Fender AM Vintage II 1973 Stratocaster Aged Natural

In 1981, Fender made the first attempts to reissue the legendary instruments of the 50s and 60s. Construction plans and specifications were largely lost and so in 1982 reissues based on the 57 and 62 Stratocaster were launched. In Europe and other countries outside the USA, the purchase of such guitars should last until 1986, since Fender was not able to manufacture instruments in America in the meantime. These “vintage series” named guitars sounded good, but the neck dimensions, body shaping and many other specs were not very close to the originals.

In 1998 there was a complete revision of the vintage series, also using the knowledge gained in the meantime about the production of such instruments in Fender’s Custom Shop, and so these guitars were closer to the original than the first series.

Finally, with the "New American Vintage Series" from autumn 2012 to autumn 2017, the demands of the vintage lovers were fully met, because these guitars corresponded to the original in all specs and were modeled on certain years of the instruments, Stratocaster was available as 1956, 1959 and 1965 versions.

The following"American Original Series" used more modern neck radii, thicker frets, different finishes and was no longer along individual guitar years. Fender obviously wanted to change this again and so the American Vintage II series was presented in autumn 2022, which focuses on the virtues of more concrete replicas of the instruments.

The 1973 version of the Stratocaster has arrived from this series. It features a trio of awesome Pure Vintage '73 Staggered Pole pickups, a large dual-string-tree headstock, bullet-style truss rod nut, and a three-point Micro-Tilt™ neck mount. An ingenious neck adjustment principle, often not appreciated enough in the past, it represents one of Leo Fender's last personal innovations. This works excellently, especially since the wood processing is so precise that there are no gaps. Everything is perfectly finished.

The "C"-shaped maple neck feels great in the hand, has the typical early Fender radius of 7.25 inches and Vintage Tall Frets. Not too thick and not too thin, this Canadian sycamore maple neck is typical of necks from this period with a neck thickness of 23.3 mm at the first fret and 23.9 mm at the 12th fret and a nut width of 41.9 mm.

Other features include "F" stamped machine heads and a tremolo with steel saddles and cold-rolled steel block. Here we find - fortunately - the only deviation from the original, because from autumn 1971 cast material was used for this, which sounds less differentiated and a little dull.

The guitar sounds percussive, full, never cutting, very balanced in all PU combinations. It has just the right mids so as not to sound thin. So she hits the sound of the intro of "Sweet Home Alabama" and Ed King's solos exactly. Strat sound in perfection !

The workmanship and sound of these American Vintage II instruments are convincing across the board and are also of interest to players who are used to Custom Shop quality!