Fender Missed All The Small Things With Their Tom DeLonge Signature Stratocaster

All credit for that joke goes to Shevlin Guitars

Fender just wrapped up what was probably their most exciting signature model re-release in a decade or so. The Tom DeLonge Signature Stratocaster is back, much to the world’s (and my) delight! The fun, beachy colored bodies have the big Fender headstock that I love, a single Seymour Duncan Invader, and a single volume knob with a treble bleed circuit.

There’s few things more punk than a single pickup guitar, and I was so thrilled about this I jumped on the ordering bandwagon only seconds after it went live on Fender’s website. And I’m one of the lucky ones, as my guitar showed up in pretty good condition and absolutely lives up to my dreams. However, the story that’s really been dominating the media is how many of these showed up in less-than-ideal shape.

Other creators such as Hunter from Agufish posted videos showing a series of quality control flaws, and I got a few dm’s along the same lines from other friends in the industry. Mine is not perfect, there’s some glue marks and a ding or finish flaw(?) near the guitar’s bridge. But the neck, intonation, and feel of the neck was great for mine (unlike what Hunter and Andy The Guitar Geek observed).

Key Specs

• Modern C-Shaped Neck with 9.5″ radius, medium jumbo frets
• Hardtail bridge with block saddles
• Seymour Duncan Invader humbucker
• Built-in treble bleed to preserve high end at low volumes
• Rosewood slab fingerboard (really nice) on Maple neck
• Alder body

I’m clearly lucky, as mine has generally been a blast to play and has no imperfections that impact the playing experience. Key highlights for me are the really nice looking/feeling Rosewood fretboard that is smooth and comfy. The neck is a little chunkier than I anticipated, but in a good way.

This Stratocaster is LOUD, as you can probably tell from the demo below. Even without any boosts or drive pedals on, this guitar was pushing both my digital and tube amps into gain with ease. However, having that treble bleed circuit is awesome and much needed. You can clean up the guitar beautifully by rolling back that volume knob, creating a much more versatile range of sounds than you’d think for a single humbucker guitar.

Overall, I’m delighted with this guitar and will be using it very often going forward. As far as reviews go, I have to give the specific guitar I received very high marks, with exceptional scores for fun factor and aesthetics. I do think the price is steep, at just about $1300 USD. I know guitar prices (and everything else) are going through the roof but still, it’s a single pickup Strat made in Mexico. And with the quality control concerns…you simply can’t have those reported issues on a guitar of this price range.

Fender’s QA/QC Is Under Fire

And rightfully so! Fender’s been the gold standard for me and many others for years now. They’ve done a great job releasing guitars across the entire price spectrum, all with quality feel and performance. And when the Tom DeLonge Strat is good, it’s soooooo good. But I can’t ignore the fact that this, much like their previous Gold Foil releases, seem to be plagued with serious quality control issues. If Fender wants to avoid the reputation that Gibson developed, stuff like this needs to be confined to 2023 only.

Now, on the bright side, Fender has notoriously wonderful customer service. So I do expect they’ll make things right with other people’s situations. But man, this is not a good look for one of the most anticipated guitar releases of 2023. I would still recommend grabbing one, as I’m having a great time. But go into it with expectations that you’ll have to do a thorough once over of the guitar, as this isn’t meant to be a collector’s item in my opinion. It’s a player’s guitar, and one that ’90s and early 2000s kids alike will cherish.

Grab your own from Sweetwater.com