“The neck date reads December 1957. This Strat has been loved and played, but it’s very straight and correct, with the yellowed plastic knobs and pickup covers, and the alder body, which were all standard by then. The body has slim body contours like a ’56 or ’57, and it’s quite unlike the chunkier contours that started appearing in mid-to-late 1958.
“The neck starts off with a beautiful V that is on the harder side and that’s fairly typical for late 1957. By about the 5th fret the V shape softens out into a larger and wider profile, and by the 9th fret it has a very substantial heft. The frets are original and they show some wear, mostly in the cowboy chord position, but the playability is fantastic.
“I don’t know much about this guitar’s history, but I got it about 20 years ago. I received a call from We Buy Guitars and after seeing some photos and asking a lot of questions I flew down to Texas to buy it. “I remember opening the case and saying, ‘Wow’ because it looked so much like the 1958 Moreno Blue Esquire that I also still have.
It’s obvious they were sprayed from the same can of paint and, in fact, I’d imagine that one quart of lacquer did all the guitars Fender ever made in this colour. “Moreno Blue is the colour that pre-dates Lake Placid Blue because Fender didn’t begin using that until late 1959. Moreno Blue was sprayed over a Desert Sand basecoat and this body was always intended to be this colour.
“In the 1950s, most Strats we.