Fender Custom Shop '60/63 LTD Super Heavy Relic — Shell Pink

Shell Pink is one of those colours legends grow around. Fender introduced it as a custom colour in the early sixties, and it was ordered so rarely that original examples are now among the most sought-after instruments there are.

This Limited Edition from the Fender Custom Shop combines specs from 1960 and 1963 — the period when the Stratocaster had reached its most mature form. Rosewood board, balanced neck profiles, the construction many still consider the best. The Custom Shop only builds combination models like this in small, limited runs, and they're usually gone quickly.

The real character of this one, though, is in the Super Heavy Relic, which tends to delight fans of Philip Sayce. Put simply: this guitar looks as though it spent fifty years on a stage every night. A Super Heavy Relic feels familiar from the very first moment. The neck is played smooth, nothing sticks, nothing feels new. There are players who won't pick up anything else for exactly that reason, and once you've experienced it you understand why.

Plugged in, it's classic early-60s Strat at its best. Bell-like cleans, the hollow quack of the in-between positions, a warm singing neck tone and, at the bridge, the wiry bite that cuts through. Plus the dynamics that make a good Strat, all of it controllable through your picking hand and the volume knob.

A real head-turner with uncompromising playability, from Ede's Private Stock.