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These holes were deepened around fall 1954 to accommodate larger string-end balls. Factory production of the Fender Stratocaster began officially in October of 1954. The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed between 1952 and 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. Strats from '54 are being sold for $100,000 or more. They were usually taken around with a traveling salesman and would be used to show off the new guitar. The solid shafts of the very earliest pots fitted to Strats were changed to split brass shaft units a little later. Arguably the most popular guitar electric, acoustic, you name it ever built, the Stratocaster is the epitome of a pop music legend, and a huge part of Fenders history and lore. Of all the rare, sought after custom model guitars introduced by Fender over the decades, few have inspired the kind of cult following that the "Mary Kaye" Stratocaster has. The Fender Stratocaster is one of the most iconic electric guitar models of all time.[3]. Factory production of the Fender Stratocaster began officially in October of 1954. The pickup cover is wearing through. In response to player feedback on the Telecaster, Randall wanted the new guitar to have some kind of vibrato system, and Leo was eager to better the designs by his former business partner, Doc Kauffman, and by his contemporary, Paul Bigsby. Also seen very often is Gloria as in Gloria Fuentes, another Fender factory employee assembler. Since its amber in color, it does not lend itself to being used for anything white; darker ivory is as close as it can get. And utterly unbeknownst to Fender, players had other plans entirely for the Jazzmaster. These had serial numbers in the to 12xx range. The V-necks are often quite full, but slimmer examples can be found. The skirt was larger and had three spokes on the underside of the skirt to provide support. Never before has there been a more perfect reproduction of the guitar that changed everything. Some Stratocasters have a fixed bridge in place of the vibrato assembly; these are colloquially called "hard-tails". Pee Wee Crayton, Ritchie Valens and Carl Perkins played Strats in the 1950s, as did Cliff Gallups successors in Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps, Johnny Meeks and Howard Reed. The bakelite plate that holds the switch contacts has angled sides. On many modern Stratocasters, the first tone control affects the neck pickup; the second tone control affects the middle and bridge pickups; on some Artist Series models (Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy signature guitars), the first tone control is a presence circuit that cuts or boosts treble and bass frequencies, affecting all the pickups; the second tone control is an active midrange booster that boosts the midrange frequencies up to 25dB (12dB on certain models) to produce a fatter humbucker-like sound. No Line Kluson Deluxe tuners (which do not say Kluson Deluxe). At this point, Fender used Ash for all of its guitar. How many were actually made before the first production run in October and roughly how many are still accounted for today? Its brief reign at the top of Fenders two-instrument professional guitar lineup ended in 1958 when a third pro model, the Jazzmaster, was introduced. You must log in or register to reply here. ); suffice to say that the Stratocaster was poised for a new decade with a new look. Three years after its 1954 introduction, as Tom Wheeler notes in his introduction to The Stratocaster Chronicles, it was still not particularly well known, and appeared to be as far removed from conventional guitars as, say, a baritone ukulele or even a banjo. In the context of the times, Wheeler continues, Plenty of professional musicians saw the new Fender as unworthy of serious considerationmerely a tool, a gimmicky contraption, even a joke.. The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed between 1952 and 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. A documented list of serial numbers called Werners List mentions the following known serial numbers stamped onto the tremolo plate of 1954 Strats. I dont know what will happen to it in the end.. Despite full knowledge of this, Leo Fender always provided the new Fender guitars with a bridge cover to prevent corrosion on the bridge parts. But perhaps surprisingly the three-way pickup selector itself was actually kept by Fender until the late 70s.. With a little trepidation, we took up our screwdriverto peer under the hood of this elegant first-year-of-production example. [7] The Stratocaster's sleek, contoured body shape (officially referred to by Fender as the "Original Contour Body"[8][9]) differed from the flat, squared edge design of the Telecaster. One of the earliest Stratocasters I've seen was at the Songbirds museum [in Chattanooga, Tennessee] and it had a January 1954 neck. Fender Electric Guitar Schematics Vintage Fender Guitar Pickup Specs Fender Amplifiers DVD video version of this web page for Stratocasters and Telecasters: Electric Model Info: "Youll also see those kind of matching imprints on the neck pocket and the neck itself, Rod explains. The colors included white blonde, two-color sunburst, black, ocean turquoise, surf green, and ice blue metallic. There would be small variations. People have asked us over the years to make a 54 Strat, said Tonn. The bakelite material they were made from wears very easily as you can see in the image above. "Theres a little bit of superficial fret-wear. In October 1954 the regular production of Strats began. factory production of the Fender Stratocaster started October 1954. Its just really cool to see. Leo Fender had assumed that Telecaster players would replace their instruments with Stratocasters, but that turned out not to be so. Complete Specs for this SPECIFIC Masterbuilt '54 50th Anniversary Strat as provided to me by the Custom Shop (based on the serial number): Model Name: 50th Anniversary 1954 Stratocaster. Purchase order PO #242 from Fender Sales for about 100 of the 1954 Fender Stratocaster, which was finished and delivered on October 13, 1954. All rights reserved. As you can see from that list the numbers are seemingly all over the place fitting no real pattern. $33,000. Ubiquitous and essential, the Stratocaster has transcended its original intended purpose as a tool (a stylish one, at that) to become such an archetype. Those guitars started with the serial number 0035 going up through serial number 0213 are documented. That started to take place around April 1954 as best as we can tell from documented original guitars. $27,000. Plus, it cannot be injection-molded; it can only be cast or compression molded. In the United States in late 1959, a flamboyantly talented 23-year-old Louisiana guitarist named George Buddy Guy had just got his first record contract the year before, and 22-year-old Californian Richard Monsour, who went by the stage name Dick Dale, had just released his first two singles on the tiny Deltone label. The strings loaded through a cavity routed into the back of the guitar; first through holes in a plastic cover plate, then through a solid steel inertia block fixed to the underside of the bridge plate that ensured sustain, then up through holes in the bridge plate and over individual string saddles that could each be adjusted for string height and lengthanother marked improvement over the three-saddle Telecaster and itself a notable design development. Finally, the Stratocaster was introduced in spring 1954 as Fenders new top-line guitar, in tremolo and non-tremolo versions. So we took one apart and based the 50th Anniversary model on it.. The 1963 Fender Stratocaster[14] shows an advancement in design from the 1950s models including a 'veneer' Brazilian rosewood board with Clay Dot inlays, a 3 tone sunburst finish on an Alder body and Kluson tuners. 0035 (April 1954), 0065 (June 1954), 0087 (May 1954), 0105 (May 1954), 0123 (March 1954), 0136 (May 1954), 0146 (April 1954), 0155 (March 1954), 0156 (March 1954), 0159 (March 1954), 0166 (May 1954), 0176 (May 1954), 0189 (May 1954), 0193 (March 1954), 0197 (May 1954), 0202 (May 1954), (0207 May 1954). In spring of that year, however, new arrival Freddy Tavares sketched out a new body shape that sleekly adapted Leos balanced two-horned shape for the Precision Bass. The neck is usually made from maple and attached to the body with screws (often referred to as "bolts") and has a distinctive headstock with six tuning pegs mounted inline along a single side; the fingerboard may be maple or another wood, e.g. Original Stratocasters were manufactured with five vibrato springs (three in late 1953 prototypes) attached to a milled inertia block and anchored to the back of the body. This changed in 1955 to be less rounded. Design changes implemented in 1959 were significant enough for models introduced later that year to be considered the second incarnation of the Stratocaster. It took quite a while, in fact, because if its true that the guitar was so well designed from the start that it has basically remained the same for six decades, its also true that it was so well designed that it was ahead of its time by at least a decade. The first model offered for sale was the 1954 Fender Stratocaster. Its a tough call. Thats why these were later replaced with ABS plastic. Not true. Fender; Model: Stratocaster. And yet the initial design for the Stratocasters vibrato bridge was a pronounced failure. This is most often seen in mid to late 1954 Fender Stratocaster bodies. Production improved and features such as the tremolo bridged were perfected. The double unison guitar solo on "Nowhere Man", was played by Harrison and Lennon on their new Stratocasters.[24][25][26][27]. In the early 1960s, the instrument was also championed by Hank Marvin, guitarist for the Shadows, a band that originally backed Cliff Richard and then produced instrumentals of its own. Others prefer the larger, which was introduced in . Fender has released several models of Stratocaster in collaboration with famous guitarists. 1955 and later Strat straps have the padded portion banana-shaped. From a special form-fit case to larger-diameter pickup magnets, designers went to great lengths to ensure the kind of attention to detail that could be appreciated by even the most curmudgeonly of sticklers. By the close of the 1950s, players were well aware of an unintentional peculiarity of the Stratocasters electronics: the two in-between switch positions. This lends each a unique element that in a way harkens back to the variations in the originals perhaps a slightly different body contour or different blend on the neck, etc. The precise dimensions of familiar parts such as the volume and tone knobs are slightly different from the modern Fender norm, too. MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. 1957 Sunburst Stratocaster. This consisted of two then-common paint colorsa brownish-black outer hue called dark Salem, which graduated to a golden inner hue called canary yellow. In the early stages of Stratocaster production, the shapers initials, in this case belonging to Tadeo Gomez, and completion dates were marked in pencil at the base of the neck. In mid 1959, Stratocasters were given multi-ply celluloid pickguards with more screw holes (11) and a notable greenish tint (although some were given faux-tortoiseshell nitrocellulose pickguards). Until 1970, Stratocaster bridge saddles were made from pressed steel and had 'pat pend' stamps. Also, the original Stratocaster necks had a rounded C-shaped profile (also described as D- and U-shaped) that was changed to sharper V and medium V profiles from 1955 to 1957 before returning to rounded profiles as the decade closed. Guitarists soon discovered that by positioning the switch in between the first and second position, both the bridge and middle pickups could be selected, and similarly, the middle and neck pickups could be selected between the 2nd and 3rd position. It was purportedly the U.K.s first-ever Stratocaster, and with it and the Shadows, Marvin went on to become Britains first full-fledged guitar hero. I wish I had the original case for mine ! How many Fender Strats were actually built between 1954 an 1965, How many Teles , Precisions..you get the picture. READ MORE: Fender Stratocaster Buying Guide: 7 Strat Models Compared. This is number 522. Until autumn of 54, Strats were almost prototypes rather than full production models with a stable spec. But who knew where the Stratocaster was destined to fit in? However, youll notice that these saddles do not have the tooling marks of the originals). The distinctive body shape, which has become commonplace among electric guitars, was revolutionary for the time period, and for the first time a mass-market electric guitar did not significantly resemble earlier acoustic models. Leo invested a great deal of time and money into trying to perfect the system well into 1953 before scrapping the entire design and starting over. I suppose when things ramped up, they become a little squarer. (Basses, Stratocasters, Telecasters, etc.) How many 1954 stratocasters were made. The modular nature of the guitar, with its easily removable components, left players and luthiers to perform numerous modifications to their own guitars, changing out pickups or necks to fit the needs of the player. This was a Fender Stratocaster assembled from parts from 1954, 1960, and 1964. On this guitar, there was finishing fluid, this reddish-tinted stuff Fender used to finish the guitars and some of that was still visible just under the bridge, under the trim here.. The Difference Between Strat and Tele Bridge Pickups, A Guide to Fender Single-Coil Stratocaster Pickups, How the Stratocaster Came to Have Two Headstocks. It's tough to tell for sure, but if you go to Jackson's site and click on the link for detailed pictures, you can see the back of the body: Fender 1955 Stratocaster All Original Vintage Strat. The translucent white, mid-'50s Strat, with its maple neck and distinctive gold hardware takes its name from legendary guitarist and Las Vegas performer, Mary Kaye. The belly carve, for example, is much longer than on later mid-60s Strats: less of a scallop shape and more of a graceful, sweeping curve. This one is actually marked 'TG July '54 . They mention it at the first but by looking at documented serial numbers there is no true way to know. Work on elements such as new pickups and a new bridge was certainly well under way by late 1952. With its introduction serendipitously preceding the rising popularity of a new musical and cultural phenomenon called rock n roll by about a year, youd think the Stratocaster wouldve quickly rocketed to stratospheric heights of acclaim and popularity. They are faithful replications made with the same exacting detail as the original instruments, using many of the same machines and manufacturing methods used 50 years ago. Across the Atlantic, however, a post-World War II import trade ban on U.S. goods made getting a Fender instrument next to impossible for youthful British guitarists in the late 1950s. All Rights Reserved. After all, while hardly common, there are tatty but great-sounding 54 Strats around that can show us what a great early Fender sounds like. I went back and re-read Forrest White's comments in. It was a fantastic guitar! New book - Should we still revere our heroes when we know bad things about them? In December 1964, George Harrison and John Lennon acquired Stratocasters and used them for "Help! The Supro was no Stratocaster. Channel route or wiring in lead pickup cavity is usually more factory looking and has finished over the route (but even late the 1954 Fender Stratocaster can still have the lead pickup wiring worm route done during final assembly, showing bare wood with no finish). Then in December serial numbers on Strats jumped numbers to the to 7xxx range. Pickups have two very small tits in the bottom black fiber part of the pickup on the outside edge around the two wire eyelets. Thereafter, a selection of custom colors became widely available for an extra charge. 1964 Fender Stratocaster Exposed Are They Worth The Money? He started his career at theDaily Telegraphin London, where his first assignment was interviewing blue-eyed soul legend Robert Palmer, going on to become a full-time author on music, writing for benchmark references such as1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Dieand Dorling Kindersley'sHow To Play Guitar Step By Step.