Gas Supply
Our pick of the month’s most delectable and wallet-bothering new gear
Fender Limited Edition Vintera Road Worn Guitars £1,099 CONTACT Fender EAS PHONE 0845 305 1122 WEB www.fender.com
If there’s one thing that looks cooler than a pristine Fender Strat or Tele, it’s one that looks like it’s been through the years. To that end, Fender has announced some beautifully beat-up Road Worn examples of four of its popular Vintera guitars.
You get the choice of a ’50s Stratocaster and Telecaster, a ’60s Stratocaster and the perennially ‘Marmite’ ’70s Telecaster Deluxe. These guitars are designated as limited editions – so don’t hang about otherwise you’ll be the one beating yourself up...
VINTERA ROAD WORN ’50S STRATOCASTER £1,099
In case the photo hasn’t already sealed the deal, Fender has baited the ’50s Stratocaster hook with terms such as“maximum authenticity” and “bell-like tone”. To be fair, they had us at the period appointments that include classic six-point synchronised tremolo, 21 vintage-tall frets and a 184mm (7.25-inch) fingerboard radius. You can add a “thick soft V-profile” bolt-on maple neck to the list, too. This being a ’50s model, Fender has spec’d the new guitar with a maple ’board and that’s teamed with a choice of lightly distressed old-school Fiesta Red and Surf Green paint codes. And beneath all that eyecandy lurks a beautifully contoured alder body. Special attention has been paid to single-coil pickups, with the use of Formvar and bevelled Alnico 5 to nail authentic ’50s tones. The Vintera Road Worn ’50s Strat comes with a padded gigbag.
VINTERA ROAD WORN ’50S TELECASTER £1,099
It was a sad day when Fender discontinued its much-loved Player Edition Baja Tele. That is especially true of the ’50s model. Well, keep your chin up and dry your eyes, as the new Vintera Road Worn ’50s Telecaster offers what could reasonably be argued a serious upgrade on that old war horse. Available in distressed Vintage Blonde and Lake Placid Blue, this limited-edition guitar features a chubby period-correct U-neck profile and 184mm (7.25-inch) fingerboard radius. Frets come as a set of 21 and stand vintage and tall. You don’t get an ash body; alder is the timber of choice but the hardware is bang on 50s with the bridge style you’d expect loaded with three brass saddles. Pickups are designated “50s Single Coil Hot Tele” and the wiring is the classic master volume, master tone and a three-way pickup selector blade switch. And, yes, a gigbag is included.
VINTERA ROAD WORN ’60S STRATOCASTER £1,099
Pretty much everything we wrote about the Vintera Road Worn ’50s Stratocaster is valid for its ’60s counterpart but, hey, we got space to fill here. So you get that beautiful alder body, a bolt-on maple neck with a 184mm (7.25-inch) fingerboard and vintage-style hardware that includes the six-point synchronised tremolo. We can also confirm the presence of a padded gigbag. The big difference between the two models lies in the neck specifications. As previously noted, the ’50s guitar has a soft V-neck profile and maple ’board. Our ’60s model forges a “mid-60s C shape” in your left palm and comes loaded with a fingerboard sliced from rosewood-substitute pau ferro. The latter is loaded with 21 vintage-tall frets. The other things to know are you get a trio of “60s Single Coil Hot Strat” pickups and a choice of Lake Placid Blue and Firemist Gold finishes.
VINTERA ROAD WORN’70S TELECASTER DELUXE £1,099
The original Telecaster Deluxe didn’t get the best start in life. Born into Fender’s worst period of quality control and bestowed with a face that only a mother could love, it was often dubbed the ’Uglycaster’. It didn’t help that its better-looking brother, the Telecaster Custom, was made iconic by Keith Richards. Now ripe for re-evaluation in light of Foo Fighter Chris Shiflett’s signature model, we rather like the Vintera Road Worn ’70s Telecaster Deluxe’s twin-humbucker, big CBS headstock thing. It also looks fantastic in Olympic White... although the Daphne Blue option is tasty, too. Specs include an alder body, a pair of Fender Wide Range-style humbuckers, a medium C-shape neck with 241mm (9.5-inch) radius maple fingerboard and 21 medium jumbo frets. The Vintera Road Worn ’70s Telecaster Deluxe also ships with a gigbag, of course.