tonymckenziecom | 1 decade ago

This is the one of the last Fender Strat guitars I have built. This one is completely unique in my view and posed one or two very challenging tasks (at least for me) to end up with what you see and hear.

This teaser video is simply me improvising to an 'empty rooms' backing track which was originally written by Gary Moore (RIP Gary) and no I am not a Gary Moore. Check Gary's youtube live video of this track which is extremely inspiring for any guitarist. So don't try and compare my playing... Gary would win every time - he was an awesome player. I liked his 87 period most actually, but those blues were good too.

But more importantly, if you want a Fender Strat like this one, to buy from Fender would cost you a small fortune. It still will if you go to the lengths I did with this guitar - but I estimate about one quarter cost compared to Fender custom shop of the same thing. Don't look to Fender - they don't have one of these and I guess the main reason is cost - its a very high end guitar.

This one was made in the Tony Mckenzie custom shop ;-) and is at least as good as any other 'custom' guitar even those from Fender. It is mainly a Fender Strat anyway but not as you might know it.

This uses Seymour Antiquity pickups (the hotter version) and many other great parts including a Jeff Beck original Fender neck.

I used a 'bladerunner' tremolo recently developed in the USA and released in 'gold' finish to match the guitar. This proved to be a great improvement over the standard tremolo which I was going to use originally.

I also used genuine Fender Locking tuners (gold) which were very expensive but finished off this guitar as I wanted it to look.

The body cost over $1000 by itself from Warmoth and was a custom order... unfortunately they did not do what they were told.. but thats all in the build video of this guitar... watch it and learn about some of that stuff from me who suffered from a number of suppliers who could not do or supply what they were paid for.

In any case the final guitar is exceptional and it sounds much better in real life than you might think. But don't look for timid sounds - I don't particularly play that way. Be loud and proud that's what I say :-)

This video was direct to the camera from a desk and I used a Mesa Boogie Road King II on channel 3 in vintage mode without too much drive in there.

On effects I used an Eventide Eclipse with my own settings.

And this is the final one take recording of the guitar - recorded the same day I completed the build.

Do not copy this video it is (c) A B Mckenzie 2011. All Rights Reserved.

You might want to go over to www.tonymckenzie.com where I talk about this guitar, how I built it, some of the fool suppliers who don't know what day it is or many other aspcts of this guitar and of course all those reviews I'm getting more and more famous for (some say infamous but they are usually die hard fans or manufacturers).

Lastly, once I get the YJM100 out of Marshall I am reviewing that on my site and on my youtube channel... also without all of that 'bull' that others always appear with... I'm looking forward to that one....

Thanks for watching and rock on...