January 20, 2005
New at NAMM: CS Mary Kaye Tribute Stratocaster and Eric Johnson Signature Stratocaster
Fender has introduced two new Stratocasters to the lineup: A limited edition Custom Shop Mary Kaye Tribute Stratocaster and an artist series production model Eric Johnson Signature Stratocaster. An MSRP has not yet been set for either instrument.
Custom Shop Mary Kaye Tribute Stratocaster
Specs:
From a Fender press release:
The new Fender Custom Shop Mary Kaye Tribute Stratocaster guitar features a select ash body with a thin, White Blonde nitrocellulose Closet Classic finish, a hard-rock maple neck and gold hardware. As an added feature, Fender installed a set of pickups that have been hand-wound by Abigail Ybarra on each of these Limited Edition instruments. Abigail started working at Fender in 1956, and more likely than not, wound the pickups found in most late-'50s Fender Stratocaster guitars.
Eric Johnson Signature Stratocaster
Specs:
From a Fender press release:
The light 2-piece alder body is dressed in a very thin nitro cellulous lacquer finish, and the 1-piece quarter-sawn maple neck sports a 12 inch fingerboard radius, 21 highly polished frets, and a soft "V" neck profile.
Additional features include staggered vintage style machine heads, thus eliminating the need for a string tree, custom pickups with countersink screws and wound to Eric's specifications, and highly contoured body and neck.
It comes with a parchment '57 style pickguard, 5-Way Switch, Mater Volume, Neck Tone and Bridge Tone controls, and a Vintage Tremolo with 4 tremolo springs, silver painted block and '57 style string recess with no paint between base plate and the block.
It is available in four different finish options, including White Blonde, Two-Color Sunburst, Candy Apple Red and Black.
By Tom Watson