"Identical" Squier Affinity Strats?

GR24

I had an interesting experience shopping for a guitar today. My 8-year-old picked out a red with rosewood Squier Mini Stratocaster for his birthday back in June and is about to start lessons. I've decided to buy my first electric in 15 years and get back into playing by practicing with him. Not needing anything expensive and being a Strat man who prefers blondes, I decided to look into a basic Squier Stratocaster.

A couple of weeks ago, I came across an Indonesian Affinity Strat with a sunburst finish and one-piece maple neck at West Music. I was amazed at how much the guitar felt and sounded like my old American Standard Strat from way back. The pickups weren't the best I'd heard, but for a $150.00 guitar, they sounded great to me. The body wood had a lot of beautiful patterned grain under the sunburst, and the neck was satiny-smooth with no fret buzz and dead-on intonation. It even had a skunk stripe down the back! The tuners were perfect, and the control knobs were identical to the more expensive Strats right next to it. Needless to say, I was in love but wasn't ready to commit. It's a Squier, right? If it sells, they can always get another one in. Maybe not...

Today, I stopped into our brand-new Guitar Center and found what looked to be the same guitar hanging on the wall. I took it down, plugged it in, and was shocked at what I was holding. First of all, it was made in China, not Indonesia. The guitar was way out of tune, and getting it in tune was a challenge since two of the brand-new machine heads slipped badly. Once in tune, the intonation was correct only up to the 7th fret. And even though the action was set to the same height as the first guitar, the bass strings buzzed terribly. Setup problems. Easily corrected, right? It gets better. The sound from the pickups was thin and without much volume. When I turned up the amp to get some sound, the output became overly bright and shrill no matter which pickup I selected or where the tone controls were set. All of this was accompanied by a constant hum like a bad AM radio. Cosmetically, the Strat's body had very little visible grain under the thickly lacquered sunburst. The neck was maple (also thick with lacquer) with a seperate maple fretboard glued on, and without the skunk stripe. The control knobs felt like model-kit plastic with overly thick skirts. Some of the printing on the knobs even appeared to be smearing. So I told one of the saleskids about the bad tuners and pickups on the Strat, hightailed it over to West Music, and grabbed the Indonesian Strat before it disappeared. I've tried it out at home and it sound and plays great. I'm happy.

The moral of the story is that I found out to my surprise how much variance in quality there was between these two guitars with the same name and model number made in different countries. I guess when it comes to Squiers (and maybe Fenders?) always try before you buy. Never buy them sight unseen unless the guitar in question is a guaranteed investment-grade classic.