Fender has expanded its premium American Professional II Series with two limited-edition electric guitars, the Telecaster Thinline and Stratocaster Thinline.
The new models take the company’s flagship Strat and Tele outlines and equip them with semi-hollow ash bodies, four-ply tortoiseshell pickguards, and four transparent finishes: Daphne Blue, White Blonde, Surf Green and Shell Pink.
While the Telecaster Thinline is nothing new, this is the first time the semi-hollowbody has appeared in the Am Pro II line.
Fender has made a Stratocaster Thinline before – 2018’s Eric Johnson signature model – but that has since been discontinued, so it’s welcome (and somewhat surprising) to see it make a return here.
Besides the body wood and finish swap, both guitars are spec’d as per their regular incarnations, which first launched back in 2020. This bodes well, given we gave those models a stellar review, commenting “it’s difficult to see how Fender could have improved these further”.
So you get the series’ trademark deep C-shaped neck and 9.5”-radius fingerboards with rolled edges, plus bone nuts, sculpted neck heels and V-Mod II pickups on both.
The Telecaster bolsters this with a push-push tone control that activates a series mode in the middle pickup position for chunkier output a la Danelectro guitars’ middle position.
Its bridge is a top-load/string-through Telecaster bridge with compensated brass “bullet” saddles. The fingerboard is maple across all four finishes.
The Stratocaster, meanwhile, opts for an upgraded 2-point tremolo with cold-rolled steel block for improved sustain. Hitting that push-push tone control adds the neck pickup into positions one and two for rounded, combined bridge and neck tones. If you haven’t encountered these before, they’re a real treat.
There’s also a treble bleed circuit to keep your high-end intact when rolling down the volume control, while all four finishes feature a rosewood fingerboard.
With the grain peeking through those gorgeous pastel aesthetics, these are looking very nice indeed. In fact, they’re so tasty, we had to check twice to make sure we weren’t looking at a Fender Japan launch.
They sound juicy in the video demo, too, with an airy, mid-scooped tone (although session pro Joshua Ray Gooch’s supreme chops help).
The catch is that the American Professional II Telecaster Thinline and Stratocaster Thinline are both limited-edition releases, and as Fender itself states, “These won’t last long!”
Both guitars are available now for $1,949 apiece from retailers and Fender.com – just save some for the rest of us, please…
