Verily, I present to you photos to follow. The guitar is not 169% complete, in that it needs so-me tweaks and customization, but it is complete enough to be photographed.
As we know, Jimmy Page broke with his usual practice when he cut the darkest and most profound hard rock album ever set to music. Supposedly, he was holed up in Munich in a Nazi bunker for days straight, high as a kite on heroin doing overdubs when he recorded Presence , not on a Tele, Esquire, or Les Paul, but on a Lake Placid Blue 1963 Stratocaster. You can hear the thin sound and tremolo all over that album.
I actually talked with the guy who claims to have sold Jimmy Page that Strat in build-ing this guitar, specifically designed to get those tones off Achilles' Last Stand, For Your Life, Tea For One, etc.. Since I am not Jimmy Page, I built a late production 1969 Strat and not a 1963, painted Blue Ice Metallic, not Lake Placid Blue, and I stung it with .011s and not the .008s Jimmy used.
But here it is, displayed by Angelina (who is a sweetheart, BTW). The photos do not show it, but the guitar is quite scratched up (then I polished out some of the scrat-ches), as it was shot in lacquer. (Fender started using poly mid-way through 1968, but Blue Ice was always shot in lacquer, as Fender stopped offering this color in 1969).
The wear and dings are carefully placed as they would be on a real '69 Strat, except for one ding that I don't like on the upper horn. Not much arm-wear; a lot of well-played Strats from that era don't really show it and too many relicers really over-do it, along with the fake lacquer checking. I can appreciate why people don't like relicing, but to me a 1969 Strat should show some player wear.
Unfortunately, I do not have a good shot of the back.
The body is alder, as were all custom color Fenders that were not blonde. The con-tours are deliberately a bit chunky, as Fender was starting to cut corners in production by 1969. The pickup routes are the squared-off type which were introduced early-mid 1969.
The middle and bridge pickups are Mother's Milk; the neck pickup is a rewound 1967 Fender Mustang pickup. Apparently the guitar's first owner played soul music and wanted a bright warm tone.
I have not been able to find convincing pickup covers of the almost translucent white used from late 1969 through the early 1970's. With a black pickup assembly under-neath, the result looks bluish, like skim milk. If you know where to get some, let me know. I am all ears.
Scratchplate is a 1969 "pearlback" style, with the pearloid material on the back where it cannot be readily seen. (Fender Mustang guitars had pearloid pickguards, and from 1969 through early-mid 1970, Fender used the same material, reversed, for most Strat and Tele pickguards. For some reason, this is one of the many details Fender gets wrong in their re-issues, although some 1969 and early 1970 Strats had the usu-al pickguards.)
The bridge is mostly from Callaham guitars, except the saddles which are "Fender Pat. Pend" and are illegal. Another area where the Fender re-issues drop the ball.
Two of the potentiometers are original Fenders from 1966 (Fender ordered a ton of 1966-dated pots, and continued to use that stock through the early 1970's). The vol-ume pot is an Ernie Ball from 1983. The tone cap is NOS ceramic, used by Fender through 1970. The switch is an NOS Ernie Ball 3-way, identical to those used by Fender in 1969.
I forget where I found the control knobs.
The jackplate needs replacing, as it came to me as a rather unconvincing "relic" which I tried unsuccessfully to restore.
I wired the guitar in black and white cloth wiring, which is not typical for Fender gui-tars of that date. Most used B&W plastic wiring or multi-colored wiring left over from Fender amps. I hate to re-wire this guitar now, as at least I was able to keep the soldering and wire layout reasonably sanitary for once.
Like most of the Fenders I build, the neck is a "D" sized neck, referring to the wide necks that could be specially ordered at that time. It is much thicker than most Fender necks of the day, maybe because it was a custom order. I took a bit of the finish off and rolled the edges to give the guitar a played-in feel.
The fretboard is a rosewood veneer like the originals and not a slab-board. This is yet another thing Fender does not bother to do right. Also the trussrod is in the correct location, so you can adjust it without pulling the neck.
Fret inlays are mother of toilet seat, but do not quite look right for a guitar of that era. Here, I am the one who messed up, but I am looking to fix this problem.
The serial number is a sort of inside joke, but it would register for late 1969. It was stamped on an machine identical to those used at Fender at that time, although it is not original.
The nut is cut from oil-impregnated bone, with the correct vintage-style curved bot-tom. It does a surprisingly good job of keeping the guitar in tune, even when I ride the trem hard. This is not so vintage-correct, I think. (The Callaham trem arm sucks, BTW. It is the right length, but otherwise way too springy and flexible, which makes the tremolo effect hard to control. I have a line on a stiffer arm like the one in my '71.) Five springs, very lightly aged along with the block and claw to knock off some shine.
Five of the tuners are Fender "F" tuners, although one has a gold back from a 1981 Fender Brassmaster Strat. I like it because it resembles a gold tooth. One tuner is a 1970's vintage Schaller replacement that is mostly identical to the Fender "F" tuners, as those were also contracted out to Schaller. They are basically new in appearance, as tuners typically don't age so much.
The decal is pretty much identical to the real thing, with metallic inks and, unlike the re-issues, the correct patent numbers.
All screw holes were lubricated with wax from an Paschal candle from an Orthodox church. The area under the pickguard, jackplate and (mostly) under the backplate are unscratched. I went and made a thin solution of black soil, vodka, sand, and water and I laid that under the covers with a Q-tip to simulate the dirt and dust that collects in an old guitar. I thought about mixing in some genuine pit bull turds into the solu-tion for added mojo, but I did not think my wife would allow that much mojo in the house.
I will probably engrave something into the back side of the tremolo blackplate, but I don't know what yet. The Russian phrases "Зверобой" and "Пиздец Всему" come to mind. The first means "Beast Slayer;" the second has a meaning which is not repeat-able on a family forum. Both are nicknames for two fearsome models of Soviet WW II era self-propelled anti-tank gun. Or I might inscribe verses or something from a traditional Thai tattoo.
Suggestions are welcome.
