How rare these Fender Masterbuilt Larry Brooks are. Indeed, from the beginning of the Custom Shop, requests from artists for endorsements and instruments from the Custom Shop poured in, and Larry Brooks was in charge of fulfilling special orders for important Fender artists. The Fender Custom Shop began in 1987, and at first only John Page and Michael Stevens produced Custom Shop guitars. In 1990, the Artist Relationship was created and Larry Brooks took charge and took care exclusively of the guitars coming out of this department specifically made for artists endorsed by the brand. At the end of 1992, Harry K Cody, guitarist for the group Shotgun Messiah, had several instruments made by the Fender Custom Shop’s Artist Relations Program, including this superb Candy Apple Red Strat, mounted with a Floyd Rose and equipped with ‘a scalloped sleeve. You have to check Harry K Cody, the dude plays extremely well and Shotgun Messiah had plenty of really cool shred guitar solo. It’s fun as well, as I owned, and still do, the Frontline magazine from Fender, the same one we’ll include in the sale, and discovered Shotgun Messiah thanx to that. Only had one CD though, as the band’s albums were difficult to find here back then…

This Fender Larry Brooks Masterbuilt built for Shotgun Messiah artist Harry K Cody is obviously a Fender Masterbuilt but built to the very high standards of a professional guitarist, and the quality is crazy. What a guitar!!! Larry Brooks has built for a number of famous artists and collaborated with Kurt Cobain on his custom Jagstang, that’s the guy’s pedigree. Our Harry Cody Stratocaster is inspired by a Stratocaster from the 1950s, with a light alder body, a crazy cool Quartersawn Maple neck, presenting a scalloped fingerboard, very pleasant, much shallower than the Malmsteen for example, and offering rapid and really amazing comfort. If you haven’t tried a scalloped neck, don’t hesitate, it’s awesome. The neck shows many signs of play, no dents or damage, no inlay, but you can compare between the Fender Frontline advertising photo (the magazine is included) and our photos, the artist really played this guitar a lot. The electronics are fitted with two Fender Custom Wound single coils and a PA-TB1 Trembucker which was subsequently fitted by Harry Cody. This guitar has always been in the Nordic countries, Harry Cody being Swedish, and its second owner being Tommi Evilä, a Finnish personality and super guitarist. We stay in countries where snow still falls from time to time, here it is in Switzerland, heh heh heh…

This is a rare opportunity to own an artist guitar and a great piece of 90s Nordic heavy metal history… The guitar comes with an original copy of the Frontline Fender with Harry Cody’s advert, and comes with his original hardcase. Fender’s Artist Relationship Program has never issued a COA, instead the body and neck bear Larry Brooks’ initials and his signature’s stamp adorns the back of the headstock, but both provenance and authenticity are indisputable. And what a guitar!!!