Fender Custom Shop Nile Rodgers Hitmaker Stratocaster

The Fender Custom Shop introduce the limited edition Nile Rodgers Hitmaker Stratocaster guitar. It’s a very special recreation of the “Hitmaker” — the well-worn 1960 Stratocaster played by Chic co-founder and revered session ace Rodgers on countless chart-topping songs…

Rodgers’ affectionately nicknamed Hitmaker is a 1960 Stratocaster with a 1959 neck. He got it for a trade-in long ago at a small shop in Miami Beach, Fla. Exceptionally light in weight, it has a maple fingerboard and bears a well-worn white finish. Rodgers says it doesn’t sound like any other Stratocaster in the world.

Rodgers has always believed that his guitar is truly unique. And as the Fender Custom Shop began working on a tribute signature model, his theory was soon proven.

“I’ve looked at a lot of guitars and I’ve never seen a Stratocaster like this one,” said the Fender Custom Shop’s Mike Eldred. “When I first I picked it up and looked at it, from a guitar-builder standpoint, you immediately see that there’s some weird stuff going on there. The neck is really thin, the body is really light and it’s a hard-tail bridge. He’s got that brass pickguard happening, which loads the sound down and makes it sound bassier. Yet the headstock is really thin and it has high-mass tuners, so it’s just like this potpourri of stuff that shouldn’t work really, but it all works great.”