New affordable US Fender series

[Chris P.]

A secret until next week. Fender wanted to announce a new series at the NAMM, but it's ready, so it will be available soon. I can't say much yet, but it will be the cheapest US series with some offsets and a P, J, and Mustang Bass. The Mustang might be PJ. Figuring that out now.

[Dave W]

I can't imagine where they can cut costs compared to the American Specials unless they cheap out on the finishes. We shall see.

The American Specials have gone up in price but IMHO they're still bargains. Only problem for bassists is that they never promoted the Am Special basses and wound up discontinuing them.

[Chris P.]

These  - I think Performers - will be the new Specials, so just a new name. But also new models, like offsets and a Mustang Bass.

[Dave W]

If they're equal to the Am Specials in quality at no higher price, that will be great.

[Rob]

I would expect wood varieties (poplar painted) and less contouring/finishing.

[Dave W]

Here's an announcement from The Music Zoo.

American Performer

[Rob]

There goes my theory about painted only

[Dave W]

I searched "Fender American Performer" and came up with two links from yesterday.

eBay listing for a Jazzmaster, already pulled "because there was an error in the listing." That probably means they weren't allowed to list it yet. The photos in the listing include one from Fender's website, but that page isn't actually live on Fender's website yet.

The listed price was $1000 which confirms to me that this is a replacement for the American Special line, which was down to Strat and Tele only.

Thread on the Offset Guitars forum with lots of small pics, including some basses.

[Chris P.]

A Jazz, a PJ, and a Mustang with Mustang Splits and J.

[Rob]

A Jazz, a PJ, and a Mustang with Mustang Splits and J.

That should place some pressure on Gibson to maintain $$$

[slinkp]

Here's an announcement from The Music Zoo.

American Performer

Apparently still premature? I saw it when you posted it but that page is gone now.

[Dave W]

Apparently still premature? I saw it when you posted it but that page is gone now.

Seems so. Searching Reverb shows no listings either.

[Dave W]

After Chris P. posted this thread, Thornton posted the news at TB. I see that it's now a huge thread, complete with the usual Fender-hating trolls and dreamers with unrealistic expectations.

Turns out that even though the line still hasn't been announced, Guitar Center has received a few hundred, and somebody at TB has bought one of the new P-basses - actually it's a P/J but it's called a Precision - with a maple neck. He posted pics of the bass and the price tag, it's $1199 including a gig bag, which he says is substandard. That's a couple hundred higher than the last price of the Am Special P. And for that you get a satin finish, compared to the gloss of the Am Special.

This doesn't seem like a very good deal to me. That's only $150 less than an American Pro with maple neck, and that comes with a gloss finish and a hard case. Unless Fender plans a big price increase for the Am Pro, I don't see a happy future for these basses.

[doombass]

I agree with Dave on the pricing. I recon it all comes down to preferences and calculation. If you want a new Fender, you like satin finishes and prefer a traditional bridge over the modern higher mass bridge, along with always using your favorite well padded gigbag you're pretty much set to go. The economical calculation is trickier. I suspect these will fetch a quite low value used. Once it leaves the store you're facing the risk of losing a lot more than you'd do on a pro model.

[Dave W]

OTOH it might boost the used value of my American Special Tele.    I won't be selling it though.