MusicRadar

• Review

This writer has yet to file a two-word guitar review but in this case it got close. What two words? Buy this! It really is that simple. Vintage Fender Strats, Teles, Precision or Jazz Basses, have to be among the most lusted after instruments for any guitar player.

Yet escalating prices, not to mention the question of authenticity, have put many of us off. Fender's so-called Time Machine Series brought the illusion of a vintage Fender to many more people: a high quality guitar, as close to the real thing as you could get, without the worry about authenticity or insurance.

You could keep your real one in a bank vault and gig the NOS, Closet Classic or Relic and only you would know. The trouble with that, however, is that for many of us £2k plus is still a lot of cash.

"These Road Worns are going to be the answer for most of us mortals struggling through the credit crunch..."

We got an inkling, however, that Fender was gearing up to do something about this dilemma when it launched the Joe Strummer Telecaster – the first, more affordable Mexican-made guitar that was aged and distressed.

We heard more rumours that the Mexican workforce were taking all sorts of implements to their usually finely finished guitars. At the end of 2008 we were let in on the secret: Fender had been working on a mini-range of 'Road Worn' guitars, Mexican Relics to you or us. The wait is over.

'60s Strat

The similarity in finish and wear to the '50s version, albeit a three-tone 'burst with the added red, illustrates that the guitars are aged to a basic guide template. Yes, you'd expect wear on that forearm contour and similar belt-buckle wear but the 'random' dings on the top edge being replicated on both guitars looks a little, well, suspicious, and you can't help thinking that maybe it's a little over done.

Mind you, there's no mistaking that old vintage feel and, for this writer at least, there's something a little special about this one. It's a great weight, there's the fuller shouldered neck profile, a rosewood 'board (which doesn't have to be aged) and although we hear slightly less acoustic resonance, with it comes a little more tonal firmness.

Aside from the rosewood fingerboard and the three-ply (very accurate-looking), slightly green scratchplate it's identical in spec to the '50s Strat – and that includes a cosmetically aged vibrato. It uses a die-cast alloy block, however, not steel as you'll find on an original or Custom Shop Relic.

Sounds

If the look and feel is old and worn, the sound is a little less specific, which might have vintage guitar forums buzzing but for the majority of players the pickup choice and the overall sounds are eminently useable.

Compared to its '50s sibling, the fuller neck and rosewood 'board yield a slightly fuller mid-range, making things a little more 'rock' if you like, but not at the expense of that almost acoustic-like high-end detail and tremendous explosive attack.