Original case, owners manual, tremelo bar, bridge cover,
tuners, pick ups, finish, 3-way switch, frets, pickguard and every screw on it.
Serial number L82815.
In the mid 60's every kid wanted to be a rock musician (read 'BEATLE') and one of my
friends' dad, Mr. Cook, had an electric guitar and amp that he would let us play. He
was an old country music performer and he would do some real fancy pickin' for us. I
fell in love with his guitar, it was a '57 Fender Stratacaster, and he had an old
Fender amp. This guitar of his seemed to almost play itself, of course my guitar was
an old acoustic with strings about 3 inches above the fretboard, since it took two
hands to hold the strings down someone else had to strum it for you. Needless to say,
I fell in love with his Strat and vowed to own one myself one day.
I was working and saving money by the time I was 13 so I used to get up every
Saturday and run outside to get the morning paper and I would read the classified
looking for a Strat. My little brother (by 5 years) asked me one morning what I was
always looking for.
I said "Somewhere in this town some rich kid got his dad to buy
him a Stratocaster, when he sells it I'm gonna buy it."
Early one Saturday morning in the early 70's I was reading the classifieds and I saw an ad that said
"Guitar and Amp for Sale, $300". I called and asked the fellow what kind of guitar it was.
He said "I think it's a Fender".
!!!!!!!!!!
I got his address (his fathers furniture store), dressed and ran out the door as
fast as I could. On the way out I hollered to my brother that he could ride along if
he wanted to and he chased me out the door.
When we got there it was still early and they had just opened, we were the only ones
there except for a young fellow (early 20's). I said "I came to see the guitar for
sale".
He said "You're the first one here, I must have had ten calls on it already".
He opened the case and I nearly went blind and forgot how to talk. My brother nudged
me and asked "Is that what you've been looking for?"
I mumbled something that must have sounded like "I'll take it".
He said "Don't you want to see the amp?"
"Sure"
As he was taking the cover off the amp I was thinking "I've got to get out of here
before someone else shows up and offers him more money!" All of a sudden I was looking
at a
SUPER REVERB! With my knees wobbling, I said "I'll take it" again.
I kept watching the front door for the Grim Reaper to come in and kill me before I
could make it out with this equipment. It took waaaay too long to pay him, close
the guitar case and put the cover back on the amp.
I told my brother to carry the guitar while I grabbed the amp (heavy) and crab walked
it all the way to the car. In a screaming whisper I was saying "Quick, load it! Hurry!
Hurry will ya!"
When we drove out of the parking lot I started to yell and realized that I hadn't
breathed in the last ten minutes. So I took a deep breath and screamed at the top of
my lungs, scaring my brother half to death.
When I got home and unloaded my trophies I was showing them off to my family when my
father said "THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS? You could buy ten brand new guitars at Sears for three
hundred dollars."
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