Burtone Girtha Aged Strat - Nitrocellulose Olympic White Relic

This stratocaster-style copy is very unique in spec, options, and general cosmetics.  Sonically it is very classic, textbook perfect vintage strat tones.  This is the second Burtone guitar I've owned and it was purchased directly through the builder Marc Burton in Portland.  This was one of Marc's personal guitars.  He mentioned he had perfected his nitro finish technique on this exact guitar, refinishing it several times over the years.  The current finish is a super thin but very hard vintage style that is not only super resonant but on par or exceeding anything I've ever laid my hands on.  He mentioned this guitar and all its finishes have baked in the summer sun countless times.  The tone is as alive as anything I've ever owned, it sounds like a grand piano.  I would place this guitar amongst the best vintage, boutique, and even custom shop Fenders I've had over the years.  The guitars current finish is much more "aged" than it is a "relic".  There is no obnoxious grinding, sanding, chipping, scratching, etc marks to make it look old. The finish and parts were aged and all the wear is ultimately natural play-wear. The guitar body and neck have heavily checked.  It's a bit hard to photograph to appreciate the true beauty of it, especially on the neck, but in person it's a sight to behold.  

The body was cut by Warmoth and it is their vintage series alder body weighing in around 4.1 pounds.  Again, the olympic white finish is super thin and has been aged.

The neck is a one-piece maple neck licensed Fender made by All Parts.  It is their SMO-FAT neck carve which is about 1" thick the whole way down!  This is one of the most difficult features to find in a great strat in my experience and is a huge reason I'm attracted to Marc's "Girtha" guitars.  It is a comfortable handful for me, zero fatigue no matter how long I'm playing.  That said though, if you prefer small/narrow neck shapes than this is not the guitar for you.  Rolled fretboard edges and a 1 5/8" nut just add to the comfort for me and the 9.5" radius allows for easy playing across the whole neck and allows bends to never fret out.   

There is hardly and fret-wear, please see last 3 photos.  I've just restrung the guitar with a brand new set of my favorite strings, GHS Burnished Nickel 10-46.

The guitar currently has no logo on the headstock but if the buyer wants I will include a brand-new very high quality 50's style (Spaghetti) "F" waterslide decal that would look amazing on this guitar.

The electronics are excellent! The pickups were handwound for this guitar by another Portland builder, Roadhouse Pickups.  He calls these Grey Bottom 65's and I'm not sure if theres ever been another set made.  I wouldn't dream of swapping them out, they are everything I want to hear from a strat.  The middle is RWRP.  CRL 5-way switch, CTS pots, Fender PiO cap, cloth wire, Switchcraft jack, everything you would expect.  The bridge pickup is also wired to the tone circuit.

The aged hardware is all very high quality and all vintage style.  The trem (vibrato) assembly is a 6 screw and has a big solid steel block with shallow string hole depth. The pickguard is Fender and fits perfect.  It also has a vintage style shielding plate.

The guitar weighs out at 7.86 pounds (kitchen scale) which is an ideal weight for most of us.

No case available for this guitar but I will ship in a clean and padded gig-bag.  It will be packaged well inside a Gibson shipping box.

I cannot entertain trades on this guitar.  I love it but need to recover financially after the holiday. I bought this guitar a few months ago for much more so my loss is certainly your gain. Local pick-up always welcome.  Please feel free to come play it if you are in the region!

Please ask any questions prior to purchase.  No refunds or exchanges.  Guitar is sold as-is.  Please let me know if you would like photos of the "F" waterslide decal.  I will include it for free with the guitar if you'd like it.  Thanks so much for looking!