The supplied gigbags are a little flimsy for anything more intensive than a quick trip to a rehearsal or local live show – thicker padding and more comfortable shoulder straps wouldn’t go amiss for those who carry their instruments on public transport, either. Ladies and Gentlemen, do not hesitate on one of these rock,blues,metal,blues,funk,worship,tone machines!! Yes, if you’re looking for the classic Stratocaster sound and feel, the Player will absolutely do the job. A Sweetwater Sales Engineer will get back to you shortly. The American Performer also introduces the classic Fender Jazzmaster and Mustang to the series, along with a PJ style Precision bass.

MANUFACTURER: Fender, fender.com. Yet, as trends have shifted over the years, making Leo’s original designs work hasn’t always been a breeze. And let’s remind ourselves that £949 isn’t an unreasonable amount to ask for a decent guitar. With past Strats, the whammy bar is wound into the bridge and it could easily wind out of place. I imagine most players shopping for new guitar in this series likely have more experience than me, so I'd recommend checking this out at a guitar shop first rather than just take my word for it. It doesn't have crazy new features. There’s no getting around it, that’s a steep premium. The first is the tremolo (or whammy) bar. I highly recommend picking one up. I love how it pops in with a satisfying click. Even the locking case, an Elite Molded hardshell, is great. The American blues-rocker decamps to Abbey Road in an attempt to make a ‘British’ album, and brings some friends along for the ride. The necks fit super-snug into the body pockets, every screw is perfectly installed and the overall attention to detail is shockingly good for guitars in this price range - and beyond! The balance between a Tele’s pickups is of huge importance; set the amp to compensate for a thin-sounding bridge unit and the neck turns to mush, dial in a Strat-like spank at the neck and the bridge unit can unleash a volley of frozen darts.

The pickups look the same as on pretty much every Stratocaster since 1954, but these are in fact Fender’s brand new Yosemite pickups, every one of them hand-wound (we are assured) in California. © 2020 Guitar.com is a member of the media division of BandLab Technologies. The July 2020 issue of Guitar Magazine is out now. These pickups retain a vintage Strat flair but dial in the tone with more precision than ever. The Stratocaster HSS has a Double Tap humbucking pickup at the bridge with a coil-splitting function that is engaged via the lower tone knob’s push/pull pot. I've been wanting to get a Strat for some time, and had a difficult time justifying the money for a US model. Here’s how to fix it.

Happy customers, one piece of gear at a time! If you’re on a tight budget, check out the £199 Affinity Strat from Fender’s low-cost Squier range: the build quality is more cheap and cheerful, but it sounds pretty darned similar. In fact, the Yosemite pickups render it slightly better than the regular Strat models. The neck pickup is warmer and mellower than the middle pickup, and while it's not going to give you the full, round sound of a humbucker on an archtop guitar, it can still get surprisingly jazzy—particularly good for jazz fusion and funk.

Both guitars incorporate Fender’s Greasebucket tone circuit which, via a pair of capacitors and a resistor housed on a tiny PCB, is designed to attenuate high-end without muddying things up. Sure, there will be those who’ll knock some of the non-1950s … This guitar is absolutely perfect for me! The August 2020 issue of Guitar Magazine is out now!

Comfortable to play. We take a look at the chord shapes and sequences which define his sound. Rated 5.0 / 5 by 11 customers! Please refresh the page and try again. Receive mail from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors?

All that said, £1,000 or $1,200 is still an important psychological price-point at which players rightly expect an instrument that ticks all of the ‘serious guitar’ boxes, and will do the business everywhere, from sticky club stages to YouTube, for many years to come. This Math Problem Has the Internet Dumbfounded. Many players prefer the vintage-style tuner for a more classic look and a quick string change. I got this guitar from Sweetwater about a month ago. While the jumbo frets certainly measure meatier than typical medium-jumbo frets, they don’t feel overly big under the fingertips, providing satisfying fast and smooth action and maintaining body and sustain when pushing bent notes to the limit.

Is Fender phasing out swamp ash just the tip of the iceberg? Anyone who keeps a close eye on the pricing of new electric guitars in the UK will tell you that £1,000 isn’t quite what it used to be. All rights reserved.

You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io. This line of guitars replaces the American Special series, a guitar most visually distinguished for its ‘70s style peg heads and lettering. Happily, there’s no imbalance here. I lowered the action from how it came from the factory and it plays as easy as my high-end Ibanez. At £949, the American Performer is a substantial purchase, and you definitely don’t need to spend this much to get the classic Stratocaster tone. Being a guy with bigger hands the few mm of extra but with are a welcome too. This Strat fits like a Tailor suit made for me. The classic Strat configuration of three single coil pickups is also available, as is a version with two Shawbuckers. All kinds of necks and bodies and humbuckers cycled through his mid-era - and the white body Strat that eventually morphed to other things, stayed with me. Both models are equipped with a Greasebucket tone circuit that maintains gain and clarity when you back down the Tele’s master tone or the Strat HSS’s bridge tone controls.