A 1964 Fiesta Red Fender Stratocaster

This 12 3/4-inch-wide guitar weighs 8.20 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of just under 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Solid alder body, contoured on back and lower bass bout, one-piece maple neck, and veneer rosewood fretboard with 21 frets and black dot position markers. Small headstock with decal with "Fender" logo in gold with black trim, "Stratocaster" in black beside it, and "With Synchronized Tremolo" and four patent numbers in black below. Single "butterfly" string tree with metal spacer. Individual "single-line" Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons. The neck is dated "2 OCT 64B." Three gray-bottom white plastic-covered single-coil pickups with staggered polepieces (all dated "12 16 64") and outputs of 5.85k, 5.68k, and 6.42k. Three-layer "minty" (white/black/white) plastic pickguard with eleven screws. Three controls (one volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch, all on pickguard. The pots are dated "137 64 28" (CTS July 1964). White plastic knobs with green lettering. Jack socket in body face. Fender "Synchronized Tremolo" combined bridge/tailpiece. The original factory "Fiesta Red" finish is over "Sunburst," as was very often the case in the early to mid sixties, due to the huge demand for this custom color. This guitar is in excellent (8.50) condition, with virtually no neck or fret wear. On the white plastic tremolo cover on the back of the guitar, one of the corners (approximately 1/8 inch) at the bottom has broken away where the screw was probably over tightened. The body of the guitar is quite heavily checked, and at some time there were four small stickers on the face of the guitar, and, although they have been removed, the adhesive has caused a deterioration to the paint surface. There is also some surface chipping, especially on the edges. We have taken this guitar apart and have many interior photographs showing the originality of the finish, such as the untouched solder joints, including the "jackplate," the two "nail holes" on the face, the "paint stick" in the neck cavity, the tremolo screws just showing through the wood in the tremolo cavity, and the very subtle "orange peel" effect on the finish only under the pickguard, and nowhere else on the body. Overall, a very good example of this rare classic color, and a wonderful player. Housed in its original Fender black hardshell case with red plush lining (8.75).

"The Stratocaster was launched during 1954 [and was priced at $249.50, or $229.50 without vibrato]. Samples around May and June were followed by the first proper production run in October. The new Fender guitar was the first solidbody electric with three pickups [Gibson's electric-acoustic ES-5, introduced five years earlier, had been the overall first], meaning a range of fresh tones, and featured a new-design vibrato unit that provided pitch-bending and shimmering chordal effects. The new vibrato -- erroneously called a 'tremolo' by Fender and many others since -- was troublesome in development. But the result was the first self-contained vibrato unit: an adjustable bridge, a tailpiece, and a vibrato system, all in one. It wasn't a simple mechanism for the time, but a reasonably effective one...Fender's new vibrato had six bridge-pieces, one for each string, adjustable for height and length, which meant that the feel of the strings could be personalized and the guitar made more in tune with itself...The Strat came with a radically sleek, solid body, based on the outline of the 1951 Fender Precision Bass. Some musicians had complained to Fender that the sharp edge of the Telecaster's body was uncomfortable...so the Strat's body was contoured for the player's comfort. Also, it was finished in a yellow-to-black sunburst finish. Even the jack socket mounting was new, recessed in a stylish plate on the body face...the Fender Stratocaster looked like no other guitar around [and in some ways seemed to owe more to the contemporary automobile design than traditional guitar forms], especially the flowing, sensual curves of that beautifully proportioned, timeless body. The Stratocaster's new-style pickguard complemented the lines perfectly, and the overall impression was of a guitar where all the components ideally suited one another. The Fender Stratocaster has since become the most popular, the most copied, the most desired, and very probably the most played solid electric guitar ever" (Tony Bacon, 50 Years of Fender, p. 18).