Fender Custom Shop NOS '60 'Slab Board' Stratocaster
Upgraded with 'Josefina Campos' Pickups and a Callaham Bridge Assembly

2015 Fender Custom Shop 1960 Stratocaster NOS.

This 'slab-board' "1960" Stratocaster was built by the Fender Custom Shop in April 2015. The guitar weighs just 7.80 lbs. and has a contoured solid alder body. Maple neck with a nut width of just under 1 11/16 inches and a typical medium-to-thin "1960" profile. Rosewood fretboard, with 21 medium-thin frets and inlaid white composite dot position and side dot markers. Headstock with 1954-60 style 'Spaghetti' logo with "Fender" in gold with black trim, "Stratocaster" in black and "With Synchronized Tremolo" in black beneath. Single "butterfly" string tree with metal spacer. Individual Fender [Kluson] Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons. On the back of the headstock there is a black 'Custom Shop' decal. Four-bolt neck-plate with serial number "R 81658" stamped between the top two screws. Three-layer 'green' over black plastic pickguard with eleven screws. Three Fender 'Josefina Campos hand-wound' Stratocaster pickups with staggered pole-pieces and outputs of 6.95k, 7.08k, and 7.29k. Three controls (one volume, two tone) plus five-way pickup selector switch. Stratocaster white plastic knobs with ribbed sides and gold lettering. Callaham Model S combined bridge/tailpiece with six saddles and through-body stringing. The underside of the neck is stamped in blind "Relic" and stamped in black "Feb 12 2015" with "11451933-13" & "51780" written in pencil; the neck pocket is stamped in blind "Relic" and has the same markings as the neck dated "Mar-18". The neck cavity is stamped in blind "60 NOS", and the middle pickup cavity is stamped in blind "11451933-13". The body is also stamped in blind (under the pickguard) "Relic". The control cavity has "51780 / 318B" written in black marker. The three 'black-bottom' pickups are all signed on the underside in white marker "Josefina  4-2-14". This guitar is in mint as new (9.50) condition. Complete with the original bridge cover, tremolo arm, Fender Custom Shop Certificate of Authenticity signed by Tom Montgomery  (dated "04/01/15") and all the original case candy including black leather strap, guitar cord, polishing cloth and instruction manual, etc. Housed in the original Fender 'G & G tan hardshell case with orange plush lining and brown leather ends (9.50).

This guitar was purchased new in December of 2015. The owner had the pickups 'upgraded' by the fitting of three Josefina Campos hand-wound pickups - Josefine Campos continues the legendary winding of pickups that Abigail Ybarra was well-known for. The owner also had the bridge/tremolo 'upgraded' with a Callaham Model S Bridge assembly. Original pickups and tremolo/bridge assembly etc. included in case pocket.

"May 9th, 2013. The Fender Custom Shop is pleased and wistful to announce that one of its most revered employees, “pickup artist” Abigail Ybarra, is retiring after more than 50 years in the Fender family. In celebration, Fender arranged for Los Lobos to play at her private retirement party with dozens of her coworkers.
Ybarra came to Fender in 1956 and in 1958 began hand-winding and hand-building guitar pickups for the fledgling Southern California musical instrument company (pickups convert string vibrations into electric signals, creating the “voice” of an electric guitar). Ybarra’s hand-wound pickups have been included in Fender’s most popular instruments from the late-’50s to today, and were most likely found on instruments played by legends such as Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Holly, Stevie Ray Vaughan and countless others. Her pickups have become highly desirable and sought after by artists and collectors alike. “Abby is one of the many individuals, like George Fullerton, Freddie Tavares and Forrest White, who have set our course as a company and leader in our industry,” said Mike Eldred, Fender Custom Shop Marketing Director. “She has literally ‘set the tone’ for Fender, and we will continue to carry on her legacy in the Fender Custom Shop.”

Over the past three years, Fender Custom Shop Pickup Specialist Josefina Campos has been apprenticing under Ybarra, mastering the techniques that only a half-century of experience can create. Campos, who has been with Fender since 1991, is more than prepared to take the torch from Ybarra’s legendary hands. “Josefina has been part of the Fender Custom Shop for many years now, and she has spent a good portion of her time winding great-sounding pickups and apprenticing with one of the best pickup builders in the world,” added Eldred. “We are grateful to add her to an extraordinary group of Master Builders, and excited to watch her take her place in Fender's rich history.”

Campos-wound pickups are already in great demand, and the Fender Custom Shop is planning to include them in select limited instruments and in custom-ordered Master Built models."