Micarelli Music

Fender Custom Shop designers met Donal Gallagher, brother of the late, great Rory Gallagher, in 1997 at Los Angeles International Airport and received a gig bag holding one of the most coveted guitars of all time—Rory’s worn-to-the-wood 1961 Stratocaster guitar. Fender initially built 40 “clones” for the European market, and was subsequently besieged with requests for more.

The Rory Gallagher Tribute Stratocaster guitar is an exact replica of that revered instrument, right down to the extremely worn 3-Color Sunburst alder body, maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. We’ve even included five Sperzel tuners and one Gotoh tuner, and we’ve replaced the 12th-fret dot marker with white plastic instead of the original clay. It also features three custom-wound ’60s single-coil pickups, aged chrome hardware, 21 jumbo frets and a bone nut. Our homage to a true and truly missed master.

The Fender Custom Shop announces a limited-edition run of 200 of these gorgeous 1967 Telecaster Firemist Silver Metallic Closet Clasic LTD guitars.

This Team-built guitar features the “Closet Classic” treatment—built as if it was bought new in its respective model year, played maybe a few times per year and then carefully put away. It has a few small dings, a mildly checked finish, lightly oxidized hardware and aged plastic parts. The two-piece premium ash body has a silvery nitrocellulose lacquer finish and a three-ply parchment pickguard. The C-shaped maple neck has a 9.5”-radius round-laminate Madagascar rosewood fingerboard with 21 medium-jumbo frets (with narrow-spaced mother of pearl dot inlays), a wing string tree and Fender Custom Shop limited edition decal.

Other features include a pair of vintage ’63 Telecaster single-coil pickups with three-way switching, nickel/chrome hardware, Fender®/Schaller® vintage “F”-style tuning machines, and a vintage-style Telecaster bridge with three threaded steel saddles and “ashtray” cover.

The Fender Custom Shop announces a limited-edition run of 200 of these gorgeous 1966 Stratocaster® Firemist Silver Metallic Closet Clasic LTD guitars.

This Team-built guitar features the “Closet Classic” treatment—built as if it was bought new in its respective model year, played maybe a few times per year and then carefully put away. It has a few small dings, a mildly checked finish, lightly oxidized hardware and aged plastic parts. The two-piece select alder body has a silvery nitrocellulose lacquer finish and a three-ply parchment pickguard. The C-shaped maple neck has a 9.5”-radius round-laminate maple fingerboard with 21 medium-jumbo frets (with narrow-spaced black dot position inlays), topped by a large ’60s-style headstock with a wing string tree and Fender Custom Shop limited edition decal.

Of the three Custom ’65 single-coil Strat pickups, the middle one is reverse wound/reverse polarity for hum canceling in switch positions 2 and 4. Other features include nickel/chrome hardware, Fender/Gotoh® vintage-style tuning machines, American Vintage synchronized tremolo and a limited edition certificate.

1962 was a benchmark year for the Stratocaster; now celebrated with a 100-piece globally limited run of the beautiful 1962 Stratocaster Relic LTD, Master-built by the Fender Custom Shop’s John Cruz.

These sweet Sonic Blue babies are built using original tooling and details, and are heavily “relic-ed” to show years of natural wear and tear—nicks, scratches, worn finish, rusty hardware and aged plastic parts. The select alder body has a nitrocellulose lacquer finish and three-ply aged mint-green pickguard. The early ’60s C-shaped maple neck has a 9.5”-radius, round laminated rosewood fingerboard with 21 medium-jumbo frets and a bone nut. The electronics feature three limited edition John Cruz Master-built single-coil Strat pickups with S-1 switching. Other features include white dot position inlays with wide spacing, nickel/chrome hardware, Fender/Gotoh® vintage-style tuning machines and an American Vintage synchronized tremolo.