You've seen more new Strats in the last 20 years than Simon Cowell has auditioned hopeful starlets. When it comes to the guitars, however, there are no embarrassed downward glances, much less any mouth-grasping gasps at the sheer awfulness on display: Fender's 'bad' days are over.
Yet just as He Of High Trousers can spot the spark that elevates the exceptional from the mediocre, so it's obvious to any serious Strat fan that the new range of American Vintage models elevates things yet again.
Fender American Vintage '56 Stratocaster review
Fender American Vintage '59 Stratocaster review
Fender American Vintage '65 Stratocaster review
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