I was watching From Here To Eternity today on Turner Classic Movies and I noticed something a little odd. The guitar player who I later found out was Merle Travis plays an acoustic with a Stratocaster headstock.

So what.

Well, the movie came out in 1953. A year before the strat. Here's a little clip from youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PEZVXChCR0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj4wzDQE ... re=related

Maybe I'm just watching too much TV.

I dont think it's a Strat neck, just lookes a little like one.
----Danny,

The actor is indeed Merle Travis, and he's playing one of Paul Bigsby's converted Martins (with a variation of Bigsby's hallmark headstock design). I too wondered about this scene for decades. It was only a couple of years ago that someone solved the mystery for me.

FHTE remains one of my favorite films of all times and Burt Lancaster is one of my five favorite actors. He never turned in a bad performance.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY