Fender has given its Vintera II range of electric guitars and basses the Road Worn treatment, offering five classics from the Big F archive with aged semi-gloss nitrocellulose finishes, “era-correct” pickups and neck profiles that offer the same feel as their vintage counterparts.
The Vintera II Road Worn series comprises a ‘60s Stratocaster in Sonic Blue or Black, a ‘60s Telecaster in Burgundy Mist Metallic or Blonde, a ‘50s Jazzmaster in Fiesta Red or 3-Color Sunburst, and a ‘60s Precision Bass in Charcoal Mist Metallic or Fiesta Red.
All built in Fender’s Ensenada, Mexico facility, these Vintera II Road Worn instruments are a limited edition run, get ‘em while their hot kind of a deal.
We’ve seen them and they do look incredible. Don’t expect them to come out the box looking totally thrashed. Fender’s ageing process is subtle. It’s like they’ve been played, sure, with a little wear where it should be, but also taken care of, with light checking on the lacquer. In other words, there is still plenty of ageing to do yourself.
Think of them as aged but not quite relic’d. As per the Vintera II M.O., these are all designed to recreate Golden Era Fender tone and feel. The former mission is advanced by way of “era-correct” electric guitar pickups that reverse-engineer Fender classics from the ‘50s and ‘60s, all of which are housed in solid alder bodies.
The latter finds Fender doing something similar with the neck shapes, and not only are they giving these the decade-appropriate C profile, they’re topping them with 7.25” radius fingerboards with narrow-tall frets. Old school.
The ‘60s Stratocaster retails at £1,349/$1,599 and has a trio of vintage-voiced Strat single-coil pickups, a 2-point synchronized tremolo system with bent-steel saddles, plus vintage-style tuning machines (a leitmotif of the range).
The Sonic Blue model has a slab rosewood fingerboard, while the Black Strat (now that conjures quite the image!) has a maple fingerboard.
Those finishes look very sweet with those three-ply pickguards but we can’t be the only ones to be looking at the Black Stratocaster and thinking of swapping it out for a matching black ‘guard. It’s something to consider, certainly for the David Gilmour superfan.
All of these models wear these classic nitro finishes nicely but arguably the Burgundy Mist Metallic ‘60s Telecaster is the pick of the litter. It’s a beauty. Choose this one if you want the fingerboard. Choose Blonde if you want maple.
And, again, re: the vintage vibe, look at the dot markers on that rosewood ‘board. For a production line model, there are a lot of nice details on the Vintera II Road Worn instruments.
The tuners are the same set you’d get on the Strat. The bridge is a three-saddle unit with steel saddles – note the oxidation in bridge’s engraved “Fender” logo, a level of detail that you would not expect at £1,349/$1,599.
The ‘50s Jazzmaster presents the Fiesta Red variant with a rosewood ‘board, with maple for the 3-Color Sunburst model. Both have anodized gold pickguards. It will be interesting to compare and contrast its ‘50s C profile with the Strat and Tele’s ‘60s shape.
Expect a little more timber. Expect the archetypical offset guitar experience, with the floating vibrato (that Jazzmaster nerds would no doubt want to upgrade over time because that’s what they do), and you have the Lead/Rhythm circuit in full effect. The Jazzmasters are priced £1,399/$1,699.
MusicRadar's verdict: "Subtle ageing complements a neat and tidy build, superb playability, and knock-out tone. Okay, the bridge suffers from the usual Jazzmaster buzz found on many models of this style, but the guitar more than makes up for it with plenty of retro mojo." And you can read MusicRadar's review in full of the Vintera II Road Worn '50s Jazzmaster here.
Finally, we have a ‘60s inspired version of the bass guitar that started it all. Both variants come with rosewood fingerboards and tortoiseshell pickguards, and with a single split-coil pickup.
These have vintage-style bridges with four steel saddles, knurled metal flat-top volume and tone controls and reverse open-gear tuners. The Vintera II Road Worn ‘60s Precision Bass is priced £1,399/$1,599.
The Limited Edition Vintera II Road Worn Series is available now. For more pics and details, head on over to Fender.
