Fender Fender Squier Debut Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar by [Author’s Name]

Here is a quick rundown. I received this on 11/29/2024. It was set to spec as far as the neck relief and string height. The tuners worked smoothly and held the tuning. The strings as fine. No sharp fret ends and the frets were highly polished. Confortable neck shape. The pickup switch felt and worked well and the tone and volumes were smooth. The output jack was properly tightened and works well. The pickups sounded just fine and the pieces aligned under the strings just as vintage ones do. It sounds very good unplugged. The trem arm screws in properly but the trem took a lot of pressure to work. This is really no issues and I am sure they did this to keep it in tune. If you are new to Strats, the vintage trem rarely ever stood in tune, don’t use the trem as it is really for show in most Strats. In the real world it takes a lot of skill and know-how to get a Strat trem to work properly and costs more than the guitar to setup, which I am telling you will be impossible anyway. These are set with the rear decked on the body so it returns to tune meaning you can only go down. If you are learning you should learn to play for real and not be a poser playing with the trem. Leave the trem arm in the bag. There is nothing needed to be done or replaced to have a good guitar to learn on. It appears the price is so low as to be get you started and updating the phone app and taking lessons online and later buying a more expensive guitar, that is where they plan to profit. The guitar is like an when you buy a low cost inkjet printer for very little money and have to buy their ink forever. Is the guitar worth it ? Absolutely. Also buy a $30 or so case to keep it in might be a good idea. Realize if you are buying this for a gift for someone to learn on, most new players quit as they rather stare at their phone or play a video game so buying a low cost guitar is a good idea. The 2-year warranty is worth more than the guitar alone. Be careful removing the plastic on the pickguard and pickups, the pickguard plastic is very soft and scratches easily. After a few days I decided that the nut needed to be filed slightly for each string so I took care of that. I also lowered the action lower than Fender specs to 4mm with no buzzing. None of these things were out of the ordinary for a new Strat guitar. I am very happy with this guitar.

La guitarra no me ha decepcionóen absoluto.
a entrega se ha hecjo en soo dos días. Los acabados son inmejorables incluso los trastes, están bien arreglados y no tienen bordes mal rematados al final.. El cuerpo tiene un buen peso de 1,6 kg y un grosor de 41 mm. El acabado mate es ideal. y tiene buena entonación
Suena bastante bien si está conectada a un amplificador contando con que no olvidemos que es una guitarra para principiantes. Precio inmejorable
Recomendación de compra absoluta.

I spent two months weighing whether or not to buy this guitar, mostly because I have several others and didn’t really need another one. Finally pulled the proverbial trigger, and boy, am I glad I did!

PROS: It’s lightweight and well balanced. Its voice is pleasant to my ears. It is comfortable to hold. The intonation is perfect. Action is low, and there are no buzzes. The neck is smooth. The factory strings are fine. I love the color, but it does not look like the pictures online. Mine seems more like a deep berry color (see picture). I also like the matte/satin finish.

CONCERNS: These three items are really little issues and do not in any way detract from the value for me, but they should be noted. (1) A few frets were rough, and I had to smooth the edges. Not a big job at all; took me less than 10 minutes. YouTube is full of tutorials for how to do this. (2) The body has a teeny sense of coarseness; you won’t notice this while you’re playing, but if you rub your hand over it when you’re not playing (who among us does NOT pet their guitars???), you can feel it. Again, a very minor thing. (3) The volume was a little lower that I like (I’m hard of hearing, so I cannot say for sure if this is a problem for the guitar or my ears). This is a simple/quick fix by raising the pickups just a little.

CONCLUSION: This is an exceptionally well-built guitar that should suit the needs of the beginner/intermediate hobbyist/amateur player. Its playability and comfortable fit are very stout, and it has a sweet voice that would be suitable for any number of musical genres. This guitar is worth much more than $120 — I heartily recommend the Squier Debut!

tl;dr: It isn’t bad for a $120, it needs work but at its most basic it is “playable” out of the box.

As a preface, if you are looking for a first guitar (or to purchase one as a gift), I would not recommend this unless there is no possible way you can lay down another $150-ish. A $250-300 guitar, especially used, will generally be well more worth it. If you are looking for a guitar to gift someone, take them to a guitar shop if you can so they can touch them and feel what is most comfortable to play.

Review –
Out of the box it seemed to be properly set up once I got it in tune. The tuners and trem system leave a lot to be desired, as you would expect from a guitar in this price range.

The neck feels ok, but the frets on the one I received were absolutely horrible. The fret sprout was severe enough I actually cut myself a bit on one of them. After about an hour with a fret dress file and polishing the frets up with a Music Nomad polish kit the ends were acceptable and feel decent enough. The frets feel VERY shallow, but still playable.

The body and finish seem alright, I bought the black one and the satin finish is quite nice. Satin helps hide any finish imperfections, but I prefer it aesthetically over a gloss black. The body is slightly thinner, as most Squiers are over Fenders, which makes replacing the tremolo a little more challenging if you are looking for an upgrade platform.

The tremolo is very cheap and touching it all will almost certainly knock you out of tune. Additionally there is an absolutely insane amount of spring vibration. I bought some cheap foam paintbrushes, cut them into strips and stuffed it into the springs which helped a lot with that issue. The saddles don’t feel bad however, no sharp edges and fairly smooth.

The pickups are VERY bright and leave a lot to be desired. Even with the tone knobs rolled nearly all the way back it’s almost oppressive. It makes noise though, and it’s fine for practicing.