Fender Special Edition Lite Ash Stratocaster Guitar Review

Fender, though it has remained extremely popular over the last 50 years, recently decided to open up its market and reach out to those guitarists who are neither beginners or professionals. For those serious about the music they play and make, but don't necessarily have the money to spend, say, a thousand dollars for an American made Fender guitar. In response to this group, Fender outsourced some of its work and assembly plants to Korea in an effort to make high quality guitars for a lower price. One example of what they made is the Fender Special Edition Lite Ash Stratocaster. Let's take a closer look at it to determine how it measures up against its American made cousins.

Features: The body of the Special Edition Lite Ash Stratocaster, as evinced by the name of the model, is made of light ash wood. This is relatively uncommon among Fenders. They normally use alder wood to make their guitars. There are two finishes available with the Lite Ash Strat, including a natural finish with no real paint, and a midnight ebony finish. On both types, the pickguard and pickups are all black. The neck is made of "highly figured" maple, meaning only a certain type of grain pattern is selected. The fretboard on both finishing options is made of maple, and has twenty two medium jumbo frets with abalone dot inlays. The abalone dot inlays tell me that there was a lot of care taken into the finish and looks of the Lite Ash Strat. The manufacturer, honestly, did a very good job. All of the hardware on the Lite Ash Strat, including the tuning heads, six saddle tremolo bridge, is polished chrome. Electronically, the Light Ash Stratocaster has three Seymour Duncan single coil pickups, a five way selector switching system, and one volume and two tone control knobs.

Playability: This guitar is called the Lite Ash Stratocaster for a reason. That reason is,well, it's really light. It weighs only eight pounds, so you can play with it on your shoulder pretty much for as long as you want. Out of the factory, the action and intonation is set up nicely, and the strings are nice and loose to make for easy bending. Additionally, the neck has a slim profile to allow for easy playing and fast runs up and down the neck.

Sound: The Seymour Duncan pickups on the Lite Ash Stratocaster are, in a word, impressive. They have a tonal range nearly unparalleled by foreign made guitars. Also, they are bound perfectly. You can get some blazing distorted tones, or on the other end of the spectrum nice and cool clean tones as well.

Overall: If you're looking to find a high grade instrument with a steep price deduction, the Fender Special Edition Lite Ash Stratocaster is a good way to go. It has unique looks, a very light and airy feel, and a sound that is easily manipulated into whatever you want it to be. You can find the Lite Ash Strat in music stores for around $630.