Fender American Original Series

DaevidJ

Well despite the new colours and a few other difference it is not convincing me to let go of my Sonic Blue AV65 Jag that I got from Peach guitars a few years back... Am amazed at the current price of the AV line and this line of guitars!

Strat54

RandallFlagg said:

All well and good but I don't think a Tele feels like a real Tele unless it has 7.25 radius and vintage frets. My AV52 really reminds me of the feel of my 1981 Tele, the American Standard Tele just never felt the same.

The cynic in me thinks that this move is to rationalise options on the Fender range of guitars and so save cost.

Also, I read on the Anderton's site that removing the year specific reference is less confusing, which is really just dumbing down isn't it?

Nonsense sir! Quite a few of the original 1950's Broadcasters had 9.5" boards....and you don't get more 'Tele' than one of those. Its a move to help sales, the AV series was dying a death because of  the feel of the guitar, there's an awful lot of people who won't touch 7.25.

DougCoda

Wazmeister said:

Ill answer my own question!

Due in at Andertons 

Shipping now, we should have ours in the next day or so, assume everyone else will have theirs at the same time..

not_the_dj

Now those double bound 60s Teles have got me interested....

RandallFlagg

Strat54 said:

RandallFlagg said:

All well and good but I don't think a Tele feels like a real Tele unless it has 7.25 radius and vintage frets. My AV52 really reminds me of the feel of my 1981 Tele, the American Standard Tele just never felt the same.

The cynic in me thinks that this move is to rationalise options on the Fender range of guitars and so save cost.

Also, I read on the Anderton's site that removing the year specific reference is less confusing, which is really just dumbing down isn't it?

Nonsense sir! Quite a few of the original 1950's Broadcasters had 9.5" boards....and you don't get more 'Tele' than one of those. Its a move to help sales, the AV series was dying a death because of  the feel of the guitar, there's an awful lot of people who won't touch 7.25.

probably, but I don't mind the 7.25 radius. At least they are keeping the large neck on the 50s Tele.

Strat54

@DougCoda Are you not going to publish the new Custom Shop models this week...just for a for a short while like last week ?? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=68&v=DvJxMX-1GI8

Whitecat

DaevidJ said:

Well despite the new colours and a few other difference it is not convincing me to let go of my Sonic Blue AV65 Jag that I got from Peach guitars a few years back... Am amazed at the current price of the AV line and this line of guitars!

That is starting to look like the deal of the decade...

Whitecat

Bring on the AO FSR Teles with Bigsbys... that double-bound 60s edition in LPB with one would be soooo much fun. 

stickyfiddle

These look lovely

Strat54

Fender do make me laugh though...

'From the bridge to the string tree and tuning machines, every piece of hardware is just like the original.'

But these are not year specific guitars, so how can they be like the originals? They are more a pastiche of an era which is fine but why say they are 'like the original' ? 

https://shop.fender.com/en-GB/american-original

Octafish

Hmmm, are these anything more than overpriced Classic Players?

Shame they ditched vintage series/radius and frets, prefer them myself and plenty of classic guitar playing was achieved on such specs without too many tears. If anything I was put off buying an American Vintage in the past not by the neck specs, but by the paintwork that appears to just drop off.

Octafish

Babones said:

A strat in candy apple red!!! I did not see that coming.

So it's just a rebrand/slight tweak to raise prices, right? I assume Fender think that worked well with the American Standard to American Professional and so here it is again.

Yep and gives them the option to reintroduce a 'Total Vintage' or similar in about 5 years time.

Strat54

Octafish said:

Hmmm, are these anything more than overpriced Classic Players?

Yep, they are American made guitars with better quality in every dept. They look pretty good value to me in the scheme of things. 

stickyfiddle

Octafish said:

Hmmm, are these anything more than overpriced Classic Players?

Shame they ditched vintage series/radius and frets, prefer them myself and plenty of classic guitar playing was achieved on such specs without too many tears. If anything I was put off buying an American Vintage in the past not by the neck specs, but by the paintwork that appears to just drop off.

Spec-wise they're not much like the CPs, particularly in terms of strat bridges, JM/Jag bridge (& trem placement), switching and nitro finishes and being made in America. YMMV as to how much you care about that

Octafish

Strat54 said:

Fender do make me laugh though...

'From the bridge to the string tree and tuning machines, every piece of hardware is just like the original.'

But these are not year specific guitars, so how can they be like the originals? They are more a pastiche of an era which is fine but why say they are 'like the original' ? 

https://shop.fender.com/en-GB/american-original

Yep and couldn't be bothered to do away with the vintage stagger on the pickups despite flattening the fretboard radius to 9.5. Sounds like they couldn't be arsed to make a proper job of it, parts bin special?

Octafish

stickyfiddle said:

Octafish said:

Hmmm, are these anything more than overpriced Classic Players?

Shame they ditched vintage series/radius and frets, prefer them myself and plenty of classic guitar playing was achieved on such specs without too many tears. If anything I was put off buying an American Vintage in the past not by the neck specs, but by the paintwork that appears to just drop off.

Spec-wise they're not much like the CPs, particularly in terms of strat bridges, JM/Jag bridge (& trem placement), switching and nitro finishes and being made in America. YMMV as to how much you care about that

I see they've put JM/Jag trem in the right place, which is good. Nitro doesn't do that much for me, particularly when bits flake off everytime you look at it. They're assembled in America. I know in the past US assembled guitars were using Taiwanese saddles, switches and pots and some Mexican plastics (same as many MIM models). Has this changed?

MattFGBI

The pickguards etc are all made in the US factory in Corona on the same machines that have been used for decades. 

The finish on these is nitro but not the same as the previous American Vintage. 

p90fool

"Every curve and line of the necks are accurate to the historic originals. Sculpted for a vintage-style playing feel, we even used period-accurate techniques to carve and attach the fingerboards."

Except the most distinctive and important curve, the fingerboard radius.

Elwood

p90fool said:

"Every curve and line of the necks are accurate to the historic originals. Sculpted for a vintage-style playing feel, we even used period-accurate techniques to carve and attach the fingerboards."

Except the most distinctive and important curve, the fingerboard radius.

You should get an LOL and a wsdom for that.

The name Original is very misleading, the definition of it in fact, but the shift the 9.5" is an improvement for most. I presume that is why most CS guitars, even 50's & 60's models come with it. It just seems to be the series name than misses the mark. 

not_the_dj

Ignoring the marketing....I think these look great.

@MattFGBI are Fender at the Birmingham show again this year...and will these be there?