Up for grabs is a bravely modified Fender Eric John Signature Thinline Strat. This aged yellow demon of a guitar is a stalwart in my arsenal. It has a lot under the hood so to speak. Many tonal options await you. So, it goes without saying this one hurts, but it's for the greater good as I have a game-changing custom build in the works from Rick Toone. See my other listings for more killer axes, super cool amps and awesome pedals. That all said, there's lots to talk about ...

First, the guitar: It's a 2018 that sounds immense thanks to the literal gutting of the guitar and what I painstakingly designed from years of adventurous experimentation. If you know my work you know I'm a Strat guy. I wanted a thinline Strat, but also wanted to push the envelope. This guitar is the fruits of a lot of labor.

As always, I had it refretted with Dunlop 6100s. What made that process easier as it already had a 12" radius - a must for me. Coupled with the thinline design this guitar was perfect for me to create a Strat that only existed in my head.

Among the many changes the first two to nerd on are the heart of the guitar: the incredible Vega trem and positively massive sounding Joe Barden SDLX S-Type pickups. The former needs no introduction. The Vega has more than proven its worth in the trem game. As for the latter, when it comes to noiseless single coils with some heft, but not needing a battery - the Bardens rule that zone. I did a product video for this set years ago for JBE and TrueFire and I made sure a day would come where I would have those in a guitar.

As for the hardware - it's all black down to every screw. Even the Schaller strap buttons and the jack plate! I think it looks so cool against the aged yellow finish. Onto more black, the locking tuning machines are Graph Tech ratio tuners. Finally, the guitar is setup with NYXL 9.5s in standard tuning.

But, wait, there's more black: Where two tone knobs used to be are what may seem like two perplexing replacements. First, I'm not a fan of tone knobs, so, off they went. At the bottom-most position is a switch to engage the neck pickup in the two places on a conventional 5-way you cannot. That would be the bridge (#1) and bridge-middle (#2) positions. In the middle you'll see a chicken head knob. That's a 6-way ToneStyler from Stellartone. I got hip to these through Rick Toone. It's a detented pot with specific EQ'ing at each stop. Very musical and thus very useful unlike old skool tone knob designs.

All in all, between the Bardens, the neck pickup switch and the ToneStyler coupled with the snap of a thinline body... this is a formidable guitar producing powerful Strat tones and beyond.

As for the extras: I threw in three packs of NYXL 9.5s as well as an unopened D'Addario Clip-Free nano tuner. As far as paperwork you'll get the ever-important COA and some Fender schwag from it's actual state of being the guitar it was. There's also the original trem arm, trem cover (AKA ash tray), pickup selector tip and the two knobs the were formerly the tone knobs. That and the original hard shell case and, well, I think that's everything.

* As for anything else you might think should be here: Aside from the included leftover parts from the Vega install package, I don't have it. Not the pickups, the tone pots, the pickguard, tuners, etc. WYSIWYG!

Modded guitars are not for everyone, but when it is right for you it's like finding buried treasure. I've modded many guitars. Anyone who has been lucky to grab what took me months, sometimes years, of research and deep resources gets a fully realized and vetted supercharger of a guitar. This one was by far more my most involved. If not for what's to come from Rick, this one would continue to go to work with me on a regular basis.