Roasted Alder and Maple combine with slightly hotter pickups to deliver an extraordinary 50s Fender experience.

We find it hard to resist a Sonic Blue Strat with a beautifully roasted flamed maple neck, not gonna lie. It's a combination that'll get your attention and practically begs you to sit and play for a spell (which we were more than happy to do).

In addition to the roasted maple neck, this 50s style Strat also features a roasted alder body. Roasting (torrefaction in the acoustic world) essentially expedites what happens to wood over decades - ideal moisture and resin levels, etc... What this process delivers is a lightweight, acoustically lively, snappy, resonant instrument, somewhat similar to a vintage guitar.

With enhanced acoustics / responsiveness as our starting point - thank you roasting - let's turn our attention to how this guitar sounds and behaves into an amp. We plugged into a Victoria Victoriette, cranked our volume about half way, and dialed in some reverb...immediate impressions were that this Strat does a great job of capturing what makes a 50s Fender great - an almost gold foil-esq upper midrange and treble response along with a really open and dynamic response. It's less compressed than a 60s style Fender and has a little more Tele twang, something we love about 50s Strats.

If any of this sounds like what you're in the market for, give this one a try. It's a remarkable Strat by any standard!