Fender: American Vintage II 1961 Olympic White Stratocaster
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- čas přidán 21. 08. 2024
- www.fender.com
Fender's new American Vintage II series of guitars is pretty darned fantastic for those of us who would love to own a vintage instrument but cannot justify or generate the funds now required to do so. This rather excellent recreation of their 1961 Olympic White Stratocaster is going to find a long-term home with me. It is set up beautifully with full attention to period-correct detail as well as a sprinkling of modern appointments like the 5-Way switch and tone control for the bridge pickup. I love it and will be taking it on the road this week for its first tour of duty. Rock on.
If you'd like to see my take on the American Vintage II '57 Sea Foam Green Stratocaster, go to: • Fender: American Vinta...
Today's tools:
Guitar: 2022 Fender American Vintage II Olympic White Stratocaster. Stock.
Amp: Axe-FX III MKII running Cygnus FW 21.00 beta7. Various amp models as per the demonstration.*
Cables: Tube Dude
Strings: Factory 10-46
Mic: DPA 4166-OC-F-F00-ME Headset Mic (www.dpamicroph...) with Sennheiser EWD Transmitter/Receiver (en-us.sennheis...)
Camera: GoPro HERO10 Black and Canon D60
Soundcard: PreSonus Quantum & Fractal Audio Systems Axe-FX III MKII (guitar, mixing and bouncing).
Desktop Monitors: PreSonus R80 R-Series Active AMT Studio Monitors (www.presonus.com)
Computer: 2017 Apple iMac Pro, 2.5 GHz 14-Core Intel Xeon W, 64 GB 2666 MHz DDR4, Radeon Pro Vega 64X 16 GB
*Intro signal path: Strat - Compressor - Klon - Concert 6G12 4x10 combo - Reverb. All modelled in the Axe.
#fractalaudiosystems #fender #stratocaster #vintageguitar
He said "ok one last indulgence" like we might mind. Thats why were here my man. That's why were here.
Best guitar I’ve ever touched, possibly. I didn’t think I liked thinner necks until I bought this guitar. It’s perfect in the hand.
I've watched loads of reviews of this guitar but I think this is the best. You get the best variety of tones to show what the guitar can do.
Mine is an absolute gem & after having a Mexican for 5 years you can really tell the difference in the pick ups especially the bridge. Goes so well with my $40 fuzz pedal on the neck pick up is such a joy & get goosebumps with that tone🤟
) I love my Mexican 21 y.o. fossile very much and wouldn't trade it for anything. But from this review, I can only say oh, in a good way. ;)
So it goes!
I got the '61 sunburst AVII and it's exactly as you describe!! Such a gem of an instrument. Your playing is outstanding!! Love the tones!
I’ve wanted one since they came out, and it sounds great. But (luckily for me) I came across an old (2001) Classic Series 70’s reissue in 3 tone burst that someone had put an old set of Texas Specials in, from what I can tell at least, nothing else fits the criteria of their readings and pole pieces, that is maybe the best sounding Strat I’ve ever owned. And I’ve had most of the previous American reissues like the American Original and the Wildwood ThinSkin AV’s and other nitro finished guitars that were great as well. Not to mention I’ve always hated the 70’s models 😂. But I happened across this one and it’s special. Thankfully it has saved me about $1,700 lol
Great playing as always! Friend of mine from school had a brother that was a very good guitarist and he had a real 1961 just like this. Awesome!
I have a Fiesta red one on pre- order, missed out on the first releases, now I have to wait, patience, patience. It’s about time Fender gave people what they want, & clearly this is one of them. Great review.
Did you get it and if so: how did you like it?
@@vyvynylification Hi. I was prepared for a long wait, however the dealer I had my order in with put their demo model up for sale. I took a chance on its condition, as I wasn’t too worried about a few marks from light use, and also it was one from the first issue. I wasn’t disappointed. Only one small blemish in the paint on the back, otherwise mint. I had seen other reviewers also remarking on poor quality control on these models, the worst being sloppy neck pockets and gaps. No such problem with mine, it’s perfect. Overall, I’m delighted. Although now only for home use, it’s my main go-to. I’ve had many Strats, I still have my main one for many years, a well worn ‘57 AVRI from 1982, a Road worn 60’s, and a Strat Pro2. This Vintage 2 is up there with my AVRI, & I can’t recommend enough. Many thanks for your question.
Lovely guitar, I just got a used American original 60s(also Olympic white) and am very impressed. Judging by the viddy it sounds better than a lot of 60s Stratocasters. I put some hand wound "Dipper" pickups in mine and it makes it even better. Great viddy thanks.
It sounds Stratolicious 🎸 😈
Love the mint green pick guard with Olympic white!🙂
You are a Beast. In the best way.
That axe is a Beauty.
Cheers 🍻
That’s a lovely guitar Brett. Sounds ands looks the part for sure. I’d really like the American Vintage II - 1973 in Lake Placid Blue with Rosewood neck but it’s not an option unfortunately. These look like really great guitars.
if the leaks are true, the upcoming mim vintera 2 series looks to have a lake placid blue strat with rosewood. i think its 60s though
AV2 stuff sounds so crispy. I’ve got the Jazzmaster 7-1/2 lb’s, had to snatch it up and it’s phenomenal.
Bet it sounds GLORIOUS thru that Magnatone Twilighter Stereo!!!!!!!
I was just checking out your gig schedule with James. You’re going to busy for the next month for sure!!!! None near Canberra though so I can’t come see you. Have a great tour. Maybe we can see some behind the scenes??
Josh Owen, our guitarist/singer extraordinaire, is in charge of all things social media and 'behind the scenes'. Give him a yell at Facebook/Instagram and let him know you want a peek! Cheers, Mark.
@@BrettKingman Unfortunately I’ve never had faceplant or instagram & not planning on any time soon. Fly under the radar!!
I love your Reviews! Greetings from Germany ;)
Brett: ''I've got a JTM45 here with a bit of Fuzz Face dialed in'' 6:52
Me: ''Now we're talkin''
Thanks! I've been checking the reviews/demos. This is nicely done. Just got on the waiting list for one. Hoping it's less than a year.
Always a wicked video Brett! Thanks!!!
i always say thanks when someone plays the dan
I came so close to purchasing this guitar. However, I went with a PRS Silver Sky due to its larger frets, rounded block on the body/neck joint the square one that can hit your hand on the corner on the higher frets. Plus it has locking tuners, satin neck and no ice pick back pick up.
Whats is your favorite?? This or silver?
The Silver Sky I prefer mich over the Fender Vintage II. The workmanship is better, no dead spots, option of a maple or rosewood neck, locking tuners, improved whammy bar and no ice pick back pickup
Awesome job Brett and some great riffs to boot! Cheers
Really would like this exact guitar.
The clay dots are too cool.😎👍
The radius isn't what I'm used to now, but could get into easily again 😉
If only it had a flamey neck😉
May have make room for this one😁
Thanks for showing my future guitar 😎👍❤🖖
Flamey necks can be a problem in places where the weather shifts extremes - cold, warm, humid, hot. They move and require adjustment far more often (in my experience) than plain old tight-grained necks. I go for quartersawn maple if it's available because it's stiff and sturdy. But if it warps, then it's harder to correct too. Wood: A game of chance sometimes!
@@BrettKingman
So very true...😎👍
But they do look so very cool🤣
Flame neck or not..
I'm still scheming on how to get this guitar. It has everything included that I've tried to add to another in the stable😉
😎👍❤😞
It is my understanding from information from within Fender that they are still using Poly as a sealer and then spraying Nitro over the Poly which for me means that in the long run the finish will not wean in like the vintage ones did, once you hit the Poly that's as far as it goes. If this isn't a concern for you then they seem good, enjoy.
Beautiful thing....Excellent demonstrator...jam on.
Fantastic demo and awesome playin...could listen to you all day. Yep ... just bought mine on-line after watching you play this. Can't wait til she arrives. Cheers
thanks for the video! i’m enjoying my sunburst AV2 strat, great guitars!
Great review and Awesome tones good Sir! Thank you.
Awesome review…loved the last part with gain…OMG😮👍
Still adoring my 65 Avri Strat.
mine should arrive in a few days thanks for the review : )
I just picked one of these up from the Sweetwater scratch-n-dent, so $500 off. The guitar is not here yet, but this video confirms that I made a good choice.
Man I just ordered one Brett lol you sold me on this . I got my American original after your demo of that too .
This never ends lmao.....
Great walkthrough!
Most comes out of the amp and the fingers. well played!
Nice. I just got one and love it. Set up was perfect. JTM sounds awesome!!
Truly a classic. The tone is as one would expect, the design is simply timeless, and the construction/materials incomparable. Cheers!
Man I wish I lived somewhere that had some of these in store to tryout
Were the 50's/60's Fender Strats the epitome of design and execution...so good that guitar design, electronics, building practices, etc, etc stopped evolving?
I bought a mine (same spec) here in Scotland UK last month. Have to say, factory setup was a riot...I've had the neck off maybe 5 times already (truss rod adjuster is at the neck heel) and I'm about 90% of the way to getting the action / relief balance sorted. That said, I reckon it's a keeper.
Great review.
So, would you consider truss rod adjustment set-it-and-forget-it? Fender seems to, but not sure I would.
@@RideAcrossTheRiver absolutely will need to be periodically reset (as the seasons change usually). But off the shelf it was terrible.
@@nigelsmith721 So, for a $2900 guitar, we are cranking out heel bolts several times a year!
@@RideAcrossTheRiver I’d say twice a year if it’s home use only but, yeah…
On that scale I’m already in 2025.
Wtf ??! How can you be happy with that ? I’ve played and seen perfectly factory setuped SQUIERS, yes SQUIER !!
I'm after the three tone burst version. I think it will complement my Olympic White 2009 Road Worn nicely!
Also, great playing, sir.
I snagged one of the two that apparently were briefly "in stock" on the Fender website for approximatedly a picosecond Friday.
@@stevedavis8329 same Davis got my olympic white just yesterday for the nano second they were available. Had to call fender to confirm I wasn’t dreaming
I really want that model
Awesome gee tar
Hmm 🤔 very nice
Christmas is just around the corner, I know what I want now 🤘
Great review Brett! Thank you. This thing would look even better w/ relic'd or dulled hardware. The chromed out hardware and screws are a bit too blingy.
You said out loud that your keeping it mate. No hiding that from the wife 😂
First of all, amazing playing!
I ordered a set of the Pure Vintage 61 pickups for my 60s Road Worn strat.
Beautiful guitar! Rather have the 9.25; but at least they used taller frets than original. Some people, you can never satisfy ... including me, I guess!! Those polepieces appear to be beveled. That's COOL. And listen to THAT ... "There's the back pickup"! Old school terminology! Love it. But I'd have to raise that bridge a bit ...
Great video! Thanks for posting! This makes me a bit less nervous about buying a 2k guitar without touching it first! Although they changed the photo of the sunburst from the preorder I placed , same photo you posted vs what it looks like now on Sweetwater.
Three things stop me from buying one of these - 7¼" radius, medium C profile (too thick for me - I like the modern C), and heel-end truss adjustment. She's definitely a beauty though.
Fair enough. All of those elements are reasons to love it for me. I'm old enough to feel familiar with it, I guess. But I still love the slick, modern stuff. Plenty of performance guitars here. (If I could just learn to perform!)
The radius and frets are what they are but I hear you (and the heel truss rod adjustment is a massive ball ache). It’s in my “collection” to provide sounds that I don’t have from elsewhere - I’ll just have to readjust things / headspace when I play it but I think it’s worth having for the positives.
That's the reason why Fender still produces American Original series. When the AmOr series launched, so many people said: why it ain't 7.25" radius yada yada...........
Or another alternative should be Fender Japan Hybrid II
@@beefysinglecut
The American Original Series has been discontinued.
Niiiiiiiice 👌👍
Damn you Kingman now I want one! 😁
Cuanto Delay y cuánto reverb es suficiente para que todas las guitarras suenen igual?
Una maravilla de 2300$ no hace falta ser enmascarada. Menos aun en un video promocional. Sí la idea es animar a que la compres, no es mejor dejarla sonar por sí misma, sin trucos?
First,! Omg just incredible playing as usual Brett! Would you say the neck is correct size and thickness wise? Id appreciate knowing. Thanks brother.
Yeah, I would say it was right. Fender are understandably particular about getting that sort of detail right. Although the early ones were all a little different because they were hand-finished. So they all have their own personality which is one of the reasons they're sought after, I guess. But this is definitely in the correct ballpark, for sure.
Have heard other reviewers lamenting the vintage frets. Fender has them listed as "vintage tall", and from your close-up shots, they look bigger than true vintage style to me. What do you think? I prefer a little larger than vintage, but not as tall as 6105.
wow sounds nice i like it and the 73 not sure which one i like better i like the c profile on this one the 73 is a c also but i believe not as deep
Looks like fender really got this one right
Don't forget you have to take off the neck to adjust the truss rod.
This one and the American Pro 2 are just outstanding
@@RideAcrossTheRiver that’s ridiculous… someone is saying in the comments that the factory setup is horrible… that’s definitely a No Go for me
@@hatbeny it’s not that ridiculous, it caters to those who prefer vintage specs on fender guitars, so the specs are indeed vintage
@@JMRMusic01 it’s the combo : unreachable truss rod + bad factory setup…
Fantastic playing. I Just discovered your channel and subscribed. I see one of the comments mentioned you also have an American Original 60’s Series Strat. I own one as well. It’s a great guitar. I am enamored with the Pure Vintage 65 Gray Bottom pickups. They are my favorite Fender Strat pickups to date. If you could only choose one b/w the 2 models? Any info at all (strengths vs weaknesses) b/w the 2 would be greatly appreciated. There are probably a lot of players out there that are interested in this as well. Thanks & All the Best.
That’s some heavy riffing after the 7 min mark!
very nice
Hi Brett and greetings to you from Ireland. I'm a big fan of your playing, channel, and reviews and the Strat in this video seems like a very nice guitar. I'd like to ask you how you'd set up a clean sound - (as in where you'd set the bass middle and treble controls) - on a clean-sounding amp like a Fender Twin or something similar to get a nice Strat or Tele tone without the "spiky" highs. I'm generally a single coil lover as I think it's a more "personal" sound than humbuckers and I'd appreciate your advice or that of any of your subscribers. Cheers!
Silver sky is making fender pay attention. STILL 2 GRAND.
Similar to your old ebmm cutlass. Do you prefer it over the ebmm. And why > differences ? thanks.
I still own the Cutlass and all of the EBMM guitars. They're amazing instruments, but there's nothing quite like the real thing. Differences include fretboard radius, the EBMM silent circuit (that I wish I could turn off occasionally - buffer...) and looks. I love the original look.
@@BrettKingman I have a Cutlass and I was thinking of removing the pickups (and associated magic) and throwing in a set of Kinman something (I have Magnum Opus '59 in another guitar and some older 56/62 in another). Should I leave it as stock or just go for it and have a fiddle?
@@jeffcookdotau The Cutlass pickups are pretty sweet, Jeff. I'd love them more if I could defeat the silent circuit with the switch of a toggle. Chris Kinman's pickups are amazing too, but even he is rarely satisfied and is always improving them. If resale is a consideration, I'd leave your Cutlass stock or at least able to be put back to stock without any mods or war wounds.
it would make a great vid ! thanks.
👍🏻👍🏻
I got a American original 60s just like yours Brett.Hows does this feel compared to the American original?
The neck is a little less chunkasaurus on this guy, Bill. More of a petite C shape.
Do you have problems with it fretting out up high compared to American Original 9.5 radius?
Can you make a video also for vintage II 73? I wonder ur opinion. Thank you sir
Out of all the guitars you own; If you could only keep one. What guitar would that be ?
Crikey. I think the house and possibly the entire block would burn down before I could decide. I'll have to think about that one and plan for the disaster...
goodgo mate
My dream guitar is two tone sunburst with rosewood fingerboard, too bad its still 3 tone
Wonder how this compare to the earlier American vintage I 😊
Did you leave the pickup height as is from the factory? Or did you alter them at all?
Do you have any issiues using the axe tuner on this guitar? My unit acts funny when i plug this lovely strat. Cant figure out the problem. Same thing happens when i lower the pickups all the way down so not the pickups issiue. My guitar also come up with the bridge being tilted all the way forward. Looks like not every guitar has perfect setup included :D
How does this Vintage II compare with an Ultra ?
But is it possible to intentionally scratch or wear down this nitro? Or even if we sand it or intentionally scratch it, will it not wear down? Just to better understand the nitro of this model.
Can't answer that, I'm sorry. You'll have to buy one and wreck it yourself to find out. This one's staying as is.
@@BrettKingman Hahaha, I don't think I can do that! Do you at least know if its Olympic white heat will change to a more yellowish one?
Sounds epic she's a beut 😎
that small side neck gap gives me anxiety.. besides that the guitar is beautiful
Which one would you keep, that 1961 or the 1957?
Full personality, on miteel band toald king
This sexy beaut is 10 out of 10 in my book. Outstanding demo per usual. 👍👏
Do you think that AV61 had 3 or the standard 5 springs in it?
It has 3. Other differences from the original 1961 include a 5 position switch (versus a 3), dedicated bridge pickup tone knob.
So Fender CAN build a period correct strat...if they want to
What are the reverb settings ?
I don't believe they used narrow tall frets in 1961. I own 2,, 1962 Fender Stratocaster, which used the smallest wire available, in 61,62 Stratocasters,,not narrow tall frets in 61 or 62, there's med.jumbo wire then, no narrow tall.. If they used it it's news beyond me, I've playing almost 60 yrs. I own a 1962 original Fender Stratocaster and a 63, both come with smallest fretwire available.or a med jumbo wire, that were taller, but alot wider. That was it according to fender & my experience..
Conta costa?
Mine has already started to be more blonde now then Olympic white. Has this happened to anyone else
It sounds terrible I have to say. My toenails are standing up. Wiry, no resonance…I have ordered one and will see in some weeks when it arrives.
We all look forward to your video.
@@BrettKingman😂
It's a shame that Fender puts the Fender logo on the headstock of this guitar with a sticker and that for a guitar of more than two thousand euros or dollars!
Fuckkkk I don’t know if I want this colour or the sunburst
Truss rod adjustment in the heel of the neck? 🤬me.
Otherwise, looks 🤬ing fantastic.
Another imitation by Fender. Those dots look ridiculous, the chrome plating on the trem looks cheap and yet again we get the poly undercoat. All of these period incorrect details for a mere 2200$. Also from what I am witnessing these are well into 8Lbs+ territory.
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