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Jan 03, 2024

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The Texan blues-rocker’s limited edition signature model has hand-wound

The Texan blues-rocker's limited edition signature model has hand-wound Shawbucker and ‘60s Strat pickups, is relic'd to a tee, and sure looks a peach in Shell Pink

Fender has unveiled a stunning new Custom Shop signature Strat for the Texan blues-rocker Tyler Bryant that is going to give the relic’d high-end electric guitar collectors of this world acute G.A.S., particularly if they like their Strats ‘60s-style and bespoke.

This here is no off-the-shelf Fender Stratocaster. It's not a strictly vintage either. What it does is apply the super-versatile logic of the HSS Strat configuration to a ‘60s inspired vintage reproduction, giving it a Shell Pink paint job, relic’ing it in that just-so fashion the Fender Custom Shop has perfected over the years, with the cherry on top of the pastel pink cake an engraved 1-ply anodised aluminium pickguard.

But it's not just looks. Bryant has a hand-wound Shawbucker at the bridge to lean on, plus a pair of ‘60s Strat single-coil pickups, and a five-way pickup selector to navigate between ‘em.

"Pinky" has a two-piece alder body, a bolt-on maple neck whittled into a period-appropriate oval C shape, and topped with a 9.5" radius slab rosewood fingerboard, inlaid with Micarta dots.

That ‘board seats 21 narrow-tall (61059 frets, with a bone nut at the top. Everything has the look of the vintage, from the old-school nickel/chrome tuners on the headstock to a Custom Shop synchronised vibrato that has been augmented with brass saddles.

Shell Pink Strats are of particular sentimental value to Bryant. He has another "Pinky" in his life, which for the longest time was his favourite guitar in his collection. Why pink? Well, because Bryant is a huge fan of Elvis and he wanted something that looked like a pink Cadillac.

It was one beat up Strat. On the back, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith had written, "Pink, it's like red but not quite." Texan blues guitar ace Alan Haynes left his penmanship on the guitar, autographing the headstock. That "Pinky" got stolen only for Bryant to be reunited with it after five-and-a-half years.

Besides the finish, it's quite a different beast, but then Bryant used to say his original "Pinky" would do anything so perhaps they are birds of a feature; there is very little an HSS Strat won't do.

Also, no matter where you stand on the relic vs pristine Custom Shop aesthetic, the good think about a relic’d guitar is that you won't mind so much if it gets a ding. At £5,199 street, however, Fender's limited edition Tyler Bryant "Pinky" Stratocaster will test that theory.

The guitar ships in a hardshell guitar case with a COA. It's super expensive but think of it as costing less than 1/600 the price of David Gilmour's Black Strat and it suddenly seems like a bargain. Either way, it is sure to sell out. Collectors with deep pockets will be all over this. For more details, head over to the Fender Custom Shop.

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Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars and guitar culture since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitar World. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halen's Panama.

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