frettedamericana | 1 decade ago

http://www.frettedamericana.com/product/1957-fender-stratocaster-0
An Exceptionally Fine 1957 Stratocaster.
This lightweight "dream" guitar weighs just 7.60 lbs. and has a comfortable nut width of 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Three-piece 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 "'57 soft "V" profile. Maple fretboard, almost unplayed with 21 original small 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 (-17878") between the top two screws. Three white 'bakelite'-covered black-bottom single-coil pickups with staggered polepieces and nicely balanced outputs of 5.71k, 5.52k and 5.65k. Single-layer white plastic pickguard (.080 inches thick) 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 Stratocaster 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 "7-57," and the middle pickup cavity has a pencil mark of "5-57". The potentiometers are stamped "304 715" and "304 720" (Stackpole, April and May 1957). This totally original guitar is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition, with virtually no finish checking, light fret wear and almost no wear to the maple fret board. There are two small areas of light wear on the lower bass edge of the body and a very small amount of belt-buckle scarring on the back - not through to the wood. There are a few small surface chips/indentations on the body, some very light pick scarring on the top of the body by the treble horn and a few very small surface marks on the back of the neck. This fifty-three year old guitar is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition. Complete with the original tremolo arm. Housed in a slightly later (1959) Fender Stratocaster brown hardshell case with brown leather ends and orange plush lining (9.00).