Heads up, front room axe-heroes and GarageBanders – guitar company Fender has added a USB/iOS-compatible version of the classic Stratocaster to its entry-level Squier by Fender range, selling for £160 exclusively through Apple Stores.
The Squier by Fender USB Stratocaster takes the world-famous guitar design – complete with pickup selector, volume and tone controls – and adds to it an onboard headphone amplifier with a separate volume control and 3.5mm output socket, plus a Type Mini-B USB socket for connection to external computer hardware.
Cables are provided for connection to both standard USB Type-A sockets and the 30-pin dock connector used on all Apple iOS devices until recently, though we assume the guitar will also connect to the latest iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and iPad Mini using the Lightning-to-30-pin adapter available from Apple.
In addition the guitar has a standard 6.3mm output socket, allowing it to be connected to an amp for normal use.