Cory Wong’s new signature Fender Stratocaster has funk written all over
Subscribe
X

Subscribe to Mixdown Magazine

28.07.2021

Cory Wong’s new signature Fender Stratocaster has funk written all over

Words by Sam McNiece

And it comes shipped with a hair tie!

Funk master general Cory Wong has some serious chops. Working with bands Vulfpeck and Fearless Flyers, hosting his own podcast Cory and the Wongnotesand is a member of Jon Batiste’s band on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. With this impressive resume (not to mention his solo career) no wonder Fender tapped Cory on the shoulder to make an Artist Signature Series guitar.

What you need to know:

  • Fender has released the Cory Wong Signature Stratocaster, with a focus on clean tone.
  • The guitar features custom pickups, a slightly smaller body and a push/pull pot.
  • Packaged alongside this guitar is a Cory Wong hair tie, rubber strap locks  and a custom neck plate.

Read all the latest product news here.

“I wanted to work with Fender on a classic looking guitar with a modern feel and professional specs,” Wong says. “My hope for this guitar is that people can pick it up and it instantly feels inviting and comfortable. It’s a strange thing to say since it’s so subjective, but we really captured that with this signature model Stratocaster.”

Since his teenage years, Cory has played a Fender Highway One Stratocaster. Loving how it feels in his hands, Wong wanted to include the neck shape, finish on the body and overall comfort on his Signature guitar.

The guitar itself features sapphire blue transparent satin lacquer finish, a scaled-down alder body, a modern “D” neck and sculpted body contours to make the guitar as comfortable as possible. There’s a set of custom Seymour Duncan Cory Wong Clean Machine pickups, rosewood fingerboard with rolled edges and a compound 10-14″ radius.

It wouldn’t be a Strat without a tremolo, which of course this has, but Fender have added a push/pull pot on the Tone 2 knob to default the 5-way switch to “Position 4” for instant funk. The Signature Series instrument comes packed with a Cory Wong hair tie, rubber strap lock washer set and a custom neck plate.

On the tone of his Signature Series guitar, Cory says, “although we made this guitar to nail my exact tone, I hope that the tone will inspire someone to find their own voice on the instrument. The tone is either a starting point or an inspiration for the player to jump off and find themselves.”

The Cory Wong Stratocaster is available now through Fender and you can check out this video introducing it below.

Head to Fender’s website to find out more about the Cory Wong Artist Signature Series Stratocaster.