Fender is celebrating 70 years of the Stratocaster this year in the best way possible – by making more and more of them, and the latest is a most exquisite signature guitar for the hugely influential worship guitarist Lincoln Brewster.
The Lincoln Brewster Stratocaster shares a lot of specs with its Aztec Gold predecessor and arrives in an Olympic Pearl nitro finish – a stunning paint job that will get the most out of your stage lighting, and it is for any player whose tastes in Stratocasters skew towards the vintage-modern.
On the vintage side, well, that Olympic Pearl with the maple fingerboard is giving us some Hendrix at Woodstock vibes but the old-school Fender DNA runs deep. Brewster describes this guitar as a ’57 Stratocaster with “stealth mods”– modern appointments that update its sound and feel while maintaining that late ‘50s style.
The guitar’s neck is straight out of the archive, with a soft V profile that promises a comfortable ride. It is bolted to the body in the traditional Fender style, but look closely at the back of the guitar; it’s heel has been sculpted to ease upper-fret access. A welcome modern touch.
Brewster has also gone for an ash body, which is something we don’t see as often these days. It will be fun to try this side by side with the alder-bodied Juanes Stratocaster – because once we dig deep into the specs here there are some noticeable similarities.
Notably, both guitars feature onboard boost features. Brewster has two on his Strat. One gives you a mid-boost, which is adjustable via the tone knob and should come in handy giving you a bit more body for solos. The other is an onboard active boost activated by a push/pull function on the volume control.
Brewster’s pickup selection is pretty sweet, too. There is a DiMarzio Area 61TM single-coil at the bridge position – “steely, yet woody-sounding,” says DiMarzio – and a pair of Area 58s at the neck and middle.
Tonally speaking, those have been wound to take you “all the way from Nashville to Texas” from one electric guitar, and with no hum. Crazy.
Also, that control circuit has a treble bleed on the volume control so it doesn’t muddy up on you as you roll it back.
There are player-friendly features all over this. The maple fingerboard has a compound radius. That, allied to the medium-jumbo frets, should give this a more contemporary feel. Unlike a real 1957 Stratocaster, the Brewster Strat’s truss rod is adjustable via the headstock, a feature that surely no player is complaining about in this day and age.
Brewster has gone for a 2-point synchronised vibrato unit with bent-steel saddles, and it’s set up to float and has a pop-in arm. We’ve also got a set of vintage-style locking tuners, a cool single-ply eggshell pickguard, and the whole thing ships in a hard-shell guitar case.
This is a serious guitar, for all kinds of styles. You can hear how good it sounds in the demo video above. Priced £2,499/$2,499 it is available now. See Fender for more details.
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