Brand: Fender
Instrument Categories: Electric, Guitars, SOLD, Solidbody
Like many of the guitars built during the 1950’s and 1960’s, this Fender 56/59 Stratocaster has been modified to meet its owner’s needs over the years.
When Leo Fender first came up with the revolutionary bolt-together design that became the Telecaster, he considered serviceability and repairability. A bolt-on neck is easy to replace should it become damaged or excessively worn. Over the years, players have used this design feature to adapt instruments to their own requirements.
For this example, starting with the body, hardware and electronics from a 1956 Stratocaster, at some point the original Maple neck was replaced with a 1959 Stratocaster neck with Brazilian Rosewood ‘Slab’ fingerboard. Fender introduced the Rosewood fingerboard on Stratocasters in late 1959, and the ‘Slab’ or flat-bottomed form was used until July of 1962. At that point, Fender introduced new production processes allowing use of a thin Rosewood layer over the curved Maple neck.
This Fender 56/59 Stratocaster combines the body, pickups, pots, and neck plate from a 1956 model. The three-tone sunburst is a re-finish, as that scheme appeared in early 1958. The neck is dated to 1959. The pickguard is a modern reproduction, and the pickup selector is a modern 5-way (the difference between a 3-way and 5-way is the number of detents stamped into the switch frame). The tone-control wiring extends the second tone control to both the middle and bridge pickups; originally, it applied only to the middle pickup. The pickups are mid-1950’s models and sound great; their covers appear to be original, given their material and degree of wear. Fret wear is moderate.
An original brown Fender hard shell case from the period is included.
- Model: Stratocaster
- Year: 1959
- Finish Sunburst Refinish
- Class: Vintage
- Serial Number: 5483, body pickups pots and neck plate 1956, neck 1959, built Fullerton CA
- Country of Origin: USA
- Condition: Good
- Date Posted: 10/06/2022
- This instrument has been sold
- Consignment Item
- Including original Hard case
- Instrument Weight: 7.788lbs 3.54kg
- Scale Length: 25.5in 647.7mm
- Nut Width: 1.636in 41.56mm
