Though ignorant in some issues as we now all know I have worked out this 3/54 thing. After reading the source which appears to be accurate if you read carefully what the writer expert is really saying by 3/54 is not that there were only 3 guitars made but he is refering to March 1954 release of the 3 spring strat. And further research and reading reveals there were 100 made issued as order number 242 mainly to employees. And I really believe 53strat has the only one I have ever seen because if there are more where are they. At this stage 53strat has one of the first prototype strats ever made, but seriously unless you can come up with documented evidence it can only be classed as the writer of provide.com has said as a March 1954 prototype model.

Yes, vinnypop, I know that the link I gave did not mention 3 other guitars.
I read that at some other source (that I cannot currently find), that 3 others are known to exist (i.e., have been seen by reputable witnesses).

I have emailed Robb Lawrence (who is both a Les Paul and Strat expert). If anyone has seen others, he's the man.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Much is made of Order Number 242 (in about October 1954). Many Strats with dates earlier than October are known to exist. These are viewed as "pre-production" or even "prototypes" depending on who you ask.

Errors exist "out there" so be careful in your reading. For example, I have read that when the serial numbers moved to the neck plate, they started the numbering at 0100, BUT I have seen the Strat with serial number 0022!

I'll have to pull out the James Werner's Fender Serial Number List if more questions regarding Strat serial numbers come up! I've always thought I'd analyze the numbers and dates and try to estimate Fender's production numbers, year by year.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Dammit, Leo! why'd you have to make things so confusing for us 50 years down the road!



just wanted to throw that out there. I will go back to watching this thread with great interest

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I spoke with Robb this morning on the phone and he said he had never seen a 3 spring tremolo other than the one in Richards book {mine}. That is not to say ther couldn't have been others. There seems to be no reputable source of any one that has seen one. I suspect and it is inferred in Richards book that this is the only one.

It's hard to prove a negative, but what Robb says is good enough for me.

If I run across any reputable source, I'll certainly pass the information on.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

I hate to say it but Frontline got it wrong printing the photo of Bob Wills band saying that is Eldon 2nd from the right - that's NOT Eldon Shamblin! It's Lew Walker who played guitar for Wills in the late 50's and early 60's off and on.

Also it wasn't Bill Carson who convinced Eldon to retire his March 1954 Pre-production model custom color Strat - it was thieves who attempted to steal it at a big venue the Playboys were playing, which was at a large open air fairgrounds. When it came time to pack up Eldon's guitar was missing. An all out search of the premises was conducted while security stopped everyone from leaving until they found it, shoved under a huge dumpster almost hidden from view. Eldon decided right then it was time to sell to that nice young man in Tulsa who was always bugging him about it for $12.5K which Eldon used to pay a ton of medical expenses stemming from illness he had suffered in recent months. Years before Eric Clapton had called Eldon in the late 70's and offered him $10,000 for it.

There is a possibility that Eldon played the Strat Leo Fender gave him on Bob Wills last MGM recording sessions which took place in March 1954. Eldon told me, "I took that Strat Leo gave me on tour up in the great Northwest with the old man (Bob Wills). We were only gone for a couple of weeks and I had been playing a borrowed guitar I got from Billy Strange after my old Gibson Super 400 (1936 model) had caved in a few months earlier just sitting in the case on the bus. Billy loaned me several guitars to try and I settled on a Switchmaster, which sounded pretty good, but after a night or two with that "two-by-four" Leo gave me (the Strat!) I told the old man, 'Hey, this guitar is IT!' I didn't want to play anything else after that, you know for the ease of playing and man, what a sound it had. When we got back to L.A. to record, I took both guitars in the studio, and best I remember, I am sure I used both guitars on the sessions, which was over a two or three days during a week, but mostly it's the Strat on those sessions."


Here is Eldon playing the Strat on Bob Wills final recording session on December 3, 1973 in Dallas, TX

For the record Eldon hated the sound of the new Strat with Lace Sensor pickups that Bill Carson gave him as well as the Custom G&L guitar that Leo & Dale Hiatt had presented to him years earlier in an event in Tulsa which was called Eldon Shamblin Day with radio station KVOO broadcasting nothing but tunes Eldon played on with Wills, Haggard and many other artists.

On another note, didn't Leo Fender give Jimmy Bryant his first combination pocket protector / pen holder and slide rule organizer?

minor7flat5

It is not likely Eldon used the guitar in March of 54. The gold top Strat is documented to have been made and is dated june of 54. The body is dated 6/54 and the neck is dated 5/54. Source, page 34. The stratocaster Chronicles.

In this day in age, unless you can speak to Leo from beyond the grave, we'll never truely know who had the first Strat. All we know is a bunch of old nerdy guys from the 50's picked up the guitar long before Clapton, Beck, and a Hendrix ever touched a Strat....

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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53 Strat - I suppose the stamps and writing inside the guitar don't lie. Perhaps Eldon's memory was a little off. I remember someone researched the serial number years ago and told him it was made in the summer of '54 but he still insisted that he had it on that tour of the NW and the subsequent MGM recording sessions in March 1954. Perhaps he had another guitar on that tour & session?

I do know this much and Leo Fender told me this himself that Eldon was the recipient of more than one Fender guitar back in the early days of Fender's production of six string electric solid body guitars. He told me, "I gave Eldon several guitars and he gave everyone of them back to me except that gold Strat that he still plays today."

I asked Eldon if he'd ever tried the Telecaster or other models and he told me:

"Oh, yeah, every time I turned around, Leo would come around with new steels for Herbie (Remington) to try and amps for all the guys in the band (Bob Wills Texas Playboys) to try out. He'd always bring me one of them little "two-by-four" guitars. Right after I joined Wills in '37 (November) I'd had a solidbody Rickenbacker they gave me (which was made in 1936) that looked just like Leon's (McAuliffe) fry pan steel, but it had this long neck on that teeny little body and Ol' Wills flipped when he saw it and said to get rid of it even though he liked the way it sounded. When Leo made that first solid body, he brought me one of them and said, "Here, give this a try!" and I did, but Wills said, "Oh no, not that again!" Whenever Leo came around he would bring me one of his latest models and I'd try 'em for a day or two and give 'em back to Leo when he showed up again."

Detroit Blues - When I spoke with Leo back in the 80's about who had the 1st Strat he told me that Bill Carson definitely got the first one. I have read where Carson made this claim himself, however Stratocaster co-designer Fred Tavares also claimed that he was "the person who got the first built after I tightened the last screw!"

One thing Leo mentioned to me was that Bryant didn't like the 1st guitar he took him, which I believe we have come to call a 'No Caster' or some variation on a theme that was a precursor to the Esquire and/or Tele. Leo asked him what he wanted and Bryant told him, "For it to sound like this," holding up his Gibson Super 400 with the sliding D'armond pickup. Leo asked him to bring the guitar by the factory so he could do some measurements. Leo told me that after he examined Bryant's rig that he made up some pickups which were over wound with the heaviest coil wire in the shop and Bryant came to get his Gibson he tried out the Fender guitar Leo made for him with different pickups of varying output installed until they found one that approximated the sound of the D'armond p/u on the Gibson. Leo added, "That was the beginning of custom winding a pickup for a certain sound. Up until then we had just wound them all up until they were full with whatever wire was handy, not even bothering to count windings. We wanted each guitar to sound unique!"

Leo told me many things about other instruments including the pickup he made for Texas Playboy fiddler Johnny Gimble's electric mandolin and steels he made for Noel Boggs & Leon McAuliffe.

minor7flat5,

Thanks for the information and personal insights, fascinating stuff! One question, do we know you? You appear to have first hand knowledge of subject matter that is of great interest to the many Fender historians here at the forum. Any background would be appreciated, and please, keep on posting!

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“All music is folk music, I ain't never heard no horse sing a song.” Louis Armstrong

vinnypop...your back!.....How are you mate?

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Your Fender HSS Standard Stratocaster in Electron Blue was made at the Fender Ensenada Plant in Mexico in the Year: 2008.
Final Assembly Date: July 30th, 2008
Model Number: 013 4700 587
Serial # MZ8031252

Trauma have a look at the date of vinny's post

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Strato - I doubt that anyone here knows me. I'm just a guy who knew Eldon and a few of those old Texas Playboys mostly because my Dad knew all those guys back in the 30's. I was very privileged to call Eldon my friend and in fact he was more like Family to me as well as his wife and daughters. He let me play that Strat a couple of times. One time he literally threw it at me back stage and said, "Hey man, play me something on this guitar!" As you can imagine I about fainted as I fumbled to make a decent "F chord" but at least I didn't drop it or let it fall. That guy was a riot to be around, as were most of those old Playboys i.e. Leon McAuliffe, Bob Koefer, Johnny Gimble, Tiny Moore and especially Luke Wills!

My friendship with Gimble led to my phone conversations with Leo Fender. I'll never forget he told me, "Call him up, he's in the phone book, he lives in the the City of Orange, out in CA. Sure enough, I dialed Information (411 - remember when it was FREE?!) and the Operator rattled off his number & I didn't have a pen in hand because I really doubted he would have a listed phone #! (Uust as I was when I was told Gimble had a listed # back then... McAuliffe told me, "I got his # here somewhere, but he's in the book in Austin, call Information..." which I did!)

I called Leo maybe three times, if that. He was very kind and informative and asked me to call anytime and to come see him if I was ever in Orange County. He helped me a lot in my pursuit of making my own pickup for my old Gibson mandolin which I wired up based on Gimble's.

I am a Jazz guitarist for the most part but I also play electric mandolin and I not well known except I did get to play with some Western Swing with some of those old Playboys and a few other greats from various styles of music over the years. I have written a few tunes and published a few interviews I conducted but I don't wanna blow my horn here or anywhere else.

Right now I am just happy to be a part here with the rest of you folks!

minor7flat5

minor7flat5
Thanks for the great information. What i found and Richard Smith found when he was doing research for his book was that you had to take much of what some of those guys said with a grain of salt. Richard would listen to what some one said and then try to find facts to back it up, often facts located in old city records or inventory sheets from the year in question. In many cases he found the guy to be off 1, 2 or several years on his recollection.