Some Assembly (and Mischief) Required.

The first time I saw a strat with a tele neck was in photos of Jimi Hendrix at the Newport Pop Festival which took place on June 20 and 22, 1969 at Devonshire Downs, a racetrack in the San Fernando Valley, outside of Los Angeles.

Purportedly, Hendrix broke the neck off of one of his white strats. Fender did not have any Stratocaster necks on hand, but did have Telecaster necks. Hendrix’s roadies, working with a local luthier, installed a new Telecaster neck on the strat body in time for the Newport performance. Could this have been one of the first “parts-casters” in history?

In 1993, Austin Texas blues-rock guitarist Ian Moore released his major label debut album which featured his battered black “mongrel” strat, combining a ’62 Stratocaster body and a ’55 Esquire neck. You may also recall Moore from his brief role as ‘Randy Horsefeathers’ in the Billy Bob Thornton film – Sling Blade. "Randy, you tuning son of a bitch, go f*cking practice, Randy!" screams Dwight Yoakam.

All this suffices to say: I’ve always been intrigued with the look of a strat with a tele style neck. It’s no wonder that when the Custom Shop introduced the Mischief Maker as a Limited Edition Model in 2016, I had to have one.

CZ530241
I tracked this one down as a used model through Guitar Center’s inventory. Again, I checked that the guitar met many of my pre-requisites for purchasing a Fender Custom Shop Guitar – it had the COA (non-negotiable), the original case and much of the case candy. However, the guitar was missing the Floor Traveler sheet, and the customary black leatherette folio. Upon contacting Fender Consumer Relations, they were kind enough to send me a spec sheet but did not have a floor traveler available. 

The leather folio is another story; these are rare, hard-to-find, and expensive if you are able to locate one. I won’t get into how I landed mine as I hesitate to give away too many secrets. Sorry, dear reader.

These guitars originally listed at $4150 from the FCS; I scored this one for a little over half that. Once I obtained the guitar through the Guitar Center network (thank you, Billy Reedy), it was off to Clay Avenue Guitars for Jesse to work his luthier magic. If you’ve been following my articles, you know that I won’t bring a guitar home to play, unless Jesse has brought it up to snuff.

The guitar is finished in black (hearkening back to Ian Moore’s mongrel), heavy relic’d over a three-color sunburst on a lightweight alder body. This model also came in Daphne Blue, Olympic White, Aged Sea Foam Green, Faded Fiesta Red, Faded Aztec Gold, and Aged Lake Placid blue - all over a Three-Color Sunburst.

The neck is a lovely one-piece tinted birdseye maple with a 10/56 “V” shape, a 9.5” radius and jumbo frets. It sports a Telecaster headstock with the Fender “spaghetti” logo and the word “TELECASTER” imprinted. 

Interestingly enough, for anyone that has ever tried to install one – you will find that a Telecaster style neck is squared off at the bottom of the heel, as opposed to a Stratocaster neck which is rounded off at the heel. The Mischief Maker features a tele-style headstock, but the heel is appropriately rounded off to fit like a traditional Stratocaster. Minor detail, but worth noting. 

Originally introduced for the Winter NAMM show that year, the Mischief Maker is more than just a strat body with a tele neck. The pickups are a big differentiating factor: the guitar features a hand wound 1969 neck pickup, reverse-hand wound/reverse-polarity '65 middle pickup and hand wound Texas Special bridge pickup.

Further tonal options are gained from the unique on-board controls: Master Volume with Tone-Saver Bleed (which permits volume reduction without sacrificing tone), Master Tone with the Greasebucket tone circuit (when rolled down, the tone pot reduces the high frequencies, but does not add bass), and the 3^rd knob is a Neck/Bridge Pickup Blend.

Let’s Take a Test Drive
First, the guitar has a beautiful neck – the one-piece birdseye maple has a lot of flame on the back, coupled with the birdseye flecking peppered throughout. In the hand, it’s very comfortable to play and a bit reminiscent of the FCS 70^thAnniversary ’54 Stratocaster model, which I previously detailed here (insert link). 

Each of the pickups is very articulate. The on-board controls work as advertised; frankly, I find the third knob – the pickup blend to be the most interesting; it blends in the neck pickup with the bridge pickup. While this setting would be available in the middle position of a standard 3-way Telecaster switch, this combination is generally unachievable through standard Stratocaster switch wiring. Moreover, the fact that you can ‘blend’ in the amount of neck pickup you desire to balance with the bridge pickup offers a host of nice options.

Frankly, I could ‘desert-island’ this guitar (that is to say, if I had to choose just one to take with me forever).

The Mischief Makers were originally produced as a limited run, and team-built in 2016/2017; the model was later reintroduced in 2023/2024 in a variety of solid colors relic’d over paisley. My guitar was made in January of 2017, so it’s from the first run – Fender Consumer Relations informs me that there were only 50 of this model made in this color scheme. I have heard that the Olympic White version only had about 20 models produced. These are indeed a rare find out in the wild, and I would advise you keep your eyes open for one to add to your collection – you won’t be sorry; it’s a great guitar.

Gary Vann and his Bullet
As yet another point of reference to the strat body / tele neck combination, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my friend Gary Vann. 

When I was around 15 or so, Gary was a neighborhood kid who also happened to be a hotshot guitar player. I was in awe of Gary – he could play Crazy Train and all sorts of rock guitar riffs – all on an early Squier Bullet – a strat with a tele headstock.

That’s right: In late ’83 / early ’84, Fender offered student-style guitars – under the Squier branding in the form of the early “Bullet” series which featured a smaller 2/3 style strat-type body with, yes, a Tele headstock. 

Gary has since passed away, and if any of his family or friends are reading this, I want them to know that Gary had left an impression on me that has lasted over forty years later. So much so, that for my birthday one year – my wife bought me a mid-80s vintage Bullet that I cherish to this day. It always takes me back to being a kid, sitting in Gary’s bedroom, being blown away by what he could play.

My ongoing fascination of a strat with a tele headstock has traversed through Hendrix, Ian Moore and you, Gary.

The Specs