Well, the Buddy Guy model I own is an American made one at the Corona Factory. It also cost A LOT MORE MONEY. i THINK LIST BACK THEN WAS $2499.00. I BOUGHT IT USED BUT NEVER TOUCHED. IT LIVED UNDER A BED FOR A FEW YEARS TILL i BOUGHT IT. The Guitar STILL HAD THE PLASTIC WRAP ON THE PICK GAURD. Lucky Me.. It's a 2 tone sunburst Ash body Finish. So it's heavy but real good looking wood it has theses stripes in the wood. I don't like it being heavy but not much for me to do there. I am not gonna sand it down and make the countours deeper like a old one although I do wish that Fender would have done that, but once agin they didn't. The neck is pretty beefy and fat. I love that. I definitely still prefer the fatter V necks than the soft V stuff they seem to make now. The big fat pointy V style is what is on my all original 1956 Fender Stratocaster that I own. However the Buddy Guy neck I own is fatter than my Clapton Guitars and I have 5 of them. It's wider at the nut too.
1 and 12/16 instead of the standard 1 and 5/8 or 10/16. The pickups are the Gold laces sensors like the early Clapton one which I have 4 Claptons with Gold lace sensors. It has the same TBX tone control and the same mid range boost as the Clapton models. Which is a real good thing. That is why I bought it. It plays great. I had to adjust the neck a wee little bit and then bring down the action somewhat but I was able to without any buzzing what so ever. The action is 4/64 and I like it that way. It's sounds great a little brighter than the Claptons due to the ash body instead of the alder bodies. But with the TBX tone controll you can roll that back a hair or so and there you have it. This is great tone. The pickguard is thicker due to it being pearloid and it has 11 holes instead of the 8 screw holes as in all the vintage ones. It's definitely a dress up model. The tremolo works pretty good as long as you don't go crazy with it. Basically I love the guitar. I just need more gigs so I can use it more. Last year I saw and briefly met Buddy Guy,when he played at the casino in Scottsdale Az.. I did get to tell him I own one of his signature models. The American 2 tone sunburst one. A Corona California one. He said good for you. I smiled and said it's a good one too. Again BUDDY looked me in the Eye and said GOOD For You with a big smile on his face. I wish I had it with me for him to sign it. He struck me that he would, He was signing all sorts of stuff for people. I never even thought about taking my guitar to his concert figuring they won't let me in with it. oh well maybe next time. I thought it was kinda wierd that Fender quit making the Good buddy Guy model only the less expensive Mexican version. But with the economy the way it is, well I guess I can see why, anyway it should make mine worth more a lot more. Like I said it's a GOOD One - A REAL GOOD ONE. = Thank you, Fender At Corona as it says that on the Back plate like it says that on my Clapton models too.

mike goldberg owns this item

I preface my remarks by noting that I am aware of the evolution of this guitar and the artist's rationale for having it built. I acquired the guitar early in the season it was introduced but eventually swapped it out for another Strat. It was an excellent example of an MIM Stratocaster, with Fender's generic soft V neck, nothing more, nothing less. To eliminate the hum, I swapped out the stock pickups for the DiMarzio Virtual Vintage Blues and Heavy Blues pickups of that time period. I also blocked the trem ala the Clapton. It took a really large wood block to do that. The guitar did very well in said fashion. I had some problems with fret sprout, notwithstanding the fact that I paid heed to moisture levels for it. I would have rather seen an MIA version of this guitar with Lace Sensor pickups as well as the MIM as consititued, in that the artist was no longer playing an SB2 or the blond version. I also remember the earliest incarnation of the the BG Artist Series guitar which had a very short life, whose design and finish I preferred. I suggest that there will be a demand for an Artist, Custom Shop, and Masterbuilt version of Buddy's current '89.