After unveiling its signature guitar collection for the second half of 2021 and teasing its imminent arrival, Fender has officially launched the brilliantly spec'd Cory Wong Signature Stratocaster.
The Vulfpeck speed strummer’s first-ever Fender signature is inspired by his very own Highway One Strat, which he purchased second-hand at a store in Minneapolis as a teenager.
“I just fell in love with the feel and sound of the guitar,” Wong reflects of his original instrument as he explores the six-string’s spec sheet. “I knew it wasn’t the most expensive guitar out there but it just felt right in my hands.
“I wanted to try and come up with something that resembled that,” he continued, “but that was also a little more up to date or up to par with the specs that I like now.
“No matter what guitar you play you’re going to sound like yourself. But with guitars being very different from one to the other, there are certain instruments that are just going to draw your voice out of you more than others. I knew these specs were going to draw my voice out in a way that would just get it immediately.”
So, what are these specs he speaks of? Well, the guitar features a slightly scaled-down, contoured alder body, and comes equipped with a lush Sapphire Blue transparent lacquer finish, akin to his Highway One.
A maple, modern-D profile neck is paired with a 10-14” compound radius rosewood fingerboard, both of which line up alongside a vintage-style tremolo system and deluxe locking tuners.
Wong runs a four-spring setup on his tremolo to mount the bridge flush to the body, and uses a hair tie to dampen the vibrations further – as a result, a specially chosen tie is included with the guitar.
In terms of Wong’s specific specs, the electric guitar features a push/pull pot on the second tone control that bypasses the five-way selector switch and defaults directly to his favored position four – Wong describes it as a "panic button" in case he accidentally knocks the selector to a different position.
Under the hood, the Strat sports a set of signature Seymour Duncan Cory Wong Clean Machines, with a curved neck heel, signed headstock and bone nut finishing off the blueprint.
An in-depth tone demo accompanying the release sees Wong plug his signature Strat into the Neural DSP Quad Cortex to show off the six-string's sublime sonic spectrum, as well as his infinitely impressive technique.
During a separate video with Fender, in which Wong lines up alongside members of his Cory and the Wongnotes house band, the funk maestro reflected, "I can't believe I'm saying this: I have a signature Cory Wong Stratocaster.
"Who has signature Stratocasters? Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Johnson, Yngwie Malmsteen... Cory Wong? That is absolutely mind-blowing to me to be a part of that lineage. I am truly honored."
"I'm really excited about the fact that this guitar is going to live with me, get beat up by me on the road," says Wong, "and it might wear down in a similar way as my other one did, and that's what also really helps bring the character to life.
"That's part of the story of every guitar and I'm excited to start living that story out now."
The Fender Cory Wong Stratocaster is available now for $1,999.
For more information, head over to Fender.
