NGD! Bought myself a present for my 39th birthday. I just haven't really ever gelled with my current strat's neck profile and have been passively watching strats on Reverb for a while. I love the '57 soft 'V' profile necks from the Fender custom shop. Have that profile on my two best Teles and find it to be the most comfortable neck profile for my hands.
I've also learned that I am not a huge fan of Alder bodies. I couldn't tell you the exact tonal character of alder vs swamp ash. All I can can say is, after months of playing any Alder bodied guitar, I always find them not to be what I'm looking for. I've experienced this with Tele's and every strat I've ever owned (I've owned around 12 or so strats and teles in my life). I had never tried a swamp ash bodied strat, but wanted to because light swamp ash fenders tend to be my favorite.
Lastly, I am a fan of relic'ed necks. I know there are many people who mock it, but they are the most comfortable necks in the world to play. I had this one on my watch list for many months. Then, I saw the seller drop the price 10% so decided to offer him even lower to see if he would take it. He did!
Been playing this beauty all weekend and absolutely loving it. It's a '54 70th Anniversary LTD run from the Custom Shop with a set of handwound fat 50's pickups. It's so amazing how different guitars seem to interact between the pickups and electronics. I've never played much with the middle pickup on strats but this one's middle pickup is so addicting to use. And the way the tone circuit is interacting with my pickups just feels different from any of my previous strats. Don't know why these particular pickups with these pots and caps just feel different, but that's the beauty of guitars. They are all unique.
