Fender Squier Contemporary Stratocaster HH Floyd Rose Electric Guitar, Gunmetal Metallic, Roasted Maple Fingerboard

If you want a super strat but the budget is tight, this one's for you. Humbuckers split into singles with a 5 way switch, locking Floyd Rose, roasted maple neck, fast delivery, and minimal set up required. Looks good, plays good, sounds good and fun to play. I highly recommend

I understand the skepticism about Squiers, and there's a time when it would've been warranted. These days, the lower-end stuff is vastly improved, and I'd argue that the better Squier axes -- like this one -- rival MIM Fender without the accompanying price tag.This guitar arrived with a flawless finish (the photos don't do it justice, by the way), no fret sprout, and reasonably close to in-tune. The Floyd Rose-licensed trem and locking tuners are fussy, but once they're dialed in, this guitar stays in tune better than one with a standard trem. The sound's lovely, and while I might eventually swap in a nicer set of humbuckers, it's not as though I feel I *have* to. The neck's comfortable and not too dive-y, too.I lucked out getting this guitar as backstock from ProAudio Star (via Amazon) at a price that seemed too good to be true (but that, thankfully, arrived as advertised). Even if I'd paid full price, I'd still have been perfectly happy. If you want something that's a bit outside the usual Strat sound but that still has the Stratocaster feel, you really can't go wrong with this guitar.

I was very curious about this guitar. Loved the clean look, one toggle switch, one volume, one tone knob. Just decided to pull the trigger and glad I did. I have small hands and the neck is perfect for me. Action was low like I like it, didn’t need a setup. The mellow tones are just that and perfect for rhythm guitar. Very satisfied.

Bought this for my wife. She was looking for something not traditional colors. We picked this up and she loves it. I checked it as best i can for quality and everything seems to line up and the fretwork seems pretty solid, neck is good. The Finish was flawless. Would buy again.

The media could not be loaded. (UPDATE: the video and pics have the wrong description for one of the pickup settings on the 5-way switch)In 1984, Fender acquiesced to the growing market dominated by Charvel, Jackson, and Kramer for EVH inspired "Super Strats". The first models were the Fender Japan Contemporary Stratocasters and this Squier is an homage to that design with a few key differences.* Larger CBS-era headstock (I prefer this), but the same gloss black and silver decals that was on many (but not all) of the Japanese originals* The originals had either Strat style or Kahler vibratos vs the Floyd Rose Special on these.While this is a "Super Strat" it is not a pure "shred machine" as you might expect. The pickups are not very hot (see images) and the neck is actually rather large. Not uncomfortable, just larger. In comparison, the only other Squier I own is the sister Starcaster (yes I have two Starcasters), the Squier Contemporary Starcaster. That neck is very close to an Ibanez Wizard (very thin) and that guitar has active pickups, which are obviously a lot hotter.More on the pickups later, before I wrap up the neck.The neck, though chunkier, is actually fine. Maybe it's because I'm old now, but I actually like the shape. To be fair, my main guitar is a Gibson SG Standard with the 62 slim taper neck (which is thinner and flatter, but wider at the nut). What stands out is the feel. It has modern jumbo frets and the neck (and the Squier Contemporary Starcaster one) is fantastic feeling. In 2024 it is amazing what machined necks can feel like and I would put this up there with all of my other Fenders save the fit and finish on my American and Japanese made models.I bought this guitar because I wanted to engage in dive bomb shenanigans.Now on the pickups, moving down, they are not super high output, but this is 2024 not 1978. IMHO too hot of a pickup colors the sound and is no longer needed to smack the front of, oh say, a 1973 Super Lead running at low voltage with a variac (wink). In fact, I've got some Railhammer Bob Balch signature HBs in a guitar and they sound better for doom/sludge and heavy fuzz, at least to me.What is cool, either way, is they retain the 5-way switch of the original. You can run:* Neck (hum)* Neck (split)* Neck (hum) + Bridge (hum)* Neck (split) + Bridge (split) (NOTE: I had this wrong in my videos and the pickup tests, figured it out when I decided I should get new pickups...)* Bridge (hum)Which gives you a lot of options. I have some examples of combos I like in my video.The bridge is another story... well the whole hardware package there. Obviously there are going to be some corners cut on a sub $500 guitar. The bridge is a real Floyd Rose, but it's a Special. It has some slimmer pieces and is not all steel. It's fine now, but over time it may need replacing. The tuners are... not great. Granted, you don't tune a double locking system with microtuners at the headstock that often, but when you do these are kind of slow and seem to catch sometimes. They're not great. It's one thing I upgraded on my other Contemporary Squier, which has a Tune-O-Matic.The locking nut is fine. No complaints there.The string tree/bar on mine was not screwed in correctly, but I'll get to that in a moment.The pots seem fine. They aren't scratchy and I've done lots of volume rolls.Now, I would stop my review here, but I should mention some issues I had with my guitar when I got it.Some of the pickguard screws were not screwed in all the way and weren't even straight. Easy to fix, but annoying. I did a full setup since I was going to put 10-42s on and drop it to D standard. While doing that I also went over the frets with steel wool and shined them up.For a sub $500 guitar with such a nice neck, that's all fine. No sharp frets but also no nicely rolled edges like you find on American Standard Fenders.The bridge was a pain, though. I went through the usual pains of constantly tuning and retuning, but even out of the box, the strings were not in. Two had not been tightened down enough at the bridge and were just flopping around in the box. Whatever, the stock strings are trash (funny as Squier was originally a string company). More annoying was that it was very hard to intonate. I had to completely redo all the intonation and I'm actually out of room to make further adjustments to the lowest strings, which are just a few cents sharp (D and G in D standard). I mean it works, but... eh.However I think this is fun and I like that it says "Squier" on the headstock. Once i got it set up, I've really enjoyed it. The SQR pickups really are nothing special and I will probably drop in some DiMarzios. The bridge may get upgraded to an Original Floyd, but it's not my main guitar so we'll see when that happens.After a good setup, new strings, and a coat of FretFast I can say this was a fun N+1 addition to my collection and I have found myself playing it a lot more often than I expected. There are other Floyd guitars at this price range (some technically also made by Fender... like the Kramers), but I really like the aesthetics of the originals that inspired it.I know someone complained somewhere, but the sunken jack mount is also correct to the OG, FWIW.Bottom line: if you got this far, buy it. The neck alone is worth it and you can always mod to your heart's content. One great thing about Strats is that they're easy to mod because you can just pull the pickguard (and if you're clever you can do it without having to setup your Floyd Rose again). My Fender (not the Squier) Starcaster could really use some love but it's a real pain to deal with for that reason.

The media could not be loaded. This product came on time and packaged decently. No scuffs or scratches of any kind. The is the first NEW guitar I’ve ever purchased (I’ve only ever bought used over the years.) but WOW. It was better than I expected. The Fender pickups they put in this sounds killer. For being a squier, this is NOT a low end guitar. Fret work is nice and my hand fits nicely around the neck. Absolutely no complaints with this guitar. 10/10 WOULD recommend.

We paid a lot of money for this guitar. It sounds amazing and is super fun to play. However, the pick up switch is now faulty after 4.5 months! I have only played this thing a handful of times. When I reached out to CME for help, they sent me to the local service centers that do not have the time for free fixes. That's annoying. Warranties don't mean anything any more. Save your money and buy something else.

This guitar is excellent, a really great value, but it needs a good setup. The Floyd Rose feels a little different when playing, tuning is amazingly stable. I only forgot to use the fine tuners instead of the head-stock tuners 2 or 3 times before I got used to that. Hopefully you won't break a string that way.I spent a very enjoyable Saturday afternoon shimming the bridge to get the radius right. If that's not your idea of fun and you don't have good guitar tech maybe it's not for you. When it's all setup it plays like a guitar that cost twice as much. It's just a lot of fun, pull the tremolo up or push it down, bend the strings, play half the day and it barely needs a turn at the fine tuners. And the humbuckers sound great, super versatile. I wasn't sure about the shell pink pearl but with the black headstock it's looks really sharp, pictures don't do it justice.