A Mint Pre-CBS Stratocaster

This pre-CBS Stratocaster weighs just 7.60 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of 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 "flamed" maple neck, and veneer rosewood fretboard with 21 frets and clay dot position markers. Small headstock with early 1965 "transition" logo with "Fender" in gold with thin black outline and four patent numbers beneath "WITH SYNCHRONIZED TREMOLO." The neck is dated "2 FEB 65 B" and the pots are dated "137 65 05." Individual Kluson deluxe tuners with oval nickel-plated buttons. "L-series" neckplate with four screws and serial number ("L69041") at top. Three white plastic-covered single-coil pickups with staggered polepieces and outputs of 5.94k, 6.32k, and 6.31k. Three-layer (white/black/white) celluloid pickguard with greenish tint and eleven screws. Three controls (one volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch, all on pickguard. Jack socket in body face. White plastic knobs with green lettering. Fender "Synchronized Tremolo" combined bridge/tailpiece. This guitar is in very near mint condition, with no fretboard wear, no fret wear, only the absolute bare minimum of belt buckle marking on the back (which you can't see unless you hold the guitar up against a light), a few minuscule marks on the sides, and the bare minimum of body checking on the top. Housed in its original Fender black hardshell case with red plush lining (9.25). A wonderful, typical 1965 three-tone Sunburst (with nitro-cellulose lacquer finish).

"The Stratocaster was launched during 1954 [and was priced at $249.50, or $229.50 without vibrato]. Samples around May and June were followed by the first proper production run in October. 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 [and in some ways seemed to owe more to the contemporary automobile design than traditional guitar forms], 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).

"After July 1962, a 'curved' rosewood fretboard (i.e. with a convex base) replaced the 'slab' board. At first, the rosewood cap remained fairly thick, but by 1963 it turned into a thinner veneer and it was kept this way until mid-1983" (A.R. Duchossoir, The Fender Stratocaster, p.48).