This beautiful guitar represents one of the very last one made at the factory in 1969 before changing the routing templates to the “squared template”. Very few people know that the route template design changed for a practical reason, because the heavier poly finish primer made impossible for the workers to install the loaded guards correctly. That’s why these mid 1969 bodies, sprayed with the “newer” primer but still retaining the old classic “rounded” routes design, needed to be re adjusted at the factory before installation. In particular, this example not only had the heavier primer, but also a complete sunburst finish sprayed before they decided to paint it Olympic White all over. The rushed paint job was not at all uncommon at Fender in this era, so the guitar had some “orange peel” developed over time, due to the fact that they never completed the cut and buff procedure back in the day. This is very typical for those bodies that required the second step cavities re-routing. Good news is that it took only 15 minutes to complete the final buffing with proper wax restoration compound, and the guitar is as beautiful as ever now.
This guitar was infact sold to its unique original owner, who was a huge Hendrix fan, back in the day brand new, and still retains its original factory solder joints. The only modification done to it was a set of different tuners, but master luthier Romano Burini restored the modified tuner holes to fit the original ones.
This guitar shares the exact same specs as Jimi Hendrix famous 1968 “Woodstock” Stratocaster, and it’s the perfect addition to any Fender Collection!
