Hold on a minute, is that Lucite 2876-L, on a 1966 Fender Stratocaster?

Standardised in 1960, Fender’s range of custom colour options were based on the Du Pont colour charts. Lake Placid Blue was a Lucite acrylic shade unlike shades such as Sonic Blue that were Duco Nitrocellulose. 

The guitar is fantastic. The colour is just so pure with only very little yellowing of the clear coat as you can see when removing the pickgurad. There are a few chips around the edges but none of them really detract from the overall look. 

Often a blemish can be one of the first things you notice, but with this guitar there’s none of that. There is some checking which adds to the character of the instrument, catching the light in a pleasing way. The neck is in great shape. The lacquer has worn smooth around the back, more prominently on the treble side. The fretboard shows slight wear around the first fret but there is nothing serious there. The factory frets, which were bigger by the mid 60’s, have plenty of life left in them. The headstock looks good too with only a few marks.

The plastics are in great shape with only some very minor warping to the pick guard around the neck pickup on the bass side. The hardware on a whole is in good shape though its evident that the bridge cover wasn’t a regular feature on this guitar as the saddles are corroded. Having said that this is confined to the saddles themselves and the other parts are fine.

The electronics here are in great shape with the grey bottom pickups dated at 3 - 2 - 66. None of the solder joints seem to have been disturbed and all pickups produce full tone and are evenly balanced. 

The guitar comes with its correct black tolex Fender hardshell case.

Sonically this is certainly late Hendrixian/Trower territory. The neck pickup has plenty of low end for that chewy rhythm tone. This opens up gradually as we move the selector switch with more and more twang coming to the fore without becoming too piercing. The neck is very comfortable and those large frets make for a confidence boosting playing surface.

Custom colours area favourite around here and when they look as good as this one then its an added bonus. Add to that a large headstock and a neck this comfortable, there isn’t much not to like here. Just take a look at the lovely pics…