2017 Fender Elite Stratocaster - pristine

flawless

yes . .flawless - that's the word that always seems to come up when you speak to any owner of an elite strat .

It's similar to the word used to describe a half-built bungalow - but spelt differently .

This one is from the first year of manufacture and was bought by a collector who had no intention of playing it - just looking after it . It seems it has rarely seen the light of day and apart from having a pro set up is untouched - 100% mint pristine condition ! It was hand picked from a selection of some of the first to land in the UK and picked with care - the sunburst is absolutely outstanding - I'm sorry I can't really do it justice with my camera - in the flesh this is a very handsome instrument

So what's so great about this guitar ?

First of all , you get the fourth generation noiseless pickups - incredible things - fabulous tone without the single coil hum , no interference from other devices .

The S1 switch gives you virtually limitless tone selections - of course all the classic Strat sounds are there but you can also dial in the pickup 1 and 3 combined option and switch any pickup combo from series to parallel for proper humbucking tones .  

The neck starts as a soft C at the nut and transitioning into a soft D at the body - add the contoured neck heel to this and you end up with a super comfortable and very playable neck plus great access to the higher frets . 

The compound contour fingerboard mirrors the changes in the back of the neck helping your hand into the correct playing position whatever you're doing ( within reason - don't start writing in !!! )

Now  . .Im not a fan of bulky locking machine heads but these  . .. . oooooh yeah - so subtle , you wouldn't know they were there - and not just aesthetically pleasing - really functional , eliminating any string stretch around the machine head posts and keeping you in tune - love it !

if there's one thing I wasn't in love with - it was the truss rod wheel - i thought it detracted from the look of the most famous electric guitar ever made - I didn;t like it at all !!!! Until I actually used it - gamechanger - great invention !!! So easy to access . Now I'm wondering what I was ranting about - to adjust the truss rod on my own Strat I have to take the neck off ! On this one - you turn a small wheel . I WANT ONE !!!!!!!

So there you go 

In its hardshell Fender Case ( also mint ) with its bits and bobs - this is maybe the best example of this guitar available - in short - it's flawless !