Fender Custom Shop '66 Strat Aged Lake Placid Blue/Closet Classic (USED, 2022)

This Custom Shop 1966 Strat re-creates the sought after large-headstock Strat in detail, with the perfect customizations for players and aficionados alike.

The Stratocaster of 1966 sits at an interesting moment in Fender history. CBS had purchased the company at the start of 1965, and late that year the Strat received its larger headstock, giving it the bold silhouette that would define the guitar for the next decade and more. Yet much of the workforce, tooling, and know-how that built the pre-CBS classics was still in place, and the guitars from this era carry that lineage. This Custom Shop recreation captures that moment beautifully.

The two-piece select alder body wears a Deluxe Closet Classic lacquer finish, polished with just a touch of age, like a well-kept guitar that spent most of its life in its case. The quartersawn maple neck is carved to a '66 oval C profile and topped with a round-laminated rosewood fingerboard, true to the era. Fender's Custom Shop pairs those period details with a few thoughtful modern updates: a 9.5" radius and 21 medium jumbo frets make bends and chording feel easy and natural.

The pickups are a set of hand-wound '65 gray-bottom Strat pickups, full-bodied and articulate, with a reverse-wound, reverse-polarity middle pickup so the in-between positions cancel hum. They are wired through a five-way switch with Vintage Modified #2 wiring and a Tone-Saver bleed circuit, which keeps the top end clear as you roll back the volume, all mounted on a three-ply parchment pickguard. A Custom Shop vintage synchronized tremolo, vintage-style tuners, a bone nut, and a wing string tree round it out.

It comes with a deluxe hardshell case, strap, and certificate of authenticity, and like every instrument we sell, it gets a full setup from our techs before it ships or leaves the shop.