NGD Fender CS 1963 Korina Stratocaster

[EddyLenz]

Hey guys,

I was craving a classic SSS Strat for proper clean/crunch testing of my amps and found this Strat.
It's a 2021 Fender Custom Shop 1963 Strat with a Korina body.
It's really heavy at 4kg due to the Korina, but it sounds and looks great!

I was looking for a rosewood Strat, as I already have two maple ones, which are also heavily modded into 80s super Strats...

I'm looking forward to comparing this one with some others next month and see how well it holds up haha.
I don't really have a frame of reference for classic Strats, so it will be interesting.

Playability wise, I prefer the flatter fretboard radius so the action doesn't have to be as high for big bends not to fret out.
That's something I might keep in mind for future Strats or once I found an otherwise perfect one, to get it flattened, similar to how Eric Johnson got all of his done.

I've also got a good old Klon clone on the way, so that I can explore those kind of tones, which will be interesting combined with my 3 channel prototype that has a Fender style clean channel.

Here's how the guitar sounds

 

[Humbucking]

I always thought those were cool. I think most of the real vintage ones were done in solid colors though I have seen pictures of a couple done in sunburst.

 

[cardinal]

Beautiful!

I love Strats but have a hard time finding the right one. I really need a 12" or flatter radius and like bigger frets, and for whatever reason Fender usually makes guitars only with one or the other of those features but rarely both. I know the SRV and Kotzen Strats have both, but I'm not a huge fan of the SRV looks. I should try a Kotzen though.

 

[EddyLenz]

Beautiful!

I love Strats but have a hard time finding the right one. I really need a 12" or flatter radius and like bigger frets, and for whatever reason Fender usually makes guitars only with one or the other of those features but rarely both. I know the SRV and Kotzen Strats have both, but I'm not a huge fan of the SRV looks. I should try a Kotzen though.

Yeah, the Eric Johnson signatures also have the flatter radius, but medium frets I think. They're also quite expensive for production line guitars though. I almost got this custom shop one for the price of one of those... granted it was used, which I don't care about though haha