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1963 Stratocaster Metallic Run:
The Candy Man Can
With a keen sense and expert craftsmanship, our specialists for exquisite one-offs, under the direction of Custom Shop guru Olli Lohmann, have launched a series that seems to come straight from the past of a better parallel universe: the Fender Custom Shop 1963 Stratocaster Metallic Run.
These instruments, developed together with Fender as part of the Dealer Select program, are built on the foundation of ’63 Strats and have been elevated to a new level with a number of subtle yet effective tweaks. And they all come in fantastic colors whose fine metallic effect evokes those sweet days when you pressed your nose against the candy display window of your local confectionery shop 😋
Further down the page, we dive deeper into the details of the special features of our Special Edition!
Body
The body of our sweet temptations is made from "Lightweight Sorted Alder", meaning alder that has been specially selected for its low weight. This not only offers the advantage of more comfortable handling for longer playing sessions with less strain on the back—lightweight woods also provide tonal benefits, producing a particularly beautiful sound with remarkable sustain, as they resonate especially well.
Neck
This body is paired with a quarter-sawn maple neck. The advantage: because the grain orientation and growth ring direction are ideally aligned with the neck shape, the result is an especially stiff construction that is far less susceptible to external changes such as fluctuations in temperature or humidity. A rosewood fingerboard further enhances this effect and, incidentally, delivers the typical tone with a bit more warmth in the lower mids. This highly stable neck is fitted with narrow tall nickel-silver frets and, thanks to its "Oval C" profile, quite literally plays “like butter.”
Electronics
The trio of passive Fender Custom Shop hand-wound 60/63 Stratocaster pickups is traditionally controlled by a 5-way switch and the classic combination of 1x volume and 2x tone potentiometers, confidently delivering the full spectrum of the sought-after and iconic Strat sounds from the golden era from which the ancestors of our guitars originate.
Colors
The run includes 12 different colors that are truly mouth-watering: Black, Lake Placid Blue, Candy Apple Red, Purple, Charcoal Frost, Burgundy Mist, British Racing Green, as well as rarer finishes such as Candy Tangerine, Teal Green, Copper, Inca Silver, or Shoreline Gold—all executed in nitrocellulose lacquer. Combined with parchment parts and the 3-ply nitrocellulose pickguard in subtle mint green, the result is eye candy in a class of its own.
Relic
When it comes to artificial aging, we’ve come up with something special for the 1963 Metallic Run: the guitars generally correspond to the "Relic" type, placing them right in the sweet spot between the more subtle “Journeyman Relic” (known from our Dealer Select models) and the more aggressive “Heavy Relic.”
The hardware, however, is kept in the lightest relic level, "Closet Classic", which not only provides a more interesting look. Because the material is less “worn,” setup adjustments can also be made more precisely.
In contrast, the back of the neck features a "Heavy Relic" treatment. This provides the comfortable feel of a thoroughly broken-in instrument that no other finish can replicate as authentically.
Conclusion
The guitars of our Fender Custom Shop 1963 Stratocaster Metallic Run offer a level of tonal authenticity that doesn’t simply fall off the workbench. Instead, the craftsmen in California have created instruments that impress across the board and not only hold their own among “real” vintage Strats but, thanks to their unique finish, quite literally shine.
The Candy Man Can!
