by Gig Stig
I have to admit that at first I thought this was someone’s idea of a joke, or even a display only model that Squier would use at trade shows and the like. But once I sat down and actually began to play this instrument I started to change my opinion on the Squier Affinity, I began to seriously think about who this instrument was aimed at and what practical use it might have.
The obvious one of course is schoolchildren who are learning to play the guitar, the scaled down size may suit kids from 8-12 years old and the quality of the finish and raw materials make this an easy guitar to learn on if you’re a beginner. The sound is good without being great, but I say that with appreciation of the fact that this model has been made to a specific budget, and therefore was never going to be the Stradivarius of the guitar world.
However, speaking as a potential customer, the neck plays well, the tuning is stable and the pick-ups sound like Fender pick-ups – so I guess for the price it’s hard to criticise this instrument.
The other potential user group for this instrument are the established guitar players who just want a fun, cheap instrument to take away on holiday with them and enjoy playing. I’m talking about the type of person who enjoys playing guitar frequently and just throws it in the boot of the car to pull-out and practice scales, licks and so forth …. as obviously this type of instrument won’t take up much room.
I’ve come to the conclusion that in fact the Squier Affinity is not a joke, nor is it a toy, and indeed it does have real-world practical uses for specific user groups, so if you belong to one of those groups - check out the Squier Affinity.
