Fender Custom Shop '64 L-Series Stratocaster Heavy Relic, Aged Bleached 3-tone Sunburst

Dropping in from California is this Fender Custom Shop ’64 L-Series Stratocaster Heavy Relic in a tastefully disheveled Aged Bleached 3-Tone Sunburst. Presenting a charmingly messy aesthetic like a true roadworn classic, this Stratocaster combines an iconic 3-Tone Sunburst color with the Fender Custom Shop’s Heavy Relic finish treatment for an enthralling visual product. These two spheres of design manifest in paint chips, scrapes and discoloration across the entirety of the guitar for a visual feast for vintage Strat enthusiasts. Summoning such classic style with a one-of-a-kind playing experience, this Custom Shop is a love letter to Stratocaster fans across generations. This Fender Custom Shop ’64 Stratocaster harkens to Fender's legacy with their "L" series of serialized guitars dating back to the mid-1960s. With reference to Fender's history before a distinct transitional period in the company beginning in 1965, this Custom Shop piece traces the brand's lineage to a unique time in the company's early years.

This Custom Shop Stratocaster starts out simply with a two-piece alder body, sorted for weight. The alder of this Custom Shop is cut to the iconic, double-cutaway curvature and wears an Aged Bleached 3-Tone Sunburst lacquer finish. This body, showing off a true field day of a Heavy Relic treatment, exhibits intricate paint checking, charming chips and wear across the entire model. Implying some sort of lineage of road wear and time under spotlight, this Strat’s Heavy Relic treatment imparts truly unique texture and dimension.

The sorted alder of this Custom Shop is matched with a riftsawn maple neck shaped in a 57 Style Soft “V” profile. Capturing a vintage-style feel in the left hand, this neck compounds on its classical grip with a Heavy Relic unfinished back. Across the back of this maple, one will feel a close connection to the wood grain and get a one-of-a-kind texture across the palm – effortlessly playable yet with distinct character. This neck fills out in the fretting hand with a thickness of .850” at the first fret and .990” at the twelfth fret. When paired with a 9mm AAA rosewood fingerboard, the playing experience in hand starts to take real shape. Twenty-one frets line this rosewood with the popular 6150 Medium Jumbo wire for a familiar feel on the fingers while fretting. This familiar experience is bolstered by a more modern compound fingerboard radius measuring 7.25” - 9.50”, inviting dynamic playing. Along the fingerboard, one will find Vintage Clay facedots inlaying the frets while Vintage Clay sidedots accompany. This Custom Shop Strat’s Small style headstock bears a 63 Strat decal and a set of Vintage tuning machines bearing the Fender logo and a Relic finish treatment.

Tonally, this Stratocaster comes alive with three unique single-coil pickups. In each position, one will find a hand-wound Fat ’64 Strat single-coil pickup with a Relic finish treatment. These pickups feature Vintage Mod #2 Strat wiring and 250K 10% split taper pots for rolling through a diverse spectrum of Stratocaster sounds, only augmented by the middle pickup’s reverse-wound, reverse-polarity wiring. Further specifications on this Custom Shop to improve performance include a Custom Shop Vintage Strat bridge with a Relic finish treatment and a narrower 1.625”-wide bone nut appearing at opposite ends of the scale to tie the entire package together. This Stratocaster ships with a Fender Custom Shop Strat/Tele Black hardshell case.

Perfectly worn with undeniable vintage style, this Custom Shop Strat encapsulates the Fender name to a tee – stylish, musical and always ready for more.