To honor blues great Stevie Ray Vaughn, Fender Custom Shop is releasing the Stevie Ray Vaughn "Lenny" Custom Stratocaster. "Lenny" was Stevie Ray Vaughn's most beloved guitar, and there is a story behind his acquisition of it.

Stevie saw the original "Lenny" at a pawn shop before it had a name, and before SRV's name was well known. With his birthday approaching, his wife Lenora and several friends pooled together their money in order to buy Stevie this strat for his birthday.

When SRV received the guitar, he stayed up all night playing and writing on it - coming up with a song called "Lenny" named after his wife Lenora. Since the first time he played the song for her the next morning, SRV brought the "Lenny" guitar on tour with him everywhere, breaking it out for every performance of the song.

But there's more history to the "Lenny" guitar than just that. Stevie Ray Vaughn by chance crossed paths with Yankee's legend Mickey Mantle. Mantle was throwing out the honorary first pitch at a game where Vaughn was selected to play the national anthem.

Mantle offered an autograph for SRV, but with no bat to sign, Stevie offered "Lenny" to Mantle, and Mickey Mantle's signature now rests on SRV's prized guitar.

Now Fender Custom Shop and the estate of Stevie Ray Vaughn bring this historic guitar back to life. A limited release of the SRV "Lenny" model Stratocaster is in the works. SRV fanatics should be on the lookout.