1964 Fender Stratocaster Sunburst, Very Good, Original Hard, $1.00

Vintage 1964 Fender Stratocaster From the 1964 Fender catalog, "FENDER STRATOCASTER GUITAR - Perfection in a solid body comfort-contoured professional guitar providing all of the finest Fender features. Choice hardwood body finished with a golden sunburst shading, white Maple neck with Rosewood fingerboard, white pickguard and lustrous chrome metal parts. Three advanced style adjustable pickups, and one volume control, two tone controls, and a three position instant tone change switch. The adjustable Fender bridge insures perfect intonation and softest action. The neck has the famous Fender truss-rod. The Stratocaster is available with or without the Fender built in tremolo."

This clean vintage Fender Stratocaster has just come from the daughter of the purchaser in May of '65 - but there's a lot more to the story. John Ferrell purchased this guitar from a music store in San Bernadino, Ca, only 40 miles from Fullerton. It seems that the Stratocaster that John bought, bearing the serial number "1062", was in fact comprised of electronics (304443 pot codes, 43rd week of '54), tuners (no line Kluson), and pickups (North to strings and tall D slugs, likely rewound in '64) from a 1954 Stratocaster, a 1960 body refinished in 1964 at the factory, and a standard November 1964 neck. John kept the original receipt from that transaction that bears this serial number, at a purchase price of $250 for the guitar and case. Since a new Stratocaster cost $289.50 and a case $52.50 in 1965, we assume that the guitar was being sold used.

We were told by John's family that he prized his guitar throughout his lifetime. At some point, the middle pickup shorted. Since he still lived in San Bernadino, California he took the guitar to Fender's Custom Shop in Corona to have the middle pickup rewound by Abigal Ybarra in 2008. He kept the paperwork from that as well.

The guitar has survived in wonderful condition and is an excellent playing example of the model. The '54 straight side pickup selector switch is tight and allows for easy selecting for those in between positions. The neck shows very light wear in the first four frets that doesn't impede playability in the slightest. We've added nothing but a fresh set of strings, modified nothing, and are proud to present the guitar exactly as found with only the things it came to us with.