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Post subject: Custom Shop '63 Metal-Flake Blue Stratocaster Relic?
Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 9:07 pm
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Back when I was a teenager in the late '70s I used to go record shopping in Boston/Cambridge and I would always make a point to stop by East Coast Guitars in Cambridge. It was a tiny little basement store but they had one hell of a great vintage selection! There was this one time in particular I will always remember. Back then I was really into Strats and they just happened to have two killer specimens in stock. The first one I saw was a cream/vintage white '61 in really nice shape going for $850, but it was in a glass display case so I was afraid to ask them to take it out.

Then, I noticed another Strat hanging on the "regular" rack with a bunch of other vintage guitars. It was a 1963 metal-flake blue Stratocaster and it was one of the coolest guitars I had ever seen! There were some noticeable surface cracks along the top but they were only asking $650 for it so I figured I might as well ask them if I could try it. Now I can't really remember exactly "how" it played but I do remember that it sounded incredible and the color/finish was just as incredible!

You have to remember that back then $650 was a lot of money, especially to a 16-17 year old kid with a part-time job. My first real guitar, a Guild S-300D only cost $300 and my second real guitar, a '74 Gibson Les Paul Custom, cost $400, so $650 was almost double my guitar budget. Today that would like having $3000 to spend and then seeing the guitar you really want for $7000. Oh well, sometimes I still kick myself for not trying a little harder to come up with the money to get that guitar.

I've heard that these custom metal-flake Strats are extremely rare and very hard to find these days. Apparently only a handful were made (not counting guitars sent back to be refinished). With metal-flaking being a specialty job, I’m told that Fender had to send out these guitars to an auto body/paint shop to have the work done as they didn’t have the correct spraying equipment in-house. Since stumbling upon that first one in the late ‘70s I haven't come across too many other metal-flake Strats in person or online and the ones I saw were always either blue or red. Did they come in any other colors? Also, every metal-flake Strat I saw seemed to be a 1963 model. Was that the only year that finish was available?

Now there is one thing I’m still a little confused about. As far as Fender custom colors go, is the "metal-flake" finish the same as the "sparkle" finish? I've seen a few of these Fender metallic-finish guitars in person and to me, the metal-flake finish appears to be made up of small metallic flakes, like you would see on an old '50s/60s hot rod while the sparkle- finish looks more like tiny specks of glitter.

And now we finally get to the topic question! Has the Custom Shop ever made an early '60s Stratocaster relic with a true metal-flake finish? It's highly doubtful that I will ever be able to find (or afford) an original one, but I would buy a Custom Shop '63 Metal-Flake Blue Stratocaster Relic in a heartbeat! Just clone the one below and we're in business! 8)

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