Fender Custom Shop Wildwood 10 Relic-Ready 1961 Stratocaster

Wildwoodians, thank you for making Relic-Ready Custom Shop Fenders such a massive success! Your support has allowed our friends at Fender to really break new ground and create something fresh, exciting, and bold. However, given that the concept of a "Relic-Ready" finish is relatively new to the world of guitars, we wanted to add some notes to clarify what you should expect from a Relic-Ready instrument.

Relic-Ready finishes are much, much different than NOS finishes because they only have three or four layers of clear coat. Because the finish is so incredibly thin, Relic-Ready instruments begin the natural relic-ing process the moment they are fully assembled. Since these finishes are designed to wear quickly, sometimes Relic-Readies arrive at our shop having already begun their journey to vintage mojo. So, you can expect things like light dings, small spots where the finish has burned through, light scratching, and checking in the neck pocket. However, you can be assured that your instrument will NOT have any full-body checking from weather, deep scratches, or major dings/blemishes. As always, if you'd like more information about the condition of each particular serial, please don't hesitate to reach out for an in-hand description.

With Relic-Readies, our idea was to allow the player to write their own story into the finish of each guitar. But, sometimes the process of getting the guitar to you adds a little foreword to the finish to help you get started. For more information about all things Relic-Ready, read on!

Relic-Ready to Rumble

Over the years, Wildwood Guitars has sold thousands of relic’d Fender guitars. The incredible response that we’ve gotten from our Wildwood Tens is proof that most of the guitar-playing world loves instruments that marry modern convenience with vintage look, feel, and sound. We’ve also learned that there are plenty of pickers out there that like the distressed vintage look, but feel a little strange about playing a guitar that they didn’t relic themselves through everyday use. For these guitarists, each ding and scratch is a punctuation mark in the story of their instrument, and they want to be in charge of what happens in the tale of their axe.

Obviously, this is easier said than done. If you want to make an NOS finish look vintage through good ‘ol fashioned playwear, you usually have to play it for so long that it actually becomes vintage in the process. You could put your guitar in a trash bag of burned leaves and relic it yourself like one of my coworkers, but your house will smell horrible the moment you bring it inside. Frankly, few people have enough resources, energy, or training to make it look as good as the Fender Custom Shop’s builders can.

So, these players have been in a pickle until now. How do you make a new guitar look vintage without having to wait thirty years or resort to crazy schemes involving bags of burning leaves? Well, we at Wildwood Guitars are proud to introduce our answer: a new line of Wildwood Tens that we have dubbed “relic-readies.”

These Custom Shop creations are just like the heavy-relic guitars that have been a shop staple for years—same wood, same electronics, same hardware, and same outstanding build quality—except we snatch them away from Fender before they have a chance to actually do the relic job. The result is a guitar that accumulates wear-and-tear at an exponentially higher rate than normal. So, it’ll look like a guitar that’s been gigged for thirty years after just a couple birthdays. Finally, YOU can be the one to make your guitar look vintage!

After playing and ogling the first batch of these guitars, we feel confident that this line is easily one of the coolest collaborations in the history of our friendship with Fender’s Custom Shop! At Wildwood, we’ve been doing our best to tell our guitars’ stories as faithfully as we can for thirty-four years. Now, we are excited to step aside and give the reins to our exceptional customers. What sort of interesting tales will you carve into these finishes? We can’t wait to find out with you!

The Perfect 10

Years ago, we approached our friends at the Fender Custom Shop with a proposal: would they build us guitars that combined the mojo of a true-to-vintage reissue with modern handfeel and comfy modern ergonomics? They were enthused about the idea, and the Wildwood 10 was born. Thanks to the Custom Shop’s incredible craftsmanship and artistry, these guitars look gorgeous, sound killer, and play like butter.

Each of these Custom Shop creations features a thin fifties-style nitrocellulose finish, which allows the voice of the resonant hand-selected tonewoods to shine through. They also have hand-wound Custom Shop pickups that are sure to inspire you to reach new heights on your sonic journey. Wildwood 10s feel great in your hands, too. Their modern 10” radius is suitable for a wide variety of styles and techniques, and their 6105 narrow-tall frets allow you to expend less energy with your left hand, especially when bending strings. To top it all off, they come with a limited edition Dealer Select Wildwood 10 hardshell case and a certificate of authenticity.

Supremely Fun Sixty-Ones

By 1961, the Stratocaster was fast on its way to becoming a cultural mainstay after Strat-slingers like Hank Marvin took the airwaves by storm. The sixties were also an exciting time for Stratocaster design, as Leo and company outfitted them with rosewood fretboards for the first time. The rosewood produced a sweet attack that spoke to everyone from Hendrix to SRV! Our Wildwood 10 1961 Stratocasters pay tribute to the great Strat boom of the sixties, and we think they embody the sweet sounds of that era to a T. We have a wide variety of colors, relic'd finishes, and neck profiles on tap, so we invite you to browse away and find a Strat that plucks your heartstrings. Once you do, we're sure you'll fall under the spell of the Wildwood 1961 Stratocaster.

Pickup Rundown

We believe that the Wildwood 10 Strat pickups our friends at Fender wind for us are some of the finest single-coils in the world. Here's a quick rundown of what makes them tick. They're slightly underwound, which gives them exceptional dynamic response and touch sensitivity. You can really alter your sound based on how hard you're hitting, which makes for a wonderfully expressive playing experience. However, they are wound with thicker wire like Fender did in the sixties, which gives them a little more power and guts despite being underwound. As a result, their voice is similar to vintage Strat pickups we love with lots of bell-like chime and vocal response, but with a little extra warmth and muscle.

Although they are not exactly the same as a real vintage example, we think they capture the magic sound of a great vintage Strat, giving you access to the iconic sound that shaped countless classic records. We have no doubt they will make your heartstrings resonate!