Fender Masterbuilt David Brown 1972 Stratocaster Natural Pearl/NOS

A Masterbuilt 1972 Stratocaster that makes the case for the decade everyone skips: natural figured ash, big headstock, bullet truss rod, and 7lbs 8oz.

Custom Shop guitars out in the wild, especially Masterbuilts, tend to focus on '50s and '60s style guitars. Cool, but that laser focus on two decades leaves out a lot of great guitars made after 1969 came to a close. Sure, the '70s isn't the golden era of any iconic guitar manufacturer, but there were still fantastic guitars built during this period, and certainly ones worth your attention.

When we saw this Masterbuilt 1972 Stratocaster from Fender Custom Shop Master Builder David Brown, we were immediately interested. One, '70s guitars do look pretty great with that natural ash-bodied look, either with a rosewood board like this guitar or a maple board, and either all black or all white plastics. Classic stuff to be sure. One cool thing about a natural finish is the quality of the body wood has no place to hide, and David picked a gorgeous, highly figured piece for this build. This is typically the type of quality you go to boutique builders for. Cool to see it on a Fender.

Two, we're suckers for a big headstock and a bullet truss rod. If we had any "complaint" about vintage style Fenders, it's that you have to remove the neck to adjust the truss rod, a definite bummer when your guitar just needs a simple and quick tweak.

In hand, this guitar feels amazing. Slinky, responsive and resonant, with a great dynamic range. David used a neck profile you don't see on the vintage style ones, an American Standard Modern C (.82 to .87"). It's not a skinny profile at all (the name makes us think that if we're honest). It feels a bit like an early '60s C that just doesn't noticeably taper like the old ones. Paired with its 9.5" radius and 6150 medium jumbo frets, the playability is fantastic, especially for more modern players looking for a slightly more refined feel. Substantial enough, yet still sleek and fast.

Plugged into a Victoria Vicky Verb (a fantastic amp, btw), the Josefina-wound '69 pickups sounded incredible. There's a really nice Tele-like clarity, bite, and twang in the bridge pickup, though never harsh, while the 2nd position delivers really fat and chewy "cluck." The middle position is clear and open (Strat players, you know, the middle pickup is vastly underutilized). Position 4 gives you a slightly rounder cluck vs position 2, and the neck pickup is full, scooped, and round without getting into hyped/stereotypical Strat neck tones. All positions are balanced, worth noting.

On the hunt for your last (or next) Strat? This one's a no brainer. Just a fantastic guitar on every level, and while it looks like it'd be heavy (because some of those '70s Strats definitely are!), it's not. 7lbs 8oz. Nice!