255 – 100424 ZS-Strat

Body Style:  ZS (Strat)

Body Wood:  Knotty Pine (1 piece)

Neck Wood:  Maple

Fingerboard Wood:  Maple

Scale:  25.5"

Frets:  24 Stainless, 110/57

Fingerboard Radius:  7.25-12 inch

Tuners: modern sealed (Gotoh)

Pickups:  Zachary Hand Wound Strat-Buckers,
neck & bridge - each 2 Strat pickups paired as humbuckers

Controls: master Volume and Tone, 6-way switch
Pickup Selection, 6-way rotary switch:
1- neck humbucker;   2- neck inside coil;   3- both inside coils;
4- both humbucking;   5- bridge inside coil;   6- bridge humbucking;

Neck Joint:  bolt-on with Spike isolation coupling and angle adjustment,

Strings:  Zachary Optimum Tensions, 10++ RW set

Weight: 7 lbs.

Price:   $2500 USD + extras, + case

Inspiration 

Having created Tele style guitars from Knotty Pine, like 242 - 271122, I wanted to now add a Strat version along the same theme. Usually there are several new things that excite me to try with each guitar creation. Here I wanted to make 4 Strat pickups, then pair them on the same frame as humbuckers. Novel idea, which will get no press of course. However each pickups, each coil for that matter, can also be used independently as traditional single coils. You will get a Strat and a Les Paul in the same guitar.

I wanted to use a Tele bridge, as if this was a prototype that Fender might have done before they finalized the Stratocaster with its Vibrato bridge. I wanted to keep it very basic and vintage-inspired with a Maple neck and fingerboard. Only the hardware is aged. However, as always, I make high-performance guitars for the modern high-performance player and this cannot really be compared to the antiquated design of the traditional Stratocaster.

So here, you get traditional Strat sounds, as well as for the first time I know of, using two Strat pickups as humbuckers. Amazing, don't you agree? Think about it for bit and have it sink in.

The guitar is only 7 lbs with 6-way rotary switch and 24 Stainless Steel frets.
An imagined Fender prototype that Fender in the early 50s would have never thought of.
It would have been way before its time, wouldn't you think?