Fender Aerodyne Strat
List: $1,240
The Aerodyne Strat, Tele & Bass were initially Japanese only releases but WEF 2004, it’s a standard offering by Fender, under its
Special Edition series. At a glance, the Aero Strat looks totally futuristic but it is actually a fusion of contemporary & vintage elements. So is it still a trustworthy strat by another moniker?
Physically, the Aero Strat features vintage essentials in its overall manifestation. The avant garde appointments are exclusive to the body design. Instead of a rolled-edge make, the body is actually a
slab feature to complement its curved top. This mimics
Ibanez’s SA design, as the Aero Strat retains the flat back. Hence, the forearm chamfer (near the bridge’s tail end) is evidently
missing but the rear
ribcage cut-out is present. The body depth is reduced due to this aerodynamic design evident only if you play sitting down, as there’s less material resting on your lap while you play.
Electronics are typical Strat affair, thankfully the neck+mid or mid+bridge options, are
humbucking. You’d expect modern tuners on the headstock but these are
vintage, Kluson-type units, complemented by a vintage type, single string tree which IMO didn’t mar the overall cosmetics excessively. We have a similar situation with the vibrato bridge, the vintage type string saddles still feature
protruding height adjustment screws which would jab your palm. Bummer… do not expect a thick, rounded ‘C’ profile neck either, the version here has its
depth trimmed to conjure a modern, shred-friendly feel.
Tone-wise, the single coils on offer
aren’t the wide open, jangly affair we’d love coming from a strat. The treble end is polished, the overall tone I must say, sounds inherently
compressed. However, these default medium output pickups are
harmonics-rich, they just need the right drive settings to kick in, splendid both clean & driven.The default action on the test model has a rather high setting but it’s nothing you can’t handle. Frets are
medium sized but big enough to aid blues-type bends & speedy legattos. The pots are rather stiff for a relatively new guitar, hope this isn’t a sure sign of internal corrosion, I’d give this one a benefit of the doubt since the plastic on the scratchplate isn’t removed at test time; it might be getting in the way…
I’d like to say that this Jap Aero Start has one of the highest standard of finish & fitting I’ve seen over the years- flawless. You’d do well to check this guitar out if you are looking for a contemporary strat, one that has refined features to differentiate it from its peers but nothing excessive. If you’d like to acquire a typical strat but prefer a Jap make, there are other more true-sounding models on offer, the Aero simply sounds darker due to its
basswood body & unique sounding single coils. An interesting investment.
