Fender has been offering lower end American made instrument since the early year 2000. It started with Highway One where it’s a mixture of American and Mexican made parts that were assembled/finished in Corona factory . Later on the line was replaced American Special in around 2010, and eventually the line evolved into American Performer line in 2018. Although they’re all most likely put together by Mexican workers in the factory despite it’s in Mexico or Corona .. but having the name American on the instrument just seemed a tad more sexier ..
Background
This is the lower end American line . General feel of the carpentry work seemed on par with most of their mass produced instruments. They’re all pretty much done on the same CNC machine.
The hardware seemed to be not as fine even they looked the same as the ones on American Professional , Overall feel, preciseness of the screws and turning keys just don’t feel as good as their fancier brothers . They’ve came up with this new Yosemite pickups and that was a surprise for me ..
Specs
- Alder body in Poly finish
- maple neck with rosewood fingerboard.
- Propriety Yosemite pickup in PJ configuration
- V/V/T Control , all Passive
Playbility
It’s decent overall .. in general they’re just not as finely polished as the higher end brothers. I guess they’re cutting down labour hours to compensate the price point. Some shrinkages on the fingerboard edge with scratchy fret spouts, a quick dressing fixed that .. The neck profile is modern C and feels comfortable and easy to play.
Sound
The Yosemite pickups are a big surprise .. They are very smooth and focus sounding . alnico 5 magnet in medium-hot wounding. Not necessary hot nor Vintage spec. Has a sweet ping on the upper mid, while things sounded compressed naturally in nice way that makes it very very easy to play and got great sound almost in all settings.
Thoughts
I first thought it’s just another alder/maple/rosewood fender , and ended up got blown away by the package .. this is something I never had with the Highway One and American Special . It sound great alone and even better in live setup . The build quality is okay, can be finer .. and it also leaves room to upgrade the hardware to make it next level.
Gallery
Video