Fender CS Indian Stratocaster

Fender CS Indian Stratocaster

From the hands of Fender Custom Shop Senior Master Builder Marck Kendrick comes this stunning piece of work, the Fender CS (Custom Shop) Indian Stratocaster.

Like the Fender CS Birdflower and the Fender CS Chris Craft Esquire Boat Art LE (sold!), this Stratocaster is also for sale at the German Music Store. From time to time I take a look at their site to see if they have new "Custom Shops". As they are the largest music store in Europe, they have the funds to aquire the most beautiful and expensive guitars, like this CS Stratocaster. This Custom Shop guitar is not a new item, but it sure deserves a closer look!

fender cs indian stratocaster neck

fender cs indian stratocaster output and knobs

 

The Fender CS Indian Stratocaster has a transparant finish with, airbrushed on the body, a very detailed indian head. It's a masterpiece; the feathers from the headdress expand over the pickguard, and like the indian's hair, it seems like they actually are arranged on top of the Stratocaster's body.

The back of the body, including the cover for the electronics, is decorated with feathers and a bleached wild west animal skull.

Another detail of the Fender CS Indian Stratocaster is the inlay of the same animal skull and feathers in the neck. The output and the three knobs are just clean chrome, a nice contrast to the full decorated CS Stratocaster. I haven't seen a lot of these cool clean chrome knobs on guitars, but I really like them a lot.

Last but not least, the humbuckers almost have the same "woody" color as the pickguard, and here also, the paintbrush expands. The Fender CS Indian Stratocaster is packed with these little details.

I took the liberty of using the pictures of the Fender CS Indian Stratocaster from the Musicstore  website, these images are great, and they show all the wonderful details of this CS Strat. Musicstore sells the CS Indian Stratocaster for just under 10.000 Euro. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find more specific technical information.



fender cs indian stratocaster  full back



fender cs indian stratocaster body

 

Fender CS Indian, 2 Stratocasters and 2 Telecasters

One of the reasons I like to post about CS guitars like this, is the fact that most of the (Fender) Custom Shop guitars are built in small numbers, or "one piece", and after they are sold, it's difficult to get information and pictures once these CS guitars are removed from the sellers website. Also many of these limited Custom Shop Fender's can't be found on the Fender website anymore.

Senior Master Builder Mark Kendrick from the Fender CS built 2 Indian Stratocasters and 2 CS Indian Telecasters.
The German Musicstore aquired 1 Indian Stratocaster and 1 Indian Telecaster.



fender cs indian stratocaster back




fender cs indian stratocaster full body

 

Stolen Fender CS Indian Telecaster

When searching for more information about the Indian Stratocasters and Telecasters, I found the Musicstore announcement about the theft of 50 Custom Shop guitars in the of night the 1st and 2nd of december 2007. Among these stolen exclusive CS's was the Fender CS Indian Telecaster!

The complete list of the stolen CS guitars :  http://video.musicstore.de/diebstahl/index_EN.html
The theft in 2007 was all over the news and on the forums on the internet, but I can't find any information about recovery, so I assume these CS guitars are still "missing". The reward for the recovery of the stolen CS guitars was set on 30.000 Euro, or at least 5000 Euro for the recovery of a single guitar! 

fender cs indian stratocaster headstock

fender cs indian stratocaster neck plate