a friend stopped by to show me the Olympic White Strat he bought brand new in 1976... unbelievably clean guitar... he hasn't hardly played it in the last 30 years... he plays acoustic mostly... he isn't interested in selling right now... but if he ever does, I have first dibs... You can see a small scuff on the bottom of the guitar... it's the only blemish on the entire instrument... no other scratches, scrapes, dings or checking... it's pretty much the anti-relic...
The whole smash completely original... strings are as close as this guitar has ever been to an aftermarket part... the pickup covers and knobs have yellowed too, but when compared to the white finish, which has really yellowed, they still look white...
Jeff - Strats came that way for a year or so circa 1976/77 as Fender transitioned from white plastic to black plastic hardware. That was also the transition time from having the serial number on the neck plate (like defalutoprime's friend's guitar) to having the serial number on the headstock. I have seen photos of a couple of other transition year models - I recall one was natural and had the serial number up on the headstock; I think it was a 1977.
I have a strat just like this, they are commonly referred to as "bow tie" because of the different color covers/guard. Very cool looking.
A friend of mine has a late 70s Strat that's the same color. Interestingly, it's one of the lightest Strats I've ever played. Sounds great. It has a different pickguard than this one. Yours looks very cool! James
70's Strat, I donno. I remember living through the 70's and all we did then was bitch about how poor the quality had deteriorated. I guess a good one did sneak out once in a while but I can't believe these are now 'desireable'. I think the new stuff is much better than the 70's production.
Heh! I remember seeing a '76 Strat ten years ago that they wanted 500 bucks for. I passed because it weighed a ton, even though the guy insisted the heft = sustain. Boy don't I feel silly now. Anyhow, I wonder if the design was really that bad - maybe it was just the manufacturing of it that suffered a bit back then. In other words, if the Custom Shop masterbuilt one of these 3-bolt strats to utter design perfection, would it be a killer Strat?
