Red Fender Stratocaster

As the picture shows, this is a bit of an odd one. It’s a Mexican Strat made in 2000, with jumbo frets and an active circuit. It has an weird-looking extra pickup under the pick-guard to suppress the background noise, apparently a solution that Fender first implemented in the 80s in the short-lived Fender Strat.

This red Stratocaster was customised by the previous owner, who loosely styled it to Mark Knopfler’s legendary ‘80s red Schecter. He replaced the scratch-plate, re-positioned the knobs and changed the 5-way switch to 3 independent switches, which allow two extra pickup combinations, on top of the customary five positions. This is why I love this guitar. It allows me to use neck/bridge pickup position and get a tone that very much resembles a Telecaster, as the little sample tune on this page shows. I hardly ever use it with all 3 pickups together, but it’s nice to have that option as well. The 3 knobs are volume, tone and boost. It’s a very versatile guitar, well built and comfortable to play, and it looks great on stage. I frequently use it live and in the studio.

I bought it in 2010, right at the end of the Crossing Borders recording sessions. By then all the guitar tracks had already been recorded so it was never used on that album. I used it on several tracks ever since, including some of the track I’m currently recording. Soon this Mexican ‘senorita’ will have her well-deserved moment in the sun!