Fender introduces the Vintage Hot Rod ’60s Stratocaster, a US-made electric guitar that combines vintage aesthetics and modern modifications.
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This guitar expands Fender’s American-made guitar series, and features a special pickup switching circuitry called “S-1”.
The guitar starts off by authentically mimicking the look and feel of vintage ’60s era Strats. It features an alder body with the unmistakable double cutaway shape that made the Strat a household name. Whether you pick the 3-color sunburst or Olympic white finish, the guitar’s four-ply brown shell pickguard gives the guitar a retro over all vibe.
As expected, the guitar comes with a bolt-on maple neck, carved into a mid-’60s “C” shape profile. The back of the neck is finished in satin for that worn out comfortable feel. The neck is topped by a compound-radius rosewood fingerboard with 21 Narrow jumbo frets. The guitar has a scale length of 25.5″ and a nutwidth of 1.65″. It will be hard to miss the oversized white pearloid dots that serve as markers on the fretboard.
To provide vintage sounding tones, Fender equipped the Vintage Hot Rod ’60s Stratocaster with 3 different single coil pickups. An American Vintage ’56 Single-coil on the bridge, an American Vintage ’65 Grey Bottom Single-Coil on the mid position and an American Vintage ’59 Single-Coil on the neck. These pickups are custom made to reproduce authentic Fender tones of old.
Basic 5-way pickup switching is provided along with the usual master volume and two tone knobs. Being part of Fender’s Vintage Hot Rod series, this guitar features a specially modified S-1 switch that is discretely tucked inside the Master Volume knob. When engaged, it allows you to add the bridge pickup to positions 3 (middle pickup), 4(middle and neck pickup) and 5 (neck pickup). The expected effect is to add more bite to your tone, something that is not available on regular Strats.
Other features include Vintage-style locking tuners, 2-point Synchronized tremolo with vintage-style stamped steel saddles, locking strap buttons, and aged white plastic.
The MSRP for the Fender Vintage Hot Rod ’60s Stratocaster is $2,800. You can however get it for just under $2,300 via online retailers. For more information, you can head over to Fender.
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