Inside Fender Custom Shop’s Limited Edition Mike McCready 1960 Stratocaster

One of the most influential alternative rock albums of all time was Pearl Jam’s seminal 1991 masterpiece, Ten, a hard-charging effort that helped bring music out of the excess of the previous decade into a new era, melding classic rock influences with new sounds never heard before.

As the lead guitarist for this legendary Seattle outfit, McCready’s fretwork helped propel the band to the top of the musical landscape - cementing them as one of the defining bands of the ‘90s and beyond.

“The cool thing about the Stratocaster is I knew I could rip on it,” said McCready. “I knew it, because it’s just a good guitar.”

Now, the Fender Custom Shop has recreated this incredible instrument, which McCready acquired in late-1992 and has used extensively for nearly 30 years. Interestingly enough, McCready always believed his Strat was a ‘59 model, even going so far as pridefully having the number “59” tattooed on his wrist. Only as a result of this collaboration with Fender, a decades-long secret held by the band’s equipment manager and guitar techs about the guitar’s lineage was finally revealed: it was actually a 1960.

Custom Shop Master Builder Vincent Van Trigt added a tremendous Relic finish to mimic McCready’s aggressive playing style with true wear on its two-piece select alder body, and recreated the silky-smooth feel of the ultra worn-in maple neck. Hand-wound pickups from the Fender Custom Shop’s Josefina Campos are sonically matched to the originals.

“She did a phenomenal job, and I can tell, because I can hear it,” McCready said of the pickups.

Heard on Pearl Jam classics such as “Daughter” and “Nothing As It Seems,” as well as more modern PJ tunes like “Superblood Wolfmoon” and “Dance Of The Clairvoyants,” the Mike McCready 1960 Stratocaster is a true homage to an instrument that influenced a generation and continues to do so today.

To learn more about the Fender Custom Shop Limited Edition Mike McCready 1960 Stratocaster, click here.