Fender’s new ‘vintage’ tint on the maple necks of
its Vintera instruments is a definite improvement –
it’s a more tasteful caramel compared to the yellow-
orange hues of the Classic Series – while the thin
gloss urethane finishes on the Strat and Tele necks
have a slight stickiness that’s almost reminiscent of
lacquer buffed to a high sheen. The Telecaster’s
one-piece neck, with its subtle ripple of flame,
is the pick of the bunch.
When it came to Vintera’s electronics, Fender
again turned to Tim Shaw, the mastermind behind
the pickups on most of its major launches over the
last few years. “I voiced the ’50s Tele pickups more
like later-50s pickups, with alnico V magnets instead
of the alnico III used on the earliest models,” Shaw
explains. “Alnico V is a brighter-sounding magnet and
that tonality tends to appeal more to modern players
and works better with modern equipment.
“The 60s Jazzmasters in general had consistent
pickups,” he continues, “so our ’60s Jazzmaster is a
pretty typical example of those specs. The Modified
version has a bit more wire on each coil and works
better with the thinner strings today’s players use
on a Jazzmaster.
“By the 70s, Fender had gone to a flat-stagger
magnet set on the Stratocaster, where all six magnets
were the same height. These pickups have a more
solid sound with thicker mids and less ‘chime’ than
the earlier versions. It was very interesting to play the
Strats in the Vintera series in historical order, just to
hear how those voicings shifted with time!”
IN USE
After orienting our ears with a very good ash body/
maple ’board Custom Shop Strat, we switch to
the ’70s Vintera model and find the sonic gap isn’t
perhaps as wide as the considerable gulf in price.
Sure, the CS model is woodier and more expressive,
with more zing into the bargain, but within seconds
of wrapping our left hand around the nicely rounded
neck (arguably more appealing than that of many
70s originals), we’re enjoying the Vintera’s percussive,
funky character.
It’s more nasal, with mellower highs, likely due
to the influence of the fingerboard material as well
as the pickup voicing. That said, there’s still plenty
of harmonic interest and the tones certainly aren’t
one-dimensional, although most of the airy treble
action lives between 10 and 8.5 on the volume
knob – its taper is pretty steep. Although the factory
stringing method does little to reduce friction at
the second/first (B/E) string tree, the three-spring
vibrato setup floats beautifully and the arm has less
unwanted play than our Custom Shop unit. The fret
ends have been rounded smoothly and simple tweaks
such as breaking the ’board edges on the bass side and
better wrapping of the treble strings around the tuner
posts would elevate playability considerably.
70s Strats polarise opinion, but here’s one worth
8 /10 getting to grips withKEY FEATURES
VINTERA ’70S STRATOCASTER
PRICE £769 (inc. gigbag)
DESCRIPTION Double-cutaway electric guitar. Made in Mexico
BUILD Ash body, early 70s C maple neck with 7.25" (184.1mm)
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Synthetic bone nut
HARDWAREɄɫžÝāāńĈƣĭōƇÝġĈɫžƇƪńĈžƪōûĩŸŕōĭžĈāƣĭùŸÝƇŕ
bridge, Fender Vintage F-stamped machineheads
ELECTRICS 3x Vintage-Style ’70s Single-Coil Strat pickups,
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blade selector switch
SCALE LENGTH 25.5"/648mm
NECK WIDTH 41.9mm at nut, 51.8mm at 12th fret
NECK DEPTH ɀɀɚɃŋŋÝƇƼŸžƇğŸĈƇɕɀɁɚɅŋŋÝƇȿɀƇĩğŸĈƇ
STRING SPACING 35.2mm at nut, 54.6mm at bridge
WEIGHT 7.96lb/3.61kg
FINISH ¤ĭĈōōݤƍōùƍŸžƇɧÝžŸĈƣĭĈƤĈāɨɕġĈāsÝƇƍŸÝńɕqŕûĩÝREVIEWSGUITAR MAGAZINE 25