1965-1966 Fender Stratocaster. The body has been professionally refinished by Joe Riggio in blue ice metallic. One of my favorite 60s colors! Joe absolutely nailed this color and has the exact mix. He did a very light Relic on it with some nice checking and some wear tastefully applied in a few places.

Video: https://youtu.be/Z98Zxk1-D_U?si=xfIQ8pNbI4QjoGjK

The neck has a September 1966 date, but it has the smaller pre-CBS headstock. A few small headstock Stratocaster necks left the factory in 1966. But my suspicion is that this one was redone. It definitely has a new decal. It’s been professionally refretted with a new nut so it’s currently in top playing order.

This is a wonderful players Strat and it sounds awesome. Please check out the demo video. I play it first clean through my 1963 Vibroverb and then overdriven through a 1961 Vox AC 10.

The guitar has its original mid 1960s white guard that has nicely aged. It has the typical cracks you’d expect from a shrunken guard. The shield looks to me like it’s probably a repro. The pickups date to 1966. I don’t think the covers are original. The pots also date to 1966 but they are RCA so I’m not sure they are stock. The three-way switch is a CRL 1452 which is vintage. It’s kind of “stiff” but the plus side is that you can easily find the in between positions.

At one point a previous owner did the “Hendrix thing“ and flipped the pickups backwards to make the staggering pattern of the pole pieces like a left-handed guitar. They did some crude routing on the edges of the pickup cavities to accommodate this. Since it’s not something you see with the guard on, we just left it. 3-way switch is a CRL 1452 which is vintage. Unfortunately two of the pick ups were rewound. One has original windings. I think the body is from a little earlier in 1965 based on the markings in the cavities. There’s a letter high for number code stamped in the neck pocket. I don’t think that came from the factory. It does have the proper dowel holes another marking, so there’s no doubt about the body’s originality.

Tremolo block and saddle are original but the saddles are oxidized. One saddle spring is changed. It has a late L-series neck plate. Double line tuners are from this year, but it looks like the neck had F – tuners on it at one time. Strap buttons are original. Knobs are repro. Claw for the tremolo of the unit is vintage but it’s from an early 70s Stratocaster.

Comes housed in an era correct Stratocaster case from the mid-1960s. One latch is needs repair but the other two work fine.

Ships worldwide. I don’t falsify customs forms, so please don’t ask me to do that.