Fender Masterbuilt 2018 Dale Wilson '61 Relic — Olympic White

When Custom Shop people start naming master builders, Dale Wilson is one of the first to come up. His instruments have built a reputation over the past few years that goes well beyond the usual Custom Shop level, and anyone who has held one understands why quickly enough: Wilson's ageing is reckoned to be about the best there is, and his necks are among the most comfortable.

This 2018 Stratocaster follows the 1961 specs, and that's a year with a particular appeal. By then Fender had moved to rosewood boards, the shaping had matured, and instruments from this period are considered the Strat's golden age. Rosewood takes the edge off the highs and gives the tone a warm, round base without losing transparency.

Olympic White is a colour with a history of its own. What starts out as plain white ages over the years into a warm, creamy vanilla yellow, and that shift is exactly where the appeal lies. Dale Wilson has anticipated that process in his relic work, including the characteristic checking and the wear in the places where an arm and a hand would have worked away for decades. The result doesn't look manufactured; it looks grown.

Plugged in, it's the classic Strat voice at its best. The neck pickup gives that warm, singing blues tone with plenty of substance, the in-between positions deliver the bell-like, glassy quack the Strat is famous for, and at the bridge it turns wiry and cutting. What sets a masterbuilt instrument apart is the dynamic range: this guitar reacts to the smallest change in your picking hand and can be controlled entirely from the volume knob.

Then there's the neck profile, which you don't come across that often on rosewood Strats. It fills the hand without being clubby, and you play on it immediately as though you'd never had anything else.

A masterbuilt gem, selected at Peach Guitars UK, from Ede's Private Stock.