❌SOLD❌ Fender Strat Rosewood Board Sunburst, 1997

Introduced in 1954 as Fender’s second distinct electric guitar model and soon referred to as the Fender Strat, the Stratocaster was rapidly adopted and has been one of the dominant designs. While there have been some minor changes over the years, until the early 1980’s the design was basically unchanged – a tribute to its success.

Here we’re looking at Fender Strat with Rosewood fingerboard and two-point trem bridge, dating to 1997 and built in Corona, California. It has a sunburst finish and is overall good clean condition.

Changes to the bridge design started to appear in the early 1980’s as many guitarists started to shift to locking trem designs like the 1976 Floyd Rose, and others such as the Kahler, all of which required significant modifications to the guitar. Many repair and custom shops, including The Twelfth Fret, did a lot of this kind of work during those years. These were expensive (and extensive) modifications, and manufacturers soon started to incorporate these concepts – or these parts – into their own designs.

But not everyone wants a locking system and they are expensive, and so the original six-screw ‘Vintage’ Fender bridge design was updated for reduced friction and with a two-post pivot system. This update noticeably improved tuning stability and has been very successful.

This Fender Strat is not entirely original. The original pickups were removed and replaced with DiMarzio models – an HS-3 in the bridge position and a pair of YJM (for Yngwie J Malmsteen) models, now called the HS-4, in the middle and neck positions. The HS-3 and HS-4 are both hum cancelling, so this guitar is not subject to single-coil hum in any position.   These two models are closely related, with the key difference being that the HS-4 has a ‘vintage’ polepiece stagger giving a bit more clarity when playing higher notes on the wound strings .

The finish is in overall good condition with a small finish ding on the back edge of the upper horn near the end of the contour.     Fret wear is light to moderate, and there’s plenty of life left in the frets.   It plays well, doesn’t hum, and sounds great!

The original molded, shaped hard shell case is included.   This case is not the rectangular design but reflects the early Fender ‘Poodle’ case design used from mid 1953 into 1954.