Fender Strat

Vintage Fender Statocaster serial number on plate -20313 Pot dates 304723. 1957 date. Ash body refinished black nitro cellous in the 70's with front finish stripped off by me in 1982. Neck is original Pre CBS rosewood clay dot slabboard. 7.25" radius. C Shape Pre 1962 no stripe on back. No dates on body or neck. Guitar has been owned by me since 1980. Guitar was varified by a employee at Norms Rare Guitars in Los Angeles. This was done at a gig in Los Angeles. He said that it is possible that when the rosewood neck came out the original owner had Fender switch it from the maple neck in 1959. Neck headstock was also refinished black with a 60's Fender decal applied. Pots, serial number plate,- 20131, claw, volume and tone knobs and pick up covers are vintage. Front and back pick ups are vintage (black). Middle pick up looks like 70's issue (Gray) . Replaced parts. Jack, Tuners ( Shallers) String tree and nut ( Graphite) Pick guard ( Brass). 5 way selector switch. Vibrato section, saddles, plate, block and arm. ( Fender replacement) All of these replacement can be replaced with re issued original parts if wanted. Modifacation done to the guitar. Pre Amp added to guitar back in 1970's. Extra toggle switch and pot added to brass pick guard. LED light added to pick Guard. Jack has extra 1/8" power plug insert to power Pre Amp. If you switch the Pre Amp on without power plug attached to power the Pre Amp the guitar will turn off due to the toggle switch wired via By Pass. I never used the Pre Amp. In other words if you just use the guitars normal controls the guitar behaves as it should. 2" Route in body as shown in photo which in the top right corner of body underneath Pre Amp toggle switch and pot. A very small round hole routed underneath the LED light on left side top of the body. Neither of these modifications affect the guitars playablity or tone. PayPal only accepted! USA Shipping Only! Returns are 7 days you pay shipping. Ships UPS insured. Local pick up ok 90808 zip code. Please within 3 days. I will not ship outside USA so if you are, send PayPal USA varified address if won. and you can have your USA resident friend or family hold it for you.This is a great players vintage 1957 Fender Stratocaster with a vintage appox.1959 roseword c shape clay dot with vintage pots, knobs, covers and pick ups that I have owned since 1980. Guitar is signed on front of the body by Robert Cray who checked this guitar out with me back in 1987. Please ask any questions before bidding I will answer all. Guitar will be shipped UPS insured w/o case in a cardboard Epiphone guitar box within a thick foam container made to ship guitars overseas. Returns accepted only if guitar is not as discribed. Damages occured are buyers responsablity as the item is shipped insured. I have shipped several guitars and have never had a problem. I can ship the guitar in a non original 70's hard shell case but you will need to pay more for shipping due to extra weight incured.   Thank you.

On Jul-22-10 at 23:15:14 PDT, seller added the following information:

Guitar plays and sounds great. Input Jack is getting a little old but still works fine. For some of you, this might be your only chance to obtain a real vintage pre cbs Stratocaster. I ve. owned it for over 30 years and for the last 15 years it has pretty much sat in it's case. Neck is straight frets are used but still have plenty of life in them. Pick ups sound unreal vintage tone. Wood on body is original 1957 Fender ash body. Unreal tone! Neck is pre 1962 rosewood slab brazilian beautiful grain! C shape thinner faster than others unreal to play so easy. Guitar stays in tune machine heads are in great shape. Saddles are reissue Fender chrome. Volume and Tone Knobs and Pick Up Covers could be Bakelite material I can't tell, but I can tell you they are at least 50 years old! I played the crap out of this guitar on stages all over Los Angeles Co. since 1980. This is a collectors guitar as well as a players guitar! You Will Never See A Guitar For This Price On Ebay Again. I am A Guitar Player Not A Business....I just hope that the guitar goes to a player not a collector that will part it out and sell it... Local Pick Up is a good option instead of shipping, if you are in L.A or O.C county you can come by and see it. To All Send Me A Message For Any Concerns I will Answer All ASAP.

On Jul-27-10 at 23:00:34 PDT, seller added the following information:

Forgot to mention that the guitar has nice brass knobs ( don't know what to call them) strap locks for your strap. Also I used to have two string trees for both the 3rd. 4th and 2nd and 1st strings. Now it only has a single tree for the 1st and 2nd. but there is a tiny hole where the tree was for the 3rd and 4th string tree was. I wrap the strings all the way down the Shaller tuning machine heads and this seem to help keep the 3rd and 4th strings in tune better when I used the vibrato. Wraping the strings  down with 4-6 wraps helps the tone also. I just put the strings back on the guitar, the same shown in the pictures not new strings, if anyone has ever played a older Fender Strat older broken in strings are better, at least on this guitar than brand new strings. It has 10-46 gauge strings. I plugged the guitar in my Roland Jazz Chorus amp so that I could hear the guitar as it is, clean tone and I used all the pick ups and found myself playing Jimi's Little Wing right away on the front pick up.. Guitar sound, tone and played like a million bucks ...reallly. Then I started playing some Stevie Ray Vaughn.. The tone and feel is there. I remember when i met SRV 1990 in Redondo Beach Ca. at The Strand, we talked about this guitar.. His Strat had a wider D shap neck and he also had it refreted it so many times that he has to use a replace his 59 with a 61 I think... He like Robert Cray loved this guitars neck since it had only been refretted once! Lots of life let in the rosewood! Never been shaved! Hope I see some bids coming soon.. I will play my guitar one more time at 6 pm tomorrow and will get my feelings in line with it, like an old friend I will hate to see it go... I will then look here to see the bids. If it is still the same I will have to see if I continue depending on how I feel... What shows on the current bid will influence me people! If you want this guitar please bid and show me that you want it. Look at the pictures, think of what you may have and show me.. The guitar sounded unreal tonight! Good luck. I wish you could have played it tonight.. No wonder I feel in love with guitar when I was 20 years old in 1980....USA ONLY SHIPPING DO NOT BID OUTSIDE USA. USA ONLY USA ONLY!! No INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING NO HAWAII No Prueto Rico, No ALASKA Shipping!

On Jul-28-10 at 18:37:49 PDT, seller added the following information:

Lots good guys! I am going to let this auction for this unreal guitar run it's course... Good Luck! As I said I played it last night for the last time... I didn't tell ya guys that my friend Mr. Buddy Miles played this guitar is 1982 at a Hendrix that we did together and I do have this on Video Tape! He did a song that he wrote for Jimi called " If I ever Get To Heaven.." 50 year old Fender Stratocaster! You'll never see one like this at this price again.... Remember if it's not as I said what it is ( which it is ) You can send it back in the same condition sent for a refund minus if any ebay fees.. How can you go wrong! You can't This guitar was bought my me in Long Beach Ca. 1980 from a friend of mine at Long Beach City College. We were in the Commercial Recording Engineer class together, I went home with him and saw the guitar and I played it WOW it was a lot better than my Ibanez Silver Series Telecaster copy. I asked him if he ever sold the guitar to me first. He did 1 week later, I gave him $150.00 and then another $150.00 a week later.. A good friend...he was always my second engineer in class.. In 1980 you couldn't date the guitar he said it was an older model... 3 years later a book came out with all the facts. Dick Dale saw this guitar and thought the neck was a 1957. He said that his rosewood neck Strat is a 1957. Bill Carson saw this guitar and said that it was a 1957 rosewood neck and that in the last months of 1957 Fender was using rosewood on all necks before it was official, he said that the jazzmaster was the only official rosewood neck but player were asking for it for their Strats and Telecasters... This is what i was told truthfully I can't prove this but I have no reason to lie to you people. My karma is instant and my aim is true. But I can say I played it last night and it played and sounded better than it ever had.. I think the guitar is trying to make me keep her.. The sustain has been better since I replaced the saddles with Fender chrome model. It has brass ones since I bought it. I never liked the way the brass kind of sucked the tone in..The graphite nut was one the first made. At World Of Strings ( A music shop in Long Beach ) They broke twoblades when they tried to install it.. LOL That was a while ago folks! I was allways trying to find an edge to help keep it in tune when I used the vibrato. The nut helped, back then people were using graphite from a pencil on their nut.. The one on the guitar neck folks! LOL I did this too but it didn't work and you'd get graphite all over your hands! LOL! The string tree as mentioned is also made of graphite, installed at the same time as the nut, again to help the guitar stay intune.. I was playing a Tribute To Jimi Hendrix with Buddy Miles on drums and the before I worked with the guitar it would go out of tune when the vibrato was used. With 10-46 gauge strings in A440 tuning the virbarto is tight yet loose enough with 3 springs being used. I would also tune the guitar flat. I played this guitar at Magic Mountain in Ca. Wolf and Rissmillers club in the valley, The Music Machine. The Woodstock in Anaheim Ca. Dancing Waters in San Pedro Ca. In San Diego Ca. In Arizona 1982. And all over Long Beach and Los Angeles Ca. The last time I used this guitar was at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano Ca. We opened up for Buddy Miles Express. The guitar sounded great through my JMP Marshall 1/2 stack and Fender Twin plugged together! 2007. It has sat and sat.. Now it's your turn to make you history with this guitar. I am 50 years old now and trying to keep my family of 19 years together.. My wife is on disablity and I only make $14.00 an hour.. With two kids bills etc.. And old Honda with 241.000miles It's time to let her go...Hope a real killer young blues guitarist gets her to prove to the world that loud blues guitar isn't dead.. This guitar will put you where you want to be in your head as well as you heart and sould.. Not a pitch but I know this is real....So many times I had to walk on stage and prove myself and had this guitar as my tool to do it.. I didn't know about old rare guitars only that this one was the best that I had ever played in my life. Better than the ones at the stores or the 65 my friend had that had a bigger feeling neck...He was kind of a dick too and would let people tough it. I let all my friend play my guitars as well as this one.. Guitars, friends and memories.. This will be one of my last... Thank you Ebay for helping me. Thank you guitarist for looking and reading and feeling...Last for those that don't win, I feel for you cuz this is a once in a life time gig...May my blessing and karma help you find yours someday.... Last of Last... "Once your dead your made for life.."