Launch Your Tunes to the Troposphere
It’s always a special day when Sweetwater receives a Fender Custom Shop instrument, and the Limited-edition Troposphere Stratocaster Heavy Relic is the type of axe that leaves us with our mouths hanging open. This expertly crafted Stratocaster boasts a 2-piece alder body, a quarter-sawn maple neck, and a flat lam rosewood fingerboard for out-of-this-world sound and playability. Combine these tonewoods with a ’59 “D”-shaped neck, compound radius fingerboard, and a Custom Shop vintage synchronized tremolo, and you’ve got a Stratocaster ready to rock and roll all night. But what truly puts this Stratocaster on the atmospheric map is its trio of Custom Shop Hand-wound Troposphere pickups, producing an underwound output “one layer” below a typical Strat. The Troposphere Strat includes a deluxe hardshell case, a strap, and a certificate of authenticity.
Related Videos: Limited-edition Troposphere Stratocaster Heavy Relic Electric Guitar - Aged White Blonde
Underwound Tropo pickups serve up low-output spank ’n’ sparkle
The Troposphere Strat comes loaded with a trio of pickups developed by master builder Paul Waller. These out-of-this-world single-coils serve up the whole gamut of classic Stratocaster tones, from glassy cleans to bluesy grit. The pickups (dubbed “Tropos”) are underwound for increased headroom — something the guitarists hear at Sweetwater appreciate. In fact, the limited-edition Troposphere Strat’s overdriven sounds can be easily cleaned up with a mere nudge of your volume knob. This calibrated set boasts ’50s-style formvar wire on the bridge pickup, a reverse-wound/reverse-polarity middle pickup for hum-canceling operation in positions 2 and 4, and ’60s-style enamel wire on the neck pickup.
Quarter-sawn maple neck and compound-radius fingerboard
The Fender Custom Shop Troposphere Strat plays like butter. If you savor the feel of a played-in guitar with perfect fretwork and spot-on intonation, this is your axe! The Troposphere Stratocaster sports a quarter-sawn maple neck with a comfortable ’59 “D” back shape. Beyond that, a modern 7.25-inch to 9.5-inch compound radius and medium-vintage frets ensure you can shred and bend up high without fear of fretting out. It’s the best of old and new! But that’s not all the Troposphere is packing — it also boasts a Custom Shop vintage synchronized tremolo bridge so you can revel in every sonic inch of classic Stratocaster performance. A bone nut seals the deal.
The Heavy Relic treatment offers the look of a well-worn friend
The Fender Custom Shop’s Relic treatment starts with a vintage-inspired nitrocellulose lacquer finish. Nitro finishes — standard back in the day — are significantly thinner than today’s polyurethane finishes, allowing the guitar to breathe. Relic’d guitars are then put through the aging process to give you an axe that looks and feels like it’s seen over five decades of frontline action. The process creates instruments that are spitting images of the originals. Without sneaking a look at the neck heel stamps, you’d be hard-pressed to distinguish the limited-edition Troposphere Stratocaster from a real decades-old instrument.
Fender Custom Shop Limited-edition Troposphere Stratocaster Heavy Relic Electric Guitar Features:
- 2-piece alder body offers a balanced sound and highlights the tone of the pickups
- Quarter-sawn maple neck with ’59 “D” shape for comfortable fretting and bending
- 7.25-inch to 9.5-inch compound-radius rosewood fingerboard sports 21 medium-vintage frets
- Custom Shop vintage synchronized tremolo tops this axe off with premium performance
- Underwound Paul Waller-developed Tropo single-coil pickups yield classic Stratocaster tones
- Head-turning relic’d nitrocellulose lacquer finish
- Includes a deluxe hardshell case, a strap, and a certificate of authenticity
