New for 2023, the Fender Custom Shop introduces the Artisan Korina Strat, which features a beautifully crafted thinline body fashioned from select korina. This light and fine-grained west African mahogany has exquisite looks and tonal qualities similar to western mahogany varieties, delivering warm, bass-friendly tone and sweetly responsive midrange. These qualities in turn complement the open, resonant tone of the two-piece semi-hollow body, which features a single f-hole and a sumptuous NOS lacquer finish in Chocolate Three-Color Sunburst with gold hardware.

Its quartersawn maple neck has a comfortable ’60-style Oval “C” profile and is roasted for even more beauty and stability, topped by a compound-radius (9.5”-12”) round-lam rosewood fingerboard with 21 narrow tall (6105) frets and a bone nut. All three Custom Shop hand-wound Fat ’64 Strat pickups (reverse-wound/reverse-polarity middle pickup for hum cancellation in switch positions 2 and 4) are slightly overwound versions of our popular ’64 Strat pickups, calibrated for balanced output from bridge to neck and delivering classic mid-’60s Strat tone with extra punch.

Other premium features include Vintage Modified #2 wiring with Tone-Saver bleed circuit (eliminates tonal loss when the volume control is turned down), five-way pickup switch, 11-hole single-ply parchment pickguard, Custom Shop vintage synchronized tremolo bridge, vintage-style tuners, wing string tree with tall metal spacer, deluxe hardshell case, strap and certificate of authenticity.