Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster Guitars

This superb guitar feels and sounds as good as any Strat I’ve played. Its creators have done a remarkable job mimicking the sensual surfaces and nuanced tone of a fine antique axe. The price may seem steep, but you can tell this guitar received many hours of workbench detail work. Personally, I’d have preferred 1956 relic stratocaster
 a bit less relic work, and I can’t help wondering how much lower the price might be if the builders had antiqued only the all-important back of the neck. But opinions, like wear patterns on old guitars, differ. For some players, this may be a 1954 dream come true. They need color rubbed into them to make them show up. Thin some lacquer-base ColorTone Pigment with naphtha and wipe it onto your checking. Don’t let it dry on the surface; you just want it in the cracks. Wipe it off right away using rags wetted with naphtha. After the color’s been in the cracks for ten minutes or so, buff the surface to remove any sharpness in the checked lines — so they don’t feel new.De-gloss it to make it look old The last step is to de-gloss the shiny new lacquer.