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| HOME | CUSTOM GUITARS | UPGRADES | ON SALE & READY TO SHIP | ENTER THE VOODOO LOUNGE | GALLERY | ||
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Rare One Piece Solid Swamp Ash Body!
Gorgeous Flame Maple Top!
Flame Maple Neck with Brazilian Rosewood Fretboard and Mother of Pearl Inlays!
10-16 Inch Compound Radius, Dual Truss Rod, Fender Schaller German Locking Tuners!
Superb Duncan Classic Stack Noiseless Alnico Magnet Pickups!
5 Way Switching with 7 pickup Combinations through "Blender" Control!
Callaham Enhanced Vintage Style Bridge!
Fender G & G Lacquered Diagonal Tweed Center Pocket Hard Shell Case Included!
All Original Papers & Accessories!
Only The Best!
This is a very special purchase opportunity on a truly amazing Stratocaster. This guitar was built a very few years ago for one of my repeat customers. He is now in the process of "thinning the herd" among his electrics (now favoring mainly acoustic playing) so he is reluctantly offering this gem quality Stratocaster that is in extremely near mint condition on consignment, and (wow!) it is priced to sell. This Strat has so many fine features that it will take some time to show and describe everything you need to know.
The foundation of any great Stratocaster is the tone wood used for the body, and this instrument starts off in spectacular fashion with a custom made Fender-licensed body cut from a single piece of Southern Swamp Ash by the wizards at the custom shop at Warmoth Guitar Parts. The Fender Custom Shop uses center-seamed two piece bodies, and most USA Fenders are three piece bodies with two glue seams. But this guitar's body is cut from a single piece of wood, and there are no seams whatsoever!
With Southern swamp ash, the portion of the tree that is suitable for premium quality lightweight guitar wood is actually submerged under water for years, which yields a porous and gloriously rich-sounding wood. This premium species of ash delivers both a deep low-end, and crisp, bell-like highs. Swamp Ash is what Leo Fender originally used for the earliest (and best) Stratocasters he built in the 1950's, and today true swamp ash shows up only rarely in Fender's best solid-bodied electrics. Swamp ash is the mother-of-all woods when it comes to tone for the Fender Stratocaster model.
One way to add a little extra brilliance and articulation to the resonant ash is to cap the top of the guitar with a maple top (just like the typical Les Paul's maple-over mahogany construction). This enhances the bell-like clarity that is part of the Stratocaster's trademark original sound and it makes for a potent combination with the defined mids and growling bottom end the ash delivers, for a perfect tonal combination. By using select high grade flame maple, you also get an instrument that will take a back seat to no other for beauty. My customer specified a warm cherry burst gloss finish, and my finish shop nailed it. The flame and ash both present themselves beautifully in this warm classic color combo, which is nicely set off by my thick "black satin" single ply pickguard and trem cover with beveled edges, along with Fender black knobs, trem tip, and switch tip. When you are in the room with this guitar it is hard to take to your eyes off of "her."
The bridge on a Stratocaster is also a critical component. The strings on a Strat anchor to the tremolo block, and that block is isolated from the body by a set of springs that allow the bridge to float. So the block itself is an essential element in a Strat's tone. Inferior alloys or lesser grades of steel are (unfortunately) used in all Fender guitars, even the Custom Shop models. The Fender bridges also are poorly machined causing them to have an inaccurate return to pitch, and the Fender bridges have trem arms that are too light and too long. But there is a source for a perfect Strat bridge, built with no compromises, and that source is Callaham Guitars.
Bill Callaham uses only the best steel for the block and the saddles, and even the bridge plate and screws are made of better materials and to much more exacting standards than the stock Fender bridge. The denser, harder steel of the Callaham block and string saddles provides much better tone and sustain, and the action of the trem is much more smooth and accurate when you bend the bar. Callaham's tremolo bar is heavier and shorter, his part is reverse engineered from a 1964 pre-CBS Strat. These arms pop into the block and tighten with just a few turns, so you won't have to do all the tedious threading that you do with the Fender designs. And unlike the Fender design, there is no spring needed inside the block (...that spring that inevitably pops out and gets lost) to prevent you from over-tightening. The bore for the arm is lined with a Delrin bushing, so the action of the arm will not get sloppy over time, as always happens with Fender trems. Bill Callaham's bridge is pure genius.
The pickups that were chosen for this specification are Seymour Duncan's amazing "Classic Stack" Strat pickups. The stack emulates a humbucker's technology by using a second set of pole pieces with a reverse wind, but instead of laying in the two side-by-side arrays as on a humbucker, Duncan "stacks" them one over the over, so both can fit in the conventional form factor for a single coil Strat pickup. The pickup is otherwise built using the traditional methods and materials (like real Alnico magnets) of the old time Strat pickups from Leo's day, and the result is extremely accurate vintage Strat tone but without the nasty single 60 cycle hum that comes as part of the deal from single coil designs. Fender has been chasing this combination of true single coil tone without the noise with their various "noiseless" designs for years, but none of their pickups hold a candle to the Duncan achievement with this ingenious "Patent Applied For" design.
This body is fully shielded in the pickup and control cavity, and the cavity is grounded to the rest of the circuit using point to point star grounding, using only vintage cloth-covered wire, for absolutely dead quiet operation. An aluminum shield is under the pickguard. You'll see other guitars that are partially or half-heartedly shielded, and/or without the point-to-point grounding that is needed to effectively box out all external and ground noise and interference. But at Pat's Guitars, "only the best" is good enough.
Consistent with the top quality of these pickups, the controls are equally first rate. The switch is a genuine USA CRL 5 way switch. The CRL switch has a real coil spring, just as they did in the 50's and 60's. Most newer Fenders use a cheaper form of switch, one that does not have the same positive contact, and the same satisfying feel of the click, that these more expensive and durable old-school CRL switches have. The control wiring is neat and tidy, as you'd expect from Pat's Guitars, using high quality vintage style cloth covered push back wire, just like the kind that was used in Leo Fender's day. The volume, blender, and tone controls are all genuine USA CTS 250K control pots with a real SPRAGUE "Orange Drop" .047 microfarad tone capacitor (ask any tube amp tech about why Sprague capacitors set the industry standard for great audiophile-quality tone and long life!). The jack is a military spec Switchcraft USA part. It may look somewhat similar, but it is designed completely differently than the standard Switchcraft version normally used in even high-end guitars. This uprated part has an extra layer, with the ground contact nearest the base of the plug (where it belongs), and other enhanced features including superior silver plated contacts. Again, only the very best.
Also please note that I have completed the control harness with the perfect finishing touch: my very popular resistor-capacitor volume kit. If you have a good ear, you have probably noticed that when you roll off the volume control on a guitar your tone changes. There is a subtle yet significant treble roll-off that occurs along with the volume roll-off. Although the treble cut in the volume control is not nearly as steep as the treble roll-off that occurs with your tone control, it is still strong enough to annoy any player who makes much use of the volume control on his or her guitar. The treble loss problem is solved on this Stratocaster, thanks to a tiny capacitor and a resistor wired together to the volume pot, which work to eliminate the usual loss of high frequencies at lower volume settings. Finally your volume control will only cut your volume, it will not cut your highs as well!
Here is what the blender will add to each of the five switch positions:
Switch Position |
without blender |
Blender adds: |
with blender |
1 |
Bridge |
Blends in neck pickup |
Bridge/Neck |
2 |
Bridge/Middle |
Blends in neck pickup |
Bridge/Middle/Neck |
3 |
Middle |
- nothing - |
Middle |
4 |
Middle/Neck |
Blends in bridge pickup |
Bridge/Middle/Neck |
5 |
Neck |
Blends in bridge pickup |
Neck/Bridge |
As you can see, the blender extends the basic 5 positions on the switch to all 7 possible combinations. The blender also allows you to fine tune the degree of the blend, so if you simply want to warm up the lead tone with just a little of the neck pickup, you can just bring it in slightly. Likewise if you want a little more edge at the neck position, you can blend in just a little of the bridge. You can shape your tone in what feels like an infinite number of ways. This makes your control over your tone far more powerful, blending whatever pickup is not already selected on the switch, as well as giving you the five standard Strat-style switch positions plus the traditional Tele Neck + Bridge, and the BIG sound of all three pickups together. 7 sounds, and the power to blend.
What about the neck?
The neck is a custom-built Fender-licensed Warmoth Pro Stratocaster Stratocaster neck. The neck is crafted from a single piece of flamed maple (no groove cut through it for a "skunk stripe up the back). It features beautifully figured flame patterns, and a gorgeous satiny-smooth polished satin finish with a vintage tint. The neck has Warmoth's outstanding Pro dual rod truss system, which makes for MUCH more stable truss rod settings. Many players find that a set up will hold for years, thanks to the added strength of the second rod, and in addition to the better stiffness of the neck the extra rod also improves the neck's contribution to the overall tone and sustain. Last, but not least, the adjuster in conveniently located at the side of the heel, so you can make minor adjustments with nothing in your way.
The neck has a medium 1 & 11/16th inch nut width and a standard C shape contour, which is the most popular modern back shape. It is outfitted with a Graph Tech graphite nut, and it has been fitted with real (and no longer available) German-made Fender-Schaller chrome locking tuners (Fender now uses a lighter weight and less well-engineered Chinese-built copy of this design). The tuners have staggered height posts, which eliminates the need for a string tree. The neck is has a vintage-tinted satin finish, with a light gloss on the face of the peghead for beauty. The Warmoth logo is included with the guitar, or you can apply a logo of your own choosing, or simply admire the beauty of the wood, sans any corporate logo. The neck is held in place with the Pat's Guitars custom-engraved neck plate, or I can substitute a Fender plate if preferred. The flame pattern look terrific under the mild vintage tint.
This guitar has so many fine elements already described, but I have saved the best for last: the fretboard is made is from a gorgeous slab of choice Brazilian Rosewood, now almost impossible to find in even the poorer grades, let alone like this. Brazilian of course has become increasingly difficult to access due to international treaties that severely restrict importation and exportation of this lovely rainforest wood. But Ken Warmoth has continues to occasionally gain access to legally harvested and exported woods, at least up until the last couple of years. So here is a choice piece of the most prized wood in the guitar trade, known for its warm tonal properties and the beauty of its color and grain. It is tastefully inlaid with real mother of pearl dots to add a touch of iridescent contrast to the beautiful patterns in the dark rosewood.
The board features Warmoth's wonderful 10-16" compound radius, which gives you a little curvature near the nut for basic chording and which then gradually flattens as you work your way up to the higher register for lead solos. Complete comfort at every fret.
The guitar has 22 nickel frets in popular medium-jumbo fretwire, with my own expert fret preparation and crown and level work.
This Strat is a joy to play, and it is beautiful to behold. Brazilian Rosewood, top grade Flame Maple, and tone-drenched Swamp Ash, all combine with expert finish and fret work and superb fully shielded high end electronics and Classic Stack pickups to give you "only the best" in tone, feel, and beauty.
Are there any imperfections? Although completely inconspicuous I will mention there are a couple of extra screw holes under the trem cavity cover from when a non-standard trem cover was briefly fitted but thankfully they are completely covered by the bigger Fender USA spec cover that is there now, so they present no cometic issue at all. You can see a slight patina of age on the nickel bridge parts and frets which would polish away (if you care). Other than that, this Strat is just like new. There is no fret wear, and no dings, dents, or scratches. You won't find a pre-owned guitar in better shape than this extremely near mint, custom built beauty.
The greatest guitars deserve only the best in protection and so this guitar will come to the buyer in a genuine Fender Custom Shop G & G early 1950's style lacquered diagonal tweed case. This premium case features the large "center pocket" storage area/neck support. All of the original papers, tools, and accessories from Duncan, Callaham, Warmoth, and Fender are all still with the guitar and will be included to the buyer. The guitar is strung with a fresh set of DR Pure Blues hand wound .010 - .046 strings, and it is beautifully set up by Pat's Guitars with low easy action and perfect intonation.
All this guitar needs now is a happy new owner, LIKE YOU!
NOTE: This guitar has been sold.
Is there anything you'd like in addition to or instead of the current configuration? Different color pickguard and other plastic parts? Different pickups? A hand-cut bone nut with a set-up using your favorite brand ands size of strings? Different pickups? I can happily reconfigure anything you see here to suit your tastes, just let me know what you would like and we can talk about the upgrade costs. Reconfigured or sold exactly as it is, this is a tremendous instrument at a no-brainer price. Contact me if you have questions. Thanks for your interest!
