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FENDER 70TH ANNIVERSARY STRATOCASTER COLLECTION From £759

You might have heard, 70 years ago a chap named Leo Fender brought a promising electric guitar to the market. Fast-forward to today and Fender is kicking off 2024 with a celebration of the quintessential electric guitar. There’s a trio of models, starting with the Player Stratocaster (£759, above left), which has been made available in an Anniversary 2-Color sunburst. This is joined by the 70th Anniversary Player Stratocaster (£959, above centre), which is loaded with Pure Vintage ’59 single coils, a 241mm (9.5‑inch) rosewood fingerboard and a two-point vibrato, and is finished in the subtle Nebula Noir finish. Finally, Fender has dolled-up its American Professional II Stratocaster in a 70th Anniversary edition (£2,169, above right). All the regular American Pro II features are here – deep C neck profile, contoured heel, push‑push tone control – but Fender has outfitted it with some anniversary touches including a flame maple-over-alder body in Comet Burst, 70th Anniversary V-Mod II pickups and a commemorative neckplate. www.fender.com

KEMPER PROFILER PLAYER £619

The longtime wishlist of many Kemper fans is likely topped by a pedalboardfriendly profiler. Well, the wait is now over as Kemper has lifted the lid on its Profiler Player. This pedal-based Profiler can load any existing amp profile (including Kemper’s latest Liquid Profiles), as well as offering four effects slots (two pre-amp, two post-amp), which are populated from the included 136 effects slots. There’s plenty of hands-on control, with a threeband EQ, noise gate, Effect and Level controls, plus the three footswitches are assignable. Onboard Bluetooth allows for connection to your phone where you can build and organise your rigs via Kemper’s Rig Manager app, and the connectivity continues on the back with a guitar input, stereo outputs (plus an XLR out), headphone output, dual-USB sockets, and an expression pedal input. It’s shipping now. www.kemper-amps.com