Fender Stratocaster Sunburst, 1958 (No Longer Available)

Here we’re looking at a 1958 Fender Stratocaster in the then-new three-tone Sunburst finish, with neck and body dates of 12/58, indicating construction in December of 1958 or the beginning of 1959. In addition to the ‘new’ sunburst with the red band, the Maple neck became thinner with much less of a ‘V’ profile.

From mid 1956, Fender started using Alder on sunburst-finished Stratocasters, rather than Ash.   The neck remained the same, built of a single piece of Maple with a Walnut ‘Skunk Stripe’ covering the rear-mounted truss rod channel. A few months after this guitar was built,  Fender introduced another change, adding an optional ‘Slab’ Rosewood fingerboard.

This 1958 Fender Stratocaster is largely original and in overall good condition. The volume pot has been replaced, and the two tone controls have codes of 304839, indicating September 22 to 28 of 1958.  The middle pickup was rewound to original specifications.   The wiring still includes the original three-way switch.   The frets are original, and as can be expected for a now 63-year old instrument, are fairly low, with significant wear on the first three frets under the D and E strings.   The thin nitrocellulose lacquer finish on the fingerboard has the classic wear marks showing that this instrument has been used as intended.  Still, the finish is quite clean and has moderate wear;  this is not a ‘Closet Classic’! The tuners are the original Kluson ‘Single Line’ models, and still work well.

Weighing in at under 7.8 lbs (3.54kg) and with the contours and thinner neck, this 1958 Fender Stratocaster is very comfortable to play. It plays well and is quite resonant.   At the moment the bridge is set up with all five springs, effectively disabling the trem.

The original rectangular, tweed 1958 Fender Stratocaster hard shell case is included and contains the trem arm and ‘ashtray’ bridge cover.