Fender ships Eric Johnson's Virginia Stratocaster Artist Signature

Fender has announced the release to retail of Eric Johnson's latest signature model, the Virginia Stratocaster, available as both a 50-strong limited edition Custom Shop run or a more affordable, unlimited production model.

We caught up with Johnson at NAMM last month. You can watch our video above, and read more about the Virginia Strat below.

NAMM 2020: Fender has expanded its Artist Signature Series of electric guitars with the Eric Johnson Virginia Stratocaster, which will be available as either a USA Corona Facility Production build or a super-limited Custom Shop model. We caught up with the man himself in Anaheim.

The 1954 Virginia Strat is part of the Fender Stories Collection and is a replica of the guitar Johnson used to record Cliffs Of Dover. 

The Custom Shop Model goes all in with the detail and was built by Master Builder Carlos Lopez. It has a stunning V-profile AAAA flame maple neck and 21-fret maple fretboard, a lightly checked lacquer finish and hand-wound Virginia singlecoil pickups in the neck and middle positions, with a hum-cancelling DiMarzio HS2 in the bridge that should offer plenty of treble bite, and Closet Classic hardware.

The Corona Production Line model has a maple neck with a soft V-profile, a 12" radius maple fingerboard, and 21 medium-jumbo frets. Like the Custom Shop model it has a DiMarzio HS2 in the bridge, with Fender '57/62 Strat singlecoil Strat in middle and neck positions.

Both guitars have a rare sassafras body.

The Eric Johnson Virginia Stratocaster is limited to 50 models worldwide and is priced £8,099 ($9,000).

The production line Eric Johnson Virginia Strat is priced £2,429 ($2,499) and will be available in February.

See Fender for more details.