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The Latest Breaking News from Custom Shop

“I struggle to think of any Fender that surpasses a Mary Kaye Strat in value or collector appeal”: Body dated January 1956, the first of its kind, played on an Aerosmith album – is this the holy grail of all holy grail Fender Stratocasters?

Only two features distinguished a Mary Kaye Stratocaster from any other Strat that might have rolled off Fender’s production line during the mid-to-late 1950s. So why are vintage examples so darn valuable?

Guitar World

The best new guitar gear of NAMM 2026: More effects, more amps, more guitars and more tech than ever

MusicRadar's Rob Laing carried the weight of the guitar world on his shoulders as he single-handedly took on the NAMM Show 2026... and survived to tell the tale

MusicRadar

“These instruments are building more than houses, they are restoring hope”: Fender joins campaign to support LA wildfires relief, turning wood reclaimed from the disaster into unique Custom Shop guitars for auction

The Altadena Telecaster is a Custom Shop dream machine made from reclaimed wood from a Deodar cedar tree that was damaged in the Eaton fire

Guitar World

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“I knew relic’ing was coming. I did it myself, to my own guitar, very crude and primitive. I put it on a stand at a guitar show, with no strategy. And it changed everything”: How relic’ing conquered the guitar world

The not-so-gentle art of relic’ing has enjoyed arenaissance since its maligned roots in the mid-’90s. We asked scene godfather and Gibson Custom Shop guru Tom Murphy how the tide turned

Guitar World

“They each have their own weird little soul”: Tom DeLonge has unveiled 10 new Fender Starcasters – and they’re made with actual meteorites from the Moon, Mars and more

The Ad Astra 10 guitars are inspired by DeLonge's Custom Shop model, with each featuring fragments of different meteorites

Guitar World

“People always say Rory Gallagher and Stevie Ray Vaughan had acidic sweat – but this is what I think”: Why some of the most famous Fenders are so heavily worn, according to a Custom Shop Masterbuilder

Dale Wilson attempts to solve the mystery of why vintage Fenders played by big-name artists have so much gnarly wear

Guitar World

“This guitar is simply too cool to not be released”: Noel Gallagher’s internet-breaking Oasis reunion Les Paul has been brought to the masses with a Standard launch

Months after the Custom Shop Murphy Lab reissue sold out, Gibson has brought back one of 2025's most talked about guitars

Guitar World

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“There was great jubilation and there were tears”: Fender invited music fans to design their own Telecaster. They received over 1,500 applications – and turned four into a reality

Everyone from children to lifelong guitarists entered the Fender Design Contest, which showcased Fender Japan’s quest to prove guitar is for everyone

Guitar World

"A well-judged entry point to owning a ‘real’ Les Paul Custom": Gibson Les Paul Custom 70s review

The Les Paul Custom is back in the USA line-up offering a gutsy, evocative slice of 70s tone at a fair – but not cheap – price

Guitar World

“Nuno calls me up and says, ‘Picture this. I want Mad Max and Jesus Christ Superstar’”: Nuno Bettencourt’s outrageous part-guitar, part-keytar Washburn is 2025’s wildest Custom Shop creation

The guitar was crafted by Washburn Master Builder Chris Meade, and was spotted in Extreme’s music video for X Out

Guitar World

“Making its long-awaited return to the lineup”: For the first time in 20 years, Gibson is offering the Custom Les Paul ’70s as a standard run USA model

The hugely sought-after design, previously available only as a Custom Shop model, arrives as part of the regular line with period-correct touches and throwback finishes

Guitar World

“It’s clear that the influence of the Custom Shop’s attention to detail is now making its way to the Mexican-made instruments”: Fender Limited Edition Vintera II Jazzmaster Road Worn review

Fender proves it can do tasteful ageing without the Custom Shop price tag

MusicRadar

“One day it hit me, I want a Fender 7-string Stratocaster. I got a lot of ‘no’s”: How the Fender Custom Shop was convinced to make the firm’s first 7-string guitar

Suicide Silence guitarist Chris Garza worked with the Custom Shop on its first 7-string Strat – and there's hope that the one-of-a-kind Fender can be the start of something bigger

Guitar World

“It has one of the highest outputs of any passive humbucker, ever”: Seymour Duncan celebrates imminent release of Spinal Tap sequel with a custom pickup – and it has an “eye-watering” DCR reading of 111K

But what will this monster one-off pickup sound like – and will we ever see it in production?

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Guitar World

“There are no limits. It’s basically: how long will it take and how much is it going to cost?” Behind the scenes at the Fender Custom Shop – where anything goes, and heritage and innovation go hand in hand

Nearly 40 years on from the Custom Shop’s inception, its creations are more ambitious than ever. Master Builder Paul Waller and Director of Product Development Chase Paul give us a guided tour

Guitar World

“It weaves together wild features into something that could’ve been a producer’s secret weapon in the early 1970s”: Acclaimed producer Adrian Younge’s new semi-fretless signature Fender is perhaps the craziest Jazz Bass the company's ever released

Based on Younge's personal Custom Shop build, the limited-edition Masterbuilt model nods to the past while departing radically from convention

Guitar World

“The big thing was the neck shape that Clapton wanted. We made about a dozen neck samples for him to play”: From Slowhand’s Strat to “tongue-in-cheek” relics, this is the hidden history of the Fender Custom Shop

Fender’s Custom Shop had a precarious start in the mid-1980s, but the story of its formative years is full of big ideas, some bizarre instruments, and a queue of famous guitarists

Guitar World

“To surprise me, they put my name on the headstock in gold lettering – but they spelled it wrong”: The Cars’ Elliot Easton on the Flying V that Tim Shaw built him – a “gorgeous” guitar (even if Gibson slipped up on his name)

Easton’s 1982 Gibson Custom Shop left-handed Flying V was a much-loved guitar, but when someone offered "stupid money" for it he couldn’t turn it down. Still, it looked cool on the cover of GW

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Guitar World

“Great Scott!” Gibson teases Back to the Future ES-345 replica – and an Epiphone version may not be far behind

The hunt for the original goes on, but Gibson Custom Shop is making headway on what looks like plans for a fully fledged Back to the Future guitar line

MusicRadar

“I guess I’m buying a new Gibson”: Cesar Gueikian teases Custom Shop replica of Marty McFly’s “1955” ES-345 – but hunt goes on for original Back To The Future guitar

And could there be an Epiphone version too?

Guitar World

“It’s the wide range of voices that impresses. Old or new, these are far from one-trick ponies”: PJD Carey Classic review

The York, UK-based guitar maker delivers the latest version of its Les Paul Junior/Tele mashup – with remarkable results

Guitar World

“Every other Strat I picked up at the time didn’t have the same feeling to me”: Warren Haynes on why the theft of a Custom Shop Strat convinced him to change to Gibson Les Pauls

The loss of the guitar broke his heart, so Haynes decided to venture into new realms

MusicRadar

“I would love to get that guitar back. Every other Strat I picked up didn’t have the same feeling”: How Warren Haynes turned to Les Pauls after his favourite Strat was stolen

The theft of the Custom Shop Strat in the '90s forced Haynes to think differently

Guitar World

“It’s like a Jazzmaster on steroids, but you still have that Strat essence”: Fender’s limited-edition Ariel Posen signature is a conceptual hybrid that blends two of the slide master’s favorite guitars together

The Jazzmaster/Stratocaster mash-up debuts custom pickups designed by Tim Shaw and a spec sheet that blurs the boundaries between the two classic Fender designs

MusicRadar

“It embodies everything I love about Fender and condenses it into one instrument”: Ariel Posen’s new Custom Shop signature Strat is A) a thing of beauty, and B) inspired by a… Jazzmaster?

This, you've got to see and hear. Featuring new custom-wound AP90 pickups, hardtail bridge, and cupcake control knobs, Posen's new Strat is a limited edition cracker

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