Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster '56 Heavy Relic – 2001
Fender ‘56 Strat from the Custom Shop designed and built in 2001. The letters JC are stamped inside on the neck heel. I have an email from Fender stating, "The JC on the neck suggests that John Cruz may well have built the guitar, although he did not acquire the title ‘Master Builder’ until 2003" – this was built in 2001. I've added a photo of the email from Fender - note that JC wasn't a Master Builder in 2001 so it is not a Master Built guitar.
A faded 2 tone heavy relic, this lovely heavy relic sunburst guitar is super resonant, even unplugged, and the fat 50s pickups sound wonderful, with V shape 9.5" radius neck it is a dream to play.
Nice and light at only 7lbs 7oz (3.37kg), a really light and nicely balanced guitar to play.
Original Fender Custom Shop Strat Fat 50s pickups, 5-way pickup selector, and jack socket. I wired in new CTS 250K brass shaft pots and a CDE Orange Drop Capacitor, with treble bleed capacitor. Sounds incredible!
Frets are in great condition, to be honest it's been in the case most of the time I've had it!. The only slight wear or grooves I can find are on the first two frets - very minimal and doesn't affect the playability. I've included some photos.
Complete with Fender tweed case, tremolo arm, cleaning cloth, various paperwork, and Certificate of Authenticity. The original COA was lost so I had to get a replacement from Fender. A thorough process as you can imagine - had to get a local Fender dealer involved and they sent photos to Fender to verify authenticity of the guitar from their records before the issued the certificate.