2018 Fender American Elite Stratocaster Electric Guitar w/Lollar Pickups

The American Elite line of Fender guitars was marketed as a "same but modernized" family for the brand. They're extremely practical guitars and have a number of upgrades compared to "normal" American-made Fenders and, of course, as compared to vintage-style hardware and features.

In the case of this guitar, the modern 2-point whammy system is a lot more flexible, rugged, and easier to maintain. The spoke-style truss rod adjustment at the heel of the guitar is also easy to live with. The neck has a bit of a retro flavor to it in terms of the back profile but the shallower 12" radius and modern 1 11/16" nut width give it an "everyone's guitar" sort-of feel.

I'm a fan of the shimmery, metallic-cream finish on this one, too. It's got just enough iridescence to look pretty great when lights hit it. I know in most of the photos it looks like Olympic White but as the light catches it, it gets a pearly look on all the edges.

A huge bonus with this particular guitar is that the owner swapped the original pickups out for a full set of Lollars! It has two Vintage Blonde single coils in the neck and middle positions an an Imperial humbucker with Fender string spacing at the bridge. The original wiring and its cool switches are all in order, too -- there's an S1 switch on top of the volume knob that lets the bridge pickup be active in any position of the 5-way switch -- and an additional "press-in" button on the pickguard that sends the bridge pickup direct to the jack without any wiring in its way -- a rawk switch, as it were... bright and punchy!

Repairs included: a setup.

Weight: 8 lbs 0 oz

Scale length: 25 1/2"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

Neck shape: slim-medium C

Board radius: 12"

Body width: 12 3/4"

Body depth: 1 3/4"

Body wood: alder

Bridge: 2-point modern style

Fretboard: rosewood

Neck wood: maple

Pickups: 2x Lollar Vintage Blonde single coils, 1x Lollar Imperial F-Spaced humbucker

Action height at 12th fret: 1/16” overall (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 46w-10

Truss rod: adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium-taller

Condition notes: it's essentially "shopworn" with only the most minor of usewear here and there throughout the body and neck. The pickups have been swapped-out (upgraded a bunch!) to Lollars and the backplate for the control cavity is missing. There is a really thin dryness hairline crack in the fretboard around frets 16-20 -- it's only a cosmetic problem, not a structural one, and it's hard to see except in the zoomed-in photos.

It comes with: its original hard case and whammy bar and case goodies.

Consignor tag: EF