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1963 Stratocaster Metallic Run:
The Candy Man Can
With care and expertise our specialists for fine one-offs, led by Custom Shop guru Olli Lohmann, have launched a series that seems to come straight from the past of a better parallel universe: the Fender Custom Shop 1963 Stratocaster Metallic Run.
These instruments, developed with Fender as part of the Dealer-Select programme, are built on the foundation of ’63 Strats and have been taken to a new level with a few subtle but effective tweaks. And they all come in fantastic colours with a delicate metallic effect that recall the sweet days when you used to press your nose against the glass in front of the confectionery display at the local sweet shop 😋
Further down the page we go deeper into the details of our Special Edition!
Body
The body of our sweet temptations is crafted from “Lightweight Sorted Alder” — alder selected for especially low weight. That not only makes the instrument more comfortable to handle for longer playing with less strain on your back — lightweight woods also offer tonal advantages for a particularly beautiful sound with remarkable sustain, as they resonate very well.
Neck
This body is married to a “quartersawn” maple neck. The advantage: because the grain orientation and growth‑ring direction are so favourable in relation to the neck shape, you get a particularly stiff construction that is much less susceptible to external changes such as fluctuations in temperature or humidity. A rosewood fretboard further supports this effect and incidentally delivers the typical tone with a little more warmth in the lower mids. This very tuning‑stable neck is fitted with narrow tall frets of nickel‑silver and, with the “Oval C” profile, quite literally plays "by itself".
Electronics
The trio of passive Fender Custom Shop handwound 60/63 Stratocaster pickups is controlled in the traditional way by a 5-way switch and the typical combination of 1x volume, 2x tone potentiometers, delivering the full spectrum of the sought-after and iconic Strat sounds from the golden era these guitars' ancestors come from.
Colours
The run includes 12 different colours that will make your mouth water: Black, Lake Placid Blue, Candy Apple Red, Purple, Charcoal Frost, Burgundy Mist, British Racing Green, as well as rarer finishes like Candy Tangerine, Teal Green, Copper, Inka Silver or Shoreline Gold — all executed in nitrocellulose lacquer. In combination with the Parchment Parts and the 3-ply nitrocellulose pickguard in subtle Mint Green, you get eye candy that’s in a class of its own.
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Relic
For the artificial ageing we had something special in mind with the 1963 Metallic Run: the guitars are basically of the Type “Relic”, landing in the sweet spot between the subtler “Journeyman Relic” (known from our Dealer Select models) and the aggressive “Heavy Relic”.
The hardware is, however, kept at the lightest relic level, “Closet Classic”, which not only gives a more interesting look. Because the material is less "worn", setup and adjustments can also be executed more precisely.
Contrasting that is the back of the neck, which has received the “Heavy Relic”. This brings the pleasant feel of a thoroughly well-played-in instrument — a feel no other finish can authentically reproduce.
Conclusion
The guitars of our Fender Custom Shop 1963 Stratocaster Metallic Run offer a level of tonal authenticity that doesn’t just roll off the workbench. Rather, the artisans from California have created instruments that convince on every level and not only hold their own next to "real" vintage Strats in the neighbourhood, but quite literally shine thanks to their unique finishes.
The Candy Man Can!
