Fender Stratocaster 1956 – Blonde – Family Heirloom of 60+ Years!

What a great opportunity to get an original 56 Stratocaster with Fender factory Blonde finish at an absolute steal! 2024 Vintage Guitar Price Guide has these at $70-$150K!

For your consideration, and from the family of the owner since 1960, this fantastic Blonde 1956 Fender Stratocaster. The guitar was purchased used from Murphey’s Music in Long Beach, CA in 1960 by the father of the gentleman I purchased it from in New Mexico. The guitar is completely original with the exception of a late 50s Fender factory refinish of the neck and body. The guitar was originally blonde and likely received a “freshening up” to help with its sale at Murphy’s Music. Additionally, the masking tape holding the wires together is not original. It had some copper wires twisted around the pickup wires to hold them together when I got it. It is likely that the masking tape fell off and was moving around under the pickguard. It’s difficult to begrudge this guitar a lovely period appropriate Fender factory Refin considering how perfectly beautiful and undeniably 50s Fender the finish is both on the body and neck. The guitar bears all of the hallmarks of a perfect factory Blonde Strat. A nice factory body date, a lovely typical blonde Fender finish with opaque edges, and a light “color” written in pencil under the finish. The electronics are all original including the original 3-way switch and pots, capacitor, and pickups, which sound absolutely fantastic with glassy and musical neck and middle pickups, and a twangy and articulate bridge pickup. The tubing for the height adjustment of the pickups has been replaced, but the originals are included. .

This guitar plays fantastically well and is sure to impress even the most discerning Strat fan. It has a fat soft V neck and still has its original frets that have some moderate wear, but are overall quite nice. It weighs in at a nice 7.94 lbs and is quite resonant acoustically. In fact, it is a joy to play unplugged just sitting on the couch! Plugged in, it has everything you’d want out of a strat including a very quacky and tasteful tone from the in between positions when you balance the switch there. As previously noted, the neck and middle pickups are beautifully glassy and the bridge has some twang, bark and bite that will make you think you might be playing a tele!

Tech Notes:

The neck has a faded pencil date at the heel that reads “6-56.” This decreased resolution is consistent with the effects of the finish stripping process. The bottom of the heel also shows “11908” hand-stamped into the wood under the finish. This was a measure taken by the Fender factory to keep track of necks and bodies during the refinishing process. There are several areas of fretboard wear that can be seen under the new finish, another sure sign of post-production finish application. Apart from these indicators, the neck finish looks entirely consistent with original Fender finishes of the era.

The body shows typical pencil markings in the neck pocket and tremolo cavity. The tremolo cavity date reads “3-56.” However, like the neck date, these original body markings are notably faded. Another body date, reading “6-56,” can be found in the neck pickup cavity. The “6-56” date is much sharper and clearer, and was obviously not subjected to the same stripping process as the other pencil dates. It does, however, sit beneath the present finish and is consistent in format and aesthetics with factory Fender pencil markings. Strangely, the location of this date (in the neck pickup cavity) is not typical for Stratocasters during this era. It is my theory that this “6-56” date was not necessarily the date of the refinish, but rather was written to identify the body as a companion to its “6-56” dated neck. In addition to these inconsistent body dates, the pickguard screw, bridge pivot screw, and jack plate screw holes all clearly contain visible blonde finish within, another sure sign of a refinish. That being said, the finish itself is undoubtedly the work of the Fender factory during the 1950s.

All other parts, electronics, etc appear to be factory original. The solder joints could certainly pass as original, however this is to be expected on a factory-refinished guitar, seeing as Fender themselves resoldered these joints in the 1950s. The accurate factory headstock decal, along with the noticeably opaque edges of the blonde body finish point towards a pre-1959 factory refinish. Wondering about the year it was made? Learn more about how to identify vintage models by reading our blog on How To Read Fender Serial Numbers.

Thank you for your interest in this guitar! Feel free to reach out to Joe’s Vintage Guitars with any questions!