Fender FSR Tribute Stratocasters for 2024!
Published on 07 March 2024
Fender’s Stratocaster has become so unbelievably iconic, there are now particular colour combinations that are famous in their own right!
Fender’s number two child has long since been the best selling and most imitated electric guitar in the planet, and much of its popularity is down to its association with famous musicians. Us guitarists do like to perform a little hero worship from time to time, getting similar gear to the artists who’ve inspired us so much. It’ feels good to ‘represent’ guitarists we love (and align ourselves with them a little as we do so), plus it’s also fun to give a little wink to our more clued-up audience members! Do they recognise the reference? Are they making the connection?
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What is Fender FSR?
With that in mind, we began developing special ‘FSR’ guitars with Fender a few years ago. Entirely unassociated with any artist and therefore unofficial, we just put together some colour combos and specifications, approached Fender with them and had exclusive runs made, usually (not not always) in the Player Series.
These short runs were known as Fender Special Run - FSR - and proved to be extremely popular, so we’re bringing three favourites back for another limited run!
Inspired-By Stratocasters
We’ve done FSR runs with Teles and other models in the past, but this trio of Stratocasters proved to be particularly hot, so we’ve stuck with these for this run. Now, Strat fans will no doubt instantly pick up on the references we’ve made with these ‘tribute’ or ‘inspired by’ guitars, but I’d take pains to reiterate that these are not ‘official’ anything: they are just the results of us picking out some cool colours, pickguards and hardware, whilst tipping out hats to some pretty famous Strats!
It’s not even going as far as saying they are ‘affordable takes on famous guitars’ because that implies that we’re trying to offer specific replicas, and that’s not the agenda here. These are basically tricked-up Strats in non-catalogue colours with some cool features. We think they turned out great! Evidently, lots of you did too, and that’s why this run is back! Shall we check out some details?
Custom Shop Fat 50s Pickups
The main upgrade here, in my eyes anyway, are the pickups. Player Series Fenders already have really nice sounding pickups. They are a big improvement over the previous ‘Standard Series’ units and do not require instant upgrading. That said, these USA-made Custom Shop Fat 50s pickups are just beautiful sounding!
I’d say that the name is actually a bit misleading: I don’t think of the term ‘fat’ when I’m considering great Strat tone, and these pickups really do deliver a lovely palette of classic Strat sounds. I’d use adjectives like ‘twangy’, ‘glassy’ and ‘highly expressive’ instead. These pickups use quality alnico V Formvar magnets, cloth wire & fibre bobbins and have hand staggered pole pieces so that the naturally quieter strings get some compensation in volume.
I’m a real fan of the sounds I’m hearing from these guitars! To me, the higher the output gets, the less the guitar sounds like a Strat, so I’m glad to notice that they are relatively low-powered pickups, just as they’d be in the fifties. I reckon you’ll be very happy with the tones on offer, and each FSR Strat uses the same pickup set, so every choice is a winner!
Custom Colourways
We have three varieties of FSR Strat for you, and they each have a roughly corresponding pickguard, fingerboard timber and hardware colour. Here’s a handy reference:
- Fiesta Red Strat: maple fingerboard, white pickguard, gold hardware, white plastics parts (pickup covers, knobs etc)
- Black Strat: maple fingerboard, black pickguard, chrome hardware, white plastics
- Sunburst Strat: pau ferro fingerboard, black pickguard, gold hardware, cream plastics.
Now, I won't ask you if you can tell each guitar’s inspiration, but as we say, it’s all a bit of fun whilst adding some genuinely interesting - and great value - strats to our site and stores for you.
If you happen to be a fan of a particular artist and feel that one of these guitars is referencing that person, then they’d be a great foundation for you to build upon, if you were looking for such a guitar. If I were pushing close to the edge, I’d mention that small tremolo arms and truck decal lettering can be had online for a few quid,and so you can go as deep into ‘tribute’ mode as you wish!
A Real Deal for Players
These Strats are for all guitarists looking to get the best sounding, most affordable Strat they can that still bears the Fender logo. These musicians do not have to be fans of any particular artist, nor do they even have to notice the subtle associations there might be between these FSR guitars and famous artists’ guitars. They just need to appreciate a good Strat!
I’d humbly say that if you are already looking to play a sub-thousand pound Strat, then it is definitely in your greater interest to give one of these FSR Player Strats a good appraisal. The pickups on their own cost over £200 to buy! Mix in a little exclusivity and you have yourself a real keeper, at a nice price.
