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Post subject: New for 2016
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 9:16 am
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Have been hankering for a tele for a while and am loving the look of the new American Elite telecaster especially in tobacco with a RW neck

http://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/electric_ ... 1291751002

I also wonder if the Select series is making a comeback too for 2016?

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Post subject: Re: New for 2016
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 12:08 pm
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Strat Boy wrote:
Have been hankering for a tele for a while and am loving the look of the new American Elite telecaster especially in tobacco with a RW neck

http://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/electric_ ... 1291751002

I also wonder if the Select series is making a comeback too for 2016?


Haven't seen anything about the Select series - but they were really designed to be "1-year" models anyway so Fender could try out some different things. While the series lasted for 3 years, the individual models were different each year.

These new "Elites" are really just the next generation of American Deluxes; they don't have anything to do with original Elites. As to why Fender's marketing department decided to bring back the Elite name instead of continuing the American Deluxe your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps because the neck design/construction is radically different from the previous models (truss rod adjuster is the wheel style at the neck heel, the new "C-to-D" shape, etc.).


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Post subject: Re: New for 2016
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 12:11 pm
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That is a fine looking geetar! Beautiful top, but 13 hundred pounds seems steep.

T2

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Post subject: Re: New for 2016
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 2:57 pm
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T2Stratman wrote:
That is a fine looking geetar! Beautiful top, but 13 hundred pounds seems steep.

T2


Were I a betting man I would put my money on the MAP for the alder bodied ones being $1,799.99 and the ash ones being $1,849.99 here in the USA. It seems like that is was about a 100 pound bump in the UK.


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Post subject: Re: New for 2016
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 11:43 pm
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The new Elites had nothing to do with their 1980s ancestors.

Bass fans are impatient to see a matching trio of Precisions, Jazzes and Dimensions in 4 and 5-string versions.


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Post subject: Re: New for 2016
Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2016 7:20 am
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chromeface wrote:
The new Elites had nothing to do with their 1980s ancestors.

Bass fans are impatient to see a matching trio of Precisions, Jazzes and Dimensions in 4 and 5-string versions.


I think the info on the entire line is going to be released on January 21 - that's opening day of the NAMM show. It's interesting that the guitars have leaked, but as you say nothing yet on the basses.

To bring this back to Tele-land - it also appears that you can now get an American Special Tele in sunburst with the rosewood fingerboard for 2016, so they are playing around a bit with the colors and fingerboard options on that series. I spotted that one on one of those UK sites that already has the American Elite guitars up.


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Post subject: Re: New for 2016
Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 5:30 am
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The Autumn Blaze Metallic finish looks great!

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Post subject: Re: New for 2016
Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 9:53 pm
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It appears that the Fender "American Elite Series" will replace the "American Deluxe Series" for 2016.
The primary redesign of the American Elite Telecaster involve:

-- New 4th generation Noiseless pickups, replace the N3 noiseless pickups;
-- All short-post tuning machines, to provide increased string break angle between the nut and tuning machines;
-- A redesigned rectangular string tree, replacing the round, button style string tree on the headstock
-- A redesigned rear contour belly cut, which appears to have slightly less wood removed from the middle of the cut to the top of the cut;
-- Fret markers that may be slightly larger;
-- A new truss rod adjusting wheel located at the front, butt end of the neck.

Fender is apparently billing the new 4th generation Fender Noiseless Pickups as representing "a quantum leap in pickup design".
However, the new truss rod adjusting wheel, located at the butt end of the neck, is probably the most interesting redesign on the American Elite Series Guitars.
It looks like Fender may provide a small tool, or hex key, to use as a small pry bar, to turn the truss rod adjusting wheel.
Here is a picture of the new truss rod adjusting wheel.

Image


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Post subject: Re: New for 2016
Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 7:28 am
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MickJagger wrote:
It appears that the Fender "American Elite Series" will replace the "American Deluxe Series" for 2016.
The primary redesign of the American Elite Telecaster involve:

-- New 4th generation Noiseless pickups, replace the N3 noiseless pickups;
-- All short-post tuning machines, to provide increased string break angle between the nut and tuning machines;
-- A redesigned rectangular string tree, replacing the round, button style string tree on the headstock
-- A redesigned rear contour belly cut, which appears to have slightly less wood removed from the middle of the cut to the top of the cut;
-- Fret markers that may be slightly larger;
-- A new truss rod adjusting wheel located at the front, butt end of the neck.

Fender is apparently billing the new 4th generation Fender Noiseless Pickups as representing "a quantum leap in pickup design".
However, the new truss rod adjusting wheel, located at the butt end of the neck, is probably the most interesting redesign on the American Elite Series Guitars.
It looks like Fender may provide a small tool, or hex key, to use as a small pry bar, to turn the truss rod adjusting wheel.
Here is a picture of the new truss rod adjusting wheel.

Image


That style works really well; I've had maybe 8 Ernie Ball/Music Man guitars over the years (plus a Peavey Wolfgang - my lone foray into Floyd Rose territory) that have used a similar type of truss rod adjuster. All you need is anything small that will fit into the holes and won't break - even a small nail will work. I have a tiny Phillips head screwdriver (I think it might have originally been for adjusting/repairing glasses) that worked perfectly, as does just about any allen wrench that will fit in the holes. I will say that only one of my EBMMs needed semi-annual adjustments; the rest of them were rock-solid.

The one thing you're missing in that rundown is the neck shape - it's being described as a "C-to-D" shape - starting out as a "C" and flattening to a "D".


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Post subject: Re: New for 2016
Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 3:06 pm
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MickJagger wrote:
It appears that the Fender "American Elite Series" will replace the "American Deluxe Series" for 2016.
The primary redesign of the American Elite Telecaster involve:

-- New 4th generation Noiseless pickups, replace the N3 noiseless pickups;
-- All short-post tuning machines, to provide increased string break angle between the nut and tuning machines;
-- A redesigned rectangular string tree, replacing the round, button style string tree on the headstock
-- A redesigned rear contour belly cut, which appears to have slightly less wood removed from the middle of the cut to the top of the cut;
-- Fret markers that may be slightly larger;
-- A new truss rod adjusting wheel located at the front, butt end of the neck.

Fender is apparently billing the new 4th generation Fender Noiseless Pickups as representing "a quantum leap in pickup design".
However, the new truss rod adjusting wheel, located at the butt end of the neck, is probably the most interesting redesign on the American Elite Series Guitars.
It looks like Fender may provide a small tool, or hex key, to use as a small pry bar, to turn the truss rod adjusting wheel.
Here is a picture of the new truss rod adjusting wheel.

Image


This should go in the NAMM 2016 thread - nice!

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Post subject: Re: New for 2016
Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 5:06 pm
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that's a nifty rod adjustment, I wonder how many people will over do it?


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Post subject: Re: New for 2016
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2016 2:06 am
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The products page in the international websites must be fixed, the regular Elite Telecaster is listed in the basses section, showing an HTTP 404 error message.

I keep getting a nasty "no image available" error everytime I click on the picture links.


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Post subject: Re: New for 2016
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2016 6:54 pm
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John C wrote:
The one thing you're missing in that rundown is the neck shape - it's being described as a "C-to-D" shape - starting out as a "C" and flattening to a "D".

I saw that neck shape description, but I wasn't sure as to whether the current Deluxe Series, compound radius necks were shaped in that manner, so I omitted that description as being a new feature.

Do you think that there is any advantage, function wise or production cost wise, to having a truss rod adjusting wheel at the butt end of the neck, as opposed to a hex hey adjuster in the head stock?
Or do you think the truss rod adjusting wheel just a novel design for Fender that is incorporated because it is "new" and different?
Esthetically, I think I prefer the truss rod adjuster in the headstock.


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Post subject: Re: New for 2016
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2016 7:16 pm
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MickJagger wrote:
John C wrote:
The one thing you're missing in that rundown is the neck shape - it's being described as a "C-to-D" shape - starting out as a "C" and flattening to a "D".

I saw that neck shape description, but I wasn't sure as to whether the current Deluxe Series, compound radius necks were shaped in that manner, so I omitted that description as being a new feature.

Do you think that there is any advantage, function wise or production cost wise, to having a truss rod adjusting wheel at the butt end of the neck, as opposed to a hex hey adjuster in the head stock?
Esthetically, I think I prefer the truss rod adjuster in the headstock.


The American Deluxe necks are the typical Fender "modern C" shape but they have had the compound radius fingerboards since the 2010 version came out. The back shape that changes from a C to a D as you go up is a new thing for the Elites.

Ernie Ball/Music Man has been using that wheel style truss rod adjuster pretty much since they brought out their first guitar model in 1985; I've had 8 of them over the years. While most of them were rock solid one of them would need semi-annual adjustments as the weather changed, and the wheel system works really well. You don't need to find a specific allen wrench; pretty much anything that will fit into the holes will work like a small screwdriver or a nail (of course an allen wrench will work, but you can use any size that will fit in the hole and is sturdy enough to turn the wheel). Also you don't have to worry about stripping the nut by not fitting the allen wrench in correctly, or scratching the headstock.

Fender's application of the technology isn't all that elegant since it's in the middle of the normal overhang past the 22nd fret; that's the way Peavey was doing it on the Wolfgangs (and a few USA models that came out after the Wolfgang), and it is done that way on the EVH Wolfgangs (which of course FMIC builds and distributes for Ed) and they have added this style to the Charvel models. Levinson Blade uses this style, but they used to put a small plastic cover over the wheel.

I think EBMM's version looks better - their necks have 22 (or 24) fret heels so there is no overhang and the wheel is just at the very end of the neck. Here's a photo of one of their Silhouette Special guitars:

Image


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Post subject: Re: New for 2016
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2016 10:03 pm
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John C wrote:
Fender's application of the technology isn't all that elegant since it's in the middle of the normal overhang past the 22nd fret; that's the way Peavey was doing it on the Wolfgangs (and a few USA models that came out after the Wolfgang), and it is done that way on the EVH Wolfgangs (which of course FMIC builds and distributes for Ed) and they have added this style to the Charvel models. Levinson Blade uses this style, but they used to put a small plastic cover over the wheel.

I think EBMM's version looks better - their necks have 22 (or 24) fret heels so there is no overhang and the wheel is just at the very end of the neck.

I agree.
I've seen pictures of EVH Wolfgangs, but never knew there was a wheel there.
I thought that it was just a space to get a wrench in to turn a cross end truss rod, as I thought with the space on the EBMM's.
The EBMM's definitely look much better.


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