Not sure if this has been posted here. I ran across it this morning while looking through E-Bay. Only 4 days left!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1954-Fender-Str ... 5631519%26

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Bill

That is very cool! And very expensive

Although, I've never quite understood what makes this so amazing-it's a really rare guitar, yes, and it's old/vintage-but what makes it better than a guitar you can buy for $2000? I'm probably missing something...

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"reach for the sky and aim for the moon, for if you miss you will end up among the stars"

Zoom MS50G
72 tele dlx RI
2011 standard strat
Blackstar HT-5R
Taylor Big Baby

http://www.youtube.com/user/Almungo/videos?flow=grid&view=0

That is an expensive guitar but not anywhere near as expensive as i though a 1954 strat would be

Anyway i'd be very scared to ever buy anything like that on eBay as i've heard so many horror stories of people being ripped apart by scam artists.

What do you do if you buy it and then find it's been doctored up to look like an original but it's not? Can you get your money back?

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

That is a dream to me. I absolutely love hardtail Stratocasters.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

Well, I figure if I'm ever in a position to spend 10k on a guitar, i'll spend some extra money on hiring an expert to take a look before I buy.

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~Dan

"That is an expensive guitar but not anywhere near as expensive as i though a 1954 strat would be"

The bidding isn't over (most of the big bids come in the last few minutes of an auction), and at $10K it hasn't met the seller's reserve.

As for why old guitars are worth so much, a large part is simply collectability/rarity. There are rare 2 cent postage stamps that are worth tens of thousands of dollars to collectors, but if you stick one of those on a letter and mail it the Post Office will return your letter for insufficient postage. You can buy an exact replica of a Shelby Cobra for a fraction of the price of an original.

And the "72 hour approval" is so you can have the guitar checked out and return it if you aren't convinced of its authenticity.

According to conventional "Strat lore" a hardtail version was planned for concurrent with the tremolo guitar but none were produced in 1954 and only a handful were made in 1955. I'd be wary of this instrument, despite its penciled neck date.

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

Yeah that makes sense-it just seems a little odd that people pay thousands of dollars/pounds/whatever for something, just because someone else will pay that much for it, because someone else will eventually buy it off them... Crazy world

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"reach for the sky and aim for the moon, for if you miss you will end up among the stars"

Zoom MS50G
72 tele dlx RI
2011 standard strat
Blackstar HT-5R
Taylor Big Baby

http://www.youtube.com/user/Almungo/videos?flow=grid&view=0

Here's a link to an article from the Vintage Guitars Info website on 54 Strats with lots of photos for comparison:

http://home.provide.net/~cfh/strat54.html

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Bill

Seems like a scary deal to me. Buy a guitar without trying it before is not my thing. But it is a beauty!

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Once you go Strat, you never go back.

Fender Highway One Strat (Sunburst)
Epiphone Dot (Cherry)
Fender 65' Twin Reverb RI

Something that's confused me for a long time -- according to the provide.net site, the early polystyrene pickup covers had exactly the same crisp edges as modern covers, and the rounding was due to string/pick wear.

But the Custom Shop 50th Anniversary models had polystyrene covers with smooth, even, consistent rounded edges. I asked one of the Masterbuilders (I forget which one) about that when they were showing them off at the '04 Dallas Guitar Show and he just stared at me like he didn't know what I was asking about (with the big crowd pushing at my back to talk to him I didn't have time to pursue it).

The covers on the eBay purported '54 hardtail have the smooth, evenly rounded edges like the CS covers, not the random, unevenly rounded edges of the provide.net '54.

Did the early polystyrene covers start out with crisp sharp edges and then round off from wear? If so, does that suggest the eBay '54 is not entirely original (at best -- maybe a very good fake with CS parts)?

(While polystyrene stays white forever, it's brittle and fragile -- the plastic parts on the eBay '54 look suspiciously intact to me compared to the wear on the rest of the guitar.)

Here's another 54 Strat with pckup covers, though well worn, appear to have sharp edges:

http://www.stratcollector.com/scn/base/54.html

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Bill