Using your axe with an iPad is more enticing than ever, with the growing number of music apps designed to interface with real-world instruments. Naturally, guitar manufacturers are paying attention, so if you plug your guitar as much in your gadgets as you do in your Eric Clapton Signature Amp, the Fender Squier USB Stratocaster might just be your next six-string of choice.
Instead of having to fiddle with adaptors and connectors of all sorts, the instrument has a built-in USB port, allowing you to connect it to your iOS gadget just like any tethered USB accessory. That way, you can pipe your riffs, power chords and string-bending solos directly to apps with no third-party interfaces getting in the way.
Since the Fender Squier USB Stratocaster is a real guitar, you can also plug it into any amp for studio practice or onstage play, so you can use it for jamming with the band just as easily as you can use it with your collection of music creation apps. Fender claims it brings the classic tone and sound as any of their previous Strats, just with a lot more connectivity than the rest of the inventory.
Like any regular guitar, it comes with tone and volume controls, a pickup select switch and a 0.25-inch passive guitar output. For use with your iOS devices, it adds a mini-B USB connector (with bi-directional audio streaming), a 3.5mm headphone jack (for monitoring the processed guitar signals) and headphone volume control.
The Fender Squier USB Stratocaster is now available from the Apple Store, priced at $199.95.