1959 Fender Stratocaster Vintage Guitar Pre-CBS, Matador Red Lacquer (Riggio)

Description: Up for sale, a 1959 Fender Stratocaster in excellent condition and in perfect working order, complete with a tweed hardshell case. Unique in its presentation, this Stratocaster hails from early in the 1959 model year, with a body-only refinish in Fender's custom color Matador Red (the progenitor of Fiesta Red). Executed by Riggio Custom Guitars, what sets this finish apart is the use of genuine New Old Stock nitro lacquer from the 1950s, still stable and viable after many decades and utilized for this restoration. Want a custom color 1959 Fender Stratocaster finished in genuine New Old Stock nitro lacquer? This is it. Extremely lively acoustically, this Strat features an alder body and one-piece maple neck. Loaded with a set of genuine late '50s black bobbin Stratocaster pickups (two of which retain their original windings), all three pickups meter at a healthy 5.75k ohms. Hyper dynamic with an overarching balance and clarity across the strings, the bridge pickup has a sparkling honk and midrange forward cut, the middle position is spanky and percussive, and the neck pickup has a woody, sweet quality with plenty of body and bark. Each position is extremely distinct, and cheating the “in-between” sounds on the three-way switch delivers more squawk and jangle with bridge+middle engaged, while Neck+Middle has bolder, smokey quality. The guitar is lightweight at 7lbs 7oz, professionally setup here at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar with 10-46 strings, low action, and spot-on intonation. The maple neck has a slender C-shaped carve with modest shoulder and heavily rounded fretboard edges at the nut, offering a gradual and significant increase in additional heft up the fretboard, measuring .785" at the 1st fret and .985" at the 12th. The neck is “roasted” in the truest sense of the term, having seen enough heat to cause some texturing of the finish on the treble-side of the headstock, while retaining the full original waterslide Stratocaster decal. Freshly refretted with 6105 narrow/tall fretwire, the guitar plays effortlessly up the 25 1/2" scale with a straight neck and a responsive, optimally adjusted truss rod. There are a few shallow splits in the maple adjacent to the walnut skunk stripe behind frets 5-7 on the neck carve, professionally addressed and silky smooth to the touch. The modern carved unbleached bone nut measures 1.650" in width. On the headstock, the single line Kluson Deluxe tuning machines are intact and function smoothly, with the same deep ambering as the headstock face. The neck heel is pencil dated 3-59 (March, 1959). Electronics include a matched set of genuine late '50s Stratocaster single coils, with the original pickup windings intact on both the neck and middle position coils. The harness comprises a vintage three-way pickup selector, modern 250K CTS pots, and an aged replica "phone book" tone capacitor. Original plastics include the pickup covers and trio of knobs. Hardware includes a modern aged anodized gold aluminum pickguard (purposefully matched with the Matador Red lacquer to evoke the Roy Lanham Stratocaster), an aged Fender Custom Shop tremolo assembly, and the original serialized neck plate, jack plate and strap buttons. The body-only refinish in Matador Red nitro lacquer has been tastefully aged by Riggio Custom Guitars, with faint horizontal lacquer checking and a few minor marks of simulated use. The original lacquer is largely worn to the bare maple on both the fingerboard and profile, with some sporadic deeply ambered original finish remaining on the fingerboard, and to a larger extent at the neck heel. The guitar has no odor, smokey or otherwise. A modern era Fender-branded G&G tweed hardshell case is included.

Price: 25499.99 USD

Location: Seattle, Washington

End Time: 2024-10-11T12:15:35.000Z

Shipping Cost: 350 USD