1965-1966 Fender Stratocaster Sonic Blue

This is a beautiful and very rare yellowed Sonic Blue (look at the cool differences in color when seen under different light!!)  Fender Stratocaster, made at the Fender Factory between late 1965 and early 1966.
 
The guitar comes with an appraisal from Francesco Balossino, Cesco's Corner Guitars. It was purchased by it's second owner in the mid 1980s and believed to be completely stock from the factory. It since passed hands a few times in several high end collections.

The Big Headstock neck is stamped 13DEC65B (December 1965) which is the very first month in which Fender produced the Stratocaster and Jazzmaster with the famous Large Headstock. The RW fretboard shows a very beautiful signature and has perloid dots on the front and side and still the original (!!!) medium jumbo frets, which is very rare! The finish on the neck and headstock is in great condition and all original, as is the gold/black transitional Fender decal. 

The Stackpole pots date 137.6549 (49th week of 1965) and the great sounding grey bottom pickups are signed 3-11-66 (March 11, 1966) and they are fully original with no work done to them. The rare Sonic Blue nitro finish is all original and shows evidence of matching with the neck plate, the neck and parts. As these mid 60s sonic blue Fender finishes yellowed a lot, it was very common for owners/luthiers to try to remove the yellowing with fine sanding. This finish is all original but in the past someone tried to remove most of the yellow clear lacquer by slightly sanding it and then put a final thin layer of overspray on top to preserve the original finish. It has playwear and checking on the body but there are no signs of any work or restoration done to the body, cavities, routings etc. All is 100% legit! All factory markings are present and visible. All plastics and hardware is also original from the pickguard, knobs, electronics, pots, capacitor, wiring, pickups, tremolo bridge, saddles (original saddles but sprayed silver to hide the blackness of the corrosion), tremolo arm and tuners. At some point in the 80s  the owner installed different tuners and put an additional string tree on the headstock but these were removed and the original tuners were put back on there. 

So, anything not original to the guitar? The backplate is a nice matching early 80's reissue and the switch is a 1977 5-way CRL 1452 switch (original switch tip). These can however easily be replaced for original parts if you would desire so. Also the nut is replaced for a luthier handmade bone nut. That's it!