Pirk's guitars and amps !

Fender '54 Stratocaster Custom Shop USA built 1994 by John "Jay" Madore from Fender Custom Shop in transparent honey blonde finish on a gorgeous wide grain Premium Ash body. The finish has a gorgeous luster and really allows the sweet Ash woodgrain to radiate. Beautiful  biggish birds-eye maple neck with rolled edged fingerboard. It has 21 vintage style frets on chunky one-piece maple U-shaped and slightly rounded neck with a skunk stripe. This maple neck has frets stabbed directly into neck, no fretboard. The guitar has perfect intonation and the neck is unbelievably playable and just perfect. This converted me to the chunky neck cult. The neck fits, feels, plays, responds, without a hitch. There is something magical about originaly the „U“ shape neck that lets me play a lot of things easier. The 21 Frets are of the vintage variety thin and small. The condition of the neck and frets is excellent so that this is an exceptionally playable instrument. I  should also mention that guitar stays in tune very well, and that the neck very rarely needs adjusting. I'm convinced that big one-piece necks are part of the recipe for great tone. I think that the other secret to this guitar's great tone is the ash body. I've owned Strats made from alder, poplar, and basswood, but this one seems to have a richer tone and it rings louder and with more clarity than most other Strats I've played. It also produces a slightly louder and brighter sound acoustically than the alder bodies. I feel that the combination of the Fender Fat '50's Custom shop pickups and the swamp ash body really make for a winning tonal combination in this guitar. The Fender Fat '50's Custom Shop Special silver label handwound pickups they have a harmonic complexity and depth with lots of vintage punch. They sound nice and full with a wide range of tones. They are very clear and strong. This Strat '54 has three Fender '54 Custom shop stamps (see pics) one on back of peg head one on  inside front of neck and  other in body back cavity. Special attention was given by Fender to the pickups. Examination revealed that the original Strat pickups had larger pole pieces than do the modern ones. This feature along with the windings and potting were duplicated for this guitar. Pickup accuracy is especially important because it gives this Strat a different sound from modern instruments. It sounds great through a vintage style tube amp, and has a warm, narrow sound. The sound is as sweet as it gets! No disappointments here! The Custom Shop '54 is as true in its specs to the original mid-Fifties Strats. Imagine that if I took this guitar with me in my time machine back to 1954 I could place it up on the shelf along side the originals and no one would notice the difference. Excellent example of a reissue Strat with that ability of the 'vintage' guitars to cover the Jazz-to-rock spectrum. The guitar is over the edge, this is the way Leo wanted his guitars to be made. I´m happy that I took a rare opportunity to own a rare and exceptionally fine guitar built by the Fender Custom Shop USA.  John “Jay” Madore was one of Fender's premier master-builders during John Page era. When his name is on a guitar, it is clearly a special piece… his Master-built guitars are in much more demand. Nobody knows exactly how many 1954 masterbuilds there are made.. Somebody is registrering them on the internet. These specialist 1954 guys think a couple of hundred are made. This makes them very special. Once you played one ..you know why! I consider my '54 to be the best Strat I've owned and would rank it among the best I've played. Plays and feels like a dream!You don't need to be a collector to appreciate this guitar. It's limited production will surely make it attractive to collectors, but it is a guitar that deserves to be played. It provides a vintage-Strat experience you'll get nowhere else. It is easy to see why the original Strat was such a big hit with players. It has a bigger, beefier tone.

Here is the complete lowdown on the features;  Fender '54 Stratocaster Custom Shop USA Limited Edition Series guitar

• Transparent Honey-Blonde Finish - See the gorgeous Ash grain

• (867)* Honey Blonde, add $150.00 for Special Wood Requirements, (Polyurethane Finish)

•  One piece Premium Ash Body

   
• One piece Maple Neck & Fretboard - check out the Birds-eye maple figuring!!
• U-Shaped Neck Profile 

• Scale Length  25.5” (648 mm)

• Width at Nut  1.6875” (43 mm)

• No. of Frets 21 Dunlop 6105 - dressed 1.1 mm

• Dot Fret Inlays
• 3 x Hand (reverse) wound Fender Fat '50's Custom Shop Special silver label pickups  

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  Pickguard  1-Ply white, (8 Hole)

• American Vintage Synchronized Tremolo

• Fender/Gotoh® Vintage Style Tuning Machines
• Custom Shop limited edition neck plate
• Nickel chrome hardware
• 5-Way Switching 
• Unique Features  Aged Knobs and Switch Tip, Bone Nut, Aged White Plastic Parts
• Weighs 3,3 kg / 7.3 lbs
• Serial # RXXXXXX