The flagship of Fender's production, instruments from the Custom Shop range are guitars and basses that meet the highest quality standards, be it in the wood selection, the pickups winding, the finishes or the overall build quality. This results in highly reliable instruments with inimitable sound, providing great playability.

The extraordinary thing about Fender Custom Shop Masterbuilt guitars is that they are true Fender Stratocaster (or Telecaster, but here we're talking Strat), but also pure luthier's guitars. Here, Paul Waller - who became one of the Custom Shop's superstars - was in charge of building this exceptional guitar, and it's a success. It's beautiful to look at, fun to play, and sounds divine.

Paul Waller made a few tweaks to create this Strat that blends brilliance and warmth to perfection, including choosing an ash body. This wood, which requires a bit more work than alder, is a bit denser and heavier, but offers more sustain and brilliance. The parts that make up the body have obviously been carefully selected, and the cohesion of the parts and attention to detail in the construction of this instrument is of the highest order.

The rest of the specs are no surprise. The 60 oval C-style neck profile and 9.5" radius fingerboard are made from a gorgeous piece of flamed maple, which complements the ash body to produce an instrument that is classic in its overall build, but has undeniably magical qualities, as we experienced when playing it.The tone is very balanced, clear, and the great resonance of the instrument will show up in the sound rendered by the amp.

Every piece of hardware comes from the same machines that were used to build the legendary Custom Shop guitars. The Handwound 50s Strat pickups offer a warm, powerful tone with great dynamics, and the tuning machines ensure perfect tuning stability, even under heavy use; as for the vintage-style vibrato, it was tuned by the luthier himself. What more could you ask for?

We plugged it in and it sounds great, as you can hear in the video. No matter which position you choose, you always get a pure Strat tone, with intense harmonic richness, and a good balance of high and mid frequencies with the lows. It's therefore a clear and bright guitar, that delivers that distinctive "glassy" tone without any subtlety. Paul Waller spent the last few months building this guitar, and there's nothing to complain about, on the contrary: you can see and hear that time was well was spent and not a second wasted.

2 year warranty from our workshop.