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Fender American Performer Telecaster
Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS
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Playability
72
Sound
75
Build
67
Value
71
Score
71
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Playability
70
Sound
79
Build
65
Value
71
Score
71
FIND IT ON:
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Show Full Spec Comparison
Fender American Performer Telecaster vs American Performer Stratocaster HSS Specs Comparison
Fender American Performer Telecaster American Performer Stratocaster HSS
General
Brand: Fender Fender
Year: 2019 2019
Configuration: SS HSS
Strings: 6 6
Made in: United States United States
Series: American Performer American Performer
Colors: White, Blue, Brown Burst Sunburst, Black, Green, Red
Left-Handed Version: No No
Body
Type: Solid Body Solid Body
Body Material: Alder Alder
Bridge: 3-Saddle Vintage-Style Strings-Through-Body Tele with Brass Barrel Saddles 6-Saddle Vintage-Style Synchronized Tremolo
Neck
Neck Joint: Bolt-On Bolt-On
Tuners: Fender ClassicGear American Performer
Fretboard: Rosewood Rosewood
Neck Material: Maple Maple
Decoration: White Dot White Dot
Scale Size: 25.5" 25.5"
Shape: Modern C Modern C
Thickness: 1st Fret: 0.82'' (20.8mm) - 12th Fret: 0.87'' (22.1mm) 1st Fret: 0.82'' (20.8mm) - 12th Fret: 0.87'' (22.1mm)
Frets: 22 Jumbo Nickel Silver 22 Jumbo Nickel Silver
Fretboard Radius: 9.5" 9.5"
Nut: Synthetic Bone Synthetic Bone
Nut Width: 42.8mm (1.685'') 42.8mm (1.685'')
Electronics
Bridge Pickups: Fender Yosemite Single-Coil Telecaster (Single Coil / Passive) Fender Double Tap Humbucking (Humbucker / Passive)
Middle Pickup: Fender Yosemite Single-Coil Stratocaster (Single Coil / Passive)
Neck Pickup: Fender Yosemite Single-Coil Telecaster (Single Coil / Passive) Fender Yosemite Single-Coil Stratocaster (Single Coil / Passive)
Switch: 3 Way 5 Way
Knobs: Dome Bell
Pickup Mods: None Coil Split
Volume Controls: 1 1
Tone Controls: 1 2
Hardware
Strap Lock: No No
Hardware Color: Chrome Chrome
Show Diagrams Comparison
Fender American Performer Telecaster pickups switch and push knobs diagram
Fender American Performer Telecaster's switch options
Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS pickups switch selector and push knobs diagram
Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS's switch options

Reasons to Get
Fender American Performer Telecaster over American Performer Stratocaster HSS

Pickups
SS vs HSS
Beautiful cleans
Bridge
Fixed vs Tremolo
Good sustain and needs no set-up
Avg. Weight
7.9065lbs (3.6kgs) vs 8.0005lbs (3.6kgs)
Tends to be lighter

Reasons to Get
Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS over American Performer Telecaster

Pickup Mods
Coil Split vs None
Splits humbuckers into single coil pickups
Switch Positions
5 vs 3
More tone options
Tone Knobs
2 vs 1
More tone control
Pickups
HSS vs SS
High output with beautiful cleans and tone versatility
Bridge
Tremolo vs Fixed
Simple vibratos without too much maintenance

Other Key Differences
Fender American Performer Telecaster vs American Performer Stratocaster HSS

Bridge Pickup
Fender Yosemite Single-Coil Telecaster vs Fender Double Tap Humbucking
Different Bridge Pickup
Neck Pickup
Fender Yosemite Single-Coil Telecaster vs Fender Yosemite Single-Coil Stratocaster
Different Neck Pickup

Shared Features
Fender American Performer Telecaster vs American Performer Stratocaster HSS

Body Wood
Alder
Same Body Wood
Neck Wood
Maple
Same Neck Wood
Fretboard Wood
Rosewood
Same Fretboard Wood
Headstock
6
Same Headstock
Nut Material
Synthetic Bone
Same Nut Material
Strings
6
Same playing style
Body Type
Solid Body
Feedback free
Volume Knobs
1
Same volume control
Number of Frets
22
Same maximum octave
Neck Thickness at 1st Fret
0.82'' (20.8mm)
Same neck comfortability
Neck Thickness at 12th Fret
0.87'' (22.1mm)
Same neck comfortability
Nut Width
1.685'' (42.8mm)
Same string separation at the nut
Tuner Ratio
18
Same tuning precision
Paint Finish
Poly
Resistant paint that ages well
Scale Length
25.5'' (647.7mm)
Same string tension and fret separation
Fretboard Radius
9.5'' (241.3mm)
Same fretboard comfortability
Pickups Power
Passive
Cleaner sound and no battery needed
Neck Profile Type
C
Comfortable neck that works for most people
Neck Joint
Bolt-On
Allows you to detach and swap the neck
Type of Frets
Jumbo
You won't feel the fretboard when pressing down the strings

Common Strengths

  • High-Quality Nut
  • From a High-Quality-Standards Country
  • Top Pickup Brand
  • Expensive Wood

Common Weaknesses

  • Neck-Through Build
  • Weight Relief
  • Locking Tuners
  • Stays in Tune (Evertune)
  • High-Quality Frets
  • Compound Radius Fretboard
  • Luminescent Sidedots
  • Strap Lock
  • 21:1 Tuner Ratio
  • Active/Passive Preamp

Price History Comparison

SET PRICE ALERT
SET PRICE ALERT

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Hand Size Comfortability

After taking into account the scale length, nut width, neck profile and fretboard radius, we can conclude that both favor small hands .

Fender American Performer Telecaster:
Big Hands
Small Hands
Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS:
Big Hands
Small Hands

Beginner Friendliness

Both meet 6 out of our 8 criteria items for beginner friendliness. This takes into account the type of frets, scale length, nut width, bridge type, fretboard radius, and neck profile to determine the easiest combination for new players. If you're looking for your first guitar to learn how to play, you can't go wrong with either of them.

New Player Friendliness

Fender American Performer Telecaster
  • Comfortable shape
  • Easy-to-use bridge
  • Comfortable fretboard
  • Tall frets
  • Narrow nut
  • Comfortable neck
  • Short scale
  • Locking tuners

New Player Friendliness

Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS
  • Comfortable shape
  • Easy-to-use bridge
  • Comfortable fretboard
  • Tall frets
  • Narrow nut
  • Comfortable neck
  • Short scale
  • Locking tuners

Sound Quality Comparison

The wood used in an electric guitar or bass is not as important to determine the final tone. However, some people prefer specific wood types, so we'll take a look at those first. Then, we'll take a look at the electronics to determine the versatility and sound quality of each instrument.

Woods Used in Both

Maple wood pattern used for guitar building
Maple
Rosewood wood pattern used for guitar building
Rosewood
Alder wood pattern used for guitar building
Alder

Maple is one of the most popular necks for good reasons. It is a strong wood that is relatively cheap to make and looks beautiful. The highest quality maple is the hardest that comes from North America. Find out more about Maple.

Rosewood is an almost purple-looking wood that is used mainly for fretboards since it's heavy, rare, and expensive. It's sometimes used on acoustic guitar bodies to create stronger warm tones. Find out more about Rosewood.

Alder is the most popular wood that Fender uses in most of their guitars nowadays. Even though they say it's because of its balanced tone with an emphasis in the upper midrange, it probably is because it isn't too expensive, and it's also pretty lightweight—more than Mahogany. Find out more about Alder.

Winner: Tie.

Pickup Configuration

The Fender American Performer Telecaster has an SS configuration while the Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS has HSS pickups.

SS is the classic Telecaster configuration. It's used mainly for playing clean or with low-gain distortion, and it's very popular for the country genre because of their brightness. It doesn't give you as much versatility as a Strat SSS configuration, but you might like the cleaner look of a guitar body with fewer pickups.

On the other hand, HSS provides a great balance if you like to play with a lot of distortion, but also love to use clean tones. You'll get a lot of output at the bridge position, but you'll be able to play bright clean tones at the other positions.

Pickups Quality

Both come with very good pickups from at least one of the specialized brands in the market. With pickups like these, you probably won't need an upgrade anytime soon.

However, the Fender American Performer Telecaster has a slight sound quality advantage when taking into account other factors like the type of pickups, magnet, position, etc.

You can purchase similar pickups to the Fender American Performer Telecaster's and use them on any guitar:

We found the same or similar pickups to the Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS's online:

Both use Passive pickups. This is what's used for most music genres. They have a regular output and will serve you for both high-gain and clean tones. The alternative (Active pickups) offer a higher output that is mostly used for heavy music.

Winner: Fender American Performer Telecaster.

Versatility Comparison

Some instruments offer you more ways to explore your creativity than others. Below you'll find how both compare when it comes to versatility.

Switch Options

The Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS gives you 5 switch options while the Fender American Performer Telecaster gives you 3. This means that the Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS gives you more options to find the right pickup combination for the type of sound you want to achieve

Only the Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS comes with some kind of pickup modification: Coil Split.

Coil Split lets you disconnect one of the pickup coils. When used with humbuckers, it turns them into single-coil with lower output and cleaner tone.

When evaluating versatility, we also take into consideration bridge and neck joint type, number of frets, switch options, amount of pickups and more.

Winner: Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS.

Final Sound Quality Scores

Fender American Performer Telecaster
Pickups 100
Sustain 75
Versatility 54
Tuning Stability 70
Sound 75
Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS
Pickups 90
Sustain 80
Versatility 82
Tuning Stability 65
Sound 79

Build Quality Comparison

When it comes to build quality, we like to take into account everything used to build the instrument. This includes materials, hardware and the quality control expected depending on the country where it was built. Let's see how the Fender American Performer Telecaster compares to the Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS.

Country of Origin

The manufacturing country can tell a lot about the build quality of an instrument. Both in this comparison where made in United States.

The United States is considered one of the best electric guitar manufacturers in the world. A guitar made in this country is supposed to have world-class quality control. Nowadays, guitars made in other countries can beat some of the ones made in the US, but most of the time, this country offers the best you can get. Of course, that comes at a price.

Winner: Tie

Nut Material

If you want your guitar to stay in tune and sound good, you need a well cut nut. Nut quality can be inconsistent even when comparing two copies of the same model. The best way to make sure you're nut will be well done is by getting a nut made by an expert company like TUSQ or Micarta.

In this case, both have Synthetic Bone nuts. Bone is the best natural material for guitar nuts. However, its tonal properties can be inconsistent. That's the problem that synthetic bone fixes. This is much better than using a plastic nut because the nut is more slippery—which helps with tuning stability—, and it gives your open strings rich harmonics.

Fret Material

Most fret wire is made of nickel silver. This material eventually wears down after a lot of use and most instruments end up needing a complete fret replacement. However, some expensive models come with stainless steel frets. This is what you should aim for if you can afford it.

Unfortunately, none of them come with stainless steel frets.

Winner: Tie.

Bridge

The perfect bridge for you will depend on your playstyle because they all have advantages and disadvantages. However, some bridges are more expensive—like Floyd Roses and Evertunes—and thus add more value to a guitar.

The Fender American Performer Telecaster's brige is a Fixed. It's a simple bridge that is very beginner-friendly since it doesn't require any set-up. You can swap strings easily. It might also give more sustain since it doesn't have complex moving parts that make the strings lose vibration. However, it doesn't have the same versatility as a tremolo bridge.

On the other hand, the Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS's is a Tremolo. Tremolo bridges give you more versatility than fixed bridges. They let you perform the intense vibrato effects that would be impossible with a fixed bridge. However, since the bridge floats and there's less contact with the body, the strings lose sustain slightly faster. They can also be a bit harder to restring and set up correctly than fixed bridges.

Since we need to be objective, the most expensive type of bridge will be the winner of this section. In the end, this doesn't matter if you're not going to use the bridge for its original purpose, so choose the bridge that fits your playing style better.

Winner: Tie.

Tuners

Both come with regular tuners. The Fender American Performer Telecaster's are Fender ClassicGear while the Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS's are American Performer

Both of them have a 18:1 tuner ratio. This means that it will take 18 turns of the keys to give the tuning posts an entire turn. Higher ratio means more precise tuning (and more time spent tuning your gutiar). Most guitars have a 18:1 ratio, while the most precise tuning can be achieved with a 21:1 ratio.

Winner: Tie.

Neck Joint

Contrary to popular belief, the difference in sustain and tone that some neck joints give to a guitar is simply unperceivable—if they're all well built. However, some of them do have advantages over the others.

Both have a Bolt-On neck joint. This neck is joined to the body by 4 bolts that you can simply unscrew. This allows you to replace the neck or take it off for travel. It's the most common and cheapest way to build a guitar.

Winner: Tie.

Here is the list of features that were considered when choosing the winner in the Features subcategory:

Strengths & Weaknesses
Fender American Performer Telecaster
  • Made in United States
  • Expensive Wood
  • Synthetic Bone Nut
  • Top Brand Pickups
  • Cheap Fret Wire (NS)
  • No Locking Tuners
  • No Neck-Through Build
  • No Push Knob or Extra Switch Option
  • No Weight Relief
  • No Luminescent Inlay
  • No Tremolo
  • No Compound Radius Fretboard
  • No 21:1 Tuner Ratio
  • No Strap Lock
Strengths & Weaknesses
Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS
  • Made in United States
  • Expensive Wood
  • Synthetic Bone Nut
  • Top Brand Pickups
  • Coil Split Pickups
  • Tremolo
  • Cheap Fret Wire (NS)
  • No Locking Tuners
  • No Neck-Through Build
  • No Weight Relief
  • No Luminescent Inlay
  • No Compound Radius Fretboard
  • No 21:1 Tuner Ratio
  • No Strap Lock

Final Build Quality Scores

Fender American Performer Telecaster
Quality of materials 66
Features 50
Quality Control 85
Build Quality 67
Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS
Quality of materials 51
Features 60
Quality Control 85
Build Quality 65

Playability Comparison

Let's now compare their playability. Bear in mind that the instrument will feel different depending on your hand size and play style. That's why you should always test before buying. But if you can't or want a second opinion on it, we can still take a look at each of the important measurements of the instrument for you. This way, we can predict how easy a guitar might be to play, or how different it will feel compared to the other.

Remember that, even though the difference might seem small, every inch counts when it comes to feeling of the instrument in your hands. Any variation can completely change how comfortable a guitar feels in your hands.

Nut Width

Fender American Performer Telecaster Nut Width
Both Guitars Have The Same Nut Width

The nut width will affect the separation between strings at the nut. In this comparison, both have a nut width of 42.8mm (1.685'').

This is considered a narrow width for a 6-string guitar. This means that this guitar will have a narrower string separation at the nut, which will affect your fretting hand.

If you are a player with big hands, you might find it difficult to play chords without muting strings. However, this is good for players who have smaller hands, as it will allow them to reach each string more easily at the nut.

Scale Length

Fender American Performer Telecaster and Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS's Scale Length
Both have the same scale length

The scale length is one of the things that influences playability the most. This is the distance between the nut and the bridge and will affect everything from low action allowance, difficulty to perform bends, fret separation, and even tone.

In this case, both have a scale length of 25.5".

This is the scale used in most Stratocasters. It's slightly longer than the typical 24.75'' size found in Les Pauls, and it's one of the main reasons why Stratocasters have such a bright sound in general. A longer scale also means that the strings will have higher tension. This will help you get lower action without suffering fret buzz, which will also be helpful when playing in lower tunings without having to increase your string gauge.

However, this also means that there will be more separation between frets, which can make it more difficult to play. Also, bending the strings will require more strengths due to the increased tension, but remember that a tremolo guitar will offset this difficulty.

Lastly, remember that you can also affect the tension of the strings by changing your string gauge. You can use a thicker gauge for more tension and a lighter one for less tension.

Neck Profile

Fender American Performer Telecaster Neck Profile
Both guitars have the same neck profile

No single neck shape is better than others. However, most people tend to prefer a thinner necks because it doesn't get in their way when playing fast and most hand sizes can adapt to it pretty well. However, some people still prefer thicker necks for a better grip, especially if they have big hands.

Both the Fender American Performer Telecaster and the Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS have a C-shaped neck. This is what you'll find in most modern guitars. Most people feel like the thickness of a C neck is simply the less intrusive one for playing fast, while at the same time allowing you to grab the neck easily for resting if you want to.

Fretboard Radius

Fender American Performer Telecaster Fingerboard Radius
Both Guitars Have The Same Fretboard Radius

Most guitar fretboards are not flat; they usually have a curve or arc across their width. A curved fretboard will make it easier to perform chords without muting strings, while a flatter one will make it easier to play single notes, which is good for bending and soloing in general. The best fretboards have a compound radius that varies across the fingerboard, but they're not common since they take a lot more work to build.

Both the Fender American Performer Telecaster and the Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS have the same fretboard radius of 9.5". This is the most common radius for Stratocaster guitars. It's considered curved when compared to most other models. This allows you to play chords very easily without muting strings accidentally and gives you more space between strings for fingerpicking. However, this curve also gives the guitar less allowance for lower action. If you bend too hard at the high frets, some of your notes might get muted because the curve will make the string fret out.

Fret Size

Fender American Performer Telecaster and Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS Frets Size
Both have a similar Jumbo fret size

Both have a Jumbo fret size. This is one of the tallest frets you can get. You won't feel the fretboard when pressing down the strings. It will give you the best sustain and all types of chords will be easier to play. However, you can end up changing the pitch of your notes if you press too hard, which is something people used to feeling the fretboard do when trying Jumbo frets for the first time.

Final Playability Scores

Fender American Performer Telecaster
Bending & Vibrato Ease 75
Chord Playability 70
Solo Playability 70
Playability 72
Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS
Bending & Vibrato Ease 70
Chord Playability 70
Solo Playability 70
Playability 70