“Journeyman guitars have the lightest relicing available, as if the guitar has been used but not abused during its fictitious lifetime”: Up close with Fender Custom Shop’s ’59 Journeyman Stratocaster – a stunning vintage repro fresh out of the box

We don’t often feature the fruits of Fender’s renowned Custom Shop here for the simple reason that nearly all the guitars it produces go straight to dealers. But we managed to snag this rather beautiful ’59 limited-edition Strat by chance and decided to display its dashing good looks.

What we have here is a Journeyman Strat in faded Sonic Blue, with many characteristics that are shared by Stratocasters of the period. Journeyman guitars have the lightest amount of relicing available, and here it’s limited to slight crazing in the nitrocellulose finish, as if the guitar has been used but certainly not abused during its fictitious lifetime.

On some of these instruments Fender has aged the hardware and removed some of the playing area finish from the back of the neck. Not here; this one definitely leans more towards the company’s ‘new, old stock’ designation.

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Another thing we see here represents that snapshot in time when Fender was transitioning from maple ’boards to the ’60s rosewood staple and had started to experiment with tri-laminate pickguards as opposed to the single-ply white that had been standard beforehand.

We say ‘experiment’ because you’ll notice that this ’59 Journeyman still has eight screws in its ’guard as opposed to the 11 that were to become the norm a few months later on.

Apparently, you’ll find an assortment of variations in this regard from Strats of the period. You’ll also note that the pickguard is a darker, more greyish green to emulate the colour of the celluloid (or nitrate) ’guards of the time.

Spec-wise, the body is two-piece alder with an outrageously flamed maple neck, the profile of which is at a point between a chunky ’50s V and a ’60s C. The spec sheet says that it is a “60s style oval C”, and there’s certainly plenty of heft to it compared with a regular C-profiled ’61 Strat we have handy. A handful, for sure, but not uncomfortably so.

One concession to the 21st century is that the fingerboard radius is the modern 241mm (9.5 inches) variety as opposed to the 184mm (7.25 inches) of yesteryear.

Other highlights include a trio of hand-wound ‘60/63’ pickups (which sound delightful, by the way) and a specially chosen dark rosewood ’board with the famous clay dot position markers.

• Price: $4,600/£4,400
• Contact: Fender Custom Shop
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.