The Closest You Will Ever Get To Owning Stratocaster #0001…

2002 Fender Stratocatster - David Gilmour.

This unique 'David Gilmour #0001' Stratocaster weighs just 7.20 lbs. One-piece solid ash body, contoured on back and lower bass bout, and finished in the identical color to David Gilmour's famous #0001 - vintage 'yellowed' blond/arctic white. One-piece fretted maple neck with a nut width of just under 11/16 inches, a scale length of 25 1/2 inches and a huge mid 50s soft 'V' profile. Twenty one medium jumbo 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 "ORIGINAL Contour Body" at the ball end of the headstock. Individual single-line "no-name" Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons. Single circular string tree. Four-bolt neck plate with the serial number "DG 0001" between the top two screws. Three white Bakelite-covered black-bottom single-coil pickups with staggered pole-pieces and wonderfully balanced outputs of 6.83k, 6.12k, and 5.99k. Single-layer gold anodized pickguard with eight screws. Three controls (one volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch, all on treble side of the pickguard. White Bakelite knobs with gold/green lettering. Six-pivot bridge/vibrato unit with through-body stringing. All hardware gold-plated. The neck cavity is signed in pencil by Dennis Galuszka. The body and neck have been very accurately distressed/aged by the great Fred Stuart. Fred has also modified all the plastic parts and made an era correct anodized pickguard. The pickups have been specially wound by Lindy Fralin to the exact 1954 Stratocaster specifications. The 'distressing/aging' has been done so accurately that it look just like David Gilmore's iconic giuitar. And finally this incredible instrument looks, feels, plays and sounds quite incredible… A great opportunity to own something 'really special'. Complete with a copy of the original Fender Custom Shop order sheet dated "6/22/01" The original Fender Custom Shop Certificate of Authenticity with serial # "DG055" dated 04/16/2001 which has been inscribed on the back in black ink "Custom Relicing / by Fred Stuart" and all of the original 'case-candy'. Housed in the original Fender three-latch, rectangular 'center-pocket' tweed case with brown leather ends and burgundy plush lining (9.25).

Two of the greatest luthiers alive today worked on this one-of-a kind project - Dennis Galuszka and Fred Stuart. - and the amazing pickups were specially wound by Lindy Fralin.

This guitar was specially made for Jason Allen - a fan of David Gilmour from day one and a letter of authenticity with the guitar states… "[I] fell in love with his 0001 Stratocaster - the moment I saw it! I commissioned the Custom Shop to build a replica of the guitar and met with Dennis Galuszka about five times, before the finish color was correct. Initially, the Custom Shop was going to perform all the work on the guitar i.e.: distressing/aging, but as you can see on the Build Sheet - that part was crossed out. They were not comfortable building an unauthorized "exact replica", so it was completed as an NOS.

After it was completed [Feb 2nd, 2002] I had Fred Stuart provide the distressing/aging and also modified all the plastic parts, so they looked correct. Additionally, he replaced the gold anodized pickguard and made an era correct one. I supplied him with many images of the actual guitar, so that he could duplicate all the [playing] damage. He notated and signed the back of the COA.

I then contacted Lindy Fralin and tld him about the project. He wound a special set of 1954 pickups.

The source which Fender uses to engrave their neckplates, made one for me [with "DG 0001"]" (Jason Allen March 24th, 2013)

Here is the correct story regarding David Gilmour's actual guitar that this one is based on…

"This is one of those folklore legends that has taken on a life of its own. Here’s the real story – and it’s actually a tale of two guitars. In 1976, right before he started Seymour Duncan Pickups, Seymour was doing guitar repair at Jensen’s Music, here in Santa Barbara. While he was there, a guy from Nipomo, California named Richard Green brought a ’57 Strat to Seymour to fix and refinish – he wanted the new color to be see-through root beer, like Bonnie Raitt’s guitar. Seymour remembers the original color as a light mint green; probably the same finish Fender used on some lap steels.

Seymour sent the body to his friend and colleague Wayne Charvel for refinishing. Wayne was an authorized Fender repairman. But Wayne couldn’t refinish the body because the dings and nicks were too deep for a see-through finish. So Wayne used another Fender body, which he sprayed see-through root beer, and he sent it back to Seymour. (Back in the ‘70s, when you sent a neck or body to Fender for replacement, the practice was to saw the original in half and throw it away. However, in this case, the original body wasn’t destroyed...)

The original neck went to another Santa Barbara repairman Phil Kubicki who refinished it. It eventually made its way back to Seymour who re-plated the hardware gold, put the guitar back together (with the new body) and returned it to Richard Green. The neck plate said serial number #0001, but Seymour knew it wasn’t accurate since Fender didn’t do solid color finishes back then.

Some time later, Seymour was visiting Wayne’s shop and saw the original ’57 body and bought it to use for a test guitar he was building. Seymour bought a ’57 maple neck from Kubicki for $85 and he bolted it onto the ’57 body. He wound some ‘60s replica pickups and used the guitar as a test bed. Eventually, he sold the Frankenstein guitar to a guy named Phil Taylor who in turn sold it to David Gilmour for $600. The neck plate said #0001; but like Richard Green’s, Seymour believed it to be non-original. Keep in mind, this was long before the vintage guitar craze had started; and was 15 years before the first Antiquity pickup was ever sold.

So there ya have it. A Seymour Duncan User Group Exclusive! Unfortunately, Richard Green’s guitar was stolen in the ‘80s and is out there somewhere. If anyone has an idea of where it is, let Seymour or me know and we’ll get it back to Richard."  (Evan Skopp 12-19-2006)