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As one of the electric guitar world's most high-profile collaborations in recent memory, Fender debuts the Fender Custom Shop Limited Edition Masterbuilt John Frusciante Stratocaster. This limited release marks a multi-dimensional and multi-generational look into Fender history, alongside one of the brand's most famous players.
Shop the FCS John Frusciante Stratocaster
This guitar can be called a one-of-a-kind, though that wouldn't entirely be true. Straight from Fender Custom Shop Senior Masterbuilder Paul Waller, this Custom Shop piece takes its inspiration from a particularly special guitar. The guitar in question, likely one you've seen before, is John Frusciante's 1962 Sunburst Stratocaster.
Joining California's Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1988 at the age of eighteen, John Frusciante quickly came into international notoriety and was embraced by the rock band's global audience. Frusciante is commonly cited today as one of electric guitar's greatest players in terms of popularity and influence – realms in which his trademark, technical, and soulful playing cannot be overstated. The massive influence Frusciante has cultivated in the rock guitar world manifests today in a replica of his go-to guitar that made him an icon – his 1962 Stratocaster.
The Fender Custom Shop Limited Edition Masterbuilt John Frusciante Stratocaster comes together with a two-piece select alder body in the classic double-cutaway form. Across this body, Waller made sure to painstakingly recreate the decades of wear Frusciante's original model exhibits, from dents, dings, finish wear, and heavily worn body contours. The select alder is matched with a riftsawn maple neck in an early-'60s Oval "C" profile and a AAA slab rosewood fingerboard. Bearing identical specs to Frusciante's pre-CBS Strat, the Custom Shop guitar features a rounder 7.25" fingerboard radius, vintage-style tuning machines, and a six-saddle vintage-style synchronized tremolo bridge.
For its tone, Fender Custom Shop loaded in three Abigail Ybarra Hand-Wound '60s Stratocaster pickups in the bridge, middle, and neck positions. These pickups were designed to carry all the crystalline voices Frusciante is known for and were wired alongside an Ilitch Electronics Hum-Canceling System that preserves the authenticity of the guitar's sound without sacrificing clarity. The Custom Shop guitar travels with a Fender Deluxe hardshell case and comes with a strap, and a certificate of authenticity.
The Fender Custom Shop's limited release of this replica is made up of one hundred guitars globally. Each produced by Fender Custom Shop Senior Masterbuilder Paul Waller, the guitars all capture the essence of Frusciante's original Fender. As a painstaking recreation of one of rock's most prolific and influential guitars, this Fender Custom Shop piece captures an enduring spirit that cannot be tamed.
