In addition, the necks have been tinted a bit more yellow (but tastefully so), and the bridge block has been upgraded to cold-rolled steel, which improves sustain and note clarity. The main new features that differentiate the new American Professional II Series from the American Professional include the upgraded Tim Shaw-designed V-Mod 2 pickups, tapered neck heel, rolled fretboard edges, and push-push tone control to add the neck pickup to positions one and two on the 5-way switch. Overall, the sum of these updates makes for a very exciting new Strat! Features The other thing Fender did was add some sexy new colors that will appear to a broader range of guitarists. Third, they added a push-push feature to the lower tone knob to add the neck pickup to positions one and two, thus enabling seven different Strat tones. Two, Fender added a tapered heel to the neck where it meets the body. One, the V-Mod pickups were tweaked to deliver more sparkle and clarity.

Strat lovers that we are, however, we were excited to explore what had been updated in this second generation of the product line.įender definitely listened to their customers and artists on this one, and to our excitement made a few key updates. Although it was a nice guitar, we felt that there were not many changes compared to the American Standard line and the pickups were fairly typical sounding.

3.6 stars or better: Outstanding, WIHO AwardĢ stars or better: Suited to specific needsīack in 2017, we reviewed a Stratocaster from Fender’s then-new American Professional series guitars, an updated series related to the core American Standard line.

Fender stratocaster headstock