A Near Mint 1965 L Series Stratocaster.

This near mint 1965 Stratocaster weighs 7.80 lbs. and has a nut width of just 1 5/8 inches, a medium neck profile, and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. One-piece alder body, contoured on back and lower bass bout, maple neck, and veneer rosewood fretboard with 21 medium frets and pearloid dot position markers. Small headstock with "transition" logo with "Fender" in gold with black outline and five patent numbers. Single "butterfly'"string tree with large nylon spacer. Individual "two-line" Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons (stamped inside "D-169400 / Patent No"). Neckplate with four screws and serial number "L81661" at the top. Three white plastic-covered staggered-height pole pickups with nicely balanced outputs of 4.67k, 4.72k, and 4.77k. Three-layer white plastic pickguard with eleven screws. Three white plastic knobs (one volume and two tone) plus three-way selector switch. Six-pivot bridge unit with through-body stringing. The end of the neck is stamped "2 OCT 65B". The light gray bottom pickups are all dated "5-11-65," and the pots are dated "1376514" and "304 6608" (CTS, April 1965 and Stackpole, February 1966). The guitar has been expertly re-fretted with the exact factory specification fretwire. The body has a few very minor indentations on the back and the edges, and the back of the neck has some varnish loss. Overall this amazingly clean example is in near mint (9.25) condition and other than the refret is totally original and nearly as fresh and clean as when it left the factory forty-five years ago. Complete with the original tremolo arm. Housed in it's original Fender black hardshell case with black leather ends and dark orange plush lining (9.00).

The Stratocaster was launched in 1954 -- samples around May and June were followed by the first production run in October - and it was priced at $249.50 (or $229.50) without vibrato. This new Fender guitar was the first solid body electric with three pickups (Gibson's electric acoustic ES-5, introduced five years earlier, had been the first overall). The Stratocaster also featured a newly designed built-in vibrato unit (erroneously called a "tremolo" by Fender and many others since), to provide pitch-bending and shimmering chordal effects for the player. This was the first self-contained vibrato unit: an adjustable bridge, tailpiece, and vibrato system all in one. Not a simple mechanism for the time, but a reasonably effective one. Fender's new Stratocaster vibrato also had six bridge-pieces, one for each string, adjustable for height and length. The Stratocaster came with a radically sleek, solid body, based on the shape of the earlier Fender Precision Bass, contoured for the player's comfort, and with 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 in the flowing, sensual curves of that beautifully proportioned, timeless body.