EXACTLY. The American Standard line is nothing more than the CURRENT standard way to build a Fender, and has always been, Fender has been pretty blunt about this since the early `80s. And it would be idiocy in marketing (if not the most ultimate fail ever) to have your standard issue instrument decked out with all the 1:1 vintage correct features that in part cost you as a manufacturer more to produce, and still try to sell "traditional", "vintage", "Closet Classic", or similar product lines for a higher price.
There is zero point is spending 1500-2k for a guitar when I can play 20 800 dollar guitars until I find the one with good wood that is then truly EXACTLY the same thing for a fraction of the price. That´s like pricing Car x in red at 200k, but car x in a random color only costs 80k from the same dealer and you can order until you find one you like. So you keep ordering and backing out until you get a red one, save a boatload, and have exactly the same thing for a fraction of the price.
This is one of the reasons most cheaper instruments do not have the same quality of hardware or even even the same specs as the same manufacturer´s high end models, so that it`s nearly impossible to truly get "the exact same thing for less". Everything else is marketing suicide, and with it financial suicide .
mg:
