This Fender Custom Shop Post Modern Stratocaster HSS Journeyman Relic in Aged Vintage White is one of those guitars that makes a ton of sense the second you play it. It's brand new and includes the original hardshell case, Certificate of Authenticity, and Fender's manufacturer's warranty. We've had a handful of these Post Modern Strats come through over the years, and they are consistently some of the best-playing Custom Shop guitars we get.
The Post Modern series is all about taking everything we love about a vintage Strat and making it a little easier to live with. This one has the much-loved ’60s Oval “C” neck profile, but pairs it with a 9.5"–12" compound radius and big 6100 frets. Down low, the 9.5" radius keeps chords and rhythm playing feeling natural and comfortable. As you move up the neck, the radius flattens toward 12", giving you a little more room for big bends without the fretting hand fighting the fingerboard. It's a simple idea, but it works exceptionally well.
The neck itself is AA Flame Quartersawn Maple with a AAA Rosewood fingerboard, and the .810" first-fret/.970" 12th-fret dimensions give the Oval “C” a nice combination of substance and comfort. The 1.65" bone nut and 25.5" scale keep the overall feel familiar to anyone who knows and loves a Strat, while the 6100 frets give you plenty of room for bending and vibrato.
The Alder body wears an Aged Vintage White Journeyman Relic finish and weighs a very manageable 7 lbs 14 oz. It's a great-looking Strat—classic enough to feel right, but with enough aging to give it some personality. The RSD tremolo is another nice Post Modern touch, adding a little more modern feel and stability without straying too far from the familiar Strat recipe.
The pickup combination is where this guitar really earns the “versatile” part of its name. The bridge position gets a ShawBucker, giving you more output, midrange punch, and compression than a traditional Strat bridge pickup. It's a great way to get the amp cooking a little earlier and gives the bridge position enough muscle for heavier tones. In the neck and middle positions, Fender's hand-wound Fat ’50s pickups bring back the familiar Strat sparkle and snap, but with a little extra girth to keep them from getting lost when you're playing through modern amps and effects.
If you're looking for a Custom Shop Strat that can genuinely cover a ridiculous amount of ground, this is it. Classic Strat tones, a humbucker when you need some muscle, and one of the most comfortable neck/radius/fret combinations Fender makes. We've seen these come and go over the years, and they are always the guitars that somebody on staff wants to take home.
