Vintage Fender Stratocaster - USA 1974

Crafted in the United States in 1974, this is a fantastic player-grade Fender Strat with some nice upgrades. It features an Olympic White finish on an Alder wood body, paired with a one-piece Maple neck and fingerboard. The neck is accented with a walnut skunk stripe along its back. The current owner acquired it around 1979 from renowned Sydney guitar tech, Alan Rigg. Initially, this guitar was Alan’s personal instrument.

Modifications include non-original tuners on the headstock, which also lacks one string tree (for the D & G strings). The truss rod, capped with walnut at the headstock and extending along the neck's back in a skunk stripe, is adjusted at the neck's end, hidden by the scratch plate. The neck attaches with a three-bolt system featuring a micro-adjuster. It's worth noting that skunk-stripe necks, common throughout the 1950s, largely disappeared in the 1960s, making a comeback in 1969 with the optional one-piece maple neck/fingerboard. This particular neck might be from 1971, as indicated by the absence of a bullet adjuster nut on the headstock.

Originally equipped with standard components, the guitar was modified in 1979/80 to feature EMG active pickups, replacing the original pickguard, pickups, pots, switch, and wiring. This modification, intended to reduce stage hum, also enhanced the guitar's sound quality. The modification resulted in the installation of two EMG-S Ceramic Single Coil pickups in the neck and middle positions and an EMG-SA (stacked humbucker) in the bridge position, necessitating a routing in the neck pickup cavity to accommodate the deeper EMG pickup. Consequently, the guitar now features only two of the original three control knobs, and the original 3-way switch has been upgraded to a 5-way switch, retaining the original switch tip.

This Strat was recently (February 2024) serviced and set up by Alan Rigg, so is 100% ready to rock.

All in all, an excellent, upgraded 70s Strat, with that magnificent oversize headstock, rear skunk stripe and a 3-bolt neck joint that does NOT move or slide around. Quite a looker with plenty of vintage mojo, with tonnes of tone to match!

Comes in original Stamford case in good condition.

Specs:

Scale length: 25.5” 

Action at 1st fret: 0.5mm 

Action at 12th fret: 2.0mm 

Neck depth at 1st fret: 20.73mm 

Neck depth at 12th fret: 22.92mm 

Nut Width: 43.43mm 

12 fret width: 52.24m 

Weight: 3.74kg / 8.25lb 

Alder body 

Olympic White Finish 

'C' profile maple neck with 7.25" radius fingerboard 

EMG Active Pickups

Non-original pickguard 

Five-way switch 

Vintage style tremolo  

Non-original tuners 

21 vintage frets