A Fine 1975 Left-Handed Olympic White Stratocaster

1975 Fender Stratocaster (Left-Handed).

This super rare 'Lefty' 1975 Olympic White Stratocaster weighs 9.60 lbs. and has a solid alder contoured body.  One-piece medium-to-thick profile fretted maple neck with a nut width of 1 5/8 inches, a scale length of 25 1/2 inches and 21 original medium frets and black dot position markers. Large headstock with "Fender" logo in black with gold outline and single patent number "PAT 3,143,028" in black below it. Two "butterfly" string trees with nylon spacers. Individual Fender "F" closed-back tuners with octagonal metal buttons. Three-bolt neck plate with large Fender backward "F" and serial number "674105" between the top two screws. Three-ply, white over black ABS plastic pickguard with eleven screws and small foil shield under the controls. Three white ABS plastic-covered Stratocaster staggered-pole pickups with outputs of 5.58k, 5.63k, and 5.79k. Three controls (two volume, one tone) plus three-way selector switch, all on pickguard. White ABS plastic ribbed-sided knobs with gold lettering. Original die-cast  combined Fender Stratocaster six-saddle tremolo bridge/tailpiece. The neck is stamped "0903X0664" [with another four indiscernible numbers on the end, which indicates that the neck is a fretted maple neck Stratocaster, finished with a custom color made in March 1974. Two of the gray-bottom pickups are stamped in black: "83475", the middle pickup is stamped "83675" and the potentiometers are stamped: "137 7517" (CTS April 1975). There are just two tiny surface marks on the body, one on the inside edge of the treble horn and the other on the lower bass edge. This impossibly rare guitar is in near mint (9.25) condition is one of the last of the staggered-pole pickup Strats, and an excellent example of a left-handed seventies custom color Stratocaster with that very distinctive "Jimi Hendrix" sound. Complete with the original tremolo arm and the original twelve-page Fender 'owners manual' hang-tag. Housed in the original Fender three-latch, rectangular black hardshell case with black leather ends and red plush lining (9.00).

"The Stratocaster was launched during 1954 [and was priced at $249.50, or $229.50 without vibrato]...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 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).