This beautiful guitar has been finally assembled at the factory in January 1967, as the dates on the very rare "Black bottom" pickups state. All the solders connections (each one of them) Are pristine originals.
In 1967 production numbers were low, due to unexpected lower orders and sales, so during at least the entire first half of 1967 we see basically "1966" dated necks, pots, used with 1967 painted bodies and 1967 dated pickups.
This guitar has been sold to a collector in Italy by a very well known US dealer, with a non original, late 1968 “ black logo" neck on it. The neck was refinished, with the headstock badly reshaped, poorly refretted and had truss rod issues. It just didn’t belong to this (beautiful and clean) January 1967 dated clean body.
Besides, the serial number on the guitar is 100% matched to the body finish, confirming the early 1967 building assembly.
The collector who got it decided to restore it, and installed a beautiful, completely original, gently flamed maple neck with its original medium sized frets, Rosewood fingerboard, and correct decal and Kluson tuners.
This is an incredible sounding guitar, that has been played and loved by Kirk Hammett on June 19, when we met in Firenze.
