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Inspiration
The reasons for building this instrument were many.
I had a craving a natural Alder Strat and it had to have gold hardware and it had to be aged throughout. This is actually a rare look for a Strat and why I like it.
The combination of the Alder body, natural finish and gold hardware.
I also wanted to imagine what a Stratocaster prototype might have looked like. Back before the Stratocaster went into production the first prototypes I heard were not contoured for the arm and belly cuts. They had sharp edges and a simple slab body, like a Telecaster. Strangely we did not see any Stratocaster prototypes. There are some surviving Telecaster prototypes but not Strats. Leo must have burned them all as firewood.
So I imagined what the Strat prototypes may have looked like. I imagined that at first they may have been a cross between a Telecaster and a Stratocaster. This means, no comfort-contours, sharp edges on the body, like a Tele and using Telecaster hardware. The use of early hardware, such as the first Fender Precision Bass control plate, Tele knob, Tele jack plate and the prototype pre-production Fender pickguard. This all ads up to a very cool guitar.
Another reason to build this guitar is the amazing 6-way blade switch, which I am using here for the very first time. Yes I said 6-way (NOT usual 5 way). This is an amazing switch which I just discovered myself and should be on every Strat-style guitar but for some stupid reason it is Not. This switch gives you one additional tone option, but a very important one; the use of the Neck and Bridge pickups simultaneously, like on a Telecaster. This switching option is NOT available on a regular Strat style guitar. There are actually 7 different switching combinations but the "all pickups together" option is not a very useful sound, so it is not essential or missed. However, the one option which is mandatory, is the Neck and Bridge pickups together, which this Stratocaster-style guitar offers, via this new switch.
The finish is a very thin traditional Nitrocellulose Lacquer as on all pre-CBS Fender.
Aside from all of these inspirations, a Zachary Stratocaster guitar is the best Strat-style guitar in the world. Seriously and I will be a joy to prove it to anyone. Everything is as great as it can be on it, including the impossible set up, fretwork, neck feel, the tone, the unmatched tuning stability and the unmistakable Organic feel and look, which you do not get from any modern plastic-dipped, mass-produced, CNC computer-made guitar-looking-object.
This is why I make the best guitars in the world but I would never pay anyone to play them or to tell you how great they are.
The corresponding YouTube video may give you a bit of an idea.
