Solid investment grade, 1956 Fender Stratocaster. The cleanest we have ever seen and probably the cleanest around right now on the planet. Period.

Sixty two years old yet you would never think it was more than 6 months old… seriously! It defies belief and is a true under the bed find that has been languishing in a climate controlled closet as part of a large UK collection for a very long time.

Not a thing out of place on this breathtaking guitar - look at the hardware, the gleaming tuners and the original Bakelite plastics. We have never seen anything quite like this before and I do not think we will ever again.

So far as we can see, there is some extremely light checking on it which you can only see at the right light angle, a tiny bit of wear in three small places on the pristine, totally unfaded, maple fingerboard and some very light, clearcoat worming on the back, again impossible to photograph and a tiny ding on one side. I must say that this is being VERY picky, most people wouldn’t see this and I am sure any dealer would describe this beautiful guitar as a mint as can be example. It really does look virtually unplayed.

Probably one of the last ash bodies (which appears to be a very nice one piece ash) before they changed to alder later in ‘56. Neck date is XA-7-56, body date is 7/56 and all pots date to 43rd week of 1955. Serial number dates to around mid 1956. Interestingly enough, these neck and body dates are exactly one month after Clapton’s ‘brownie’ guitar that has a neck date of XA-6-56, so you can see it has been crafted by the same person (Xavier Armandez), within a just a few weeks of Clapton’s Iconic guitar.

Frets are virtually immaculate, guitar plays brilliantly and all three pickups sound mind blowing! As you would expect from a guitar of this class, everything is totally original under the hood with all virgin solder joints, electrics and pickup windings. It is faultless.

Included is the original trem arm, ashtray cover and some odd case candy. I do not think the lead is original! Case is correct tweed type with metal ‘Fender’ badge still on the outside (rare) and correct Krylon label on the inside. Weight is a lovely, lightweight 3.35Kg.

If you are looking for an investment grade piece, it is the guitars lie this that have consistently shown the strongest gains in the market place and we think you will really struggle to find a better example out there than this incredible piece…