Hey guys, Joe is an honest guy who buys guitars at decent prices and shares his experiences. Make sure to smash that Thumb Up!" 👍 Not only does it help his channel, but it also helps to get his video's seen by more people. Times are hard for everyone and buying a guitar for a low price is easy, but finding a decent one is not. Thanks to Joe, we can get a real honest review. he's not getting paid to give reviews. nor is anyone paying him, or giving him free guitars to review. So please smash that thumbs up button. It's Christmas time and buying a loved one a decent budget guitar is only awesome when the guitars ain't junk like this Squier Affinity is.. Peace to all you.

These guitars are great for people who wanna learn how to do luthier work.

I bought mine from Sweetwater in the Olympic White with the Maple fretboard. Out of the box it was in tune, the intonation was spot on, the tuners and tremolo work perfect together. No fret sprout at all, I could not be happier with the guitar, I paid $249 for mine and got free delivery. Thank you Sweetwater, I love it!

@manofthepeople2165

3 ай бұрын

Was yours made in China or made in Indonesia?

@bluwng

2 ай бұрын

@@manofthepeople2165they are no longer made in China if I had to guess the ones on sale were overlooked in a warehouse and they were just getting rid of them. My Indonesian one had sharp frets, after fixing, rolling edges and doing an expert setup( I’m the expert) it is fantastic. I love Fender necks and notice imports don’t mimick the necks. It was a lot of work fixing the ends, they were not horrible but it had to be fixed.

You are not alone my friend, I just bought a Squier Classic Vibe Jaguar from the Fender web site and sent it back.

This exact guitar was my first guitar, I bought it late December. I have the EXACT same issues. Ordered a PRS SE CE the other day, here's to hoping its better.

I recently bought this guitar as well. There was a lot of work to be done to it. I had to shim the neck, the frets were sharp and rough, the fretboard was ultra dry and rough as well, i had to sand it prior to applying some oil. Nearly every fret was rocking, so i had to level all the frets. E-e distance on the nut was way too narrow so a new nut had to be obtained. Wish i chose a different model, probably the 40th anniversary Squier Strat which was only 100€ more. After all the work i've done to it, it is a very good guitar now, but i wouldn't do it again.

I'm with Joe on this one. A truss rod adjustment is one thing, as is a dry fretboard that just needs some conditioning. But uneven frets? Faulty tuners? No, that's not cool. These are issues that go way beyond a simple setup. I'd exchange it for another.

I just returned a Vintage Vibe Jag in a beautiful silver sparkle finish that I bought on black Friday from the Fender website. The bridge and the tailpiece were offset by 1/4 inch. The fret ends were prickly, and the high e was much lower than the other strings and you cannot adjust the saddles. It was really cool looking but the string alignment issue was too much to swallow. The return has been easy so far, no hassle getting a return authorization. I shipped it back today and should get a reimbursement in 5 or so business days

I bought the exact same guitar, and mine was perfect. Fret ends were beautiful, nut was cut perfectly, no high frets, already intonated. The tuners are low ratio but they hold tune surprisingly well. Even the pickups sound better than I expected. All I did was lower the action and the guitar plays like butter. This is my fourth Affinity and all of them have been beautiful. The fit and finish of these Affinity guitars is right up there with Classic Vibes, in my experience. Sorry you got a bad one.

@woodyblakemore8401

7 ай бұрын

I’ve seen many more positive comments than negative but Joe is right. If you buy a cheap guitar you are rolling the dice.

@44scoots

7 ай бұрын

Did you buy it from Fender directly?

@AJgeartalk

7 ай бұрын

Yes I did.@@44scoots

@thomasstueber3505

7 ай бұрын

@@44scoots Yup. The Black Friday deal for $150.

@44scoots

7 ай бұрын

@@thomasstueber3505 👍🏼 surprising, I bought a Mustang off the Fender site last year and it came in horrible condition. Basically a student type guitar that NO student could play easily. A full setup was needed. Glad you got a good one!

Not a good experience, don't blame you for sending it back. I got one of the HSS Affinities with flame maple top and my experience was completely different. Mine is a great guitar but did come with the high 'E' string way too close to the edge of the fretboard. I was able to fix that by loosening the neck and moving it slightly. But I'm pleased with mine, no sharp frets, tuners hold tune and feel great, sound is fairly decent. Unfortunately, with budget guitars it can be hit or miss. Hope you have better luck with the next purchase!

I bought the Olympic White Squire Affinity Strat with maple neck a few months ago and it arrived in awesome shape and ready to play. First time that’s ever happened with the guitars I’ve bought online over the years.

Joe! I have never played guitar before 2023 and I've always wanted to learn, so I picked up this EXACT model for my first guitar for Christmas last year. After about a month or so of practicing and taking lessons, I decided to check out this video to see what other people thought of this guitar. I'm currently about halfway into your video and I've agreed with EVERYTHING you've said thus far. (I purchased the guitar for $250 off of amazon. Probably should've tried sweetwater in hindsight lol) When I received this guitar, the fret buzz was TERRIBLE!! The string action was incredibly low and the truss rod was all messed up. I couldn't play anything without it buzzing. At the time, I thought it was normal, but I definitely knew something was off so I had some friends that play guitar take a look at it. After a LOT of adjusting, the guitar is finally in playable shape. For a rookie like me, this squier was probably not the best choice, but it truly did teach me a lot about how guitars work and how to maintain them. Similarly to yours, mine had frets that stuck out (fixed by using a file), the fretboard wasn't oiled at ALL, and the tuners would NOT hold a tune! I paid a local shop to clean it up and make it playable and they did for ~$70. It now plays a fine tune, but there are some things that can be improved. I think I'm going to put some money into it in the future as it's my first guitar and I'd like to keep and play it for a long time.

@AJgeartalk

5 ай бұрын

Thanks for the feedback my friend! Glad to hear that your Strat is now "playable".

Thanks for the video. Totally get where you are coming from that you want it to work out of the box. For me, you actually helped me decide to buy one because I actually love tinkering with the guitar and I am looking forward to the challenge of getting it in good shape myself and then giving it to a kid. Cheers Joe!

I suppose it all comes down to luck of what cards you are dealt. I was foolish to buy online because of the clearance deal from Musician’s Friend. I’ll say I’m quite pleased with my Indonesian build…. But, I believe I was simply lucky. I don’t believe I am going to take that chance again…. Frets were good, fretboard oiled, everything was tight. Definitely a good value here… Only issue was just a tad bit of buzzing and I quickly mitigated it by adding relief to the neck.

Sounds like Fender still has plenty of reasons to stick with music stores for customer service and they can focus on manufacturing.

@cdavidlake2

7 ай бұрын

I snagged the Sonic Esquire same time Joe grabbed this. Afraid to open the box now...

I'm not really happy with my Squier Sonic. The price was decent but the frets are to small and very harsh to say the least. Just like you stated in this video. I chose the maple neck, and I also went with the Fat Strat. A single ply pickguard cover.. No buzzing, but still not pleased. However My son ordered the Ibanez Gio, he paid $200.00, and it was perfect right out of the box. Tuned and played it. Perfect intonation, perfect string height and perfect frets. It literally feels and plays like a $700.00 guitar.. I wish like hell I would have bought one of those. Thanks for sharing your experience with us Joe.. Love your honest videos. I hope you and your family have a happy holiday season. Peace.. Joe

@5TR4N63R

7 ай бұрын

I have a couple Squiers, Affinty Strat and Sonic Tele I'm fairly happy with but they just aren't as good as the Ibanez Gio I recently bought. It's the best out of the box guitar I've gotten yet and I have an Epiphone and Harley Benton too... but the Gio is the best of the lot and has become my go to.

@hobbycow5346

3 ай бұрын

I’m in the middle of researching between the Sonic and Affinity, and one of the major differences is the frets. The Sonic has high thin frets, and the affinity has fatter, lower frets. Supposedly for 2 different styles of playing. As far as Ibanez, I wish I still had my 1980’s Blazer….it was great and finding one today is a rare and expensive find!

Thanks for an HONEST review !

Got this exact guitar for Christmas love it

Sorry you got a bad one. Got mine last week and I love it. All it needed was an intonation adjustment on the e string. I had ordered a gear it looks a couple of weeks ago and it arrived with the headstock completely broken off. As you said it is hit and miss.

Very Cool, Thankyou. So sorry you had a bad experience with the Squier Affinity Strat. It sure looks Stunning. I have a 2013 Made in Indonesia Affinity Strat in 2 Tone Sunburst which is The most Stunningly finished Guitar I have ever seen. Plays amazing also, tunes well, perfect Frets and Sounds Awesome, just a Joy of a Guitar. All the Best. Cheers

1. As long as you can't hear it that bad though an actual amp fret buzz unplugged matter very little on an electric guitar 2. It sounds like a slightly high fret or your string height is a little too low but both are easily fixed 3. For something like £180/$ what do you expect it's not gonna be perfect if you want much better but a Sire or something similar a little bit more expensive but 1000 times better 4. Anything under £300/$ is unlikely to be very good and will definitely need some fixing/setup even for a beginner guitarist I'd suggest anything below that amount is not suitable for a beginner because of the fact that it will need a setup etc I know these are aimed at beginners which in my opinion is wrong because nothing will put a beginner off quicker than a guitar that buzzed or won't stay in tune etc 5. I can't recommend the Sire range more highly £500/$ or so and they are nearly perfect I'd also recommend some of the more expensive Harley Benton guitars again amazing for the money and pretty much perfect for beginners/intermediate players

@AJgeartalk

7 ай бұрын

I don't "expect" anything. Just reporting my experience.

Thanks for the honest review. I ordered one as well, and I'm planning a video also. Im curious to see how my experience compares to yours

Thank you. With all the blow-out deals out there I often find myself looking at the Red Sparkle Bullet Telecasters. The low prices are tempting, but the same issues are at play.

@johnw4659

7 ай бұрын

I've tried that Red Sparkle Bullet at different GTC stores and while the price and color makes it very tempting, the neck is just so cheap feeling that I can't. That said I have a Squier Affinity Strat and I love it.

@whiskeytangofoxtrot9403

7 ай бұрын

I have an Affinity Tele and it's really nice after a simple setup and holds tune very well.

I've found that, at least in one squire I've bought in the past, constant buzzing was due to the neck not being fitted properly in the neck pocket and needs to be shimmed to get the angle correct - this could be the problem here - good video and good choice to return it

@whiskeytangofoxtrot9403

7 ай бұрын

There have been Fender MIM that are just like that.

Joe, about 10 years ago, I bought a Squire Vintage Modified Thinline Tele for 199.00 USD and it was usually 459.00 at the time. It actually played ok but there were sharp fret ends, not bad though. You'd figure on that price range you shouldn't have much wrong & it really didn't

i really wish the sonic series came in this colour as that's probably the better choice, but man, i just love that shade of green. if i see one at an even cheaper price than it is now i'll consider picking it up as a fix up job. who knows though, now that the player 2 series is out maybe my superfical ass could score a player 1 in seafoam if i just keep an eye out.

Finally, some honesty in Guitar reviews that’s why I love your channel Joe

I was gonna grab one but I might pass on it due to all this. Thank you for doing this video.

I bought this. $100 off!!! And I got the lime green Mustang that was also on sale and an excellent deal. Got the strat yesterday. I unboxed it and it looks great but I haven't played it yet. Now I'm worried LOL. I have another Affinity Strat - different config but it was $275 and it's great. This was $162 tax and all I couldn't pass it up I hope I got luckier than you, brother.

I bought the same exact guitar direct from Fender for $149 US and it came with non of these problems Joe encountered. The only thing I had to do is oil the Indian Laurel and a minor adjustment on the bridge for the low E string. Guess I got lucky or they just are making these low budget guitars really well nowadays.

Good review. I like that you share the defeats with the victories. Btw, I hope you're making bank on these videos, because I was served 7 commercials in 8 minutes. I'd be disappointed if you didn't benefit from my misery.

@CraigMJamieson

7 ай бұрын

KZread Premium. Best money I ever spent:)

@Mindboggle100

7 ай бұрын

I truly detest those adds that have a "Part 2": it brings the stomach cringy feel you had the first time right back like a double whammy! I feel your pain!

Thanks, Joe. I almost ordered one, but I thought it was too good to be true .

@AJgeartalk

7 ай бұрын

Don't let me rain on the parade. You might get a great one! 🙂

@briankeenan4901

7 ай бұрын

@@AJgeartalk I've been having bad luck with guitars lately. , I doubt that I would get a good one. It seems that I spend more time fixing them than playing them. I have an old Starcaster by Fender that I improved. It's my Go To guitar. But that Old Mint Green color. I really like that color. That color drew me. My current guitars are common colors.

I bought one of these on this sale. It was an absolute disaster, like this one. Luckily I'm very good at setups, have done many many for bands/friends/etc. It took hours of setup work to get it playable. It's fine now, and I like it, but it took a lot. I think this particular run of guitars they are dumping at a cheap price, was a bad run, hence the clearance price. My sonic strat needed much less work in comparison.

I bought a Squire tele about 2 years ago. Mine was also in real rough shape, wish I had returned it. But I might make it into a little frankenstein experiment, put some bevels on it and what not.

Had the same issues with a Squier CV; So I am done with cheap guitars

It looks so nice. Too bad it’s unplayable. I just ordered a Fender Aerodyne strat for 40% off. They're getting blown out on Reverb. Fingers crossed 🤞 as I roll the dice 🎲

Squier has been hit or miss for a few years now. I had to send a new 2021 CV tele back it was so bad yet my new 2022 Bullet Strat was pure perfection. Cheers!

@ibberman

7 ай бұрын

Did you buy the Bullet from Fender?

@carpathus

7 ай бұрын

Got the Bullet on deal from Musician's Friend for $149. It's a beautiful example of seafoam green and is so comfortable due to the thinner body and light weight. It's become one of my all time favorite guitars. Right now it has a CV maple fretboard neck on it I got from the STRATosphere, a Musiclily 3-ply aged white pickguard, a Swhmc cream color plastic hardware kit and Dopro stainless steel saddles. Got that stuff from Amazon. The plastic nut was cut perfect, the electronics work great and the pickups sound really good. The trick with the pickups is to lower neck and middle to the pickguard and raise bridge until volume parity to the neck. Lowering the pickups de-emphasizes the influence of the stronger ceramic magnets so you can get the alnico tones. Tone shaping can be done by swapping different pots and caps if needed but in my case it wasn't required. Cheers!

@AJgeartalk

7 ай бұрын

I bought this Affinity from Fender direct. @@ibberman

With that many issues, I don't think this was just an unlucky one... seems like that factory isn't doing any sort of set up or quality control, which is a shame, since Fender/Squire are generally pretty good about giving you a good guitar right out of the box. At least it looks cool lol and with a good set up I bet it would play wonderfully. But you have a good point; when there are so many budget guitars you can get that are great out of the box, why waste time on ones like this? Unless you have lots of free time, or just love working on guitars, there's really no reason to

Sorry you had a bad experience. I have been happy with Squier models made in Indonesia. Got a Telecaster bullet on black Friday $106.99 that is a little sharp on the fret ends with no buzzing. Some reason I hear better comments on bullets than affinity.

Man I just got one and it’s awesome

@AJgeartalk

7 ай бұрын

Glad you are happy!

I would expect to have to level and dress the frets on any sub-two hundred quid guitar and I pretty much know the tuners on such things will be garbage and need replacing if it's ever gonna be a giggable guitar. Replacing the tuners on any budget guitar is invariably the best fifty quid upgrade you could ever make, waaay more important than swapping pick ups or bridges or electrics - which ill-advisedly seems to be a lot of people's first modding port of call - if you want the thing to be enjoyable to play. A bit of lemon oil will sort a dry fretboard out and is something everyone needs to be doing on unvarnished fretboards anyway two or three times a year, so there's nothing too terrible going on there. At this time of year when the temperature is all over the place, it should come as no surprise at all to have to make a truss rod adjustment on pretty much every guitar in the world. Of course one shouldn't really have to do all that with a brand new guitar, but we all know you frequently do have to.

Sorry to hear you got a bit of a lemon with your new Squier. I don't think it's too much to ask to have a guitar, even a budget one, be playable out of the box. Always a disappointment though. Hope the return won't be a hassle for you. Just grab your new PRS to enjoy a quality guitar! Be well, stay safe, my friend.

The green affinity strats are made in china. The other colors are in Indonesia. I just picked up a white and it's perfectly setup. Plays as well as my American strat.

I bought the same guitar and had very good results.. I'm sure results vary per unit I also bought the 60's Ventera pickups at half off and installed them its a fantastic unit and my neck was very very good.. sorry your unit was a turd.. for me personally, this Fender gave better results than loe Jaymes or H.B and the volgoa tn2 units so its as you say a "roll of the dice" but im very happy with mine..

Exactly. I do not blame you. New should be right.

I can’t see expecting the quality you desire in a $250 guitar and especially this 40% discounted Strat. I got a similar Affinity on the current sale and it did have similar issues as yours and I’m willing to do the work myself to fix them. If someone wants a properly setup guitar, they should go to a music store and get a personalized service sales experience but in most cases you won’t get a 40% discount like Fender offered online for this Affinity Strat.

@AJgeartalk

7 ай бұрын

Please refrain from these belligerent comments and watch other videos. You clearly don't understand the audience i am targeting! I explained why I didn't attempt to correct these issues in the video-if you had watched the entire video.

@JTMP12

7 ай бұрын

@@AJgeartalk I apologize if you took my comment as belligerent. I did watch the entire video, my comment was that what you revealed in your video is the expectation from a $150 guitar.

Thats not a dry fretboard youre hearing, thats most likely unpolished scratchy frets. But otherwise I agree with you on this one.

Hi Joe, I understand why you’re sending it back but for me it would be just a matter of setting it up. Having said that the Ibanez AZ essentials are great guitars and playable right out of the box. Bought the HSS and the SSS and frets are as smooth as butter and great low action with no buzzing. I bought my AZES 31 for $199 new w/free shipping and no tax and it’s one of my best guitars. Happy Holidays and wish you better luck with the next one !

I think it depends on your goals. I agree 100% if I bought that for someone they would not like playing it. But if I were buying it, I might be getting it customize. But there a lot of other brands at the same price that come almost perfect. My EART telecast was great...well until I started modding it, but out of the box it played great.

Not sure its the board, the frets need polishing maybe? I have the hss model and love mine, agree tuners are rubbish

That's weird. I thought they fixed sharp fret ends/buzzing years ago. I assumed the cheap companies would use their profits and invest in great machines, and thus we have the explosion of good quality, cheap guitars that you are seeing today. This is a gigantic mistake by Fender.

Like I told Robert Jackson yesterday. Never buy a guitar on the internet. Go in a store and get a feel out of it before you buy.

@HotelSeptember

7 ай бұрын

Ideal but Impractical. A guitar store nearby having the exact model that you want? Unlikely. Outside of basic models but even then, colour choice might be limited. Shop from guitar stores with sensible return policies. If a guitar store sends you a guitar like the one featured, find a different store if they’re happy to sell you that.

@howardcunniffe8738

7 ай бұрын

@@HotelSeptember I remember about 15 years ago some parents wanted to surprize their daughter for Christmas. They wanted to get her ,her very first electric guitar . They bought it on the internet and when it arrived to their house, the guitar was toast. They found out that a guitar store had that same guitar for $200.00 cheaper and in better condition.

Aww shucks, that is in such a nice colour... is it surf green?

@AJgeartalk

7 ай бұрын

Yes- Surf Green it is.

It's definitely a crap shoot on anything bought online. Mine is supposed to arrive Monday and although I can fix most issues you described, I'd just assume not and hoping it arrives at least as good as shape as my cheapest guitar, which is a Starcaster Strat that I paid $45 for and $35 of that was S/H and was very happy with it condition and not only for that price, but better than some MIM's I've played. Keeping my fingers crossed and sorry to hear your experience wasn't such a good one. Maybe they'll give you a partial refund and that'll pay for a set-up?

@er6nman

7 ай бұрын

Update: My Squier arrived early, and I'm not blown away by it, but I am very happy with it for the price. Downside is that it is from the China factory, instead of Indonesia. I went back and looked at the listing again and at least the white one I looked at before ordering, does show Indonesia and I guess I assumed that's where all the Affinity's were made. I just remember the Squier Standards were from Indonesia and were much nicer than the ones from China at that time. The only thing on mine, that apparently happened when pulling the knobs off to remove plastic, is the center tone knob is dead at 10, which everything worked prior to removing knobs? Just got to back it off to 9 and it's fine. Frets are fine, not rounded, but won't cut me (yet?) No fret buzz or high or low frets across the neck and neck is pretty much straight. About a half turn in on each of the two spring claw screws, to balance the bridge in a floating position, that works great and holds tune pretty well, even after a few dive bombs for testing purposes. I started lowering of the action of the high E just a tad and decided to put it back and wait at least a couple of days to acclimate, before messing with it too much. I'm happy with it, but do I think it's a $250-300 guitar? Not for me, at least at this stage in my life.

Wjere did you get this colour?

@AJgeartalk

6 ай бұрын

Watch the video.

That looks like a bullet? Affinity models usually say it on the headstock

@AJgeartalk

7 ай бұрын

The NEW Affinity models do not. They no longer have "Affinity" on the headstock.

If you think this is bad, you should see what comes out of Fender Mexico these days. Needing fret level, need sharp edges trimmed off. Obviously never rounded off (I'm not talking about sprout - they're just unfinished), buzzing and citar sounds from the nut, misaligned bridge, can't intonate low-e. Absolute trash. These arrive at our shop with all the saddles level (no attempt at setting to radius of frets), and all the same distance from the nut. They're slapped together as quickly as possible with NO quality check whatsoever. If they tell you they check them: they're lying.

What do you expect for $149?

Personally I'm always suspicious of these kinds of sales.

Bummer I just ordered 2 😢

@AJgeartalk

7 ай бұрын

You may get "2" perfectly fine guitars. Hoping that's the case.

But you painted your room to match the guitar...

Send a love letter to Andy Mooney at Fender.... LMAO 🤣😂. My birthday is tomorrow, I'm glad I didn't buy one... Excellent review and warning. Hope you get a full and proper refund soon.

I own this guitar and I hate it. The whole design is flawed. When the bridge is decked the saddles sit at a bizarre angle. The frets are small not medium and it is very difficult to do bends. And as you mentioned the buzzing is brutal even after a good set up as the fret work is awful. I am not getting a new guitar level and crowned. i should have sent it back but I didn’t know anything about guitars when I got it. A year later, I do all my own set ups thanks to youtube.

well, what do you want for $149.00 . dang man

@AJgeartalk

2 ай бұрын

A guitar without razor sharp frets and raised frets. What's you're point????

Probably should have brought a $3,500 Les Paul. $149....seriously, I think you're expectations might be too high.

@AJgeartalk

7 ай бұрын

I'll leave purchasing that $3,500 Les Paul for you. This is a budget guitar channel geared at neophytes. Your probably in the wrong place!

Wood is unpredictable hence the fret sprout or uneven frets. I think you expect too much from a $149 guitar.

@AJgeartalk

7 ай бұрын

Nope. Just a guitar that is "playable" out of the box!

It's unfortunate; yes, you could fix these issues......BUT: these instruments are targeted towards beginners and if this is what you're given, I don't see how this would encourage you to stick with guitar. Maybe a more experienced player looking for a beater guitar or something to practice luthiery on it might work. But dang Squier.

i've had a much better experience with the cheaper MSRP squier sonic strat, affinity strat is supposed to be better but nope.

that's not the board, you need to polish the frets. you need to spend a little more money to get a playable guitar. 👍

Thousands wasted probably.(poor craftsmanship) Hence the blowout sale. This is just my opinion.

No offence you guy but it’s a 2 dollar squier. It’s not even a classic vibe. It’s gonna take a bit of work. Just saying

@AJgeartalk

7 ай бұрын

And your point is? Did you watch the video?

@deanmccaskill5495

7 ай бұрын

@@AJgeartalk I’m just getting you going man. Sorry

@AJgeartalk

7 ай бұрын

@@deanmccaskill5495

@deanmccaskill5495

7 ай бұрын

@@AJgeartalkAnd I did watch the video. It’s a good video and a good take. Personally I would have a little lower expectation than you for that model but in this day and age there isn’t really a good reason not to expect quality out of the box. I shouldn’t be allowed at the comment section after 4 or more beer. Again.. sorry about that. The comment looked way more snarky than I like to conduct myself at any given time.

@AJgeartalk

7 ай бұрын

No worries! Thanks for watching. Be well brother. Cheers! 😃@@deanmccaskill5495

Straight up crap

china guitars are the bottom of the barrel-

Yeah, it’s Chinese garbage, what did you expect? Save up for a Suhr or USA fender or Gibson, then you will get what want. It’s that easy.

@AJgeartalk

7 ай бұрын

If I had that kind of money I would. This is a "budget" guitar channel.