1960 Fender® Stratocaster® Shoreline Gold, Near Mint, Original Hard, $25,000.00

1960 Shoreline Gold Stratocaster

The "player" info: 7 lbs., 10 oz. Plays, sounds, looks, as good as you will ever find one of these very special slab board guitars!!! It is truly the nicest early slab board Strat I have ever had the pleasure to play!

Now the "collector" skinny: This guitar was delivered new from Fender to "Sorrell Music" in Southern Illinois, a Fender authorized dealer, in mid 1960. As some may know the US economy was showing signs of recession and a custom colored, more expensive guitar was unpopular during this time period. This guitar sat in inventory until 1964, when the original customer purchased it. The guitar had some dings in it just from being demoed by prospective customers over the years. Upon request, by the new particular buyer, this guitar was sent back to Fender to have the dings removed and as was normal with a superior customer service company like Fender, they decided to renew the entire instrument. So before the original customer took delivery, Fender updated the guitar complete with finish, guard, decal, and case. Technically speaking, this is the factory "original" finish because it was completed before the original customer took delivery, even though many will see it as a factory refin...Shortly after taking delivery the customer took ill and passed away. The guitar remained in the possession of his son until recently. Keep in mind, the son did not play the guitar so it sat in storage, unplayed, for almost 50 years! As you can see, being very particular that this guitar was kept in pristine condition, the original owner purchased, as an option, a Fender "Body Guard". This is part of the factory original package so I thought it important to leave it on the guitar. It can be easily removed but there is some discoloration that may be buffed off, although I did not want to mess with something just in case.

So what is also very cool is this guitar comes with it's original 1960 owners manual, strap, case keys, ash tray cover, and tremolo bar!!! The original case is the correct time period black tolex (MINT) but I also have a super clean original "white" case I am throwing in; which can also be considered period correct as dealers would mix and match cases back then.

There you have it, one super rare, factory original, custom color, slab board, Stratocaster guitar....DAMN!

A few different ways to fairly price this particular item. If it was 100% normal it would be 50K? So half that? Plus add for all the extra, under the hood, goodies? Or price it as a MINT sunburst and you get the gold for free? You tell me but when I see what they get for a stupid custom shop guitar nowadays (I turned down 25k for an SRV!) you almost have to cry! This is a BARGAIN people!