FENDER LEAD III

Is this rebirth of a late-70s model getting the second chance it deserves?

- Rob Laing

Guitars are discontinued for all kinds of reasons – some simply don’t connect with enough players and for others it just isn’t their time... Reissues can give lost gems a second life; a chance to find the fanbase that eluded them first time around. Which brings us here for the encore of the Fender Lead. It wasn’t exactly a flash in the pan design originally, though.

Produced between 1979 and 1982, the Lead eventually encompassed three guises in its original lifetime; the single humbucker Lead I with series/ parallel switch, the Lead II with two single-coils and a phase switch and finally, the double humbucker Lead III that surfaced in 1982 with coil selector switch.

Bono picked up a Lead II in U2’s earlier days; Clapton’s is sitting in London’s Hard Rock Cafe. Even St Vincent has a heavily-modded model. Even so, the Lead is not exactly a ubiquitous cult model. Switching configurations aside, it’s tempting to dismiss the Lead as a budget Strat alternative that gave way to the advent of the Japanese Squier series in 1982. But spending time with one reveals a distinct shape that holds its own. It is a Strat alternative that players might actually prefer.