Fender has announced its new Eric Johnson Signature Stratocaster Thinline guitar. The guitar—Eric Johnson's third Signature model with Fender—is the company's first custom-chambered semi-hollow Stratocaster guitar to include a traditional Stratocaster arm and body contours.
The model—which Johnson developed with Fender over the course of nearly two years—features a lightweight capped alder semi-hollow body with an F-hole, three single-coil Stratocaster pickups specially voiced to meet Johnson’s specifications, and a “’57 Soft V”-shaped one-piece maple neck with a 12”-radius maple fingerboard and 21 medium-jumbo frets.
“With this third signature model it was important to me that we create something new that could widen horizons and pull in different styles of music,” Johnson said in a statement. “When I’m writing, my go-to instrument is a Strat, because it’s so universal and versatile—but I’ve always loved semi-hollow body guitars. There’s a certain resonance you get out of an acoustic guitar, and I was curious if combining that with a Strat would add another dimension. I knew Fender was the perfect partner to work with on this, and the process of bringing new innovations to players is always exciting.”
The guitar has custom chambers, traditional Strat contours and a nitrocellulose lacquer finish. It also has no tremolo cavity cover on the back and no screw holes for one. Other features include a vintage-style synchronized tremolo bridge and staggered tuning machines that provide the proper break angle at the nut for improved tuning stability. A vintage-style tremolo with silver-painted block, ’57-style string recesses, a thin headstock with vintage-style staggered tuning machines, a ’57-style parchment pickguard and an “ashtray” bridge cover also come standard.
The Fender Eric Johnson Signature Stratocaster Thinline is available now for $1999.99.
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