GEAR REVIEW
KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD STRATOCASTER | Doug Doppler
KEY FEATURES
• Chambered Ash Body
• Transparent Faded Sonic Blue Finish
• Quartersawn ‘ 60s C-shaped Maple Neck
• Rosewood Fingerboard with 7.25 ” Radius
• Bound Neck with Pearloid Block Inlays
• Graph Tech Saddles
• KWS Custom-spec Pickups
Fender ’ s 2020 vision has been spot on , and the latest incarnation of the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Stratocaster is no exception – this guitar rocks ! OK , so Strats may not be the ‘ go to ’ guitar for your worship , but as I ’ ve said many times , worship guitar players don ’ t just play at church – right ?!?
LOOKING GOOD So the worst possible reason to buy an instrument is the way it looks , but with that said , this guitar is lovely . While this is not the first Strat to feature block inlays , it has not been done for a few decades , and it add a bit of Jazzmaster to the visual mix . Ditto on the neck binding . The Transparent Faded Sonic Blue lacquer finish reveals just enough grain to still retain the color . The first thing I thought when I opened the case was , “ Wow , this guitar is simply stunning !” And then , I played it …
THE SOUND If an instrument doesn ’ t sound great acoustically , there is only so much that electronics can do to save the day . That said , right out of the case , this guitar sounded amazing , and got better from them . Without going too far down the rabbit trail , there is more than one type of great sounding Strat , and this guitar definitely identifies as one of them . Sonically speaking this guitar is incredibly well balanced across the strings as well as up and down the neck