Fender Special Edition Noir Stratocaster and Telecaster

I'm not sure how I feel about these...

... but at least Fender is doing something different.

Above is the Fender Special Edition Stratocaster HSS Noir Satin. There is also a Telecaster version, and this is what that looks like:

As far as I can tell, both these guitars are just appearance packages. The Strat is a Mexico-made Fender Standard Stratocaster and the Telecaster is a Mexico-made Fender Standard Telecaster.

The body finishes on these guitars appears to be satin, which results in a dulled gloss and not a high gloss. And I believe the satin urethane finish is on both the body and headstock.

As far as what the pick guard is made of, I've no idea. It has a brushed texture look to it with red outline. Whether it has actual texture or is just a print, that I don't know.

The logo treatment on the headstock appears to be in red text, with the Fender transition logo in either a silver or gold outline (probably silver).

The only weirdness I find here is that the Strat has a half-blackout treatment. The output jack is black but the bridge and saddles are not. As for the Tele, the hardware was kept all in chrome there.

Cool? Not cool? You can be the judge of that.

As for price, each is priced $50 higher than the regular version, which for this appearance package is fair since you never see the red pick guard outlines nor red Fender logo/model text on the headstock.

Published 2017 May 31