The Metal Shop: 2014

Friday, September 26, 2014

1979 Fender Stratocaster

Here is my latest G.A.S. acquisition, a 1979 Fender Stratocaster. This is my first 'real' Strat. I had one of those 80's guitars that said 'STRAT' on the headstock, and many Charvel strats, of course, but this is the first, real, traditional strat. I would actually love for you guys to pick this thing apart! It is defnitely a time capsule, to the early 80's, where she was modified, and then left that way. Here is what I know; she has the original neck, body, pickups, bridge and electronics. A weird preamp with a toggle was added, along with the obvious - mirror pickguard, chrome knurled knobs, and she has the right angle Gotoh crown head tuners! The tuners are chrome, though. She has a great strat tone, huge frets, which are probably not original (?) and the trem is set up as a hardtail, screwed all the way into the body, with five springs and a lot of tension. I believe the original color to be black, but it has also been oversprayed, poorly, in black. You can see all of the crazing and cracks galore, under the crappy paint! There is black paint in all of the cavities. I thought the headstock had been messed with, but it turns out that Fender used nitro laquer on the headstocks only, as the poly clear on the rest of the guitar reacted badly and damaged the decals. So the headstocks commonly aged, differently than the rest of the guitar. Here are a few (sorry, poor quality cell phone) pics:

She is the sister to my 1981 Les Paul, Sykes tribute. This is a real 81 Paul, with original nickel hardware, that I added the chrome switch plate and pickguard to. The LP also sports Duncan pickups and a fantastic RS Guitarworks electronics package. What more do you need?!!