Up for sale, a 2004 Fender Stratocaster '57 vintage reissue model ST57-66US in excellent, 100% original condition and in perfect working order, complete with the original factory installed Fender American Vintage 57/62 pickups. Crafted in Japan, this guitar was made exclusively for the Japanese domestic market, rarely seen outside its country of origin.
The basswood body is paired with a one-piece maple neck, ensuring a balanced, snappy acoustic tone, and the factory-installed Fender USA pickups match vintage spec with black fiber bobbins, staggered alnico magnets, and cloth-covered leads. Via the five-way switch, these Fender single coils have a sparkling treble cut, tight bass, and a dynamic, clear quality, well-suited for chiming cleans and overdriven sizzle. This Strat weighs 7lbs 14oz, professionally setup here at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar with 10-46 strings, low action, and accurate intonation.
The maple neck has a chunky C-shaped profile carve with generous shoulder in every register and lightly rolled fretboard edges, measuring .865" deep at the 1st fret and .980" at the 12th. On the gloss-finished 7 1/4" radius maple fretboard, the original slender frets show moderate wear beneath the plain strings on the crowns of frets 1-4, with wear extending more faintly until fret 9. The guitar plays easily up the 25 1/2" scale with a straight neck and responsive, optimally adjusted truss rod. The nut measures a full 1 11/16" in width. On the headstock, the Kluson-style Gotoh tuning machines have the correct vintage look, turn smoothly, and hold pitch well. The "Crafted in Japan" script text and R-prefix serial number is present above the four-bolt neck plate.
All of the electronics work as they should, and the USA-made Fender 57/62 pickups are cleanly wired to full-size pots and a five-way pickup selector switch. The pickups are an incredible value and feature all of the hallmarks of vintage Fender design, with black fiber bobbins, staggered un-beveled alnico magnets, and cloth-covered leads. The vibrato has a large block for great sustain, and the unit is very responsive for smooth surfy warbles and deeper dives, jumping back into tune with ease. The chrome hardware has plenty of shine on the bridge base and jack cup, and there is notable patina across the bridge saddles (all screws still adjust as intended). All original plastics are quite clean, with sparingly little aging of the pickup covers and uniformly yellowed knobs.
The finish is abbreviated "OLB" in Fender Japan's catalog description for "Old Lake Placid Blue," a decidedly more icy and vintage-correct shade of this custom color than previous Fender Japan iterations. Cosmetic wear includes some dings on the body, mostly relegated to the lower bout body edge, and just a few additional scuffs and minor marks on the body as a whole
The original Fender-branded gigbag is included.