A Totally Original and Near Mint Late '56 Stratocaster.

1956 Fender Stratocaster.

This late '56 Stratocaster weighs just 7.50 lbs. and has a nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches, a wonderful deep 'V' neck profile, and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Two-piece ash body, contoured on back and lower bass bout. One-piece fretted maple neck with 21 frets and black dot position markers. Small headstock with decal with Fender "spaghetti" logo in gold with black trim, "STRATOCASTER" in black beside it, "WITH SYNCHRONIZED TREMOLO" in black below it, and "ORIGINAL Contour Body" at the ball end of the headstock. Individual 'no-name' Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons (stamped inside: "2356766 / PATENT APPLD"). Single butterfly string tree. Four-bolt neck plate with serial number "15532 between the top two screws. Three white bakelite-covered black-bottom single-coil pickups with staggered polepieces and strong outputs of 5.94k, 5.93k, and 5.54k. Single-layer white ABS plastic pickguard with eight screws. Three controls (one volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch, all on pickguard. White ABS plastic knobs with gold lettering. Fender "Synchronized Tremolo" combined bridge/tailpiece (six-pivot bridge/vibrato unit with through-body stringing). The neck has a pencil mark of "10-56" and the tremolo cavity has a pencil mark of "10/56". The potentiometers are all stamped "304 633" (Stackpole, August, 1956). This is possibly the finest, cleanest '56 Strat that we have ever seen. There are a few tiny areas of surface loss on the back of the body and a few tiny areas of wear on the fretboard. These and a few miniscule marks on the edges are all that prevent this guitar from being in absolutely mint condition. Complete with its original hang tag (with matching serial number), original tremolo arm and bridge cover, original black leather Fender guitar strap, original Fender Stratocaster instruction sheet and original 28 page "Fender Fine Musical Instruments 1956-57 Catalog". Housed in its original Fender 'side-pocket' "Tweed" case with brown leather ends, foil logo on top of case and red plush lining (9.00). There is a small burn mark on the lower edge of the case - otherwise we would have rated it at 9.25 (near mint). Quite simply the very best, cleanest, all original '56 Stratocaster that you will possibly ever see offered for sale… a museum quality instrument.

"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 Strat'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 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).