Wow Joe!! I don't know why I only looked at this complete thread until just now. I'm really impressed and happy for you! Thanks for all the pictures and information you've shared with the Fender community here!! Thanks and congratulations Joe!!

Absolutely stunning example, thanks so much for sharing with us vintage hounds............ Mike

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

C:

Glad to share how I discovered this guitar. The guitar was listed on ebay, which I do watch regularly. When I saw the listing, it looked good to me visually, at least enough to contact the seller, but I knew it wasn't going to sell because it offered no appropriate info for a vintage..., i.e., internal photos, etc. So no one really took it serious. However, the guy listing it was an hours drive from me, so I kept the email address and later contacted him. (Had he been somewhere else, I would never have got this done) Turns out, the listing person was the 13 year old grandson of the original owner. I drove out there and met them both. After several visits, and getting the whole history of the guitar, I decided to pursue it, pending inspection. Everything checked out nearly perfectly. One screw on the trem cover was non standard (which I have replace with a 57 screw....you wouldn't believe what one of those cost) I kept the nonstandard screw, because my research showed that an occasional non-matching screw is actually not unusual for a vintage instrument. In fact, very few are out there with dead matching sets.

So I negotiated with the guy. I did explain, and he knew, that this was worth some money, but I wasn't going to pay his asking price. But he got a fair price for the guitar. It is very clean inside, which was quite appealing to me. Overall, the guitar is in very nice shape, and was well cared for, and as these purchases go, it all added up...the story, the condition, the documentation, appraisals, etc.

The original owner was a strummer, never used a pick, and the pickguard reflects that. The only repair, and I have the receipt for it, was for the b-string tuner. The peg in the guitar is a correct 57 part because the original was sticky. I have the original also. Otherwise, it is bone stock. There are some dings, etc., buckle rash, etc., but the solders look clean and original. You will see some 55's with black cloth wiring and later 56's and 57's with black white combo, like mine. This is also vintage correct. There is a small bang on the bottom (high e) side of the neck, which actually scratched up the 5th fret a small bit, but otherwise, while worn (and the fret wear is just beautiful) and having some fret dents, the frets are still pretty playable. It frets out on two frets on the high e (but I haven't had it set up, so it could resolve itself nicely) Look at the condition of the pot in the photo. You see very few that are that clean. The guitar was never "poped" until the appraisal. At least that is what the guy said.

I haven't commented on the best part however, and that is the tone. As they describe the "bell tone" of the vintage guitars, it definitely has a very warm beautiful tone, esp. when played through a tweed amp. I basically play it through a blues deluxe reissue.

I feel very grateful to own this instrument. It is a lifelong dream, and I surely cherish it. Hopefully, my son will some day as well.

Let me know if I can answer any other questions. I very much enjoy sharing the story with fellow strat heads.

Joe

I assume you paid about $5,000,000 for the guitar, that seems to be the going rate.

That's very funny. No, I was able to secure a better price. You got me laughing on that one.

Sorry, gentlemen.

I am between photo hosting sites at the moment.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

joep, how do the original pups compare to the ri. taking the age difference into consideration.one request too....stop it with the pictures i'm going to cry.

Hi:

Thanks for the question. I'm really happy to have found the forum to share this sickness with. My family already thinks I'm nuts....

I have to say that the reissue with the "Abby wound" pups has a beautiful sound. I think where it looses out (and only slightly) is with respect to the advantage that everyone always talks about with "vintage" guitars. I'm not an expert, but I tell you there is something to it. When you hit an open chord without being plugged in, there is a beautiful resonance to the original, and I just think it is the aged wood and nitro finish.

Also, the neck has a more solid feel to it for some reason. All that, according to my ear and feel, give the original an advantage. I think it carries a warmer, fuller tone (esp. in the neck position of which I am fond). But I'll bet in 53 years, the reissue will sound pretty sweet as well. I was thinking of posting a video of the sound of the two to see what the forum thought, but really don't know if the differences could be heard.

Joe

Hey Joe: thank you so much for sharing all of that. It's a great story, and perhaps very instructive for those around here thinking of getting into this kind of thing (not me, sadly ).

I entirely respect your privacy regarding the purchase price of the instrument - but go on, tell us how much a genuine '57 pickguard screw cost. Make our hair stand on end!

(We've seen some very entertaining prices quoted for that kind of thing round here before...)

Sounds like you got a knockout deal - and having the modern Reissue alongside is the icing on the cake. Congrats!


Ha - nice to see you looking in, Orville. I bet Joe in particular as well as many of the other newer Forum users would be fascinated to hear about the very interesting features of your '54 any time you felt like restoring the photos and telling them about it. Not nagging - just encouraging!

Friendly respects to you - C

Hi all:



Spoke to the gentleman today who I bought the guitar from. Told him I was sharing the story with the folks on the Fender Strat forum. Asked if I could post his pic, and he said he'd be delighted. Here is a shot of Ray Jordan with the original 57 he bought back in the day. He is a real gentleman, a class act, and a real piece of Americana!

Joe

By the way!! One screw, $60. And if that doesn't hurt enough, the guy would only sell them if I bought his whole set. Anyway, the nonstandard screw (which I kept of course) has been replaced with a correct matching 57 screw. All documented.

Joe

That is just amazing. What do you think a guitar like that will be worth? $40,000, $50,000, $60,000???

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


facebook.com/313DBC

It's hard to say really. Given that when the guitar was listed, it wasn't detailed with internal shots, etc., it didn't move on a forum like ebay. If the owner had taken this to a vintage shop, he would have been low balled so they could make some profit, but they would have definitely taken it. How much of a lowball, I don't know. Ray had it appraised via pictures only in 1991 and they said $5-10K at the time. That is how he came to know if was worth something. He had it in for the tuner repair, and the guy told him to get it appraised.

To the day he sold it, he didn't know what is could be worth. He listed it as a median price for such a guitar on ebay. To be sure, I gave him what I think is a fair price. Now of course, everything is documented, given the condition, story, and completeness of it (inside and out), I still think it could fetch up to $45K, maybe even a little better, in this down market. 5 years ago, this guitar probably gets $60K - $75K, but that is how it is with collectables. Everyone can offer a value, but you still have to find someone willing to pay it. I think in this case, Ray and I both won. He got a fair price which he was happy with, and I got an instrument I love. From a pure investment standpoint, which is not my angle, I think this could fetch a pretty good buck as the economy improves, but I'm not going to sell it, hopefully ever.

Joe

Hey Joe,
I was just reading about the Buddy Holly Stratocaster when it went to Fender for "restoration" Oddly, that guitar had one screw that was an
oddball size. I think you might want to read about it and see if your odd
screw matches. - It could be that there were occasional screw-ups (no pun)
at the factory that occured during drilling/screwing (no pun) that required
a bigger screw to compensate for an oversize hole. (No pun)

http://www.fender.com/community/forums/ ... hp?t=40534

Wow. A very cool read. Apparently, they did sometimes come with mismatched screws. In my case, one of the trem cover screws (normally small phillips screws with a collar with no threads and a beveled head) was a flat head (regular) screw of identical size. The original owner swears it was never replaced by him.

Funny enough, I'm going to have lunch with the owner and the only guitar tech that ever touched the guitar. Should be fun.

Joe