This is a 2021 Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster maple factory replacement neck (2011-2016 series with compound radius) paired with a 2023 Fender American Professional II Stratocaster Olympic White body and American Vintage Gold Anodized Aluminum pickguard. The neck is also an MIRC refurbished neck and has the end of the serial number scratched out and a "USED" stamp on the back. To make it look a little nicer I filled in both the scratch and the USED stamp so that it's less noticeable. If these kinds of aesthetics don't bother you and you want an awesome playing custom guitar then look read further!

While technically a "Partscaster" they are of the same model guitar of different years and not something ridiculous like a Tele neck on a Strat body. When the American Professional II series Strat came out it is essentially identical to a 2004-2016 American Deluxe body with the added heel contour, which made this pairing even more natural. While I'm probably more known recently for my Jazzmaster builds, I do still love my Strats and Teles and given the lack of good options I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to build one with some of my favorite features of the generations like the updated compound radius neck while adding my usual touches.

Condition wise, both the neck and body are in excellent condition with the most notable a finish chip on the bottom edge of the body which I filled in to prevent it getting worse but you can see it when you look closer (pictured), however there will be some evidence of light use and handling and maybe a stray small scratch but other than that it's in truly excellent condition, however taking into account the body blemish, USED stamp and serial number, I'm going to conservatively list this as "very good." The neck was technically never used so it has no fret wear, shiny and fresh!

With that it's had a number of tasteful upgrades to really take it to that next level. Please read further for the full details:

Weight is around 8.4 lbs

-Modified Fender Custom Shop Fat 50s pickups and the American Standard Delta Tone wiring. I only received the body and was really just starting from scratch here and it's hard to go wrong with the Fat 50s. However, with most vintage style Strat pickups is that they have the vintage stagger where that the G string pole is higher to compensate for the fact that vintage strings used a wound G string and is inherently darker. On Fender's older American Standard pickups these had a lowered G string pole to compensate for most modern string sets having an unwound G string and are brighter, so this helps smooth them out more and balance the output better across the strings. The pickups have fiber bobbins, cloth pushback lead wire, heavy formvar magnet wire and vintage staggered beveled pole magnets and a RWRP middle pickup. The output on them read around 5.8k/2.3h neck, 6k/2.5h middle and 6.3k/2.7h bridge. What I did to modify them here is lower the G pole so that they have a modern stagger and will sound better with modern unwound G strings.

Fender makes some really nice reissue/vintage style pickups, but the majority of them are with that vintage stagger and raised G string pole which assumes you're using a wound G string. I have no idea why Fender doesn't address this and offer more "vintage style" pickups (as in the material and construction) but modified for more modern guitars. Combined with the fact most players are also playing with flatter modern 9.5" or compound fretboards it exacerbates this high end spike even more. So this solves that problem and gives you a nice "modern" vintage style pickup which doesn't exist in Fender's catalog outside of if you requested it on a $3000+ Custom Shop guitar.

-During this process, all of the cheap PVC wire was replaced with vintage cloth push-back wire. I decided to go with the mid 90's American Standard series modern Strat "Delta Tone" wiring with the no-load tone pot, so the bridge and middle pickup share the #2 no-load tone pot and the neck pickup uses the #1 tone pot.

-Genuine Fender Anodized Gold Aluminum pickguard and backplate with aged white knobs and switch tip. The body originally came with a Tortoise Shell pickguard which doesn't look bad on Olympic White, but I figured I would go difference from my usual 3-ply Parchment here.

-Treble bleed circuit (.001uf cap and 1/4w 150k resistor in parallel) to allow the highs to remain when you turn the volume pot down and not get muddy. If you prefer lower output Strat pickups, just roll the volume back and this gets you there with retained clarity. Turn it back up when you want more!

-Orange Drop .022uf tone cap

-All of the pickup and control cavities have also been shielded with copper tape for better shielding and noise reduction

-American Deluxe Strat bridge plate and chromed block saddles. This is a really nice touch over the original powder coated saddles and it's also the pre-2012 version which is thicker and has better sustain

-Callaham enhanced tremolo block. This is a huge upgrade over the stock block and has more sustain and noticeably nicer tone even when you play the guitar acoustically

-Five tremolo springs (instead of the three it came with)

-Fender current production lightweight aluminum American Deluxe contour Corona, CA micro-tilt neck plate. I prefer these as more simple and look better than the American Professional II neck plate the body originally came with. These neck plates are 1/4 of the weight of the older steel ones and shave off a little weight (0.5 oz vs 2 oz)

-Current production Fender American Elite/Ultra 18:1 locking 2x4 two long and four short staggered post tuners (with vintage style buttons) for finer tuning adjustment and stability vs the original 16:1 tuners. Unlike a normal set of locking tuners which are 3x3 staggered or are all short, giving you a better break angle and sustain on the D string and also more winds in the low E and A posts which is a little annoying on all short posts

-Fender/Schaller strap locks and buttons (in the case compartment)

-Fender G&G style Deluxe Hard Case from a current series American Vintage II (sells for nearly $300 alone) in tweed with brown leather ends/handle and red poodle plush interior (key included!)

On top of these upgrades, it has also been cleaned, polished and fully setup, currently strung with D'Addario EXL110 (10-46) strings with enough relief in the neck balanced for both lead and rhythm and a light touch (5/64" string height on the low E and 4/64" on the high E strings). The saddles have been perfectly intonated and adjusted to the 12" fretboard radius (middle of 9.5-14" compound). The nut slots have been cleaned and filed for optimal contact and take off points for better sustain. The neck, middle and bridge pickup heights are adjusted to 6/64" on the bass side and 5/64" on the treble side. The tremolo has also been "decked" flush against the body for better tuning stability and sustain.

I fully stand by the work and believe you'll get a much better playing and sounding guitar here because of the selection of upgrades and attention to detail in the setup than if you an American Deluxe, Professional or Standard off the shelf for hundreds more. Why not be done with it, get a rare discontinued model with character and an awesome hard case while you're at it :)

Here's more detailed specs on the neck and body:

FEATURES
Body
• Body shape: Double cutaway
• Body type: Solid body
• Body material: Solid wood
• Top wood: Not applicable
• Body wood: Alder
• Body finish: Gloss Urethane
• Orientation: Right handed
Neck
• Neck shape: C modern
• Neck wood: Maple
• Joint: Bolt-on
• Scale length: 25.5"
• Truss rod: Bi-flex
• Neck finish: Satin Urethane
Fretboard
• Material: Rosewood
• Radius: 9.5"-14" Compound
• Fret size: Medium jumbo
• Number of frets: 22
• Inlays: Black Pearl Dot