Fender Custom Shop '56 Stratocaster Journeyman Relic Electric Guitar, Graffiti Yellow

Making a bright, loud statement, we have this Fender Custom Shop '56 Stratocaster in an unignorable Graffiti Yellow! This radiant Strat, glowing in more ways than one, lines up a number of showstopping features to grab the limelight and run off with it. Killer specs found throughout – a flamed neck, hot single-coil pickups, and a seldom-seen, stark, yellow finish, to name a few – make for a Custom Shop model to make you stop and stare.

This custom Strat model deftly balances retro and modern Fender sensibilities. Everything with this striking Stratocaster begins with a two-piece ash double-cutaway body. Ash, a classically alternative pick for a tonewood, serves as a radiant base from which the rest of the experience blooms. This particular ash body's light weight contributes to the entirety of the guitar landing below seven pounds. Beyond just a sonic foundation, this Custom Shop's ash serves as a canvas on which a unique Graffiti Yellow gloss lacquer finish is splashed. The Custom Shop's Journeyman Relic level of finish wear leaves the bold yellow shade with charming checks and scrapes for a cool, worn aesthetic – creating an alternate-reality spin on Fender history, where the Southern Californian muscle car colors were brighter and bolder than their cool Shell Pinks and Daphne Blues.

Here, this Custom Shop Stratocaster brings on one of its showstoppers: a AAA roasted flame maple neck. This roasted maple shows off distinct streaks and stripes, almost offsetting the body's bright finish with its dark shade. Even better, the flame maple's streaks are made all the more visible with its unfinished Relic back. Assuming a '57 Style Soft "V" profile, this Stratocaster's neck takes on a player-ready shape with noticeable "V" geometry. From its first fret to its twelfth, the profile measures from .850" to .990" thick. The roasted maple fills out to a fingerboard with a compound 7.25" to 9.5" radius and twenty-one 45085 Vintage Upgrade frets. This inviting fingerboard exhibits no wear for another tangible and aesthetic attraction.

As is the case with so many other elements on this Custom Shop, it electronics setup is something to write home about. Three hand-wound Tomatillo single-coil pickups introduce a warm, sparkly Strat tone for tones as bright and bold as the body's gloss finish. Modern Strat wiring shapes these pickups with 250K 10% split taper potentiometers with precision. These single-coils are backed up by a sturdy setup of hardware specs. A Fender American Vintage Strat tremolo bridge lands for sturdy intonation with deep vibrato bends while a bone nut and vintage-style tuning machines line up at the headstock. This Custom Shop Strat features more to pour over, like their hardware Relic finish treatment, if you simply can't get enough. This '56 Stratocaster travels with an included Fender Custom Shop Strat/Tele Tweed hardshell case.

A Strat to stop you in your tracks, this Graffiti Yellow Custom Shop definitely demands your attention.