Fender Stratocaster 1958/1960, Sunburst

Some guitar mysteries are never solved, but some are, and they make the best stories. This 1958 Fender Stratocaster is no exception, and all the clues add up to one incredible factory original guitar. In 1958, Fender Stratocaster, serial number 29191, was built and sent out to the world. However, only 2 years later, in 1960, it came back to Fender to receive work to its body and was subsequentially given a new alder one. This is a factory replacement practice that has been seen before; a benefit of having serviceable screwed together guitars. In that factory repair work process, the neck was stamped for the task, given a fresh coat of lacquer over it and the pencil dates, and all the hardware from the rest of the guitar was set aside to be installed on the new body. The 1960 body was constructed in typical routing fashion for the year, but with no other purpose than for mating with this customer's 1958 stratocaster, so it received its first screw holes to match the 8 screw single-ply guard. The body was pencil marked 8/60 in the tremolo cavity, as was standard, but not in the middle pickup position. The finish is also quite unique, although factory original. The sprayer, potentially a novice sent to practice on repair guitars before joining the factory line, assumed that the pickup jack required sunburst around its perimeter! Another potential theory is that the bursting mishap happened on the factory line and was then partitioned to the repair department for use on customer guitars. Either way, it just adds to the whimsy of this 1958/60 grail Fender Stratocaster. Since the factory journeys 60 years ago, the Strat received a refret and new bone nut-- but it never lost its bridge ashtray cover!

When the 29191 left the factory back to its owner, it received this 1960 correct brown tolex case.