Oldest Known Strat For Sale

I think a swirl finish would look awesome on that guitar.

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Finally watched the video from the link in the first post. George really seems to be doing the hard sell. He states that it's the first Stratocaster every other sentence, but the copy in the book states that it is know to be from the first production run and is "perhaps" the first. So Richard Smith who owned it and was friends with Leo wouldn't state that it was the first, but Gruhn will...flatly and repeatedly. I know the man knows his stuff, but I also know he's among the main reasons that the vintage guitar craze ever took off. He's bought literally tons of guitars low and sold them all very high as his rhetoric has increased the perceived value of endless amounts of instruments.

Just to clarify, I mean rhetoric in the "the art or skill of speaking or writing formally and effectively especially as a way to persuade or influence people" way, not necessarily the "language that is intended to influence people and that may not be honest or reasonable" way. He is after all a salesman and the legacy of the types of instruments that he deals in is near pointless to dispute. The actual value of those instruments is, however, another story.
 
Yeah, I kinda got that too. The whole "this is the most important strat in the world" coming from the guy that's about to sell it, has to be taken with a grain of salt IMO. I agree with the previous post about the artist adding value to the instrument. Otherwise it's just an old strat that sat in a case for 70 years. :shrug:

I'm sure he'll still get top dollar for it and it will likely sit in a case, or behind glass, for the rest of its life.
 
Of course, Gruhn is correct that the first production run of strats had the numbers pressed into the rear tremolo covers, and this numbering did start with 0100, so this guitar is probably the first of the regular production. I don't think there are many people who know more about the history of the strat than Gruhn, so if he puts his name on the line over it, I bet it is legit and he has additional provenance to back up the claim (like original documents, etc.). I guess the question is how much the number on that plate matters to someone who collects things like this, especially knowing there are more than a few documented prototype/pre-production guitars out there from the same year.
 
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