PORTFOLIO - 1960's

1966 Fender Stratocaster Sunburst - Serial 171796

This lightweight, all original 1966 Fender Stratocaster is a monster sounding one, and tells us a part of the amazing Fender History. Infact this guitar was born in late ’66 and left the factory as a incredibly cool custom color, “Ice Blue Metallic” of all things!
But for some reason we can’t know today, it was sent back to the factory one year later, in late 1968, to be painted again, but in the standard sunburst finish. This service, called “factory refinish” was offered by Fender back in the day, so they cleaned off the Ice blue finish from top and back but not from the cavities, and as a result, they had to lower the bridge pickup cavity a little due to the thicker finish used in late 1968.
This finish change, with thicker clear coats, forced workers to remove part of the finish from the cavities in the first semester of 1969 in some guitars, because the loaded pick guards sometimes couldn’t fit body cavities at all! This led to the change of the body cavities design, that by the end of 1969 became the well-known “squared routes”. This guitar is complete with its original “Polverini Bros. made” “for fender” Italian case and original tremolo arm.   

Do you have a vintage guitar left in the dust? What are you waiting for?

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