“Copperboy” Fender Custom Shop Masterbuilt Stratocaster By Todd Krause

In recent years Kenny and famed Fender Custom Shop Master-Builder Todd Krause have teamed up to design and build some one-of-a-kind and both strikingly beautiful and functional guitars for stage duty on Kenny’s tours. This particular guitar is the product of a couple of years worth of collaboration between Kenny and Todd and the results are spectacular to say the least. 

This is the kind of custom guitar that most people would never expect to see on stage. Its beauty and attention to detail rival that of the most expensive and coveted guitars ever produced by the Fender Custom Shop. Unique features to this guitar are plenty beginning with the first thing everyone comments on… that beautiful custom color. A hue unique to this particular guitar, this Copper/Orange sparkle is the result of a custom mix of colors and metal flakes to achieve a finish with unparalleled depth. All the hardware on the guitar is gold plated, featuring gold knobs, screws, Graph Tech saddles, classic vintage tuners, pickup covers and gold tremolo bar. The gold pickup covers give the illusion of a lipstick style pickup while underneath lie some of the last hand-wound pickups made by famed Fender employee Abigail Ybarra before she retired from the company after more than 50 years at the company. The bridge pickup is positioned in a unique position to mimic the sound Hendrix would have gotten from playing a right-handed guitar upside-down. There are no plastic parts on this guitar save for one piece, the pick guard, and it even got the custom treatment as well. This one-off copper colored mirrored pick guard was created just for this guitar and compliments the other choices of components and colors perfectly. Kenny and Todd chose a mid-weight Alder body and a Rosewood slab neck with a 9.5 radius. Jumbo 6100 frets top it all off and lead you down the fingerboard to the color matched reversed headstock and gold Fender logo. 

This guitar was named “Copperboy” by none other than Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top. Kenny and Billy were both in Nashville TN to induct friends into the Musicians Hall of Fame. During rehearsals Kenny showed Billy his newly acquired creation. Billy played the guitar and instantly fell in love with it as well and remarked about how effortless the guitar was to play, even with Kenny’s heavy string gauge. The next day at the soundcheck for the event Billy asked Kenny “Did you bring Copperboy with ya?” That was the moment Kenny realized the guitar would forever be known as “Copperboy”