Squier by Fender Classic Vibe '70s Stratocaster, Olympic White

many guitars need a set up which will set you back another 100/150. this was perfect straight out the box. no fret buzz, no sharp frets, it needed nothing doing. so saved money straight away.its a beautiful guitar, built well and easy to play.

I've owned Fender Strats made in the USA and made in Mexico which were far more expensive than this Squier Classic Vibe and, to me, the only thing that suggests that the Squier is 'cheap' compared to the others is that the the knobs and switch on the Squier don't feel quite as 'nice' but they do the job just fine.The Classic Vibe came very well packaged. It needed a little but of a set up because the action was slightly higher than I personally like (I set all my guitars action to 1.5mm at the 12th fret) and the intonation was slightly out. The neck was fine and didn't need any truss rod adjustment. 3 or 4 of the frets were slightly high but not high enough to cause buzzing or choking out when bending. The USA made Strats I've owned needed more tweaking and setting up out of the box than the Classic Vibe did.The thing I like most about the Classic Vibe though is the sound. All the authentic and classic Strat sounds are there in abundance. The are plenty of videos on YouTube comparing the Classic Vibe with more expensive Strats and I can't tell the difference in sound.If you're not a gear snob and don't give a toss about having Squier on the headstock instead of Fender this guitar is a great buy, especially for the £300 I paid for the black one on Amazon, which was about £70 cheaper than anywhere else.

I’d been GASsing for a Squier natural finish 70s Classic Vibe Strat for a couple of years, but when I saw it on sale here for the superb price £270 and a few pence, I had to buy it.I wasn’t disappointed, this is one classy guitar. Very well made, with a slim, C-shaped neck and flattish fretboard, solid construction and carefully finished. No sharp fret ends/fret sprout here, they were nicely rounded and the guitar is broadly pretty well set up and played well.My particular example used a lighter Indian Laurel for the fret board. Some people would object to this, preferring a darker selection of that wood, but I actually rather like it, it works well with the natural body.If I had a quibble, it would be that the two long tremolo claw adjustment screws were locked in solid, impossible to move with a normal screwdriver… I had to use a pair of pliers to move them, to adjust the height of the tremelo. Not brilliant, but sortable with a bit of effort.All in all though, I’m extremely well pleased with my purchase.

For the price its pretty good, I only had to readjust the springs to suit my style of playing for the tremolo arm. Other than that it sound good, feels good, very smooth playing, fretboard polished nicely too. Very good value guitar for semi pros and pro use.

Great guitar . Got a Japanese squire from the eighties and this one is better

Amazing Stratocaster sympathetic with the 50s version beautiful quality and finish

I bought this on a whim as I've ways wanted to try the Squier Classic Vibe, as I've heard such positive things about it. I am very impressed with this 'cheaper' instrument from the Fender stable.Beautiful finish and set up - could be played straight from the box. I've played a Fender Player Strat before and this is much better in my opinion.4 Bolt-on neck that I quite like.Really can't fault this guitar. The first thing I may consider changing is the tuners as their quality isn't as nice as the rest of the guitar. Other than that if you're looking at a very playable and good sounding guitar (that is budget-friendly) , with that 70s sound, this guitar fits the bill. Whether you're a beginner or intermediate player, you can't go wrong.

Out of the box, it's a great looking guitar, and weighty too which I found surprising. They're using Nyatoh wood (no, I had never heard of it either) as opposed to Alder or Poplar for the body. A quick look up on Wikipedia shows that although referred to as 'sustainable' there are some species in the family on the red list for over-exploitation. Make of that what you will. The neck though is a lovely Maple, almost vintage in appearance but heavily lacquered all over. Again, personal choice I guess but I prefer at least to have a refined, unlaquered feel to the back of the neck. I'll get around to sorting that in time no doubt.So, hardware. Well, the pickups that come as standard are loud. Fair enough. And noisy. Oh dear. They came straight off and replaced with a set of superior noiseless Alnicos.Bridge/Trem - this was so heavily screwed down it beggars belief. Absolutely no though given to any kind of set up from the factory whatsoever. Action was set way too high because - and get this - when I checked the neck tension it was bowed. Noticeably. Visible to the naked eye and conformed with a neck guide there was several millimetres clear daylight in the middle of the neck. A few turns on the truss rod and that was sorted. I mean, it's not difficult, 'Fender', is it?Machine heads. This is where it got beyond a joke. Cheapest mass produced tuners ever in the history of mass produced tuners, I would wager. Turning did nothing, then something, then nothing, then something ... double the effort to get a response does not bode well for fine adjustments. They came off and were replaced with proper tuners also, courtesy of Wilkinson. Now Wilkinson aren't the best by any means, but they actually work!Nut - there was a hell of a buzz on the B string and after what seemed like an eternity trying to track it down it came down to the cut of the nut which just wasn't deep enough by a millimetre. May seem pedantic but when that's all you can hear when playing an F chord or open picking on the B string it needed sorting. Some fine chiselling with a scalpel sorted that.Frets - mostly OK. I say "OK" because the 7th fret on the top E side wasn't in properly. A visible gap which you could not only see but also feel when playing, potentially causing injury it was that sharp sticking out. A couple of gentle knocks and some gentle filing, it was sorted. Again, 'Fender' - WTF?So let's be fair. This isn't a Fender, It's licensed by Fender and made in China. Now I'm not knocking China per se, but they throw these things out at a rate of knots and as such they obviously don't place a lot of emphasis on quality control. As long as it's close enough, that'll do seems to be the benchmark here.As a beginner, the guitar I got would have been shocking to play, and probably put me off guitars or at least 'Fender' guitars for life.But now it's sorted, it's actually my "Go to" guitar for recording Strat sounds and styles. But I've tried to be honest and reasonable with what you can expect. For the money, and the rave reviews out there, it looked like a dead cert. I guess I got one of the Friday afternoon ones! But even so, I would highly recommend having a real good look at all the aspects mentioned here and get them corrected or if too bad, send it back for another.Generally, value for money is around 4/5. Out of the box, it would have been a 1 if I hadn't spent time and money correcting everything, so be warned. Reviews are great, but the odd duffer is out there. I suspect many more than just this one.