The vibrato block has been changed from zinc to more vintage-accurate steel and the string spacing at the bridge is slightly narrower - with the bigger frets and smoother playability, it's clear Fender didn't want us slipping off the edges.Įlsewhere everything remains within the ballparks that made the 1950s originals of these designs so compelling. The Strat's middle pickup is also reverse-wound with reverse polarity, so positions two and four on the five-way pickup selector should be devoid of hum pickup. The Strat's neck and bridge pickups (there's no tone control on the middle pickup) benefit from their own greased-up tone pots.Īny electricians among you will appreciate the information that each Greasebucket tone control wiring includes two ceramic disk capacitors alongside a 4.7k ohm metal film resistor.

I actually named it myself after the can of used bacon grease that used to sit on our stove at home when I was a kid.' So now you know! Replacing the vintage-style single-coils are what Fender describes as Hot Strat single-coils that are all based around an Alnico III magnet foundation, a mid-strength magnet that should provide a slightly enhanced, hotter performance when compared to an Alnico II.Īdditionally, the guitar offers Fender's increasingly popular Greasebucket tone circuit that was developed in the Custom Shop as a way of rolling off the high-end without the usual low-end woomph of a standard passive tone control circuit.ĭidn't this have something to do with a certain Billy Gibbons? 'We designed with him in mind,' states Fender's Mike Eldred, 'and he was the testing guy.

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