The new company began its ascendency with the Combo 600 and Combo 800, a pair of solid-body guitars with a cutaway to the 19th fret on the treble side and 15th fret on the bass side. The guitars were identical except for the pickups—the 600 had a single pickup while the 800 had a double. The earliest 1954 Combos had a square head. Later that year, the head would be given its characteristic asymmetrical Rickenbacker shape. All models had the same handsome blond finish.

A second crop of new electric guitars was introduced in 1956. The Combo 400 was the first Rickenbacker to feature a neck with through-body construction, rather than just being screwed onto the body like a Fender. The 400’s so-called "Tulip" body had symmetrical cutaways and came in green, brown, or black. The Combo 400 from 1957 had an even deeper cutaway on the treble side of the neck. The 400 was replaced in 1958 by the 450, whose body evolved that year from a clone of the Tulip-style 400 to a new design with a so-called cresting-wave shape.

Although the Combo 450 in either body style is eminently collectible, it usually gets overshadowed by another vintage Rickenbacker guitar from 1958, the Capri. Offered in models from the 310 to the 345, this hollow-body electric guitar with a single cat’s-eye sound hole gained lasting fame when John Lennon of The Beatles purchased a natural-finish 325. Lennon refinished his 325 in black (the gold-backed Lucite pickguard remained unimproved) and played it until 1964. In the early 1960s, Rickenbacker produced three more 325s for Lennon, including a one-of-a-kind 12-string.

Paul McCartney and George Harrison also became Rickenbacker acolytes. In 1965, McCartney traded in his Hofner for a left-handed Fireglo, dual-pickup 4001S. Harrison put down his Gretsch Duo-Jet every so often to play his Rickenbacker Combo 425, as well as a 360 12-string, which gave songs like "A Hard Day’s Night" their instantly identifiable ringing Beatles sound.

One musician who liked that sound a lot was Roger McGuinn of The Byrds. Reportedly, he bought a 360-12 after seeing the movie version of the famous Beatles song. Before long, Pete Townsend of The Who, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, John Fogarty of Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Kay of Steppenwolf, and Paul Kantner of the Jefferson Airplane were all playing Rickenbackers.

For collectors, it is important to note that in the 1960s, Rickenbacker exported a number of its models to a British company called Rose, Morris & Co., Ltd. Serial numbers on these exports have an "S" at their ends, and the tops of some of the guitar bodies have f-holes instead of the cat’s eye. The Rose guitars were also given different model names. For example, Lennon’s 325 was sold in England as the 1996, McCartney’s 4001 was the 1999, and Harrison’s 360-12 was the 1993.

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.
The Epiphone Emperor has a long, convoluted history. It first appeared in Epiphone’s catalog in late 1935 as a response to Gibson’s Super 400, which was introduced in late 1934.

Epiphone went one better on Gibson’s 18?-wide Super 400 by making the Emperor 18 1/2 wide. This was the top model in the Epiphone line. By 1937, the elaborate trapeze tailpiece was replaced by the classic Epiphone Frequensator, with separate sections for the three bass strings and three treble strings. The original inlay pattern on the fingerboard of the Emperor consisted of three separate pieces of pearl. The abalone wedge in the center of pearl block inlays was introduced in the 1940s.

Although Gibson introduced its Premier model cutaway guitars in ’39, Epiphone did not follow with the cutaway until about 1948, when it designated cutaways as Regent variants. The Zephyr designation in the Epiphone line indicated an electric guitar. The Zephyr Emperor Regent was introduced in 1950 featuring a full-depth 181?2? body, three pickups, and a six-pushbutton switching system for pickup selection. This system proved less than ideal, since it was quite noisy such that when the player switched it would send a loud pop through the amp.

In the ’50s, the Epiphone company encountered financial difficulties. In 1957, the company was sold to Chicago Musical Instrument, owner of Gibson, and production was moved to Gibson’s facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan. New Epiphone models made by Gibson were introduced at the annual trade show in 1958, but few instruments actually shipped until ’59.

The Gibson-made Epiphone Emperor electric was quite a different beast from the earlier New York-made Epiphones. The Gibson-made model still featured an 18 1/2 single-cutaway body, but it was shallow, similar to an ES-335. Those made from 1958 through 1960 used original New York-made Epiphone pickups, but by ’61 the model featured mini-humbucking pickups. The inlay on the peghead featured the vine of the same style used on the New York Epiphones, and the fingerboard inlays with pearl blocks and an abalone-V center wedge are the same style used on the New York-made Emperors. The pickup switching system, however, is quite different.

These guitars feature two volume knobs and two tone knobs, as is typical of a Gibson, whereas early Epiphones had only one volume knob and one tone knob. Rather than the awkward six-pushbutton system, the typical Gibson-made Emperor electric features one three-position toggle such that the wiring is like a Les Paul Custom or SG Custom with three pickups. In that system, the three-position switch gives a normal lead sound and normal rhythm sound, but the middle position gives the middle pickup and bridge-position lead pickup out-of-phase, for a super twangy sound – there is no normal “middle” sound.

This particular guitar is a custom-order instrument featuring a Bigsby and three on/off switches. We’ve never encountered another Gibson-made Epiphone with three such switches, but it gives great versatility of sound. With three on-off switches, a player can get any combination of pickups, and the versatility is vastly greater than what can be achieved with one three-position toggle. But it certainly isn’t perfect, and one could also argue that three volume controls and three tone controls would have been better. Still, as it is, this is an amazingly versatile and fine-sounding guitar, as well as being an extraordinarily rare and high-quality collectible.

The Gibson-made Emperor never sold in large quantities. By 1963, the model was available only on special order, but Gibson continued to make it through ’69. Since 1970 (when Gibson was acquired by Norlin) Epiphone has been an import line. In the ’70s, Epiphone Emperors were altered to use a full-depth 17? body similar in size to a Gibson L-5, and were given two full-size humbucking pickups. These guitars were made in Japan under the Epiphone name for distribution by Gibson. From the ’80s onward, Epiphones have been made in Korea, and the Emperor model of this period, though it features the vine peghead inlay and abalone wedge fingerboard inlay, features a much smaller body size and differs in shape from any of the Gibson models such that it is distinctly different from both the Japanese-made Emperor and the Kalamazoo-made Gibson, as well as the earlier New York-made Epiphone models.

While the original pre-World War II Epiphone Emperor acoustic may be the ultimate expression of the model, this Gibson-made electric Emperor is perhaps the ultimate evolution – and best-sounding version – of the electric Emperor ever made. It looks sharp, plays extremely well, and is one of the most versatile-sounding hollowbody electrics imaginable.

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The auction will be held at Christie’s, a reputable auction house based in Washington, DC, and is expected to reel in about $1 million in earnings. Some special pieces, such as the 1958 solid-body Gibson Flying V electric guitar previously owned by Albert King, are expected to attract bids as high as $90,000.

“They have been my true friends through the best and worst of times. I never planned to put together a collection. I just bought ones that I liked, the ones that sounded good and played well,” Richard was quoted saying in a statement.
Gere says he's parting with the instruments to support humanitarian causes around the world

Designed 54 years ago, but still looking like the future, the Flying V is a Gibson icon. Back in 1957, Gibson’s then-President and chief designer, Ted McCarty, undoubtedly had an eye on the ‘50s tailfins of cars by Cadillac and Chrysler when he designed the V, part of Gibson’s 1958-launched Modernistic line alongside the Explorer and super-rare Moderne.
The Flying V has a rich history in music of all genres. You’ll be needing this Flying V 101 to impress your buddies.

1. Ted McCarty’s earliest 1957 prototypes were made of mahogany, and had the ‘V’ sides but a rounded Les Paul-like rear bout. These were simply too heavy, so the cut-out bottom was added to the design and the wood changed to Korina (aka Limba). “One of the design team guys said, ‘that looks like a flying ‘v’,’” recalled McCarty, “and the name just stuck.” Pickup designer Seth Lover once claimed the cut-out was actually his idea and was done so the guitar could be stood-up vertically against a wall with ease.

2. Gibson’s Flying V was first shown in the 1958 Gibson catalogue where it was listed at $247.50, the same price as a Les Paul Standard.

3. On its 1958 commercial debut, Lonnie Mack started using a Flying V immediately. Some claim his famed Bigsby-equipped V was the only such-appointed V to leave the Gibson factory. Not true. Mack had the Bigsby retro-fitted by Cincinnati’s Glenn Hughes Music store. Mack called his V “Seven,” as it was the seventh off the production line.

4. When Gibson's Custom Shop examined "Seven" to create the signature Lonnie Mack Flying V, its humbuckers were found to have extra windings, which added to “Seven”s fat tone.

5. Mack’s Bigsby-equipped V shaped guitar lingua franca. Due to Mack’s extensive usage of his Bigbsy-loaded V on his 1963 album Wham, bridge vibrato systems gradually became knows as whammy bars.

6. Blues legend Albert King was another early adopter. His first V was a Korina ’59 and some King historians claim it was his first electric guitar. In his early career, King was a drummer. King called all of his Vs “Lucy.” His upside-down, left-handed style was unique, using a minor tuning of C?-G?-B-E-G?-C? (but hardly ever using the sixth string). ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons also gave King a custom-made replica V as a 65th birthday present.

7. The craziest fact about King’s original Vs and V copies is that three are now owned by Steven Seagal. The action-movie actor is a major guitar collector and player.

Seagal told Vintage Guitar, “There’s a rumor that Albert lost [his original V] in a craps game in the late ’60s. Whether at the game itself or as a debt he paid later, this guitar went for $2,500. The person who bought it was supposed to hang on to it – he promised never to sell it. So it disappeared for more than 20 years, hidden in Memphis. But I knew who had it, and found him. I’ve kept it quiet for many years; not many have seen it,” said Seagal.

“I think it is the most important blues guitar in the world, period, and it’s the best-sounding V around – a voice from another planet. It has the most amazing tone and it has all of Albert’s energy in it. It’s one of my greatest treasures. I have Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Firebird with the personally-carved names of Stevie, Albert King, and Muddy Waters, but this one is much more important.” Hey “Casey Ryback”, you’re a lucky guy!

8. An original 1959 Korina Flying V like King’s is one of the most valuable production-model guitars ever, ranked at #4 on the 2011 Top 25 published by Vintage Guitar. If you can even find one, be prepared to pay $200,000 to $250,000. (A ’58 Gibson Explorer and ’58 Gibson Les Paul Standard are at #3 and #2 on Vintage Guitar’s list.)

9. Part of the early Vs value is due to sheer rarity. Gibson built just 81 in 1958, and only 17 in 1959.

10. But early Flying Vs were not always so coveted: The Kinks’ Dave Davies got his V for peanuts. “In those days, I used to only carry one guitar around and I had to get a replacement quick. I went into a store and they didn't have anything I liked. I saw this dusty old guitar case and I said 'What have you got in there?' He said 'Oh, that's just some silly old guitar.' He got it out and I bought it for about $60.” Deal!

11. The Scorpions’ Rudolph Schenker is Flying V crazy. He owns over 60 Gibson Vs, including three 1958s, three '67-'69s, two '71 Medallions, three '83 reissues of the '58, four ‘80s models, as well as a few of his own '84 Rudolf Schenker Signatures, a custom double-neck Custom double-neck V and more.

12. Rudolph would have one more, were it not for his younger brother Michael who permanently “borrowed” one of his ’71 Flying V Medallions when he started playing. Michael’s later 1975 Flying V (refinished in black and white) became one of the most iconic guitars of ‘70s and ‘80s heavy metal in UFO and The Michael Schenker Group.

13. Schenker was the inspiration for Metallica’s early twin-V sound. Though James Hetfield’s white “V” was not a Gibson, but a cheap copy. "I got it in 1980, " Hetfield told Guitar World. "It was the second guitar I ever owned, and I probably bought it for $200. I knew it was a copy, but we treated it as a real Gibson. I wanted a white one because of Michael Schenker.”
Kirk Hammett explained: "I bought my black V in 1979, and it's either a '74 or '75. It was my first Gibson, and it was $450. I raised the money for it washing dishes. I played it in Exodus, and then I went on to play it on the first four Metallica albums and the accompanying tours. It was the first guitar I ever put EMG pickups in. I don't take it out on the road anymore... it's really fragile now because of the weather and traveling. It's just been overplayed, basically. and it's been thrown around quite a bit. I remember one time I got really mad during the Kill ‘Em All tour - of course, I was a little inebriated - and I took off the guitar and threw it at the amp. Another time I threw it at my tech because something wasn't working right, and he didn't catch it. Surprisingly, I never snapped the neck."

14. Maybe that’s because Gibson introduced a vollute to strengthen the headstock/neck joint in 1970. The feature first appeared on that year’s Medallion V. Flying Vs are strong, but they are best not thrown across a stage, people!
15. All Flying V's have two humbuckers, with the exception of the VII (two “boomerang” single-coils) and the V90Double (one ‘bucker, one single coil).

16. The VII was an interesting twist. Introduced by Gibson in mid-1979, its sculpted body and neck were crafted from quality five-ply walnut and maple: either w/m/w/m/w (’79-‘80) or m/w/m/w/m (from mid-1980). It had “bling” too, with gold hardware, an ebony fingerboard and a mother-of-pearl inlaid logo. It remains a collectors’ item, despite it not being widely popular at the time.

17. Jimi Hendrix owned at least three Gibson Flying Vs. Two were right-handed – a 1969 tobacco sunburst and a 1967, originally black, that Jimi himself painted to become his so-called “Psychedelic V.” The third was a left-hander, built for Jimi by Gibson in 1969 and first used live in 1970.

Jimi’s “Psychedelic V” remains iconic, but it has had a bizarre journey. In January 1969, Jimi gifted the V to Mick Cox of Eire Apparent, an Irish band who toured with Hendrix. Cox decided to strip the guitar of Jimi’s nail-varnish paintings (doh!) and later sold it to Ken Hensley of U.K. rockers Uriah Heep. It ended up with U.K. session musician Dave Brewis, who restored it to its old glory in 1999. This guitar, along side pictures of Jimi’s “original”, was used by the Gibson Custom Shop to make a run of just 300, the artwork done by artist Bruce Kunkel.

18. In 1981, Gibson introduced a Flying V bass, making just 375. So they are very rare, but this television appearance by U.K. post-punkers Killing Joke appears to see bassist Paul Raven playing a genuine Gibson Flying V bass.

19. At 44” from headstock to end bouts, the Flying V is one of the longest production guitars ever made. Not as long, though, as this V-alike made by Ralph Ciociano from New York store Guitar Shack. Now, that’s a big guitar.

20. In 2007 Gibson created a limited-run Reverse Flying V, with the tips of the wings facing forward and a backwards V headstock, but other aspects of the design –body contours, vintage style pickups - remained faithful to the ’57-designed original. Just 300 were made.

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To celebrate the April 4, 1913 birthday of McKinley Morganfield, who was given the nickname Muddy Waters by his grandmother, let’s take a look at some of the basics required to start dialing in his classic, monstrously soulful guitar sound.
Early on Muddy played an acoustic archtop guitar, like a Gibson L-5, with a screw-on D’Armond “Rhythm Chief” pickup, through a small amp, such as a five-watt Gibson GA5 Les Paul Junior Combo. That gear would be close to a carbon copy of the equipment Waters first used in the Chess studios in 1946.

Less than a decade later, however, Waters was famously photographed brandishing a 1952 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top. That historic solid body model set on the rhythm pickup cuts right into the same territory thanks to the superb sound of its P-90 pickups, which were standard issue in the early and mid-1950s. With a small amp like the GA5 and some volume, the result is super-rich harmonic distortion.

Here’s a tip: don’t use a pick; use your fingers. If you don’t finger pick and you’re looking for the early Muddy sound, well, now’s the time to start.

On songs like “Louisiana Blues,” where Muddy played nasty, keening slide, he’d shift the D’Armond pickup up to about 25-percent of the distance between the bridge and neck, up from the bridge. On a solid body, try the middle pickup setting to get into the same zone.

Besides his dark, rolling, Delta-born finger picking single-note style, slide remained an essential and highly influential part of Muddy’s bag throughout his career from his Chess years to the final trio of albums he made with Gibson Firebird legend Johnny Winter: 1977’s Hard Again, ’78’s I’m Ready, and ’81’s King Bee. When it comes to slide, Winter, Eric Clapton, Billy Gibbons and Keith Richards are among Muddy’s high-profile disciples, although the two players who play closest to his keening attack were men who stood next to him on stage for years: former Muddy Waters Band members Bob Margolin and Paul Oscher.

“I can’t think of anybody heavier and deeper,” Margolin says. “A lot of his guitar style comes from the fact that he transformed Delta blues from acoustic to electric guitar. He played simpler than a lot of Delta players. He liked a very distorted sound, and he’d dampen it with his hand a little and use the volume control on the guitar. His slide playing in standard turning, or open A or G, was just devastatingly powerful.”

Muddy used a small metal slide on the pinky of his left hand, similar to the pinky slide and signature Johnny Winter slides made by Dunlop. A small slide offers more control including more efficient deployment of effects like hammering and fretting, although those weren’t a big part of Waters’ repertoire.

Unlike his fellow blues great Elmore James, Waters employed single note slide lines almost exclusively. To get that real Delta-via-Chicago sound, you’ll need to try open A (E-A-E-A-C#-E) or open G (D-G-D-G-B-D). Both permit searingly bright lines in the middle and lead pickup positions. A perfect example from Muddy’s songbook is “Honey Bee.” On the many versions of this classic that Muddy recorded live and in the studio, he typically started the tune with bold, deep lines and built solos around screaming notes.
Try this: place your slide on the 10th fret of the high B and D strings in open G and sliding – sharp and fast with some serious pressure on the strings — up to the 12th fret, and when the sound you hear coming from your amp starts to feel right, vibrate the slide over the 12th fret moving your wrist quickly left-and-right. Start with the top string at first, and then build some simple melodies by playing off both the fifth and sixth.

One last factor to consider is slide vibrato that is achieved by shaking a slide back and forth. Muddy’s slide vibrato was insane, both manic and controlled. That added to the excitement of his playing. And Waters, like his earlier Delta influences Son House and Robert Johnson, almost always slid up the neck and moved down only for radical sonic effects. Also, practice hitting notes accurately with a slide. To get deep into the Mud zone, your intonation has to be spot on. Slide is somewhat forgiving in intonation, because its fluidity is similar to that of the human voice. But Muddy was ferociously accurate, and the more accurate you are the more you’ll sound like Muddy Waters — and like a badass.

Collectors, fans and musicians gathered at Bonhams New York yesterday for a sale of 75 guitars and 55 amps from the collection of Eric Clapton. The items were auctioned to benefit The Crossroads Centre in Antigua. With 100 percent of the lots sold, the final auction total more than tripled pre-sale expectations, with proceeds going to the drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre founded by Clapton in 1998.

Bidders from all four corners of the globe battled throughout the 4 ½ hour auction and included clients from the U.S., Asia, Australasia, UK, Europe, and the Caribbean. Notably, a private Russian Eric Clapton fan and collector showed keen interest in the room and Asian participants included those from Japan, Korea and Hong Kong.

“It has been a privilege and an honour working on this exceptional sale and being associated with one of the most iconic living musicians, Eric Clapton,” said Jon Baddeley, Worldwide Head of Collectables at Bonhams. “Arguably the greatest guitarist of all time, Eric Clapton inspires an ever-expanding fan base, many of whom made the journey to Bonhams in New York over the past few days and joined us for this remarkable auction. We were delighted to play our part in raising funds for The Crossroads Centre, a charity with a noble mission and a cause that remains very close to Eric’s heart.”

Guitar highlights included a 1948 Gibson L-5P that sold for $82,960 and a 2005 Zemaitis S22BP 3S that sold for $75,640. The top amp of the sale was a pair of 1997 Fender Twin Amps that sold for $42,700

Gibson Byrdland

The Gibson Byrdland, introduced in 1955, has one of the more unusual stories of any artist signature model. For starters, it was named after two artists, neither of whom would have been the first thought that came to mind upon hearing the model name. The model name carried a stronger reference to the phonetically identical Birdland jazz club, even though both of the Byrdland's signature guitarists were known as country guitarists (for an extra twist of irony, both of the signature artists were, in fact, very capable jazz players). And though the Byrdland's calling card was its short-scale neck, its most important feature in the context of Gibson history was its thin body - it was Gibson's first thinbody model.

The Byrd in the model name was Billy Byrd, a Nashville native who was a disciple of Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt. In the late '40s, Byrd took two young Nashville guitarists under his wing - Harold Bradley (who would become the dean of Nashville session guitarists) and Hank Garland, whose last name would provide the "land" in Byrdland.

William Lewis "Billy" Byrd played with Western swing groups before World War II, but in the late '40s, as Nashville began to blossom as a recording center, he began playing with country artists. Ernest Tubb hired him in '49, and Byrd's simple, tasteful lead lines became a signature sound of Tubb's records. Tubb would often call out Byrd's name before a guitar solo.

Walter Louis "Hank" Garland was born in Cowpens, South Carolina, and moved to Nashville as a guitar prodigy at age 16 in 1946. Three years later he recorded a catchy country tune called "Sugarfoot Rag" that became an instrumental hit. In 1950, Red Foley recorded a vocal version featuring a guitar solo by Garland, who was henceforth nicknamed Hank "Sugarfoot" Garland.

In the early '50s, Garland's continuing interest in jazz led him to Barry Galbraith, an influential jazz guitarist who, in 1952, had started using a guitar made by Elmer Stromberg of Boston that featured a 23 1/2" scale. The shortened scale - a full two inches shorter than that of a Gibson L-5 - allowed for wider hand stretches and complex new chord voicings, and Garland ordered his own Stromberg G-5.

In 1954, Gibson exhibited its instrument line at the convention, and Gibson rep Clarence Havenga met with Garland and Byrd to talk about new ideas for guitar design (as recounted in A.R. Duchossoir's Gibson Electrics: The Classic Years, Garland remembered the year as 1955, but since the deejay convention was held in the fall and the first Byrdlands appear in Gibson ledger books in April of that year, a meeting at the deejay convention would have to have been in '54). Garland and Byrd suggested a hollowbody electric with three unique features - a short scale, 22 frets (two more than the L-5), and, for playing comfort, a thinner body.

Gibson used the L-5 as the base model, and the first two Byrdlands (held by Garland and Byrd in an advertisement) were only distinguishable from an L-5 when viewed at an angle. For the production version, Gibson did away with the L-5's large, flat tailpiece and fitted the Byrdland with a bent-wire tailpiece with three loops. Otherwise, the "look" was the same as the L-5CES, with pearl-flowerpot peghead ornament, pearl block fingerboard inlays, gold-plated hardware, two Alnico V single-coil pickups, Tune-O-Matic bridge, etc. The differences were the scale, 15/8" nut width (compared to 111/16" on the L-5), 22 frets, and 21/4" body depth (compared to 33/8" on the L-5).

Gibson introduced the Byrdland at the National Association of Music Merchants trade show in July of '55. At $550 for sunburst finish and $565 for natural, it was only $25 cheaper than the L-5CES. To promote the new model, Gibson created an ad that described the guitar as having been "designed for progressive guitarists." "Progressive" was obviously a code word for jazz, reinforcing the reference to the most famous jazz club in New York - Birdland.

The catch word in the ad copy was fast - "...unusually fast and brilliant tonal response" and a neck designed for the "fast action needed in modern playing." However, looking at the ad copy from a historical perspective, the most interesting phrase was "...combining the characteristics of the solid body and conventional guitars." The Byrdland did not have any solidbody characteristics at all, but that statement shows that the concept of combining solidbody and traditional design was simmering at Gibson a full three years before emerging in '58 as the ES-335, Gibson's first semi-hollowbody electric.

The Byrdland went through the same changes as the other high-end archtop electrics, from Alinco V pickups to humbuckers in 1958, from rounded Venetian cutaway to pointed Florentine cutaway in late 1960 (then back to rounded in '69), and from solid two-piece back to laminated one-piece in the early '60s (then back to two-piece in '69). Additional experimental versions included a "Charlie Christian" bar pickup in the neck position (a configuration played by Garland), a double-cutaway body, and stereo-Varitone electronics.

The Byrdland's short-scale neck offered guitarists something fundamentally different from any other Gibson, and guitarists liked it. After shipping only three Byrdlands in 1955, Gibson shipped 56 in '56 - one more than the 55 L-5CESs shipped that year. For the rest of the '50s and on through the '60s, the Byrdland significantly outsold the thicker-bodied/longer-scale L-5CES.

The Byrdland's basic design strength carried it along after Garland and Byrd were no longer active influences. Although it was surpassed in sales by the L-5CES in the '70s, the Byrdland maintained its popularity, averaging 115 per year for the '70s compared to 124 per year for the '60s. Gibson finally discontinued it in 2008.

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In 1961 Fender started using a more robust red dye for their three color sunburst. Also the dark brown part of the sunburst around the edge of the body is slightly more black. Hence the sunburst finish on a 1961 Fender Strat is much bolder looking. Fender also felt the need to add patent numbers to the peghead during 1961. Still has the "slab" rosewood fingerboard, but the back neck shape is larger (and more comfortable in my opinion).

Serial number range for the 61 Fender Stratocaster are generally 55000 to 72000 (on the neck plate). If you need to figure out the exact year of your pre-CBS Fender Stratocaster, use the serial number and the general features of the guitar. The serial number is located on the back metal neck plate. See the Fender Serial Number Info web page for help determining the year.

1961 Fender Stratocaster guitar specs:
• Peghead decal logo now has 2 patent numbers (2,573,254 & 2,741,146)
• Neck backshape is a fatter "D" shape, but still not nearly as fat as 1958 and prior Stratocaster necks.
• Fender now using a more robust red in their sunburst finish. Hence 1961 and later Strats don't have sunburst finished with a faded out red.
• The dark "Amber brown" part of the sunburst finish is now changed to "black". Hence the dark part of the sunburst is more striking and does not blend as well as prior sunburst finishes. It is a subtle change.
• White "chicklet" paper tone capacitor changes to a red round disc capacitor with yellow insulting tubing on one leg of the cap.

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