This guitar is vintage AND rare as hen's teeth... It's a vintage 1979 Fender Stratocaster and it is in very nice condition. It was produced at the original Fender factory in Fullerton, California U.S.A. Draggin' Guitars has carefully inspected and fully verified the guitar's authenticity. The guitar is 100% original and feels fresh. It has been professionally set up and is ready to go-it needs nothing.
Let's get into it... The familiar double cutaway Stratocaster silhouette has crisp lines and nice contours on the front and backside of the guitar. The Sunburst finish is very vibrant and completely unfaded-see photos. The high-contrast wood grain is well-defined and looks really beautiful through the sunburst finish. There is slight handling evidence here and there with a few tiny chips visible-see photos. The clear coat has some "shelf wear" from sitting in the case for so long. It is hard to describe and only visible at certain angles-looks like tiny reflective dots, see close-up photos. The neck slot has matching serial number sticker and inspection stamps along with typical factory paint stick shadow.
The neck itself is a straight and smooth. It has a nice Vintage C-shape profiled and measures .881" deep at the 1st fret and .962" deep at the 12th fret. The nut measures 1.63" wide. The original inspection sticker is still on the bottom of the neck along with Fender employee hand-written names and inspection codes. The original F-key tuners are all in excellent condition and function smoothly. The headstock and logo display excellent-see photos. The fingerboard is very clean and has a smooth feel. The frets appear very close to 'like new' condition-see photos. The action is set low for an easy playing experience. The string height measures .010" at the 1st fret and .050" at the 12th fret. The guitar plays great up and down the fingerboard.
The pickups all have an excellent signal. The neck pickup reads 5.74 ohms, the middle reads 5.54 ohms and the bridge reads 7.54 ohms. The Stratocaster has that quintessential Fender vintage chime and brilliance with the desirable "Bell" tone! Pickups have the vintage grey bobbins with inspection stamps and chalk marks. The wiring harness is in excellent condition-and all of the original masking tape is still present! The original 5-way switch and all of the controls function smoothly and quietly. The original mustard ceramic disc tone capacitor is in excellent condition, and the potentiometers date to the 1st week of 1979 (January). The original bridge and saddles are fully adjustable and in excellent condition. Interestingly, this guitar has an original STEEL trem block from the 60's-something we have seen on a 1976 model also. Apparently, they had an overabundance of them laying around. These coiled-rolled steel blocks are well known to provide a superior sustain with brighter clarity and articulation over the die-cast "Mazac" 1-piece bridge that became standard issue in late 1971. Bonus! The vibrato functions smoothly.
The guitar is fun to play and very comfortable. It has a good weight for a Stratocaster (especially a late-70's one!) it weighs 8.37 lbs. The original hard case is included, along with the original owner's manual.
