1955 Fender Stratocaster

A 1955 one-piece ash-body Fender Stratocaster with body and electronics that date to late 1954 and a January 1955 neck date. We’re pretty sure this is best sounding Strat we’ve yet offered for sale. The pickups are round and fairly hot, fabulously expressive and touch-sensitive; the neck carve is a perfect rounded-V, and the fairly recent fretwork lets you have unfettered access to everything this early Stratocaster has to offer.
In the original center-pocket tweed case you’ll find an in-person appraisal from 2016 signed by George Gruhn, which suggests that the guitar has been oversprayed and that a refret and fingerboard refinish was done at Gruhn Guitars. The finish is remarkably beautiful and appears to be very old. There is clear overspray on the body’s edges and the original logo is finished-over, but the balance of the dark two-tone finish shows many years of natural aging, chipping, and wear. Because of the ease of disassembly and reassembly of Fender guitars we can’t offer a definite confirmation of George Gruhn’s findings.
The guitar’s electronics are factory original and completely untouched but for the two solder joints on the volume pot for the output jack. The pickups read 5.63 (n), 5.60 (m) and 5.58(b), and the one visible pot code dates to the 43rd week of 1954.
The pickguard and backplate are original. There are two small nail/screw holes in the pickguard that correspond with holes in the body from where extra fasteners were added to help keep the pickguard flat to the body. (Early Stratocasters have 8-hole pickguards, but Fender changed the pickguard design to 11-holes in mid 1959 in response to these pickguard flatness issues). The guitar’s backplate was installed backwards at some point and there are extra mounting holes around the trem cavity that are visible only when the back plate is removed. The switch tip and trem arm are not original to the guitar, but the control knobs and pickup covers are.
Original no-line Kluson tuners, original hand-cut string tree, original bridge, saddles, screws and strap buttons. Newer nut and frets. Body date of 12/54 pencilled in the trem cavity. 7.6 lbs. In the case pocket you’ll find a collection of dry pickup mounting ‘springs’, extra trem springs, and a few original screws that were stripped.
With original tweed hardshell case.
folkwaymusic.com/vintage-inst...

[@chrisCANguitar]

playing a piece of history right there.

[@andrewmacfarlane4899]

Beautiful