A showcase picturebook of the best guitar and basses to leave the Fender Custom shop over the last 30 years for your coffee table? Yes, please!

Fender generously sent us a copy of the beautiful hardback book and what a real delight it has been reading through the pages.  Forwarded by Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top and Mike Lewis from the Fender Custom Shop, the stage is set for an entertaining romp through rock history.

What immediately strikes you is the outstanding photography by author Steve Patkin. Absolutely beautiful images on thick, glossy paper – you can’t help but flick through the pages to check out the often stunning images. Each of the images is accompanied by a short story of the guitar’s build process and design intent from the original luthier. Really interesting, in-depth stuff guitar aficionados will love.  This is not a tomb of text, but individual stories and accounts from the actual builders themselves, set out in a way you can read from front to back if you like, or just cherry-pick the instruments that interest you.

A perfect accessory for any recording studio waiting room that deserves to be within hand reach of any guitarist.  At $30 this is 160 pages of rock history you will want on display permanently.

72 centrefolds illustrating 30 years of Fender Custom Shop guitars photographed by Stephen Pitkin   Introductions by Mike Lewis of the Fender Custom Shop and Billy Gibbons of Z.Z. Top   MONTCLAIR, N.J. – Since 1987, the Fender Custom Shop has been producing guitars that are to playing what Ferraris are to driving, and since 1995, Steve Pitkin has been photographing those guitars, capturing the craftsmanship and artistry that go into every instrument.   Fender Custom Shop at 30 Years showcases both Pitkin’s photography and the work of the supremely talented master builders who turn guitar dreams into reality daily.   Click on the picture for the high-res version   There is something special about the Custom Shop and the people who work there. They love their work, and they are true craftsmen, building each guitar with artistic expression, skill, and innovation. They do this while holding true to Fender’s time-honored traditions and working in close collaboration with musicians who rely on these instruments to create their music.   Each page of Fender Custom Shop at 30 Years is made to be interactive, from the highly detailed photographs to the text on their edges, written by the builders who created them and the artists who play them. As Pitkin writes in his introduction, “I hope every page of this book is a window of discovery for you, inspiring curiosity and encouraging your imagination to dream of a masterpiece when it is in your hands.” Click on the picture for the high-res version_ A guitar from the Fender Custom Shop may not be within reach of every guitar enthusiast, but with Fender Custom Shop at 30 Years, every musician and fan can share in the beauty of these works of art. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: STEVE PITKIN is an internationally known fine art and assignment photographer. He began his career as a museum assistant and staff photographer documenting historic scientific instruments and opened Pitkin Studio as a freelance photographer in 1987. Pitkin illustrated the Fender Custom Shop Guitar Gallery in 1995 and has photographed over 20 years of the celebrated Fender Custom Shop calendar.  He lives in Rockford, Ill.