What is it?
While producing bashed-up looking but brand new guitars goes back in Fender’s line-up to the mid-nineties’ Custom Shop models, they swiftly became hot stuff, albeit at quite a price. Us lower income musos lobbied for more affordable relics and in 2009 that’s what we got: the Mexican-made Road Worn series.
While they didn’t match the authenticity of the upper-tier relics they certainly ticked the bashed-up box and were frankly the closest most of us will ever get to owning a real vintage Fender electric guitar from the fifties or sixties. They’ve been in and out of production ever since, we last saw some limited Road Worns in the first Vintera range, and this again limited mini-range augments the current Vintera II line-up.
Specs
- Launch price: $1,599.99 /£1,349 / €1,599
- Made: Ensenada, Mexico
- Type: Six-string solid body electric guitar
- Body: Alder
- Neck: Maple, '60s ‘C’ profile, bolt-on
- Fingerboard: Slab rosewood with ‘clay’ dots/7.25”
- Scale length: 25.5” (648mm)
- Nut/width: Synthetic bone/42.2mm
- Frets: 21, Vintage Tall
- Hardware: Fender vintage-style synchronized vibrato with six bent steel saddles, vintage-style tuners
- Electrics: 3x vintage-style '60s single-coil Strat, 5-way lever pickup selector switch, master volume, tone 1 (neck/middle), tone 2 (bridge)
- Weight: 7.79lb (3.54kg)
- Left-handed options: No
- Finishes: Sonic Blue w/ rosewood fingerboard (as reviewed), Black w/ maple fingerboard
- Cases: Gig bag
- Contact: Fender
Build quality
Build quality rating: ★★★★☆
If you’re expecting something like Rory Gallagher’s or Mike McCready’s tattered Strats you’re going to be disappointed here. No, these new Road Worns – a ‘50s Jazzmaster, the ‘60s Strat here, a ’60 Telecaster and ‘60s Precision bass – employ, in Fender’s words, a “new subtle aging process combining light checking, gentle wear patterns and a semi-gloss finish.”
Fender also tells us its using nitrocellulose lacquer and while you have to look closely there are plenty of mild cracks to the body and to the front and back of the headstock. Semi-gloss? It’s pretty glossy if we’re honest and it’s certainly overall a milder aging than the recently released Fender Ultra Luxe Vintage range. The hardware isn’t really reliced but doesn’t look box-fresh either and unlike an original 2009 Road Worn Strat which provides a good reference, the neck back here still has a light finish on it.
Aging and finish type aside, the new Road Worn seems to follow the specs of the standard Vintera II ‘60s Strat: alder body, a slab rosewood fingerboard with a 7.25” vintage radius but, thankfully, slightly bigger ‘Vintage Tall’ frets. While vintage details like the body-end truss rod adjustment, single string-tree and period correct logo are all present and correct the modernisms, along with those frets, include a five-way lever pickup selector and tone controls for middle/neck and bridge pickups.
Playability
Playability rating: ★★★★★
Straight out of its gig bag, a quick tune-up and some string stretching is all we need to get going. Unlike some recent lower-end Fender’s we’ve had our hands on, the set-up here is pretty gig-ready shipping with .009s, very slight neck relief and string height of 1.5mm on the treble side, 1.7mm on the low E. Typically the vibrato – which uses a full-size diecast block, steel top-plate and saddles – is set with three rear springs and lightly tilted giving approximately a half-tone up bend on the high E, a flattened third on the G. Again, very standard stuff.
The slightly taller wire – which appears identical to the original Road Worns – certainly adds to the easy bendability
Some players obsess about fingerboard radius and so long as you can get the small vintage radius to play cleanly, which it does here, it’s not only very comfortable for thumb-around positions and chording but, hey, it just feels right. The slightly taller wire – which appears identical to the original Road Worns – certainly adds to the easy bendability too, while details like a well-cut nut mean vibrato return-to-pitch, certainly for casual use, is perfectly good, as is the overall in-tuneness and tuning stability.
The ‘60s ‘C’-shape neck profile is really quite generic with its 42.2mm nut width and relatively slim depth, 21mm, at the first fret which fills out to a rounded 24.5mm by the 12th. It’s a little fuller than that earlier Road Worn and feels the better for it.
Sounds
Sounds rating: ★★★★☆
These pickups are simply referred to as ‘60s Strat (the standard Vintera II ‘60s Strat pickups are called Mid-‘60s), but name aside we have little to go on. They clearly have a vintage-stagger to the unbevelled Alnico 5 magnets: the G string’s is the highest, the B string the lowest. They have the same magnetic polarity so there’s no truck with modernism or hum-cancelling mix positions and all three have very similar DCR’s of 5.3k ohms measured at output.
The neck pickup has just that right balance between woody depth and percussion
The sounds of a Stratocaster are burned into any serious player's psyche, yet somehow no two side-by-side sound exactly the same. So, yes, it sounds like a good Strat, slightly thinner overall than PRS’s SE Silver Sky, for example, and while there’s a little spike at bridge, as ever there was, with its own tone control you can easily knock that back. The neck pickup has just that right balance between woody depth and percussion. Really, no complaints here.
Verdict
A lot less worn-looking than the previous Road Worns, the finish cracking here is pretty subtle and there are no faux-dings, but with use it’ll continue to age – unlike polyester. For those that like the light N.O.S. or Closet Classic style of aging you’ll appreciate the style, but if you want to show off to your audience that your guitar has been on countless world tours these probably aren’t for you; likewise the less worn neck back.
Bearing in mind the nitro aging adds a good chunk of money to the non-Road Worn models these might not be quite the full comeback we’d hoped for. That said, it’s a well turned out vintage-referenced Stratocaster with a cool, lightly broken-in vibe and sounds to match.
Guitar World verdict: A welcome return of Fender’s affordable Road Worn ‘60s Stratocaster, although the aging is lightly done. If you want dings and bare wood you’re going to have to do that yourself!
Test |
Results |
Score |
|---|---|---|
Build quality |
With a good weight and a very competent build it’s a well put-together Strat. But is the aging a little too subtle? |
★★★★☆ |
Playability |
Even with the small vintage fingerboard radius, thanks to the Vintage Tall frets and a good set-up it’s hard to fault. |
★★★★★ |
Sounds |
It’s a well voiced guitar that easily covers the classic Strat sounds both clean and over-driven. No surprises but the modern tone control set-up is very welcome. |
★★★★☆ |
Overall |
Yes, the Road Worn bit is a little under-cooked and adds cost over the standard model but the lively sounds are, as ever, highly addictive. |
★★★★☆ |
