An original 1956 Fender Strat finished in blonde with a lovely centre pocket tweed case for under 20k....

Yes, there is a slight catch. Although the blonde finish you see is the original blonde this guitar's body was painted in, at some stage in it's illustrious life, some tripped out dude decided to spray the body a bright red and lets be frank about this, he was hardly the consummate professional when it came to spraying guitars.

Years later, someone spent a LOT of time meticulously removing this Day-Glo red finish to restore the original blonde finish as you see it here. It looks pretty good from the top but on the sides you can see where a slight amount of sanding was required to remove the red and on the back it is a bit sparse in places but then this gives the impression of heavy wear and some people like that.

I think best thing to say is have a look at the many pictures I have posted and see for yourselves....

Original clear coated paint remains in places too, noticeably in the cavities and in a few places you can see still see traces of the obnoxious red that used to adorn this lovely guitar. Thankfully though, these are hidden in the neck pocket and under the pickguard.

Body date of 3-56, pots date of 48th week of 1955, neck dates to 

11-56. It has been re-fretted with very slightly larger than normal frets and the fingerboard was re-finished at that time and a new nut installed.

So far as I can tell, all hardware and electrics are original with the exception of the back trem cover and the screws holding this in. Stunning ash body maple neck Strat that plays very well with 3 x very evenly original pickups with original windings. Weight is 3.5Kg and neck profile has the merest hint of a 'V' about it.

We would be looking at a 50k Strat here if those heady days of substance abuse had not taken another guitar casualty so at the price it is, it could be a bit of a bargain and it's hardly as if you see these all over the place...