Fender Squier Stratocaster Electric Guitar Pack, Brown Sunburst, with Gig Bag, Frontman 10G, and accessories

— Ignore the incorrect description describing it as a short scale guitar. It’s a full size 25.5” scale length Strat. Impressive glossy shine on an overall beautiful looking sturdy 7.0 lbs. guitar. The brown sunburst pattern looks much more vibrant and appealing in person (see above photo; ignore my added Beatles sticker!) than in the rather bland looking listing photo. Comments about scratches or blemishes on the pick guard are most likely from buyers who haven’t removed the plastic protective layer!— The tone controls on my guitar work as follows: first one controls only the neck pickup, while the other one controls BOTH the middle and the bridge pickup (which differs from Fender website which says it controls only the middle pickup).— The guitar sounds great to me on the included amp. One issue: noticeable “static-like” HIGH frequency noise until one touches guitar strings (or other metal parts on guitar), on all 5 pickup selector positions. Positions 2 and 4 reduce the LOW-frequency HUM present in positions 1, 3 & 5, as expected from single coil pickups, but don’t reduce the HIGH frequency static-like noise. This noise is most annoying using headphones. Using the Amp speakers, it’s not so bad, probably due to the Amp speaker’s weaker high frequency response. Anyone have suggestions to reduce the HIGH frequency static-like noise when not touching the strings?— Frontman 10G Amp (which says “Squier,” not “Fender,” on grill mesh, contrary to listing photo) sounds fine for the guitar playing output; and can be turned up very loud, esp. when using overdrive setting with moderate gain. Gain knob only works when overdrive button is pushed in, as expected.— Using Aux-in works, though volume is low even when my music device — an iPhone — is turned up to the max, and sound quality of the Amp playing the Aux-in source is passable but not great — as treble is lacking (but it sounds much better through headphones). This low-treble problem, however, is common to most guitar amps, with speakers not designed as general music players with full and even frequency response. Tone controls (and volume controls) on amp don’t affect the sound of the Aux-in source. To be clear, treble output from the guitar (as opposed to from Aux-in source) is fine. Using a THIN celluloid pick provides even brighter treble than using included MEDIUM celluloid pick.— Bridge comes nearly flush to guitar top allowing whammy “tremolo” bar to really only be pushed in (flattening pitch), not more than minimally pulled out (sharpening pitch). But YouTube videos show how most if not all strats can easily be adjusted from the back to lift bridge away from body to allow pulling tremolo bar way out as well. Haven’t tried that “floating tremolo” adjustment yet.— Strings on my Strat are slightly mis-angled towards bass string side of fretboard (see above photo) causing low-pitch E string to approach edge of fretboard at the high frets (i.e., those closest to the bridge); but this doesn’t impact playability, except low E string at high frets. Hopefully I can move bridge to the right a teeny bit, when I try to float the “tremolo.”— Included are 3 brown celluloid Medium Fender picks, an extra “tremolo” spring, and 2 Allen wrenches: 1 for truss rod, 1 for bridge action (string height) adjustment. Gig bag has thin, but substantive, cushioning, and its own separate strap. Guitar strap is an all-black Fender strap with “Fender” imprinted in gold color. Guitar cable is labeled “Fender” and seems sturdy. Free 3 mos. of Fender online guitar lessons on enclosed card with scratch-off code.— This is a really great value! If someone has ideas on how to eliminate the static-like noise issue, let me know!

We bought this for our granddaughter and really had reservations about it. She is not a beginner, I would classify her as an intermediate player. The amp is small and it’s purpose is to have something to plug into to practice. It’s not large enough to expect it to do anything more than that. The guitar has a decent tone, it also looks nice and is attractive. If you are a professional or a very experienced player, this one isn’t for you, but the price point would already be telling you that! This is more for a beginner/intermediate player and in our granddaughter’s situation she is in a band at our local community college and this serves that purpose nicely. My husband is a very experienced guitar player and he had insisted that this would be “a piece of junk”. However, it was better than we had expected it to be.

I was very surprised when I found the neck and frets are butter smooth on mine, despite others saying how sharp and rough they might be.Strings are rather light and bend easy, I'm not use to this because I play med heavy strings in acoustic. It was a nice change :)Paint quality is top notch, and sound is better than expected (especially when I use headphones on the OK quality amp)The ONLY issue........ some of the screws were either going in slightly crooked or not tightened all the way for both the guard and trem covers. ( I'm leaving them that way, gives it character haha)Other than that, very very comfy in the hand ( I have short fingers and fat thumb meat)Love the sound and my first time playing the tremolo sent me to another place! Nice feature to mess around with. I would buy this again just to have two.My first upgrade might be thicker strings for the sake of my muscle memory working better.Otherwise, I will cherish and baby this thing all its days.Appreciate the fender bag.I hope yours will be as buttery and well finished as mine, it's a real sweety.P.s. the paint was perfect until I touched it, so the photo has smears