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Fender '56 Relic Stratocaster |
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The '56 Fender Relic Strat is one of the Fender TimeMachine guitars. If you don't have an extra 10 or 20 thousand to spend on the real one then this is the next best thing to it. It uses a process to age the guitar until it looks 'used and abused'. On this '56 Relic you'll find deeper scratches, nicks, and worn parts and plastic. The TimeMachine series was introduced in 1999 and consists of mainly the Relic, NOS (New Old Stock), and the Closet Classic guitars. They found that the instruments made years ago had a certain magic that was difficult to define. Over the years the Strat body and neck shape slowly changed. Fender recreated the body and neck to the same specs that they where in '56. The '56 Strat was one of the more hard to replicate because the materials used during that time kept changing. But for the most this is a very close version of what was sold back then. The word 'Relic' is actually a process that ages the guitar to make it appear to be older than it actually is. The plastic parts are brittle though :) For the most worn look the 'Relic' version is what you want, the next less amount of aging occurs on the 'Closet Classic' guitars. These guitars have some parts that show wear and a lightly oxidized finish with aged plastic parts; similar to if the guitar had been played but was kept in the closet for a number of years. For a non-aged or non-relic'd Fender get the NOS (New Old Stock) version. This version doesn't have any aging used on any parts and is like you would have purchased it new in 1956. The body is made of two pieces of Alder or Ash glued and tooled. The type of wood used on the guitar depends upon the finish. It was created using the original tooling lathes and production techniques of the day. It comes in the original 'Thin-skin' finish in 2-color sunburst, black, vintage blonde, and fiesta red. The actual finish is nitrocellulose lacquer and not polyurethane. The nitrocellulose ages much differently than polyurethane does. The pickguard is a single ply Parchment type. The bridge is an American Vintage Synchronized tremolo just like what was used on the originals. The 25.5 inch scale length neck is made from maple and has a neck date of 10/56 :) The necks profile is a 'V' type or what is also called the 'boat neck' shape. The fretboard is also Maple and has 21 vintage style frets which are too high or wide. The radius of the neck is 7.25 inches which makes it more of a chord guitar or bring the strings up a little for more bending room. The nut with is the normal 1.67 inches. The tuners are Fender/Gotoh vintage style. The pickups are custom 1950s single coil Strat types with the normal Master volume and two tone controls. One of the tone controls is for the Neck pickup and the other is for the Middle. The bridge pickup doesn't have a tone control which has been standard for years. This one has a 3-way pickup selector which was on the originals. The wiring actually uses the same type of wire and routing as well. This has been done to keep the guitar as close as possible to Features
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