Fender Squier Hello Kitty Stratocaster Guitar Review

Every line of guitars has a novelty kind of model. The Fender Squier series of instruments, in this kind of novelty and tongue-in-cheek style, offers the Fender Squier Hello Kitty Stratocaster electric guitar. It was designed for girls looking to learn guitar, or even musicians looking for some laughs with bandmates or audiences. But even with all of this, what really matters is how it performs as an instrument. Let's take a closer look to see if the instrument actually can be taken seriously.

Features: The body of the Squier Hello Kitty Stratocaster is made of solid Agathis wood. And, of course, the finishes are either pink or black with a cute looking (and unnecessarily big) Hello Kitty face painted on and smiling at you from the pickguard of the guitar. The neck is bolted onto the body, and made of maple wood. This surprised me a bit, as this is kind of a nice wood to be making novelty guitars with. The fretboard, additionally, is made of maple as well, and has 21 medium jumbo frets with black dot inlays. All of the hardware, including the fixed bridge and die cast tuning heads, are made of chrome. Electronically, the Hello Kitty Stratocaster features one volume control knob and single humbucker pickup.

Playability: Honestly, this instrument was not designed with playability factors in mind. While playing, it's easy to tell that this won't really stay in tune well. Also, the bridge isn't tremolo, which is standard on even the lowest level Squier electric guitars. Although, admittedly, the maple neck is nice and easy to play on, even if the action is astoundingly high. It's pretty clear to even the most inexperienced musician that this isn't an instrument to really be taken seriously.

Sound: This is the straw that breaks the camel's back in defining the Hello Kitty Stratocaster as an actual playable guitar. There is only one humbucking pickup, and honestly, it doesn't sound very good. And what's more, there is no way to change the sound at all. You can't switch to a combination of the two single coils on the humbucker because there isn't any selector switch. And, embarrassingly, there aren't even any tone control knobs on the Hello Kitty Strat.

Overall: If you have a daughter absolutely set on getting this instrument, or feel a dire need to be hilarious for an audience, then by all means go for it. The Hello Kitty Stratocaster is an actual guitar that makes actual noise, but don't expect to hear much more from it than noise. You can find the Squier Hello Kitty Stratocaster in music stores for about $200 dollars.