RARE - Crown Professional Strat Style 1968

This is a late 60's super rare Crown Professional guitar in near perfect condition (for a 50+ year guitar). From what I could learn, this guitar was made in the famed Fujigen Gakki factory in Japan in the late 60's (I was told 1968 but can't verify).

The story is that two brothers from Pasadena CA owned a pawn shop called Crown City Loan & Jewelry (still in business today - you can google it). From 1966 - 1973 they started flying to Japan to source guitars to sell in the states. So they started Crown City Imports (Pasadena is known as "Crown City" thus the name).

So between 1966 and 1973 they imported guitars and sold them in their store, sold to other distributors, as well as in their "catalog". In fact this very guitar is the one on the cover of their catalog (just ask and I'll send you the link). They had two lines of guitars, the "Crown Guitars" (Epiphone & Squire) and the "Crown Professional Guitars" (Gibson & Fender), this model is the Professional. It is estimated that this model sold for $400 back in the late 60's, so sold as a high quality guitar competing against the top brands.

As you can see in the pictures, for a 50+ year old guitar, it is in almost perfect condition. It was part of a collection and very rarely played. There are a few nicks and dings that I tried to show in the pictures, but here is the short list:

The Bad:

• The worst ding is at the top of the neck above the first fret
• At the bottom of the neck frets 1-6 it is slightly glossy
• There are two finish cracks on each side of the neck (shown in the pictures)
• Small nick on the headstock (picture with the white wolf pick)
• Some small nicks on the tip of the headstock, one on the pickguard, and one on the bottom horn

The good:

• Quality Hardware - all chrome is in incredible shape - no real signs of aging or discoloration or chipping, on the pickups, tuners, bridge work etc, all 100% awesome!
• Solid "baseball bat neck" the back of the neck is pretty much scratch free
• No "buckle rash" at all, I can find one light scrape, but no deep finish scratches at all
• Rosewood Fretboard in great shape - plenty of life left in the frets - little play time
• Awesome sound! you have 4 pickups and 4 on/off switches, so the sound combinations are incredible! On one or two of the switches, there's some slight "crackle" when you hit the switch, but once it is in position, it is clean
• All electronics very clean and work 100% - no crackle other than the pickup switch mentioned above
• Plays great - really nice action, new strings, very smooth player, no fret buzz
• Chromed metal pickguard shows no signs of "strumming", one nick by pickup selectors (shown in pics)
• Original Hardshell Case! Yup, you read that right, I've seen these cases go for $200 alone. All 3 latches work, the handle is a little rough, but pretty clean for 50+ years old!

Please let me know any questions that you have and I'll provide you links of where I gathered the background info, it's tough with rare guitars to find info, but I'm happy to share what I can. Also, as you can see, I'm a new seller on Reverb, but I assure you that I will take the utmost care in packaging and shipping so that it gets to you in great shape!

As to the value of the guitar, I look at high end Teisco or Burns guitars (some in rough shape compared to this) and I could see this anywhere between $800 - $3000, but with no real comp's it's tough. I think the original case brings a lot of value as well. So I tried to price it fairly with the info I found, but please feel free to send any offers or other info that you may find. Guitar went to Sam Ash Paid 300.00 for set up ready to play.