Fender Masterbuilt David Brown '50s Stratocaster Shoreline Gold/DLX Closet Classic

A David Brown '57-style Strat in Shoreline Gold - airy, snappy, and chiming, with a perfect Soft V neck and Fat '50s voice that feels like an attic find from another era.

A question we get a lot: what's the difference between Fender Custom Shop Team Built and Masterbuilt instruments? It's worth unpacking.

Team Built guitars are made by small groups of skilled builders within the Custom Shop, working together to produce consistently excellent instruments with a feel all their own.

Masterbuilt is a different world entirely - single-luthier territory. One Masterbuilder takes the instrument from start to finish, and every build carries that person's experience, taste, and hands-on touch. It's essentially Fender's version of a boutique guitar.

It's hard to put into words, but there's a definite difference you can feel - the same thing we've noticed with other single-luthier instruments. Call it blood, sweat, and tears, or just call it a vibe. Either way, we know it when we play it.

While we've had quite a few David Brown guitars come through, this is the first '50s-style Strat we've gotten from him (the others have all been '60s models). And like those, this one is simply outstanding: loud and resonant acoustically, with what feels to our hands like a perfect neck profile. Because these Strats were released right on the heels of the Telecaster in the '50s, they still carry some of that T-style DNA. They're snappy, airy, and have a sweet, beautifully complex chime in the trebles.

This Shoreline Gold, alder-bodied Strat is tastefully aged in a way that makes it feel older than it is without resorting to gimmicks. We sometimes imagine firing up the time machine, heading back to the '50s, and hauling a great Strat home with us - and this one has exactly that quality. Like an old guitar forgotten in an attic and only just rediscovered.

About that neck: it's a '57 Soft V (.85"–.99"). Like those numbers point to, it has a really pleasing and natural feeling taper - manageable down in the cowboy-chord region (frets 1–3), then filling out beautifully as you climb, which makes it ideal for lead work and bending.

The Fat '50s pickups do exactly what great '50s Strats do. As we said, there's more air and twang here (think great Tele), and they're far less compressed than '60s Strat pickups. That really pays off playing rhythm on the bridge pickup through, say, a Vox-style amp - gorgeous "krang" and clarity - while heavier tones stay taut and muscular in the neck position. The 2 and 4 positions are more open and nuanced than later decades delivered, which in our book is a brilliant thing.