The new Road Worn Series of guitars and basses from Fender is a real winner. That’s based on the overwhelming praise from the players who tried out the samples I put in their hands—a ’50s Telecaster, ’50s and ’60s Stratocaster guitars, ’50s Precision Bass, and ’60s Jazz Bass. Everyone says they look cool, play great, and reliably pump out revered Fender tones. The Road Worn concept is simple to grasp: a beat-up guitar or bass looks worn because we love them so much, just like our favorite comfortable sweatshirt or pair of tennies. Paying big bucks for a rare collectible axe is just not in the cards for most players, so how about one that looks like it’s seen lots of love? The Road Worn instruments are given a reverse makeover at the Fender factory in Ensenada, Mexico. The worn finish, dings, pockmarks, yellowed plastic parts—even rust stains on the bridge saddles and springs—all simulate proud battle scars that show this axe has proven itself in countless gigs, it’s as if you were playing Keef or Bruce’s favorite Tele, the Strat slung by Slowhand or Rory, the Jazz Bass that catapulted Jaco to legend, or the P Bass Sting used to pump up The Police. These Road Worn axes are not just pre-aged; you could say they are “pre-disastered.” You won’t throw a conniption fit when you bang it up as you would when the first ding appears on a freshly minted, shiny new guitar.
Vintage-styling with mods
The Road Worn Series guitars are based on Fender’s Classic Series with authentic vintage-style touches such as a nitrocellulose lacquer finish. These axes have been updated with player-centric mods, such as taller frets and hotter pickups. The 6105 jumbo frets are tall and narrow to allow more string bending on the rounded 7-1/4" radius fretboard. On both Road Worn Strat models and the Tele, the original-style single-coil pick-ups have been replaced with Tex-Mex single-coils that have extra wire windings. This results in more output with sparkling highs and a warmer tone than vintage-style single-coils. The ’50s Tele is chock full of authentic details including the ash body that shows off its blonde nitro finish.
Like the Tele, the ’50s Strat has a one-piece maple neck with skunk stripe and a peghead teardrop just above the nut. The nitro finish is available in two-tone sunburst or black. The ’60s Strat has a maple neck with rosewood fretboard glued on, so there’s no telltale skunk stripe. You can choose the three-tone sunburst or Olympic white. Each Road Worn guitar has a distinctive neck shape. The ’50s Tele has the rounded U-shaped neck first introduced by Leo Fender in 1950. The ’50s Strat has a slender V neck from the mid-50s, and the ’60s Strat has a C-shaped neck that resides between the two in size and feel.
PB&J Basses
Like the guitars, the Road Worn basses have a nitrocellulose lacquer finish. No mods, the basses have simply been aged to give bass players what they love, a stock Fender with a broken-in feeling. The ’50s Precision Bass has a one-piece maple neck and an alder body with a comfortable contour. The split single-coil pickup produces the solid, defined bass sound that supplied the bottom for so many great Motown and Stax singles. The classic, wide P Bass neck plays host to 20 vintage-style frets. It’s big, friendly size adds to the tone known for cutting through guitar stacks. The gold-anodized aluminum pickguard contrasts nicely with either two-tone sunburst or fiesta red finish.
The narrower, thinner Road Worn ’60s Jazz Bass rosewood neck features a closer string spacing that creates a tapered feel. An overall crisper tone is provided by two standard vintage alnico magnet Jazz Bass single-coil pickups. Now you too can be inspired by playing a Jazz Bass with the look and sound that fueled influential players like Larry Graham, John Entwistle, and Flea.
Road Worn guitars and basses are like your favorite broken-in pair of jeans—they look cool, they play great, and they’re fun. And there’s no need to baby them; you’ll want to get your mitts on one and start adding your own battle scars right away.
Features & Specs
- Alder body (Strat, 2-tone sunburst Tele, Jazz Bass, Precision Bass), Ash (blonde finish Tele)
- Nitrocellulose lacquer finish
- Soft V shape (’50s Strat), C shape (’60s Strat), U shape (’50s Tele)
- Maple fretboard (Strat, Precision Bass), rosewood (Tele, Jazz Bass)
- 7-1/4" fretboard radius
- 21 - 6105 frets – guitar, 20 vintage frets – bass
- 1-ply white pickguard (’50s Strat and Tele)
- 3-ply mint green pickguard (’60s Strat)
- 4-ply brown shell pickguard (Jazz Bass)
- 3 Tex-Mex Strat single-coil pickups (Stratocaster)
- 2 Tex-Mex Tele single-coil pickups (Telecaster)
- 1 Precision Bass split single-coil pickup
- 2 Standard vintage alnico magnet Jazz Bass single-coil pickups
- Deluxe gig bag
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