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Welcome to 1962Stratocaster.com. This site is dedicated to everyone that loves the Vintage Fender Stratocaster and particularly the distinctive 1962 Classic Vintage.

Greetings dear visitor and fellow 1962 Stratocaster enthusiast.

I’m assuming that you’ve arrived here via a Google search of “1962 Stratocaster”, “62 Strat” or “62 Stratocaster” or something similar, or maybe someone you know,- a fellow admirer of the inimitable Strat referred you here.

Either way, the fact that you’re here already shows that you have some (if not a lot) of knowledge of the classic 1962 Stratocaster, but in any case I’m going to give an overview of the history of this truly wonderful electric guitar and give you some insight as to why I decided to build a blog around it.

I often wonder if Leo Fender, George Fullerton and Freddie Tavares could have had any notion of the inextinguishable impact that their electric guitar design would have on the music world and amongst guitar players for generations to come when in 1954 they made their first production of the Fender Stratocaster in 1954.

Nowadays we see the strat as being a naturally woven part of the band music scene. Millions of Stratocasters have been produced and millions more copies and replicas have been made over the past 40 odd years which all attest to the Fender Strat as being the quintessential standard in solid body electric guitar design. But back in 1954 when Leo, George and Freddie got together to create our beloved Strat the music scene and landscape was very different and their efforts would have been seen by some to be either, wild, crazy or just completely incomprehensible. Back then Jazz was having a heyday and the big Gibson, Guild, and Gretsch acoustic electrics with their fat bodies and distinctive “f” holes were all the rage and considered standard kit & tackle for any serious guitarist.

At that stage rock and roll hadn’t even started (well it had kind of “punk” rumblings on the fringes just as was the case when punk emerged from the Glam-Rock era of the early 1970’s (ah yes,- I remember that fondly as part of my high school days)),.. but let’s get back to 1954 for a minute,… Elvis hadn’t yet emerged and the whole scene was very different, and at that time it appeared to be a complete folly to produce anything but a standard ‘f’ hole acoustic electric guitar. However, as with all pioneers , usually they have a kind of boldness and daring that fuels their imagination and resolve, and such was the case with our three heroes,- Leo Fender, George Fullerton and Freddie Tavares. Thanks heavens they got together to produce what is now arguably the most popular and versatile electric guitar in the world.

As a side bit of trivia, I personally met George Fullerton when he visited Australia in 1981 on a promotional tour for his new creation “Music Man” guitars and amplifiers. At that time I was a sales rep with Australis music who were the agents for “Music Man”. I recall Mr Fullerton as being a very humble and lovely gentleman that spoke proudly and fondly of his association with Fender and who also loved to hear the clean bell like ringing tones of a solid body guitar fashioned in Stratocaster style.

So, what’s with this fascination with the 1962 Stratocaster? Why has it become such an icon in the Strat landscape? I think it relates to a few factors and that it’s certainly not some fanciful tag applied by nostalgic guitarists just for the sake of it. So we go back in time to 1962,.. it’s now 8 years since the birth of the original Stratocaster and 5 years since the 1957 Strat had emerged as the cool and smooth work of art that had been gradually refined and virtually perfected in the 3 years prior manufacturing process. It’s the year before the introduction of the “L” series and therefore it represents the pinnacle of Stratocaster design and performance from the instrument’s inception and original design and manufacturing process prior to the “L” series and then the later CBS series that emerged in 1965 after the sale of Fender to CBS in 1965 which was for many years hailed as a monumental mistake and downfall in the Fender legacy (even so,.. many CBS series Strats emerged as excellent instruments and are highly sought after vintage instruments these days).

To be honest,.. although I have admired the 1962 Stratocaster for many years, I have never actually owned one because of affordability and a struggle with finances during the years that they rocketed from $2,000 to $30,000 (however that day will surely arrive some day soon and the money outlaid is a solid investment even though I would never intend on cashing it in once attained). I’ve owned Strats before and in 1976 I owned a beautiful 1975 blonde rosewood fingerboard Strat that I sold for $475 (yes.. I have regretted that sale on many occasions since!).

So, that’s how this blog has come into being. I am a genuine enthusiast and have had extensive experience in the music arena as a guitarist and an ex music retail and wholesale sales rep during the lates 70’s and 1980’s.

I hope and intend to make 1962 Stratocaster.com a forum of choice for many other enthusiasts around the world. If you have any comments please leave them or alternatively you may contact me using the blog contact form.

Recently we had a visit on 1962stratocaster.com from a nice guy by the name of Nick who as it happens is a 1962 Stratocaster enthusiast and owner.

Anyway,.. I exchanged a couple of emails with Nick and he has graciously allowed us to feature the images of his 62 red strat of which there are quite a lot. I’ve started a gallery of Nick’s red 62 strat pics here and will add to it shortly but for now it will give you something to have a look at and I can add to the post and the image gallery later.

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At this point let me introduce into the post Nick’s own words in response to the question I asked him “tell me the story of your 62 Strat Nick”

Nick says: “I wish I knew the story behind this guitar. It came from Texas and was owned by the uncle of a friend of mine. When his uncle died my friend was tasked with selling his gear and I bought the ’62 Strat. It came to me as a refin in black [see images in gallery below,- ed.]. I noticed that the original color had been Fiesta Red, and that it had been painted some kind of Robin’s Egg Blue at some point as well. There were a few other issues with it as well, such as the small hole in the pickguard and the Volume pot was changed.

The neck been planed, refretted, and played a lot. So I refretted it, and had a luthier in the UK who does brilliant work and has 40+ yr old Braz RW and Maple, make me a replica ’62 “C” neck, and I retired the original neck. You can see the old original neck on the guitar when it was black and one of the pix after it was returned to Fiesta Red.

The guitar sounds great, just like a ’62 Strat should sound. The original neck and the one I had made are both “cap” necks rather than “slabs”. I prefer the cabs because they are somewhere between a 50s maple neck and early 60s slab. A friend and I tested about a dozen old Strats from ’54 to ’64 and there is a noticeable difference between the ’59-’62 slab boards and the ’62-’65 caps. The slabs were made by Fender to answer the popularity of the RW board Gibsons. And the RW significantly darkened up the Strats, and did away with the classic 50′s snap and sparkle. So to move the Strat back towards its original tone Fender developed the thinner RW veneer cap, and voila! That did the trick. So now (w/ the RW cap) you get the snappy pretty high end of the maple with the rounded off top end that the RW provides. Perfect combination IMO. Here are pix of the ’62 C neck that I had custom made: “[see gallery below,- ed.]

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Hey you guys,… just thought a give a heads-up on what’s happening with the 1962 Stratocaster blog.

A short while back a really cool guy by the name of Mike left me a comment on one of my posts (go figure which one… only 2 posts here for now and just one solo comment!,… not hard to find but for ease of navigation and internal link juice benefit here ya go!…. Link to Mike’s comment on the 50th Anniversary of the 1962 Strat

Anyway,.. Mike and I kind of hit it off with a couple of emails back and forth and I invited him to become a guest blogger/author here to which he was quite pleased to accept.

The thing is though, that like all of us Mike is flat out busy and doesn’t get a lot of time to put into writing and stuff, so I told him I’d come here and kind of get the ball rolling and post a couple of nice Strat pics that he sent me recently.

Mike was telling me that nowadays as a retired MD he gets to follow his Strat passion by creating Strat relics. So I’m like totally envious at the thought of having a little workshop set up with Strat bits and pieces and choice pieces of timber and hardware hanging around because to me that would be awesome.

The pictures of the black Strat to the right are of one of Mike’s relics, it’s now owned by Ede Wright,- a fine musician from New York.

I’m not sure how long it takes Mike to create an authentic “Mike Cunningham Vintage Strat Relic” but what a joy it would be just kind of easing into it and producing something that is born of passion and steeped in modern music history. Mike can fill us in on that later. He has sent me some other pics of works in progress but we’ll save them for a separate posts (stay tuned you guys,.. either subscribe to comments at the end of this post or via RSS feed).

OK,.. that’s all for now,.. I’ll let Mike come and add to this perhaps, and/or wait for Mike to send me more stuff. Later on I think Mike and I will probably put our heads together and come up with a couple of nice articles (no rehashed BS,… just totally fresh authentic Fender stories from a couple of old Strat enthusiasts!). If you’ve got a story to tell or some info to share speak up and let’s share the Strat-love around!

PS,.. oh yeah… credit for the “Strat Adventures” title to this post go to Mike,.. that’s his line,.. and I really like it! (notice I set up a special category Mike “Strat Adventures”

Thanks for sharing Mike,… keep it coming!

Cheers, Russ

The ’62 Strat,- almost a 50 Year Romance!

Man time flies!

Especially when you’re having fun as the saying goes,… and especially when you spend most of your time knocking out those crystal clear distinctive tones on your favorite Strat or Tele for most of them.

I got to thinking the other week back to when I was working in the music industry in Australia and calling on music stores in the Sydney area selling various kinds of musical instruments ranging from drum kits to trumpets and of course a bunch of guitars. I was what they call a freelance rep at the time and was representing several musical instrument importers and wholesalers. Amongst them was a company from Melbourne who had the agency for Fender and so I got to sell a few Strats, Teles, Precision and Jazz basses and the main item I remember carrying around was a 25 year anniversary 1957 Stratocaster. Man it was a beautiful instrument finished in the old traditional sunburst style.

To be honest, I didn’t play it very much because it was always in the hands of others who were keen to have a play and see what the fuss was all about. That year was 1982, and at the time I think the price was around $1500AUD which was a fair whack back then. I often think about how I should have bought it myself but times were pretty lean back then and I was struggling to earn enough just to pay the rent and keep myself on the road at time. I wonder where that Strat is today and what it’s worth?

Anyway,.. back to what I was saying initially,- I recall thinking at the time that 25 years since the original ’57 Strat came seemed to be a long time. In fact that was about the time I was born in 1958 so I didn’t really have too much of a perspective about those years. But here we are in 2010 some 28 years later and the lapsed years just seem to have whisked past in a kind of blur as I struggled to make a mark on life and kick a few goals. Then I started to think about 2012 being 50 years since the first ’62 Strat emerged. Surely Fender will put out at 50th anniversary ’62 Strat? I must look into it a bit more but if that is the case I’m going to do my best to grab once and keep it forever and then pass it down to one of my sons (the one that can play it the best will get it!,.. and there’s four of them to fight over it).

The thing is though,.. I wonder how many (if any at all) of the original craftsmen would be available to supervise the production of them,- because that was one of the big deals with the ’57 reissue in that they were made in the old original Fender factory by the same old craftsmen using original materials, equipment and methods.

Yep,.. I’m deifinitely going to look into this more and publish another post as soon as more info comes to light. If any of my readers know anything about the topic please feel welcome to hit the comments link and leave a comment here.

OK,.. catch you later!