Description

Several years ago, my good friends at the Fender Musical Instrument Company asked if I would like a unique prototype steel guitar/tube amp-set, and of course I said yes. The word “prototype" gets bandied about a lot in the guitar world but these are literally that, very first examples of both a guitar and an amplifier, made to be complete working models of both. The very earliest guitars made by Leo Fender, who at the time was a radio and phonograph repairman, were done in partnership with Doc Kaufman, an instrument designer for Rickenbacker. In 1945, they set up shop as K&F Manufacturing to produce their new lap steel, but in 1946 Kaufman left the company. Leo renamed it Fender Electric Instruments and the rest is history. Early K&F steels occasionally show up, but it seems that the trade name registration had run out with no one taking it, and in order to get it registered for themselves again, Fender needed to build one prototype lap steel and one prototype tube amplifier, and here they both are. Fender duplicated the original K&F metal nameplate for both and also made a special serial number plate for the amp, on which the space for the number was left blank. The amp has the insides of an all-tube Fender Blues Junior and its fabulous all-wood case, with wooden handle, was made specially for it by the Fender Custom Guitar Shop and lacquered with a Fender Telecaster Butterscotch-Blonde high-gloss finish. The guitar was made as a one-off, in Fender’s factory in China, lacquered in white, with a vintage-correct metal fingerboard with painted Roman numerals and a duplication of the original K&F string-through pickup.The guitar comes with a beautiful plush-lined hard shell case. This set is as I got it, never played by anyone, still pristine, though there is one little ding on the outside of the guitar case. It also comes with a copy of Fender’s original invoice to my store for both guitar and amp. The set $1995