Fender today released the new Albert Hammond Jr. Stratocaster. The Strokes guitarist's signature model features his own customized pickups switching: pickup switch position four activates the neck and bridge pickups in tandem, while positions one and three are reversed from the traditional layout. Hammond’s signature graces the back of the large Seventies-style headstock, while other Seventies-inspired features include a bullet truss rod nut, a 3-bolt “F”-stamped neck plate with period-correct Micro-Tilt adjustment and a Seventies-era logo.
The ceramic single-coil Stratocaster pickups are custom-designed to match Hammond’s brash, visceral playing style. The traditional master volume and two tone controls are easily at hand, one for the neck pickup and one for the middle pickup. The guitar also features a vintage-style 6-saddle synchronized tremolo bridge, a “Modern C”-shaped maple neck and a 7.25”-radius rosewood fingerboard with 21 medium-jumbo frets.
Other features include vintage-style strap buttons, dual-wing string trees, a vintage-style tremolo arm, chrome hardware, a 3-ply Parchment pickguard and a synthetic bone nut.
“When I got my 1985 reissue ’72 Strat, it was like a blank slate to me, and I went on a journey with the guitar itself,” Hammond Jr said in a statement. “I just like the idea that we took this amazing sounding guitar and it has pieces of me in it, but it’s a blank slate for someone to have their own journey with. When we designed it, I wanted a new generation of guitar player to grab it, find their own sound and just feel the same way I did when I played it for the first time.”
The Fender Albert Hammond Jr. Stratocaster is available for $874.99. For more information, head over to fender.com.
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