard bullet squire ( or equivalent) .... i got one as the only strat i own and it is a great lil low dollar guit..... :)
Barely Playable
I bought this for my son a while back and he's starting to really develop an interest in learning to play…but he can't do it on this guitar. It absolutely can not be tuned. Hoping to salvage it with a professional set-up but I expected a bit better from Sweetwater.
I expect all new guitars need to be tweaked but this is a bit excessive. I've bought a few guitars from Sweetwater and they've always arrived in great shape and well set so this one has a been a disappointment.
Terrible
This mini strat cannot be tuned. I bought it for my grand daughter and am very disappointed and will be returning it to Sweetwater. My sales rep gave me a few tips on how to get it to stay tuned but to no avail. Do not buy this guitar.
How is this thing for sale at Sweetwater?
I've been mildly disappointed in the past ( not really understanding the function of an item purchased)...but a guitar advertised as "playable"...from Sweet. should not leave me dumb-founded...can't tune it.. can't be achieved..as a bass player I'm a little embarrassed to admit I am unable to get he 12th fret to match the open string...the guitar is very nice...my grandson was super happy! unfortunately. he can't learn a Cmaj scale if it can't be played on the instrument...can anyone reccomend a "playable" mini guitar brand? this Squire isn't going to cut it,...
