So... I'm still tinkering with my 64/65 Strat clone. I've been getting some of the hardware together but am considering a few departures from the norm.

First, the hardtail bridge... would it be fair to assume that this was a special order option? For whatever reason I'm leaning in this direction. I have a strat with a trem already and I miss my old hardtail.

Also, pickguards. I've seen a few tortoise guards looking at pictures of 64/65 strats on GBase but never a black one. Did Fender offer these (tortoise) as a custom order or did they just appear on "special" guitars? Were they available for aftermarket purchase like they are today? When did they start using (or manufacturing black guards) for strats?


My thinking is to create some sort of perfect storm of rare options and combine them all into one guitar. It's just an idea so was wondering what special options might have been available. I've got the color chart of available colors so I'm up on that. I know they offered a larger fret size beginning around this time. I'm up on most of the basic model features and changes of the transition period strats, just not all the possible special order option that might have been available.

Hardtails were (and remain) quite rare, relative to total Strat production. I have three but two of them are custom-builds with aftermarket bodies.

As for tortoise-shell pickguards, I've seen a photo of Dick Dale onstage in the early '60s playing what appears to be an Olympic White lefty with the tortoise guard. Thus, I think these may have been available at least on a limited basis (good luck finding a nice one though -- most I've seen are too dark and too red).

I don't believe that black pickguards were used until the big-headstock CBS-era Strats appeared in the mid-70s.

HTH

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

I have a book "The Fender Stratocaster" by A. R. Duchossier, that shows only one example of an early Strat ('56) with with a black anodized pick guard. The description says that the black pick guard can be traced back on at least one '54 Strat. Based on that, and what Retroverbial has said here, I would say that a black pick guard would be a rare option, or at least not very common. I think that with the anodized pick guards, you would get crap all over the hands and guitar, maybe that's why not many were used?.

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

Yeah, it seems as though they were quite rare through the 50's and 60's but I see more throughout the mid & later 70's. I'd love to see one go into reg. production again... especially with the "new" vint. style saddles being used on the AM. STD's. I guess if there was enough demand they'd be making them. I've heard a lot of folks bag on strats w/o a trem but I've always liked them. Of course there aren't too many strats I don't like.

As far as pickguards go I'm probably going to settle on an aged white or green guard... I agree that finding the perfect tortoise guard seems impossible. I remember now going down that road years ago and don't know how many I ordered/returned or re-sold on ebay before giving up. Funny thing though, even some of the real vintage ones from the 60's are hit or miss as far as how I like the look of them. It's one of those "know it when you see it" things but very hard to order one blindly.

+1

I've still got one left of the five I bought for my '50s ash hardtail that I haven't been able to unload yet.

It does seem that the majority of hardtails were produced during the 3-bolt neck CBS era. As to why, I'm clueless.

Arjay

_________________
"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

As to the rarity of the hardtail strats I don't think they are
as rare as some might say the reason why I say that is
because I have been looking (dreaming more like it) at
L series strats and my desire is for a hardtail and in
searching various vintage guitar places online I have seen
a couple 63's (Daves Guitar being 1) a 64, and 3 65 hardtails
so it is definitely something they did especially considering
3 out of 10 65' s I have found were hardtail ( by the way good
luck on your build my dream strat is actually a 65 hardtail
albeit with a mint gaurd ) my vote is go for the hardtail!!!

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1956 Gibson CS Lemon Les Paul
1957 Fender CS Aged Cherry Strat
1958 Gibson CS Pg 85 Les Paul
1960 Fender CS 3tsb Strat
1961 Gibson SG Wildwood Pelham blue
1966 Fender CS Firemist Metallic Silver Strat

thanks... the hardest thing for me will be the color choice. I'm going to avoid sunburst for this project though ordinarily it's one of my favorite colors but I'd really like it to be one of the more unusual custom color choices. I'd say the 6 I'm simmering on at this point (in no particular order) are:

*Sonic Blue
*Inca Silver
*Lake Placid Blue
*Oly White
*Surf Green
*Fiesta Red

I envision myself ordering something up from MJT at some point for the body and neck. I've been keeping an eye on their ebay store for a while now, waiting for something to catch my eye. I'm planning on going w/the SRO-FAT neck (a perfect combo of size, radius, and fret size for me) and I see those come up pretty regularly but haven't seen a body I'm willing to pull the trigger on yet. I may end up ordering it but like the idea of saving a few bucks on one that's in stock. Time will tell...

I'm digging this pukey surf green color...
http://cgi.ebay.com/Replacement-Body-Aged-Nitro-Fin-4-Fender-Jazz-J-Bass-/390268667061?pt=Guitar&hash=item5addd344b5#ht_500wt_922

There is a Sonic Blue Hardtail available right now too but I'm just now sold on it for whatever reason...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rpcmt-Body-Aged-Nitro-4-Fender-Stratocaster-Hardtail-/280598692052?pt=Guitar&hash=item4154fc40d4#ht_500wt_922

I had a '65 Sonic Blue that faded to a green much like Surf Green,it had the green guard and a rosewood fretboard....man I wish I still had it.