Strat Attack

Two new lower-end, similarly priced Stratocasters cater for both vintage and more modern tastes and blur the line between Fender’s USA and Mexican manufacturing. Which one has your name on it?

Words Dave Burrluck

Photography Phil Barker

FENDER AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL CLASSIC STRATOCASTER & LIMITED EDITION VINTERA II ROAD WORN ’60S STRATOCASTER £1,499 & £1,349

CONTACT Fender Musical Instruments EMEA PHONE 01342 331700 WEB www.fender.com

What You Need To Know

1 American Professional Classic – that sounds new?

Don’t worry, as is usual after four or five years, Fender likes to refresh or replace its ranges. So the new American Professional Classic replaces the American Performer range, which came along in 2019.

2 Why should we be interested?

Well, these new models sort of bridge the gap between vintage style and overly modern, and come in lightly faded gloss colours. Along with our standard Stratocaster, there’s an HSS version, a Telecaster, a ‘Hotshot’ Tele that blends in some Strat, a Jazzmaster and a Jaguar, plus Precision, Jazz and Mustang basses.

3 And the Road Worn models are back again. This one doesn’t look very worn, though…

This latest limited run of the Road Worn series uses a proper nitrocellulose finish, which is lightly cracked, and a lower gloss. Any more ageing and dings are all down to you.

Although Fender has had a busy year with plenty of artist models and special-run guitars, there’s been considerable speculation about what changes will be made to its core USA- and Mexican-made ranges. The modernist American Ultra II range, for example, recently got a sibling, the American Ultra Luxe Vintage mini-range, which adds in the lightly-aged ‘Heirloom’ nitro finishes to those modern specifications.

This old-looking-Fender vibe continues with the most recent return of the Mexican-made Road Worn models, which originally appeared back in 2009. There are just four limited models – the ’60s Strat we have here, a ’60s Tele and P-Bass, and a ’50s Jazzmaster – that augment the ongoing Vintera II line-up and introduce another new-style lightly aged nitro finish.

Finally, the 2019 released American Performer range gets the boot in favour of the new American Professional Classic line-up. Modern in style with some vintage flourishes in terms of faded but full gloss finishes and with new ‘hot vintage’ Coastline pickups, these are now the entry point for Fender USA.

We had fun with a pair of the American Ultra Luxe Vintage models in issue 529, so here we’re taking a look at the other new entries via a pair of classic Stratocasters.

The American Professional Classic range introduces the Coastline pickup series, although the pickups are actually the same spec as the Pure Vintage ’57 but with more winds (see Under The Hood on page 105)