While photographing this guitar, I was oddly reminded of the final fight scene in the movie "Highlander" between Christopher Lambert and Clancy Brown, where they both are pretty ragged, beaten up and worn out. At the end, Lambert slashes the front half of Brown's throat out and then dramatically looks into the camera and says, "There can be only one." It's pretty intense and then all the windows blow out and the good guy saves the world and gets the girl. We've seen it a million times.

Such in the case with this Proto Hippocaster; There is and can be only one. I've read as much as I can about this guitar online and have come to the conclusion that this was the guitar that was demo'd and taken to dealers to show off and allow them to try it out. That would certainly explain the condition, as there is a good bit of belt wear on the back and rear tremolo cavity plate along with a good amount of pick swirling on the pickguard. One would hope that a Custom Shop piece as historical as this would be dead nuts mint and virtually unplayed, but this is not the case.

I will say this; Our tech is a finicky and particular player and so when he asked me how much I was going to ask for the guitar, I knew we had a really good one. He's real funny about the instruments he plays, so his interest told me that we had a superior playing and sounding guitar. In the effort to be as complete in my description as possible, here are the specs that I have found:

There were 21 guitars built. The prototype was a sample with serial #000. They group of 20 were basically promo guitars sold only in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina U.S.A. Here are the features of this guitar:

(1) Highly figured Swamp Ash body
(2) 3 early Texas Special pickups
(3) Gold Schaller locking tuners
(4) Fender "F" on body war burnt into body, it is not an inlay.
(5) Real vintage tortoise shell pickguard and rear tremolo cavity cover
(6) 5way selector switch

(7) Jeff Beck roller nut

(8) Rosewood fretboard with classic "C" shaped neck

Along with the condition, the trem bar that came with the guitar cannot be the original one. It is too small for the hole in the trem block, but I am including it as it came with the guitar. There is also a noticeable ding on the back of the neck, as pictured.

This is a unique opportunity to own what is truly a one-of-a-kind guitar and the only one like it in the world. And, if you really want to be daring, you can actually plug it in and play the heck out of it instead of banishing it to a glass case on the wall. That might the greatest feature of this entire package...

Please take a look at the photos, let us know if you have any questions and as always, we thank you for stopping by!