Fender Custom Shop American Custom Stratocaster Guitar, Maple Fingerboard, Vintage Blonde, NOS

PLAYER'S PERSPECTIVE

We're stoked to present this gorgeous Fender Custom Shop American Custom Stratocaster! Many know the Fender Custom Shop for cranking out incredible vintage reissues and amazing "Relic" guitars, but here's a unique case where they elevated the vintage Stratocaster platform to new heights with a more contemporary mindset.

Featuring a pristine "NOS" Vintage Blonde finish on a beautiful piece of ash that calls back to the original Strats of the 1950s, as well as a breathtaking AAA Birdseye Maple neck with abalone dot inlays, this guitar can be somewhat considered as the luxurious Custom Shop version of the American Professional II and Ultra Stratocasters. There are definitely some similarities it shares with those two production models, including the modern locking tuners, headstock truss-adjust, compound radius fretboard, and contoured neck heel. These are much-appreciated similarities, as these modern features are some of the most useful and high-end Fender has to offer and are definite utility improvements over vintage spec. However, the similarities end there - this is a uniquely extravagant Custom Shop masterpiece, through and through. 

Continuing with the theme of combining a '50s Strat and a modern one, this one features a '54 V profile neck shape. It's a nice soft V that fills your hand nicely and allows for some nice thumb-over chording. Although not as popular as the C profiles that came later, the V is still a classic and feels amazing in the hands very similarly. This one also features a old-school nitro lacquer finish and vintage-accurate hardware appointments.

The Dual Mag pickups swing things back around to modern Fender innovation, as they incorporate different magnets on the bass strings than they do on the treble strings for a super even EQ response. While maybe not as vintage-correct as older designs, these may just be the most balanced and clear-sounding Fender Strat pickups we've heard! They sound amazing with overdrive and don't flub out like some pickups tend to do. Like a good modern set, the middle pickup is also RW/RP, which means you get no hum in the 2 and 4 positions.

You know you're getting a special instrument in your hands any time you pick up something built by Fender's Custom Shop team, and this guitar is sure to not only meet but exceed your expectations.

Details

Take a classic Fender® Stratocaster®, deck it out customized player-centric features, the finest hand-selected figured woods and custom hand-wound pickups, and you have the American Custom Stratocaster. The two-piece select ash body features deep contours, a contoured neck heel and an NOS nitrocellulose lacquer finish. All control and pickup routes are shielded and grounded for reduced electromagnetic interference. The one-piece 3A birdseye maple neck has a ’54 “soft-V” profile and bi-flex truss rod with headstock adjust, topped by a 9.5”-12” compound-radius fingerboard with abalone face dots and 22 medium jumbo frets. Hand-wound Dual-Mag pickups feature alnico V magnets on the bass side and beveled alnico II magnets on the treble side, creating tonal balance and consistency and improving string-to-string clarity. Vintage Modified #2 wiring with tone-saver treble bleed features a master volume, tone #1 (neck and middle pickups), and tone #2 (bridge) with treble bleed (for keeping mids and rolling off highs without adding bass). Other features include a three-ply parchment pickguard, strap locks, Sperzel® tuning machines with pearl buttons, bone nut, and American Standard String Tree. Includes deluxe hardshell case, strap and certificate of authenticity.

Fender®, Squier®, Stratocaster®, Telecaster®, Precision Bass®, Jazz Bass® and the distinctive headstock designs commonly found on the Strat®, Tele® & P Bass® guitars are registered trademarks of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation