70th Anniversary 1954 Strat American Vintage II

guitars4you

munckee said:

I’ve had three 70s fenders and all sub 8lb, did all the heavy ones sink at some point?

The big issue with 70's Fender's and more so post 74/75, was a massive level of inconsistency - There are some good examples out there - Both with regards to weight and indeed a decent neck pocket etc - But there are many poor examples

I have to admit that the 'monkey metal' trem is not for me - And the thick lacquer, over mini frets, on a maple board is also not for me - But I've sold/played a few examples, that have been 'customised' that perform very well - The inconsistent level reached its peak late 70's/early 80's as by then it was harder to find a good example 

HandwrittenHero

RobG3294 said:

Iamnobody said:

RandallFlagg said:

bbill335 said:

Strat54 said:

Dreaded 7.25 and skinny frets though.

wouldn't be a reissue if it didn't! 

Tone control 2 is wired to the bridge pickup according to the specs on the website, that's not vintage correct though.

Recent Fender “vintage frets” haven't been as low profile as the originals either, not sure what's fitted on this reissue but the frets on the AV I 52 Tele were tall enough for comfortable string bending and the 7.25” radius was barely noticeable and strings didn't choke out when bending up the dusty end.

The Custom Shop version has the vintage correct tone pot wiring but with a 5 way switch and the regular factory version has modern tone pot wiring but with a 3 way switch! 

Fear not. All that will be fixed in the 75th anniversary editions.

They enlarged (slightly) the frets on the AV1 series for this reason.

On the topic of AV1 - the 2014 60th Anni. '54 will run rings round these new ones - for starters the pumpkin necks on these versus the subtly tinted necks on the now ten year old ones. As does the whole AV1 series to the AV2.

Of course, again, there's the crowd that can't tell the difference between the AVRI/AV2 quality and the AV1 (which had inflated MSRP to any other re-issue, even today with inflation) as they were essentially re-badged CS Time Machines, but to each their own opinion. 

If it's what you want, it's what you want. 

I had one of the 60th anniversary 54 strats out the AV line. Great guitar and the pickups were something else, just not really for me. The radius and frets were fine, didn’t really notice them although that was with the action a touch higher than I’d set other guitars. The finish was a weak point, only had to look at it wrong and another chip appeared.

Strat54

No mention of the brittle flashcoat on these new ones.....just says gloss nitrocellulose lacquer.
Not sure why Fender send these out to the YOUTUBE 'influencers' 
when they make them sound this bad.....

https://youtu.be/JCRNLxQyPnk?si=-Slu5Q4KJrr3iPms