This guitar is a 1977 Fender Stratocaster made in the USA. I bought it from the second owner about 25 years ago and have treated it well. Although I gigged with this guitar a fair bit, all the nicks and scrapes and almost all the mods were done before I ever set hands on it. The previous owner told me that the neck and body are from two different Strats, though I don’t know how to confirm that. He had compared it to Eric Clapton‘s famous Strat, which was supposedly also composed of two different guitars. The serial number lets you confirm the date of production according to the Fender website.

What matters most is that this is an original late 1970s neck and that the neck in the middle pickups are original late 1970s single coil pickups from Fender. In those positions this guitar gives you the classic Strat tones, and the neck is something special. The maple fingerboard is well played, but not discoloured at all, and is glassy to the touch. The frets are lower than I’ve seen and felt on any other guitar, a feature I will definitely miss. I love it. Don’t buy this guitar if you want high frets!

The bridge pickup is a humbucker that I swapped out of my Ibanez Artcore hollow body guitar, which dates to about 2005; I think it’s Ibanez‘s ACH1, which, if I recall, was meant for clean warm tones off the neck of the Artcore, so I put it in the Strat for humbucking tones that would complement the original Strat pickups and not be too brittle or hot. It worked well, lending more versatility to this guitar.

Speaking indirectly of the wiring: the tone knobs are I think original. I’m not sure if I have the original bridge pick up; there had been a Seymour Duncan Little ‘59 in the guitar when I bought it and it’s included in the sale (see photo of it in the case); so is a white single coil pick up that might be the original, but the others are black. Either way it is yours to do with as you see fit.

While having the humbuckers installed I also had the tech put on a neat clean new pickguard with the oyster shell design for looks. The other mods which came with the guitar when I bought it around the 2000 include Schaller tuning machines. There had been a Floyd Rose tremolo and locking nut on the guitar at some point, but I never saw it. The holes are still evident, but have been plugged and covered over directly.

The case is original a little beat up but structurally sound. It has never, as far as I can tell, been stored in a smoky environment, but there is a faint scent of something else in the case if your face is close to it.

I’m selling this guitar only to pay down some debt. I hope you enjoy it.