Fender Stratocaster, Blonde (1960)

A custom color Blonde Stratocaster from Fender's Golden Era is one of the most unique and desirable vintage electrics out there. Early "slab board" examples of these special Strats have a sound all their own.

As we've learned with the 1959 Fender Stratocaster in Blonde we acquired a couple of years back, there's something really special about the rare combination of an Ash-bodied Stratocaster with the tone and feel of a Maple neck with slab Rosewood fingerboard. We couldn't have imagined we'd get to experience it again in another guitar so soon after the '59 left our shop.

This 1960 Fender Stratocaster in original custom color Blonde finish is yet another fantastic example of this uniquely spec'ed guitar, and it represents so much of what made the next generation of Stratocasters in the 1960s so popular. With a combination of super vibey natural play wear, some powerful original pickups, and a level of originality we all hope to see with a guitar of this caliber, it goes as no surprise that this Strat delivers on all fronts. The neck is perfectly worn in, and with a fresh refret done in-house, it's playing better than ever! That's really the only change to the guitar, too.

The original single coil pickups all measure in the low to mid 6k range and sound outrageously good - punchy and warm in the neck and middle positions, with a chimey almost tele-like bridge pickup tone. Cheating the original 3-way switch into the 2 and 4 positions yields those classic double pickup tones, but there's a thicker overall sound happening. Based on the play wear, it's safe to say the guitar was universally held in high regard for its exceptional tone.

The body date - penciled inside the tremolo cavity - reads '1/60' indicating a January 1960 completion date. In typical period fashion, the neck heel shows no pencil date, which was common from early/mid 1959 through early/mid 1960. The underside of the original celluloid nitrate 3-ply mint green pickguard shows a signature from Mell, an employee who worked in final assembly at Fender for years (we also noted a Mell signature on the '59 Strat guard). The wiring harness remains fully intact as well, with clear date codes on the original Stackpole potentiometers.

The guitar includes its original tremolo arm and bridge cover, as well as a rare transitional hardshell case with Brown tolex and the "knuckle buster" latch location commonly seen on Tweed hardshell cases through the late 50s.