- Squier Classic Vibe 50s Stratocaster Electric Guitar, with 2-Year Warranty, Fiesta Red, Maple Fingerboard

I'm a casual intermediate player of roughly 10 years on and off. I've borrowed or owned several budget to mid-range guitars including a Yamaha Pacifica, Early 90s Japanese Fender Heartfield, mid 2000s MIM Stratocaster, and Peavey SC-3. All of these were either sold or given back 6 months ago before a series of moves. Recently, I decided to buy another guitar to get back into it. I was prepared to get the American Strat of my childhood dreams, but I knew that kind of money would have been overkill for my skill level and intentions. The Player Strat was the next best alternative, but I wanted to test out something a little cheaper just for kicks. Research led me to Squire, particularly the Affinity and Classic Vibe series. I can’t lie. Seeing "Squire" on the headstock instead of "Fender" stung a bit at first, but I realized I'm not nearly talented enough to be that picky so I swallowed my pride. I ended up testing this guitar alongside a Squire Affinity Telecaster. Long story short, this guitar is my personal favorite over anything else I've owned/borrowed, and it's also what I believe is the greatest value I've ever gotten for a guitar. When I first received this guitar, I was very disappointed because it arrived with some cosmetic damage and blemishes. It definitely appeared to be a factory QC issue or was a return/floor model. Fortunately, Amazon was able to fix the situation quickly. Overall, it appears this was an uncommon issue. With that out of the way, I'm glad I gave the Classic Vibe another chance. This guitar screams quality and classic style. The color is a beautiful Fiesta Red that I swear changes throughout the day. Sometimes I see hot rod red, sometimes coral, and sometimes even orange. The neck, fretboard, and headstock of the guitar are maple with a heavy lacquer "gym floor" finish that make moving up the fretboard quick and smooth. The headstock has a classic narrow shape and vintage style tuners. What sets this guitar apart is that the quality of the materials seem very high for the price. This is an Indonesian factory model while the Affinity Series Tele I tested was a Chinese factory model. It honestly had shockingly good sound and looks for just over $200, but I could still tell the quality of materials took a significant hit and probably wouldn't have stood the test of time. I had the same experience with my Peavey SC-3 from six years ago; great sound for $399 but cheap paint and materials immediately started to degrade. I will update this review as necessary with time, but I have a great feeling about this Classic Vibe. Sound-wise, I'm pretty blown away. Out of the box, I experienced zero fret buzz and great action. The sound is bright and clean, and I believe it matches or exceeds the sound quality I got out of my mid-2000s MIM Strat. I'm no audiophile, but this guitar truly sounds like something more expensive. Make no mistake. This is not a $1200-$2000 American Strat. However, based on my experience and that of several Youtubers, it appears Classic Vibe can at least give the $699 Fender MIM Strat and even the $899 Fender Vintera a lot more competition than you would expect. Now knowing what $300-$500 gets for a guitar these days, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to justify the cost of a name brand Fender as a hobby guitarist. Conclusion: This is a lot more guitar than I expected for $399. It screams quality, and I've fallen in love with its classic style. This appears to be as good as it gets for the beginner/intermediate casual guitar player, yet I bet it could hang just fine with a more talented gig musician too. Unfortunately, they may get fewer groupies with "Squire" on the headstock! Additionally, the price jump between the Affinity Series Telecaster at $229 and the $399 Classic Vibe Stratocaster is definitely something I advice biting the bullet for. While the sound quality of the Affinity really was impressive, the quality of materials and construction are pretty far apart. I can't speak on behalf of the Affinity Stratocaster, but I assume the same. Do yourself a favor: buy this guitar and play your favorite song from the 50s to break it in. I don't think you'll be disappointed. Edit: One picture has a switched out pickguard

The Squire Classic Vibe series of electric guitars are an incredible value. It’s hard to believe you can get a Strat this good at this price point but they really are great. The quality of construction, the pickups, niceties such as a bone nut and a beautiful flawless finish along with great playability and classic Fender tone make these guitars a steal at this price. The setup was fine out of the box and I was playing in minutes after tuning up. In fact I wound up playing for hours until it was two in the morning here because I was having so much fun with it! I was plugged into Fender’s GTX 100 modeling amp (with headphones on!) trying it out with various tones and the sound was great. What a blast! I am not going to compare this to other Stratocasters made by Fender although I can tell you that over two decades ago I owned a Custom Shop Strat and Tele as well. Of course you don’t get that for under $500. Each of the Fender product lines incrementally improves various aspects of the instrument as much as possible at a given price point. What I can say is that the Squire Classic Vibe guitars truly are a great value for the money. Both I just purchased are fun to play, are well made with good quality parts and best of all give you that Fender tone you want. Pair any of them that pleases you with your amp of your choice and let the fun begin! By the way, the other Classic Vibe I bought was a Tele in Butterscotch Blond of course because Classic! It’s nice too. I could have bought one or the other in MiM form for about the same money and yes it would be a little nicer but I wouldn’t say dramatically so. I have no regrets. I don’t think you will either if you decide to get one or more too!

I've been looking at this guitar for a while and there were none in my area to check out so I took the risk and just bought it on amazon. I'm glad I did. This guitar checked all the boxes for what I was looking for in a strat and without paying 5x the price for an American original 60's model. I picked up a fender player's series stratocaster recently and I did not love it. I got this because it had the vintage style tremolo that lays flat on the body (which is the way it comes btw) and because i love the look of the 60's style stratocasters. The attention to detail and craftsmanship of this guitar is very good; I'd argue even better than my made-in Mexico player stratocaster. Sure there are some minor bits and bobs that could be improved upon, but as far as the general construction, it is SOLID. Neck: The laurel fingerboard is pleasantly dark and looks very similar to rosewood. The fretboard is lightly rolled over for a played-in feel and is very comfortable. The fret ends are dressed nicely and not pokey at all (can't say the same for that other more expensive strat I bought recently). I'm usually not a fan of high gloss finish on the back of a guitar neck but I think I'll get along with it just fine. Body: The body has a nice even weight and the finish is flawless. For my sunburst version, I see that they used a veneer on the top and back to make it look like a one-piece body and I'm absolutely okay with that because it looks great. You can't tell until you look under the backplate. The neck fits snugly into the body with no excess space in between. Components: The tuners are great and I don't see myself replacing them unless they break. The pickups are good enough, they might be the only thing I change but I would gig them as is. The bridge pickup is coming out at an angle, but I can fix that myself when I get the chance to lift up the pickguard. Knobs and switches work fine. Setup: I wouldn't ever expect a guitar coming from overseas to arrive with a good setup. Just take it to a reputable tech and get it set up right away if you can't do it yourself. It arrived decently set up but needed a truss rod adjustment and a few teaks to the saddles. The nut is cut pretty well but could be dialed in a little better. Overall, it's a really good guitar. Not "good for the price", it's just good and the low price is an added benefit. I don't know where these bad reviews are coming from, but for my made in 2021 (made in Indonesia) model, it is great. I have a few custom and USA guitars that cost 6-8x more than this guitar and I see myself having just as much fun on this one.

I got this for Christmas, so I have given it a good workout since then. To be brief, this is a Stratocaster, and a very good one at that. I had an American-made Highway One that was not at all as good as this guitar is. The CV sounds like, and is, a real Stratocaster. Yes, it will require a setup, as all guitars will. For people who are into that sort of thing, no, the trem block is not full size, but it doesn't make any difference in the sound. Once you get this guitar set up, it plays very well. It plays smooth, sustains well, and sounds great. I have to admit, it sounds very good. I am getting all the sounds I want out of it, all the sounds that Strats are supposed to make and then some. There's no need for a pickup swap or really anything. The only thing I've found is that one of the tuners on this guitar is cranky. I may have to change tnose out, maybe, which is like a $30 investment and takes about 30 minutes. But that is not a deal breaker. The pickups are a little more modern-sounding than strictly vintage pickups would be; again, not a deal-breaker. The fact that the bridge pickup has a tone control is amazing. That should be standard issue on all Strats. Volume and tone controls are effective and smooth. I have no problems with the build quality. The neck has some nice flame to it, actually. Overall, to be honest, this guitar is an absolute steal for the money. I could take this on any stage anywhere and play it live with no regrets or reservations. I doubt anyone but a cork-sniffing headstock-trainspotter could tell from the audience. If you are looking at this and have read this far, I think you should probably go ahead and get one. I don't think you'll regret it.

Picked this up after catching GAS from purchasing the Debut series. This guitar is freaking fantastic out of the box. The Squire guitars have come a long way over the years. After a basic set up she’s a comfortable player. If a guitar isn’t comfortable, you won’t want to play it. I will replace the pick guard with a tortoise shell guard I bought off Amazon. I may swap the neck to my son’s Debut, since that neck is just horrible, and get one from Warmoth. However, I would put this guitar up against any of Fender’s more expensive guitars with no worries. Highly recommend! Edit: I tried swapping the necks and they weren’t compatible. I forgot the Debut Series is a thinner body, the CV neck doesn’t work without routing the neck pocket of the body. It wasn’t worth it.

I was going to buy a high end stratocaster. I decided instead to try out out this Squier product. I've been playing guitar for 40 years for fun. I don't play gigs. I occasionally jam with friends, but mostly play and record my own music as a hobby. I tried out a high end strat at a local guitar shop and then I played this lower end Squire. There was not a noticeable difference (at least not one worth spending an extra $1000+ on). It sounds good clean or with heavy effects and overdrive. This Squier is now my favorite guitar. It's replaced my Santana PRS as my go to. I love it. I highly recommend you give this model a shot before spending a lot more money on the Fender name brand model.

12.20.24 Full disclosure. I am 62 years old. My journey of learning to play started about 20 years ago with the intent of trying to learn to play, or at least play portions of the music I grew up loving. The first song I focused on was Led Zeps Rain Song. A beautiful song with some unique tuning and chords. I would say I got about 95% of it down and was very pleased with my progress. I ventured into other songs and enjoyed discovering the many different learning aids available online. As life sometimes does, things got in the way and I drifted away from my guitar time. Recently I decided to pick it back up, I am an empty nester and it is just me. It is time to rediscover the joy of making music, learning things and otherwise just enjoying my guitar time again. I am trying to be realistic however, I am not throwing a lot of money at top of the line equipment. As much as I would love a genuine Gibson Les Paul or Fender Strat, I know my ability and budget does not support that. So, I did some reading and looked at some other options. I recently bought an Epi Les Paul and have been very pleased with its construction and playability. Take that last statement with a grain of salt as I am still very much in-between a beginner and a intermediate player. Anyway, the Les Paul feels and sounds great. I also had wanted to play a Strat. So as much as I hate the name "Squire" I decided to pick one up. So far I am a little concerned with some string buzz but a simple adjustment may take care of that. Also, I am not crazy about the tuning machines as they seem very loose. Will monitor to see if they hold proper tuning. May have to put some after market machines on it. Otherwise the guitar is solid and I have not noticed any blemishes or other issues. It has a beautiful finish and looks really good. I will update this review as I settle into a definite opinion with time. I believe these reviews are helpful for us and I enjoy reading them when I am considering making a purchase. 12/31 UPDATE. Now that I have had some time to get to know the guitar and do some practicing, I love it. So far the tuning pegs are holding very well, only minor adjustments needed which probably more about the new strings than anything else. I love the fell and action on this guitar.

I was a professional trumpet player and drummer. I am not too bad at keyboards and I just got a wild hair to take up guitar. This guitar is an inexpensive Fender Stratocaster and it has the usual Fender quality. Since I'm not going to be playing in a rock band I just picked up a 25 watt small amp. If you intend to play professionally someday then you can get a 400 watt amp so the neighbors can enjoy listening to you practice :)