A Near Mint Very Early 1963 Shoreline Gold Fender Stratocaster

This near mint exceptionally rare custom color Shoreline Gold Stratocaster weighs just 7.80 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of just under 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Solid alder body, contoured on back and lower bass bout, one-piece medium-profile maple neck with a wonderful Brazilian rosewood fretboard with 21 frets and clay dot position markers. Small headstock with decal with "Fender" 'Spaghetti' logo in gold with black trim, "Stratocaster" in black beside it, and "With Synchronized Tremolo" and three patent numbers in black below. Single "butterfly" string tree with metal spacer. Individual "single-line" Kluson Deluxe 'single-line' tuners with oval metal buttons (stamped on the inside "D-169400 / PATENT NO."). The neck is stamped in black "2 JAN 63B." Four-bolt neck plate with the serial number ("94797") between the top two screws. Three black-bottom white plastic-covered single-coil pickups with staggered polepieces and outputs of 6.19k, 5.87k, and 5.76k. The potentiometers are stamped "304 6306" (Stackpole February 1963). Three-layer "minty" (white/black/white) plastic pickguard with eleven screws. Three controls (one volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch, all on pickguard. White plastic knobs with green lettering. Jack socket in body face. Fender "Synchronized Tremolo" combined bridge/tailpiece. Complete with the original tremolo arm and bridge cover. The Shoreline Gold finish is bright and vivid and shows none of the usual fade associated with this color. This forty-five year old super-rare custom-color Stratocaster is in near mint (9.25) condition with just a tiny cigarette burn on the face of the headstock by the low 'E' tuner, some minor varnish wear to the treble side of the neck and some minimal fret-wear. There is some very minor superficial belt buckle wear on the back, a small indentation (the size of a match-head) and a few other tiny insignificant surface marks or chips on the back and the sides. The top of the guitar has a few very small and also insignificant surface marks and dents, all of which are also superficial. This most certainly the finest example of this impossible to find color that we have ever seen and has come from a private collection in Europe where it has safely resided for the past sixteen years. Housed in it's original Fender tan hardshell case with brown leather ends and dark orange plush lining (9.00). This guitar is listed in James D. Werner's List (p.30) "94797 Feb 63 Strat Gold"

This guitar also appears in the color photograph on page 38 of The Fender Stratocaster by A.R. Duchossoir.