As the name would suggest, the American Series Fender Stratocaster is manufactured exclusively in the USA in Corona, California. The decision to re-brand the range as the “American Series” was undoubtedly to portray the fact that US manufactured Stratocasters have certain unique design and component features when compared to Fender models made elsewhere in the world.
Fender’s strap-line on the American series range is that “ .. the excellence lies in the detail …”, so let’s have a look and see if they’re correct. Firstly this model looks very impressive in Olympic White and you have the option to purchase it with either a Maple or Rosewood neck – depending on your preference.
The body is constructed using non-veneered Alder whilst the neck is crafted from a single piece of Maple , the review model had a Rosewood fret board with a radius of 241 mm. One of the unique features of the American series is that the fret board has “hand-rolled” edges, not being completely au fait with this technique I’m unsure how it is achieved, but I have to say that the edges of the fret board are beautifully curved and give the neck a soft edge that feels great when playing.
Likewise the 22 frets seem to have had special attention given to them, there’s no hint of sharpness or discomfort when you run your fingers along them and they have a smooth slightly curved surface that is again pleasurable when playing this instrument.
At the top of the neck the nut would also appear to have had the same VIP treatment and there’s no evidence of “choking” or string snagging. On a final note about the neck, this instrument and all in the American Series deploys Fender’s Bi-Flex truss rod which Fender claim gives more adjustability when trying to set up or modify the guitar neck, it will also allow Micro-tilt neck adjustment (whatever that is ???)
Moving down the guitar, we reach the 3 custom staggered American single coil pick-ups with individually adjusted Alnico pick-up pole pieces, the idea behind this is to optimise tone and to give a uniform and balanced range of tones so that no particular frequency dominates the sound or is louder than the others. This guitar also utilises the DeltaTone" system (including high output bridge pickup and special "no-load" tone control for the middle and bridge pickups).
The American series also boasts a new type of Tremolo system that uses a specially re-designed bridge block with stainless steel saddles and a 2 point synchronised tremolo unit. Whilst not quite a Floyd Rose model it does give a fair degree of pitch bending without completely destroying the accuracy of the tuning.
The guitar comes with a Fender hard-shell case, a strap, polishing cloth and a truss rod adjustment tool and the American series is available in Lipstick Red, Candy Cola, 3 Colour Sunburst, Black, Butterscotch Blonde and - like the review model, Olympic White.
