1959 Fender Stratocaster Sonic Blue #41761 - Sold

*Just sold* Here we have Very cool Stratocaster from sometime in the latter stages of 1959, a time when Rosewood Fretboards were a brand new “thing” on Fender Guitars. These first Rosewood Boards had a flat base and are known as “Slab Boards”, a much vaunted feature of Fender’s so called Pre L Series Guitars, especially when the Rosewood is “Brazilian” like on this one. Back in the early 80’s I had a shop called “Foghorn Music” on Payneham Rd, not too far out of town here in Adelaide. We dealt in what were then just becoming known in Australia as “Vintage Guitars” and pursued a superior level of repair work than was generally done at that time. This guitar as it turns out, came to us in about 1982.
Back then, you could buy genuine Duco paint made by DuPont, locally, a proper “Nitro Cellulose” lacquer. It is exactly the same product used by Fender, in the Pre CBS era. We got the correct paint code for Sonic Blue and refinished this guitar (37 odd years ago) and several others. How did I know this was one of them? As per photo, there's a Foghorn Music stamp under the base of the neck, indicating work carried out. Chemically stripped, no abrasives to affect edges etc, it looks terrific.
We had to do the Neck too, with the same locally supplied “Nitro”...it looks really good, not too heavy not too thin. All beautifully sunken back into the grain.
As you can see, there are extra switches in the Pickguard. This kind of customisation was common back in the 60’s to give extra pickup combinations. Now it has a 5 way switch and they are disconnected. Everything parts wise is original and it comes in the original “Koylon” Tweed Case. It is a really great Strat this one, it plays as well as any Strat I have played,  as good as it gets, with that real smooth Trem arm action that only some of these develop. If you are game, bring down your Strat and lets make a comparison eh? Player’s Grade? Yes! Great Pre L Series Strat? One of the very best I’ve come across....