If there’s one thing cooler than a brand new guitar, then surely it’s a vintage guitar, resplendent with worn lacquer, chipped paintwork, and a fingerboard which carries the kind of war wounds only decades of hard touring can bring.
Trouble is, guitars like that are as rare as hen’s teeth, and carry a price tag to match.
Which makes today’s press release by the folks at Musician’s Friend particularly interesting. They have announced the release of the new Fender Road Worn series, set to debut at this month’s NAMM 2009 show in Anaheim, California.
Released in five models, the Road Worn series is a delightful collection of pre-aged guitars, painstakingly crafted to mimic worn and torn classic Fenders from the 50’s and 60’s. From the look of them, you’d be hard pushed to distinguish a Road Worn Strat/Tele from one that’s spent the past forty years hanging round Keith Richard’s neck! 
Now, I’m sure you’ve seen the ‘distressed’ finish on guitars many times, especially in hand made, limited-edition signature models. Indeed, the Road Worn series have been aged using the exact same process invented in the Fender Custom Shop for just such guitars.
However, these babies are being released at a far more affordable price point, making them a far more attractive proposition to the average guitarist.
Although the Road Worn guitars are based on classic Fender designs and specifications…right down to the 3-tone sunburst, nitrocellulose lacquer finish, they do have a couple of 21st century twists to ensure they play and sound even better than the originals. Firstly, the Tex-Mex single coil pickups deliver a far meatier bite than their vintage counterparts. And secondly, the maple necks are fitted with taller, 6105 frets, which should help make string bending a breeze.
All in all, I must say I’m excited about this new release from Fender, and I can’t wait to see the Road Worn series in person. To find out more, why not head over to the Musician’s Friend website. Contact their sales support team to place a pre-order (it’s so new, they might not have updated the site yet!)
I predict massive things for this series in 2009.
February 4th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Man, I’m good enough at dinging up a nice guitar, I just don’t get the whole pre-dinged thing. Let alone paying extra for it. I like recreating the classic models, but let me ding it up myself.