2012 Fender CS Custom Deluxe Strat

2012 Fender Custom Shop Custom Deluxe Stratocaster

"Abigail"

#8329

Well look what we got here. Despite my reluctance to drop any big-bucks on a Custom Shop Fender, I guess that my inner grown-up got the better of me. I've said elsewhere on this site that Strats were intended to plop off the end of a production line staffed by relatively unskilled builders (which I maintain is the case), and that Fender's Custom Shop guitars are little more than unnecessary trinkets. But shit ... everyone likes trinkets, right?

So. I figured that the time was right to do something about it, so I started mooching around looking for something suitable. And look what popped up.

This is a 2012 (now discontinued) Custom Shop 'Custom Deluxe Stratocaster', and is really rather nice. Ok ... so it's absolutely bloody lovely.

Specs include a lightweight ash body, which is good and resonant, with a sculpted heel (which is the sort of feature that you don't think you need until you don't have it) and a peachy seafoam green, non-relic finish. These were available 'off the shelf' in honeyburst, trans-red or cherry sunburst, but this one was a custom dealer order. Personally, I'm happier with the seafoam. It's kinda nice.

The board is a 9.5" radius slab of 'dark Indian rosewood', with abalone markers, 22 immaculately finished medium jumbo frets on a 'large-C' profile, AA flamed maple neck. Tuners are Fender Elites, with pearl buttons, which I'm guessing Liberace would have liked. A lot. Unnecessary trinkets? Yup.

The pickups, as the guitar's name might suggest, are hand wound "Abby's", made by Abigail Ybarra (Fenders pickup guru) before her retirement in 2013, and the middle is RWRP (reverse wound, reverse polarity) so that positions 2 and 4 are not only bursting with quack, but are also hum-cancelling. Delightful. Ok, I might have written 'delightful' with a hint of sarcasm, but they ARE actually delightful! This thing sounds incredible ... very grown up, woody and complex. The downside is that it makes my other Strats sound (dare I say it) a little on the sterile side in comparison. No matter.

This arrived with all of the case candy present, and in immaculate (pretty much unplayed) condition ... I, on the other hand, immediately carved up the Custom Shop leather strap to fit my straplocks, and have been playing the living shit out of it ... that's what it is for after all, right?

All in all, this is a WONDERFUL thing, and I'm very, VERY happy to have it on board.