Have you ever found yourself staring blankly at your favorite Stratocaster?
Have you thought to yourself ‘I wonder what would happen if you crossed that with a Fabergé Egg?’
Well no, you probably haven’t, I mean who thinks that? No, no-one would ever think of crossing the Peter Carl Fabergé famed jewelled eggs with Leo Fender’s most popular guitar. Nobody apart from Fender senior master builder Yuriy Shishkov that is. The mind behind the 'Birdflower Telecaster’ - Yuriy cast his eyes on the iconic curves of the Stratocaster and thought just that.
"I thought that the timeless, simple yet elegant pattern design of a Fabergé Pine Cone Easter egg would look beautiful on the Stratocaster body. The guitar’s curves and flowing shape perfectly fit the rounded profile of the Faberge masterpiece.”
- Yuriy Shishkov
Thus the Pine Cone Stratocaster was born. Boasting 10ft of painstakingly hand inlaid 18-karat gold wire trellis along the fingerboard, 550 high grade diamonds and Pine Cone “scales" made of fine silver (and more gold, because why not?). All handworked to give the Strat it’s exquisitely detailed finish. This Fender is worthy of the Russian Tsars of old. The guitar is complemented by its own matching Fabergé Pine Cone Easter egg (containing a miniature Elephant, like the original, and with matching serial number), hand tooled blue leather strap and of course, fully lit display case.
Now, million pound question: is it any good? Well, Fender Custom Shop does hold a fearsome reputation, and rightly so. Underneath all the bling there’s a one piece maple body, the highest grade birdseye maple neck and NOS pickups hand wound by the legendary Abigail Ybarra, I think the answer is going to a resounding yes. It’s also worth mentioning that the routing of the body is unlike any other Strat past or present - allowing for more surface area on which Yuriy can apply the guitars hand-stained blue scales.
While this guitar has certainly polarised opinions here at VGB, it has to be said that the level of craftsmanship, skill and creativity shown by Yuriy is really of its own. Taking two worlds separated by over 100 years and combining them to create a truly dazzling work of art. This is a one in a million guitar.
