California Series by Fender
Fender's California Series electric guitars were produced between 1997 and 1998. The series consisted of Stratocaster, Telecaster, and bass models which were a joint effort between the company's factories in Corona, California, and Ensenada, Mexico. The body and neck parts were made in the United States while the finishing and painting was done in Mexico before their final assembly and quality control in the US. (The neck is adjusted with 3/16" allen wrench rod suggesting that it was manufactured in Mexico.)
The Fender California Series Stratocaster guitars have USA vintage style tremolos and tuners and other hardware. The tremolo bridge spacing is the same as the Fender USA vintage bridge spacing of 2-3/16". The Fender California Series Stratocaster bodies are routed for a single neck/single middle/bridge humbucking pickup configuration and have a polyurathane paint finish. The single coil pickups used on this Stratocaster model are Fender Tex-Mex pickups, in the usual 3-single coil arrangement, or the 2-single coil and 1-humbucker in the bridge position (Fat Strat) arrangement.
The California Series Telecaster model also features vintage hardware such as Kluson-style tuners and a vintage bridge with six individual steel saddles. Medium jumbo frets make string bending and playability by far easier in contrast to the usual thin vintage frets. All Telecaster bodies of this particular series were routed for a humbucker pickup in the neck position. There were two options of the pickup configuration: Either a Fat Tele pickup arrangement with a Fender USA humbucker neck pickup and a Tex Mex bridge pickup or a Stratocaster single coil pickup in the neck position combined with a Tex Mex single coil bridge pickup.
All Fender California Series have 'Made in USA' on the headstock.
