Fender California Series (USA)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fender California Series (USA)
Manufacturer Fender
Period 1997—1998
Construction
Body type Solid
Neck joint Bolt-on
Woods
Body Alder
Neck Tinted Maple
Fretboard Rosewood or Maple
Hardware
Bridge Vintage Tremolo
Pickup(s) Tex Mex, S/S/S, S/S/H
Colors available
Fiesta Red, Candy Apple Red, Brown Sunburst, Black, Vintage White

Fender California Series electric guitars were produced by Fender in 1997 and 1998.

Contents

[edit] General features

  • Vintage style “C” profile neck with a 9 1/2" radius.
  • 21 medium jumbo frets.
  • Vintage tremolo, tuners and 4 bolt neck plate.
  • 3 Ply WBW pickguard.
  • 25 1/2" scale length.

[edit] History

Manufactured from 1997 to 1998 by Fender, the California Series Stratocaster, Telecaster and bass models were a joint effort between Fenders USA Corona plant and Fenders Mexican Ensenada plant. The body and neck parts were made in the USA Corona plant and then the finishing and painting was done at the Mexican Ensenada plant and then final assembly and quality control was done at the USA Corona plant.

[edit] Technical Information

The Fender California Series have USA vintage style tremolos and tuners and other hardware. The tremolo bridge spacing is the same as the Fender USA vintage bridge spacing 2 3/16". The Fender California Series Stratocaster bodies are routed for a single neck/single middle/bridge humbucking pickup configuration and have a polyester paint finish. They do not have the infamous "swimming pool" rout. The single coil pickups used on the Stratocaster model are Fender Tex Mex, in a usual 3 single coil arrangement or a 2 single coil and 1 Fender USA bridge humbucker Fat Strat arrangement. The California Series Telecaster model uses a Fat Tele pickup arrangement with a Fender USA humbucker neck pickup and a Tex Mex bridge pickup. The serial numbers are in an AMXN + 6 digits format. The Fender California Series have "Made in USA" on the headstock.

[edit] Sources

  • Fender Catalogues.

[edit] External links