REVIEW > COMPANY NAME DIGITAL ONLY REVIEW > FENDER
SQUIER
VINTAGE MODIFIED
SURF STRATOCASTER
BY DIMITRI SIDERIADIS
Picture yourself relaxing on a serene stretch of Bikini Beach, your skin glis-
tening in the sun. A curvaceous beauty lies
beside you, her neck tinted, her hardware
chrome, and her paint a perfect surf green.
She’s the latest in Fender’s Squier Vintage
Modified series, the Surf Stratocaster.
With rosewood fretboard, vintage neck
tint, and classic Fender custom colors like
candy apple red and sonic blue, these Strats
evoke Fender’s early ’60s golden age bril-
liantly. Add to the mix a set of Duncan
Designed lipstick pickups, and you’ve got
a hot-rodded machine ready to churn out
anything from cutting, reverb-soaked surf
crescendos to crisp, old-school bluesy bite.
to hear audio clips of the guitar at
premierguitar.com/jun2012
CLICKHere…
’60s air. Sure, devoted surf players will
tell you there’s no significant connection
between surf rock and the lipstick pickup,
but the pickup choice seems consistent
with the idea behind the Vintage Modified
series—they’re like great pawnshop finds
with swapped-out parts unique to each
instrument in the line. The guitar needed a
fair amount of setup adjustment out of the
box. Once I lubed the nut slots, adjusted
the pickup heights to factory specs, and
matched the saddle heights to the 9. 5"
fretboard radius, playability improved
Duncan Designed “lipstick-tube” pickups
DR5 PREMIER GUITAR APRIL 2012
premierguitar.com
