#Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster 1965 JRN British Racing Green

What a gorgeous Fender Stratocaster! The entire Guitar Place team is amazed by this color scheme, which has never been available in the Fender color catalogue. British Racing Green goes back to the green livery of racing cars used by British racing teams for decades. A Bugatti racing car built in Alsace was painted in this color for the first time in 1929. Not to be confused with this superb looking green is the DuPont Sherwood Green metallic paint used on Fender guitars in the early 1960s, which was borrowed from the color of a 1957 Ford Mercury.

This fine Stratocaster has a light, centrally joined alder body with the contours typical of the mid-1960s, which are not quite as strong as they were at the beginning of this decade. The superbly executed top coat consists of nitrocellulose lacquer applied over an appropriate primer and sealed with clear nitro topcoat. The eye cannot get enough of the harmony of the three-layer black and white pickguard with vintage white potentiometer knobs and pickup caps that encase the Handwound 65 Strat-PU. The middle PU is wound in opposite polarity to suppress interference in the two intermediate positions.
As in the glorious vintage days, the sycamore neck is cut from the tree trunk with lying growth rings. This provides stability and a round tone. Fender has given the neck a dark tint to bring the vintage charm into the present. Authentic clay dots have been worked into the dark rosewood fingerboard for orientation, and the popular Dunlop 6105 frets act as frets, with dimensions well above the usual spaghetti vintage frets, which contributes to comfortable playability. The flat fretboard radius of 12" supports unlimited string pulling on this Strat. The neck shape is the grandiose Fender 65 Strat C profile with the neck thickness of 0.820" in the first fret and 0.974" in the 12th fret and corresponds to many Fender Stratocasters from that time . The headstock is the highlight, because it is also painted in British Racing Green and just looks incredibly good.
In combination with the selected materials and the neck dimensions, the guitar delivers a big sound, round, full and dry. The hand-wound pickups underline this, as this set sounds very balanced in all five positions. The basic sound is dynamic, wiry and electric, but never obtrusive.
Additional Notes: Early 65 Strat, British Racing Green, Matching Headstock, 65 Strat T-Gold / Orig OCB & Pat #, Worn Back of Neck