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The vivid Candy Apple finish just looks right on a Telecaster.

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• Review

We first looked at Fender's Mexican-made Road Worn Series back in early 2009. Like all pre-aged new guitars they were met with both joyful squeals and derisive jeers, depending entirely on whether you think beating up a brand-new guitar is either stupid or clever - as a man named St Hubbins once observed, it's such a fine line.

Take a look at the Road Worn Player Telecaster in action...

In fact, it's neither. It's Fender continuing what it does best, and that's offering its most popular guitars in every possible price and spec format, hence our latest example.

"You'll find that the flatter fingerboard, bigger frets and worn-in neck really do improve playability."

The body of this Telecaster is alder and finished in gorgeous Candy Apple red - there's just something so right about it on a Tele, even if it 'should' be paired with a rosewood fingerboard (Candy Apple wasn't officially introduced until 1963).

It's just thin enough to reveal, almost imperceptibly, the grain of the alder, so you can pick out the three separate pieces.

Given the 'Player' tag, you might assume some kind of belly contour would be appropriate: nope, this is a slab- body Tele, just like Leo intended. Even so, both guitar remains mercifully light at 3.4kg (7.5lb). We criticised previous Road Worns for being on the heavy side, so if they're all like this, hooray.

The Road Worn finish is the major talking point, a thin, almost-matte nitrocellulose top coat that's been mechanically aged to simulate a few years' heavy use. It's not convincing in a vintage guitar sense - but Fender is the first to point out that nobody is trying to fool you that these are old guitars; they just ape the feel of well-played instruments and, yes, look a bit vintage from afar.