This gorgeous 1955/'56 Fender Stratocaster is in exceptionally fine condition. Showing very little actual playing wear, this guitar is basically a time capsule. The neck is a rather fat "U" shaped affair, hinting at the more extreme V necks that would come along by the end of '56. There's plenty of frets left on the guitar as it hasn't been played much. As far as playing goes, the guitar plays great with a nice low action. The body is one piece of of beautiful ash finished in the classic 2 color sunburst of the era. Under the hood, everything is as it left Fullerton, all the solder is factory original. The styrene plastic parts are in stellar condition. Some collectors call the parts on Strats, from this time period, "Bakelite" and that's actually incorrect; they're made of a type of plastic called styrene. It's easy to identify these parts because they stay white and don't fade or yellow like the later ABS plastic parts. How does it sound? It sounds like a classic mid '50s Strat, a little on the bright side with all kinds of beautiful upper-midrange harmonics these things are famous for. This is a great sounding guitar. The original tweed case (also very clean) contains a picture of the original owner with the guitar, the original black leather strap, whammy bar and bridge cover. There's also a set of strings in there from the '50s. We have determined that this guitar was likely shipped with a defective neck that was replaced either at the dealer's or by the factory, right after the guitar shipped. That would account for the time lag between the body date (11/55), final assembly date in the control route (12-27-55) and the neck date on the guitar, which is 6 - 56.
