The Drills: Roxanne 1954 Fender Stratocaster

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Born in '54
Refreshed in '63



1954 Fender Stratocaster



This guitar was born in July 1954… one of the first year Stratocaster's. It was purchased from the original owner in 1956 and played extensively through the late fifties and early sixties. By 1963 the guitar was 'quite well worn' and the owner wanted to continue to play on a maple fretboard so he sent the guitar back to Fender and asked them to refinish and refret the neck, and also to refinish the body in his favorite color, Lake Placid Blue - but he specified that they should keep all of the original electronics as he really liked the sound of the original 1954 pickups. The guitar was returned to him later that year (in a then new 1963 case). For all these years he believed that Fender had re-finished the original body - but in fact we now know that they replaced the body to match the then current eleven-screw 'green' pick-guard.

This 12 3/4-inch-wide guitar weighs 7.50 lbs. and has a nut width of just under 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Mid 1963 solid alder body (with shoulder in control cavity), contoured on back and lower bass bout. Original July 1954 one-piece fretted maple neck with a medium-to-fat profile (with the pencil mark of "TG[Tadeo Gomez]-7-54"], 21 medium frets, and black dot position markers. Small headstock with Spring 1962 - mid 1964 decal with Fender "spaghetti" logo in gold with black trim, "STRATOCASTER" in black beside it, "WITH SYNCHRONIZED TREMOLO" in black below it, and "PAT 2,573,254 2,741,146 2,960,900" below that, and "ORIGINAL Contour Body" at the ball end of the headstock. Original 1954 Individual single-line "no-name" Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons (stamped inside: "2356766 PAT APPLD"). Original 1954 single circular string tree. Original 1954 four-bolt neck plate with the serial number "1099" between the top two screws (one of the screws from 1954, the other three from 1963). Original 1954 Stratocaster black-bottom single-coil pickups with staggered polepieces (the "D" magnet being the tallest) with 1963 white ABS plastic covers. The outputs of the pickups are 6.15k, 5.52k, and 6.12k. Three-layer mid-1963 three-layer 'green' guard with eleven screws. Three original 1954 controls (one volume, two tone) plus original 1954 three-way selector switch, all on treble side of the pickguard. 1963 white ABS plastic knobs with gold lettering. Original 1954 six-pivot bridge/vibrato unit with through-body stringing. 1963 white ABS plastic tremolo backplate with oval string holes and six (1963) screws. The original 1954 potentiometers are all stamped "304 429" (Stackpole September 1954) and the original 1954 "CRL 1452" three-way switch has three patent numbers and also "Made in USA" on one line. The white ABS plastic switch tip is from 1963. Complete with the original 1954 tremolo arm and later 50's/early 60's bridge cover. Housed in a 1963 Fender 'brown' hardshell case with dark orange plush lining (8.50).