A fantastic 50s style Strat that combines gorgeous looks with effortless playability, inspiring tones, and an excellent overall feel.
We sat down with this '62 Custom Shop Strat and before we knew it, 30 mins had past. This Strat into our Swart Atomic Jr head and cab is a great hang.
This is a resonant, lively, and let's face, awesome looking Strat. But what had us hooked (beyond looks), was the tone, feel, and playability. The '57 Custom Shop pickups are really dynamic and fun pickups to play. A nice "hidden treat" that we weren't expecting? Instead of a 2nd tone control, the FCS wired this Strat to have a master volume and tone control, with the 2nd tone control being wired as a blend control - something we see builders like Don Grosh utilizing.
In a nutsell, the blend allows you to get the bridge and neck pickups together like a Tele, in addition to having all the pickups on - cool in and of itself - but in practice, we always use this feature like an EQ control. Specifically a midrange control.
Into our Swart Atomic Jr, which has a really beautiful early-50s like midrange, we were able to either emphasize or de-emphasize that midrange depending on our mood. Sure, boost pedals will do this too, but, they don't allow for the same level of control as you can set the blend - and it's effect on the mids - however you'd like, to whatever degree you want. Yes, that's an awesome thing!
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