It is with great sadness that I am selling my Fender 1957/1989 HLE Custom Shop in excellent condition! I am making the transaction from mostly studio work back to playing live again with a band and this guitar is just way too precious to bring out to bars and clubs.

For those that don't know the history of this model, HLE stands for "Haynes Limited Edition" and was introduced in the late 1980s as one of the very first limited-edition, numbered production runs released by the newly founded Fender Custom Shop. The guitar was inspired by a custom "tri-gold" 1957 Stratocaster originally built in the late 1950s for Homer Haynes, half of the famous musical-comedy duo Homer & Jethro. This instrument was manufactured in 1989, this guitar is #224 of 500.

The previous owner purchased this a few years ago as New Old Stock, it had never been played. A time capsule... I have kept it in my smoke free humidity controlled studio, and have kept all of the original parts, case candy etc. Even the hangtags are included in the case, and the protective plastic still clings to the rear tremolo cover.

It features a striking gold cellulose nitrate paint finish matched with gold-plated hardware and a gold anodized aluminum pickguard, all in excellent condition. A standard white pickguard was also part of the package and is included.

The guitar was built to 1957 vintage specifications, it incorporated a '57-style neck profile, period-correct single-coil pickups, and a traditional 3-way pickup selector switch. Amazingly Fender included a 5-way pickup selector in the case, which I had installed professionaly here in Portland. Yep, the 3 way is included in the case.

I haven't played this guitar much, the frets are virtually wear-free and the gold anodized hardware is incredible. There are slight imperfections in the finish, some pick wear and spots by the pick guard where the screws meet the cellulose finish. There is a spot on the bottom of the guitar where it looks like a strap wore through some of the gold finish. I have made every attempt to include all the spots in the images, some are difficult to capture. Please look at the images closely. All in all the guitar plays incredibly and is absolutely spectacular for an instrument built 2 years before Smells Like Teen Spirit was recorded.

What else.... Original tweed hardshell case, instruction manual, strap, cable(!), tremolo springs, polishing cloth and of course the tremolo bar and certificate of authenticity.

Feel free to shoot me any questions you may have, thanks for looking!