The Cleanest "Fifty-Seven" Tremolo Stratocaster That We have Ever Seen, Let Alone Owned…

This lightweight "dream" guitar weighs just 7.20 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of between 1 5/8 and 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Solid alder body, contoured on back and lower bass bout, and finished in two-tone Sunburst (black to yellow). One-piece fretted maple neck with a wonderfully huge typical '57 "V" profile, 21 frets, and black dot position markers. Small headstock with decal with Fender "spaghetti" logo in gold with black trim, "STRATOCASTER" in black beside it, "WITH SYNCHRONIZED TREMOLO" in black below it, and with "ORIGINAL Contour Body" decal at the ball end of the headstock. Individual single-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons (stamped inside: "D-169400/Patent No"). Single "butterfly" string tree. Four-bolt neck plate with the serial number (-21182") between the top two screws. Three white plastic-covered black-bottom single-coil pickups with staggered polepieces and nicely balanced outputs of 5.73k, 5.65k, and 5.78k. Single-layer white plastic pickguard with eight screws. Three controls (one volume, two tone) plus three-way pickup selector switch, all on the lower treble side of the pickguard. White plastic knobs with gold lettering. Fender "Synchronized Tremolo" combined bridge/tailpiece (six-pivot bridge/vibrato unit with through-body stringing). The neck has a pencil mark of "6-57," and the tremolo cavity has a pencil mark of "5/57." The potentiometers are all stamped "304 715" (Stackpole April 1957). At one time (more than twenty years ago), an "additional" matching pickguard screw was added by the bass side of the bridge pickup (most likely to keep the pickguard from lifting). Otherwise, this guitar is in near mint (9.25) condition, with virtually no finish checking. If one wanted to be super critical -- there is a very small area of minor belt buckle wear on the back of the guitar and some small wear spots to the maple fretboard, affecting the first seven frets only. The original frets show some minor wear, but really nothing to write home about…This nearly fifty-year-old guitar is totally original and is most certainly the cleanest "Fifty-Seven" Tremolo Stratocaster that we have ever seen, let alone owned! Complete with the original "ashtray" bridge cover, tremolo arm, and even the original hang-tag. Housed in its original Fender side-pocket "Tweed" case with brown leather ends, red plush lining, and exterior "Fender" logo thick foil sticker -- which is also near mint (9.25). This superb example has been locked away in a private collection for well over twenty years, and this is the first time since then that it has being offered for sale.

"The Stratocaster was launched during 1954 [and was priced at $249.50, or $229.50 without vibrato]...The new Fender guitar was the first solidbody electric with three pickups [Gibson's electric-acoustic ES-5, introduced five years earlier, had been the overall first], meaning a range of fresh tones, and featured a new-design vibrato unit that provided pitch-bending and shimmering chordal effects. The new vibrato -- erroneously called a 'tremolo' by Fender and many others since -- was troublesome in development. But the result was the first self-contained vibrato unit: an adjustable bridge, a tailpiece, and a vibrato system, all in one. It wasn't a simple mechanism for the time, but a reasonably effective one...Fender's new vibrato had six bridge-pieces, one for each string, adjustable for height and length, which meant that the feel of the strings could be personalized and the guitar made more in tune with itself...The Strat came with a radically sleek, solid body, based on the outline of the 1951 Fender Precision Bass. Some musicians had complained to Fender that the sharp edge of the Telecaster's body was uncomfortable...so the Strat's body was contoured for the player's comfort. Also, it was finished in a yellow-to-black sunburst finish. Even the jack socket mounting was new, recessed in a stylish plate on the body face...the Fender Stratocaster looked like no other guitar around especially the flowing, sensual curves of that beautifully proportioned, timeless body. The Stratocaster's new-style pickguard complemented the lines perfectly, and the overall impression was of a guitar where all the components ideally suited one another. The Fender Stratocaster has since become the most popular, the most copied, the most desired, and very probably the most played solid electric guitar ever" (Tony Bacon, 50 Years of Fender, p. 18).

"The 1957 Fender Stratocaster is considered a 'classic' year by most with its two-tone sunburst finish on an Alder body wood with a Maple 'V' neck. The change in plastic from 'bakelite' (polystyrene) to ABS took place in the spring of 1957. Though I personally like the look and feel of 'Bakelite' plastic better, it is far more fragile and often broken or missing. Serial number range for the 57 Fender Stratocaster are generally 16000 to 25000 (some numbers with a '0' or '-' prefix on the neck plate)…Spring 1957 Fender Stratocaster guitar specs: ABS plastic knobs and pickup covers replace 'bakelite' (Polystyrene). Many spring 1957 Strats have a mix of Bakelite and ABS parts, with ABS pickup covers yet bakelit knobs - this happened because the bakelite pickup covers ran out of stock first, so for a month or two of production some 1957 Strats can have ABS pickup covers and bakelite knobs). Most 1957 Strats have a neck with a 'strong V' backshape" (http://www.provide.net/~cfh/57strat.html).