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Smoother, sleeker and upgraded.

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• Review

Every Coke has a Pepsi, so the saying goes. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, goes another. And so Fender's timeless 'big four' designs have become the most imitated electric instruments in the world, be they vintage replicas or modernised interpretations.

Many of these inspired-by brands were established during Fender's post-CBS turmoil and through the eighties rock explosion. A quarter of a century later, the best of the imitators are still there, but Fender is now a radically different company: giant, dominant and without doubt producing the best guitars it has ever made.

"The two points vibrato is smooth and effortless, with impressive pitch stability for all but the wildest abuse."

So when Fender releases a new series, we take note. In this case, the American Deluxe Series has been overhauled with notable build, spec and playability improvements over the previous models.

Underneath the breathtaking gloss urethane sunset metallic finish - candy apple over orangey/gold, basically - on this 'basic' American Deluxe Strat (ash-bodied and HSS pickup configurations are also available) is an alder body.

It has all the right curves, a deep belly contour and beautifully radiused edges that look and feel smoother and sleeker than many of the lower and midrange Strats we've seen over the last couple of decades.

The bolt-on maple neck (with a very smooth, more semi-gloss 'satin' finish) has a modern-feeling shallow 'C' profile, which maintains pretty uniform depth until it contours out to the heel.

The nicely dark, well-oiled, edge-rolled rosewood fingerboard has 22 medium jumbo frets that facilitate easy bending, again offering a more modern feel. This is taken a step further by the fact that the 'board also has a conical radius: 241mm (9.5-inch) at the first fret, and 356mm (14-inch) up the dusty end.

It means that chording feels more comfortable down the bottom, there's no choking when you bend up the top, and indeed a lower action overall. If you've never experienced a compound or conical radius 'board, do try it, assuming you're not too vintage-minded to get past the pearloid dot markers of course…

And call us old fashioned, but how much better does the Strat's 22nd-fret fingerboard overhang look when it's tastefully rounded off, rather than left more square like the Telecaster's board?

The two-point/pivot modern American-style bridge is set up to float, with a push/snap-in arm that negates all the screwing (and loosening) you have with a six-screw vintage vibrato.