The Fender Custom Shop has been building dream guitars for nearly 20 years now, ranging from faithful reproductions of classic models to fully tweaked instruments built to an individual’s personal specifications. A select few instruments are hand-built by the master luthiers, while other Custom Shop models are “Team-Built” stock instruments. Most recently, the Custom Shop set out to build two limited-edition Esquires and four Stratocasters. We covered the Esquires yesterday, so here are the Strats.
- The Fender Master Salute Stratocaster LTD is a Masterbuilt, limited run (just 250 world wide) guitar with a select alder body and a White Gold Leaf nitrocellulose lacquer finish. The one-piece “C”-shape maple neck has a maple fingerboard with a 9.5″ radius and 21 medium jumbo frets. It’s equipped with Custom ’50s single-coil Strat pickups and comes with an engraved limited-edition neck plate.
- The Fender Master Design 1964 Stratocaster Relic LTD has a premium alder body with a Gold Sparkle finish, an oval “C”-shaped maple neck, Custom Shop ’69 pickup (neck), Fat ’50s pickup (middle), and Texas Special pickup (bridge). This limited run of 100 Strats was designed and built by Custom Shop Senior Master Builder, Greg Fessler.
- The Fender Custom Shop Limited Edition 1955 Stratocaster Relic has a premium ash body with a 2-color sunburst nitrocellulose lacquer finish, a single-ply parchment pickguard, American Vintage synchronized tremolo, and a 1955-shape maple neck with a 9.5″ radius and 21 medium-jumbo frets. Three custom-wound Fat ’50s Strat pickups deliver the signature Strat sound. Only 100 of these will be built.
- The Fender Limited Edition Series 1964 Stratocaster Closet Classic LTD is a painstakingly crafted re-creation of the Strats built just before the company’s transition to CBS ownership. The guitar features an alder body, Olympic White nitrocellulose lacquer finish, and a 7.25″ radius mid-’60s oval “C”-shape neck with vintage fretwire on a rosewood fretboard and fat ’50s pickups. Only 100 will be built by Senior Master Builder, Yuriy Shishkov.
