How Fender Transformed the American Standard into a Modern Icon

In the summer of 2000, after thirteen years of loyal service, the American Standard Stratocaster was officially retired. In its place—at least temporarily—Fender introduced a new model: the American Stratocaster, often affectionately referred to as “Mike Lewis’s baby.” However, Lewis, who was Fender’s marketing manager at the time, was quick to clarify that the project had been a team effort. Many individuals within the company had contributed ideas, research, and expertise to bring the American Series to life.
​But what prompted Fender to redesign a guitar that had already proven so successful? After all, the American Standard had become a mainstay in Fender’s lineup and was widely respected among players.

American Series Stratocaster Advert

According to Mike Lewis and fellow marketing manager Richard McDonald, the push for change came from the ground up. Over the years, Fender had received an overwhelming number of suggestions and requests from musicians around the world—players who loved the Stratocaster but envisioned small tweaks and refinements to make it even better.
Instead of simply continuing to patch and revise the existing model, the team recognized that something more comprehensive was needed. Much like Leo Fender and Don Randall had done in the company’s early days—listening to working musicians and incorporating their feedback—Fender’s modern leadership believed it was time to rethink the instrument from the ground up. As Lewis explained, it wasn’t just a matter of adding a new feature here or tweaking something there. The cumulative list of requested improvements had grown so extensive that it called for a fresh start: a new model built to reflect the evolving needs of contemporary players, while still honoring the Stratocaster’s iconic identity.

Mike Lewis

“There had been a few changes over the years it was in the line, but it got to the point where all the features we had been asked for were significant enough to warrant a new model rather than just changing an existing one. It wasn’t just a feature here and another one there. The whole guitar was reinvented. [...] It was based on years of listening to what people were saying.”

Mike Lewis

Dan Smith pointed out that the new Fender, reborn after the 1985 buyout, was now capable of producing guitars of much higher quality than in its early days—thanks to both the experience accumulated over the years and significant advancements in machinery and construction techniques.
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“Through the early ‘90s we were under-capacity to add American-made models because the models we already had were constantly back ordered—we could only do X amount a day. By the time Mike Lewis became marketing manager for guitars [June '95], our capacity had gone up, so we started to expand the line. [...] It looked Ike the American Standard was dropping off a little bit, so we asked ‘What can we do to make it better?’”

Dan Smith

Craftsmanship And Components

At first glance, the new guitar didn’t look much different from its predecessor in the ads—aside from the headstock, which featured the “ORIGINAL Contour Body” decal, and a single string tree instead of the two found on the American Standard. However, a closer look revealed that the tuners had been upgraded to Fender/Schaller Deluxe Staggered Cast/Sealed tuning machines. On the peghead, the first four tuning posts were shorter than the last two—this staggered design created a steeper break angle over the nut, resulting in increased string tension and improved sustain.

New staggered tuning machines

The neck was also slightly different: its modern “C” profile was the same as that of the American Deluxe Series—slightly thicker at the back and rounded along the sides. Where the fretboard met the neck surface, the edges were “rolled over,” a detail achieved through a hand-finishing process. “The rolled edges are an ergonomic thing, a noticeable difference, and a pleasant feel, especially if you play with your thumb over the neck.  It feels like an older neck”, said George Blanda.  There was more handwork on the frets and the nut, too.

The alder body (with ash used for some finishes) no longer featured the “swimming pool” routing typical of the American Standard up to 1998, and instead had an HSH routing. Its contours were also updated, becoming more “curvy,” as Mike Lewis described them. Most importantly, veneered bodies were no longer used, and a thinner finish was applied—polyester for the undercoat and polyurethane for the clear and color coats.
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The pickguard was also changed to white parchment, although black pickguards were used on the Butterscotch Blonde and Chrome Blue finishes—single-ply on the former and three-ply on the latter. 

Electronics and Pickups: from TBX to Delta Tone

The pickups, known as American Strat pickups, were essentially the same as those on the American Standard. The middle pickup remained reverse wound and reverse polarity, but they featured custom staggered pole pieces to better suit the 9.5" fingerboard radius. In the original '50s Stratocasters, the G pole was the tallest, since the G string was then a wound string. However, in modern Stratocasters, the G is a plain string, so its pole piece needed to be slightly lower to maintain proper output balance.
Interestingly, the 2004 catalog listed Tex-Mex pickups as being used on the American Stratocaster—but that was actually just a printing error!
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In terms of electronics, the American Stratocaster differed from the first series of the American Standard by dropping the TBX tone control in favor of the Delta Tone System—which, curiously, was not included on the left-handed models. This system featured a “hotter” bridge pickup and a no-load tone control circuit for the middle and bridge pickups. Unlike the TBX, which had a center detent at position 5, the no-load pot functioned like a regular 250k tone control until position 10. At that point, it effectively removed itself from the circuit, eliminating both tone controls and allowing for a more open, unfiltered treble response.
According to Fender marketing, this setup delivered a wider and brighter tonal range. Even Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen believed that the no-load tone circuit offered a slight increase in output, and he requested that his signature model [the second series] feature the circuit.

As often happens in Fender’s history, there were transitional models between the two series. It wasn’t uncommon to find Stratocasters combining features from both the American Standard and the American Series. In fact, the Delta Tone System had already started replacing the TBX on some American Standard models as early as 1997.

Hot Rodded Versions

Around mid-2003, following the discontinuation of the Hot Rodded American Standard series, humbucker-equipped versions of the American Series were added to the catalog. These included the American Stratocaster HH—featuring a Fender Black Cobra humbucker at the bridge and a Fender Sidewinder at the neck—and the American Stratocaster HSS, which came with a Fender Diamondback humbucker at the bridge and two Tex-Mex single coils in the middle and neck positions.
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At the same time, the S-1 switch was introduced on these models. This discreet push-pull switch, hidden in the volume knob, preserved the guitar’s classic look while expanding its tonal possibilities. It allowed for a variety of functions, such as coil-splitting the humbuckers or enabling new pickup combinations—including activating all pickups at once—either in series or in parallel.

American Series Strats, 2004 Fender catalog

2005 American Series S-1 switch and Delta Tone System (Courtesy of ebaysux, Fender Forum)

Antonio Calvosa

American Stratocaster HSS S-1 switch and control function

American Stratocaster HH S-1 switch and control function

Pickup Wiring in the HSS model

Pickup Wiring in the HH model