Custom Customs

FENDER CUSTOM SHOP VINTAGE CUSTOM SERIES FROM £3,359

While its ‘Vintage Custom’ title accurately sums up the concept of this Custom Shop series, it doesn’t tell the whole story. Despite the Custom Shop’s reputation for aged and relic’d guitars, these guitars (in their base specifications) centre on a NOS time-warp vibe. ‘Timeless’ might be a better word: each model gets a gasp as you pull it from its tweed or brown case. The Custom Shop knows how to make a guitar – the whole package, really – feel very special.

The series initially launched last year with a 1950 Double Esquire, 1955 and 1959 Stratocasters, and a 1959 Telecaster Custom. The four models we have here – a ’57 Strat, ’58 Top-Load Tele, ’58 Jazzmaster and ’62 Strat – were added at the start of this year. Despite spanning three Fender classics, our quartet on review show off quite a unity: they share numerous