This Fender Custom Shop Limited Edition Troposphere HT Strat is one of the lightest Strats I’ve ever encountered, under 7 pounds. The unique Tropo pickups sound sweet, and the guitar, with a fat 57 Soft V neck, medium vintage frets and hard tail bridge, is tough to put down.
Fender says:
Welcome to the Troposphere. The lowest layer of our Earth’s atmosphere lies just below the Stratosphere and is the place where earthy sounds meet the cosmos. The Limited Edition Tropo Strat features a new set of pickups that deliver those cosmic tones to the most discerning ear. Developed in the Custom Shop by master builder Paul Waller, Tropo Strat pickups are underwound, sweet-sounding pickups that allow more headroom with overdriven sounds and clean up for the most delicate tones to emerge. It’s a calibrated pickup set with ’50s-style formvar wire on the bridge pickup, a reverse-wound/reverse-polarity middle pickup, and ’60s-style enamel wire on the neck pickup.
The Troposphere Strat features a two-piece off-center-seam alder body and single-piece tinted rift-sawn maple neck with a ’57 soft “V” back-shape, 7.25”-9.5” fingerboard radius and 21 medium vintage frets. Tropo pickups feature five-way switching and vintage modified #2 wiring with tone-saver treble bleed. Other features include a single-ply eggshell pickguard, hardtail Strat bridge with “Pat-Pend” saddles, vintage-style tuning machines, bone nut and wing string tree. Also includes deluxe hardshell case, strap and certificate of authenticity.
Condition: New, heavy relic; Body: Alder; Neck: Riftsawn maple, 57 Style Soft V profile (.940-.970), compound 7.25-9.5 radius; Nut: 1.650; Color: faded two tone sunburst; Pickups: handwound Custom Shop Tropo; Scale: 25.5; Orientation: Lefthanded (of course)
