The Fender Artist Series Eric Johnson Stratocaster is an American made Strat built to Eric Johnson's exacting standards. With its a light two-piece alder body with deep '57-style body contours and cavities, it differs from modern Strats with vintage hardware, a chunkier maple neck for increased sustain, a thin nitrocellulose lacquer finish, specially voiced pickups unique to the Eric Johnson Strat, (they are even voiced differently on rosewood and maple fretboard versions to allow for the brighter sound of maple) and a '57 style parchment pickguard. All of which gives this guitar the look, feel and tone that match up to the very high standards of the man himself!

The development of the Stratocaster also saw the inclusion of single-coil alnico 3 pickups with staggered-height pole pieces that effectively addressed the varying output of the heavy string gauges in use at the time, and a slanting output jack mounted on the face of the guitar rather than the side. The guitar’s distinctively shaped headstock—more fully curvaceous than that of the Telecaster and Precision Bass—was undoubtedly influenced by instruments built by Paul Bigsby and, like the Telecaster and Precision Bass before it, had all the tuners within easy reach on one side. And a notably elegant touch in Fender’s first use of a sunburst finish, which was included at Randall’s insistence to give the guitar a more high-end look.

The Stratocaster’s greatest innovation, however, was its bridge. In response to player feedback on the Telecaster, Randall wanted the new guitar to have some kind of vibrato system. Leo immersed himself in the task with his customary focus.

And yet the initial design for the Stratocaster’s vibrato bridge was a pronounced failure. Leo and guitarist/advisor Bill Carson apparently thought prototype units sounded fine at the factory, but Leo’s right-hand man in the factory, George Fullerton, said they “sounded terrible.” Leo invested a great deal of time and money into trying to perfect the system well into 1953 before scrapping the entire design and starting over.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Body Shape    Stratocaster®
• Body Material    Alder
• Body Finish    Nitrocellulose Lacquer
• Fretboard Material    Maple
• Fretboard Radius    12" (305 mm)
• Scale Length    25.5" (648 mm)
• No. of Frets    21
• Fretboard Inlays    Black Dot
• Pickups    Specially Voiced Eric Johnson Single-Coil with Countersunk Mounting Screws
• Bridge    6-Saddle American Vintage Synchronized Tremolo
• Pickguard    1-Ply Parchment
• Strings    Fender® USA 250R Nickel Plated Steel (.010-.046 Gauges)
• Tuning Machines    Vintage-Style Staggered
• Hardware Finish    Nickel/Chrome
• Case    Deluxe Blonde Hardshell with Black Ends (Black Interior)