Fender Custom Shop Dealer Select Stratocaster HST Journeyman Electric Guitar Aged Candy Apple Red

The Fender Custom Shop Dealer Select Journeyman HST Stratocaster is that singular guitar that instantly adds a new level of depth to anyone’s collection. Completely designed by Guitar Center, the HST is made for the most serious of Fender fans. At first glance, it’s a Strat meets Tele Custom, with a Seymour Duncan hand-wound humbucker and dual Custom Shop single coils. But, with an instrument like this, it’s all about the details—the roasted maple neck, compound radius AAA rosewood fretboard and lightly aged Journeyman finish. Available exclusively at Guitar Center, the HST Strat sets a new standard for premium features with vintage sounds.    

Fender Custom Shop Dealer Select Journeyman HST Stratocaster Main Features

 
•   Alder body
•   Roasted maple neck with ’60s C-profile, AAA rosewood fretboard with compound  radius
•   Seymour Duncan SH-55 humbucker (neck), Fat ’50s Strat (middle), Fat ’51  Nocaster (bridge), 5-way switch
•   American Vintage tremolo bridge/tailpiece, vintage locking tuners

   

A Body Built for Tone and Visual Appeal

We chose alder for the body, a balanced tonewood that makes a perfect sonic base for pickups. It has a Journeyman relic finish—the shine of a closet classic, with the lacquer checking that only age (and the Fender Custom Shop) imparts.

 A Neck Spec’d With Special Woods

There is something intoxicating about roasted maple, and Fender uses it to full effect with this neck. It has a ’60s oval C-shape, based specifically on a 1963 Strat. The AAA rosewood fretboard has a compound radius—7.25ʺ to 9.25ʺ. It has a rounder, chunkier, feel for lower fret chording; moving up the neck, the fretboard flattens for better bending, faster picking and more tuneful arpeggios.

Balanced Set of Hand-Wound Pickups

It’s easy to drop three different pickups into a guitar and call it a day, but we spent extra time with Fender to come up with a truly balanced set. Seth Lover designed the neck humbucker in the original ’72 Tele Custom. Here, it’s a Seymour Duncan SH-55, built to Lover’s precise specification for a true P.A.F. sound—lively with a warm midrange and a smooth, buttery treble.  A Fat ’50s Stratocaster single coil occupies the middle position. It has the vintage tone of the earliest Strat pickup, but is reverse-wound with reverse polarity for modern, noiseless operation. The bridge Fat ’51 Nocaster offers true Tele twang and a tight low end, with the biting treble tones of Bakersfield.    

 
Time-Tested Hardware

The Journeyman HST is equipped with an American Vintage tremolo bridge/tailpiece and Vintage locking tuners. Fender got it right the first time—why mess with success?

The Fender Custom Shop Dealer Select Journeyman HST Stratocaster comes with a certificate of authenticity and a hardshell case.