Fender Musical Instruments has released it’s new American Standard instruments this month. Models include the Stratocaster®, Telecaster®, Precision Bass® and Jazz Bass® guitars. While still retaining most of the features of the previous American Standard instruments the new features include thinner finishes, improved saddles, lighter tuning keys and richer neck tinting. The new models were unveiled at the 2008 NAMM music products trade show in Anaheim, California. Fender’s Justin Norvell and Jay Piccirillo formally introduced the latest refined versions of the four classic instruments for which Fender has been most famous for well more than half a century. The instruments are “worthy heirs of their revered ancestors,” Norvell said. What Fender basically did was broke the instruments down and analyzed each individual spec and rebuilt them from the ground up.
The new American Standard line includes right- and left-handed versions of each of the four classic instruments, plus a humbucking pickup Stratocaster model, five-string versions of both basses and a fretless version of the Jazz Bass.