Following on from its Mike McCready signature Stratocaster, Fender is giving more love to Burst finishes with the limited Suona series of Thinline electric guitars and basses. And these are extra special – drawing influence from a legendary instrument builder from centuries ago.
The clue is in the finish name and wood of the Stratocaster Thinline, the Limited Edition Suona Telecaster Thinline, and the Limited Edition Suona Jazz Bass Thinline are all built from ash with Bound Italian Alpine Spruce tops and have nitro Violin Burst finishes.
The Renaissance master violin maker Antonio Stradivari created instruments three centuries ago that now fetch millions of dollars. He picked the Alpine Spruce from the same forests in Italy's Fiamme valley that these instruments use. Rare woods still renowned for offering tonesome properties to instrument builds.
The Suona Strat features a roasted flame maple modern C-shape neck and 7.25"–9.5" compound-radius ebony fingerboard. A custom-designed Suona bridge pickup is paired with Custom Shop ‘69 neck and a vintage-style synchronised tremolo is also included.
The Suona Tele offers the same tone woods and compound radius as the Strat, with a vintage-style 3-saddle Tele bridge with compensated barrel brass saddles. The pickup combo is a Custom-designed Suona Tele neck and Custom Shop Twisted bridge model.
Finally, the semi-hollow ash-bodied Suona Jazz bass features the same compound radius as the guitars with a HiMass Vintage bridge and Custom-designed Suona Jazz Bass pickups.
The guitars are priced at $2,999/£2,799, while the Jazz Bass is $3,099/£2,899. More info at Fender.
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Rob is the Reviews Editor for GuitarWorld.com and MusicRadar guitars, so spends most of his waking hours (and beyond) thinking about and trying the latest gear while making sure our reviews team is giving you thorough and honest tests of it. He's worked for guitar mags and sites as a writer and editor for nearly 20 years but still winces at the thought of restringing anything with a Floyd Rose.