A 1955 Fender Stratocaster in a blonde finish—a rare color for that time. The background reveals how the Fender factory looked when this guitar was built there.
“The tone of the Stratocaster is as new and different as tomorrow and is the big professional tone so long sought after by critical players.”
These words from the 1954 Fender catalog announced the arrival of what would become one of the most popular electric guitars ever. The Stratocaster was developed with input from players dissatisfied with Leo Fender’s first electric guitar, the Telecaster. The Strat’s new features included a more comfortable body shape, a bridge that allowed players to adjust the intonation for each individual string, and a vibrato system.
The new Fender model not only attracted early rock ’n’ rollers like Buddy Holly, Johnny Meeks (the legendary lead guitarist for Gene Vincent and The Blue Caps), and Ritchie Valens, but it also appealed to artists in such varied genres as Western swing (Eldon Shamblin of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys) and champagne music (Buddy Merrill of The Lawrence Welk Show). The 1955 Strat featured this month was used for years in a Wisconsin polka band called The Merri Tones.
This month’s Strat is very much like any other made in ’55. It has a one-piece maple neck with a “spaghetti” logo on the headstock, a “comfort contoured” ash body, brittle Bakelite pickup covers and knobs (replaced by a more durable plastic during 1956), and a “synchronized tremolo.” While the standard finish for a Stratocaster was a deep sunburst, this guitar has the same see-through blonde as a Telecaster. Custom color Strats were rare in the ’50s—and especially rare before 1956 when the option first appeared in the Fender catalog.
LEFT: Serial #7589 bears all the signs of a
well-played Strat.
RIGHT: The Stratocaster’s synchronized tremolo
and contour body were radical features when the
model was introduced in 1954, so it’s no surprise
that each is noted on the headstock.
The Strat’s original owner bought it new in November of 1955 for $317. He was allowed a payment plan of $15.73 installments with the final amount due in May of 1957. According to the back of his sales contract, he paid off the guitar a whole year early. His polka gigs must have been good! The current market value for the guitar is $40,000.
Bought in November 1955, this Strat was purchased on an 18-month installment plan.
You’ll find a wealth of details on Fender Strats in The Fender Stratocaster by A.R. Duchossoir and The Stratocaster Chronicles: Celebrating 50 Years of the Fender Strat by Tom Wheeler.
Original price: $317 with case in 1955
Current estimated market value: $40,000
Dave ’s Guitar Shop
Dave Rogers’ collection is tended by Laun Braithwaite and Tim Mullally and is on display at:
Dave’s Guitar Shop
1227 Third Street South
La Crosse, WI 54601
davesguitar.com
Photos by Mullally and text by Braithwaite.
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Diamond Pedals Dark Cloud
True to the Diamond design ethos of our dBBD’s hybrid analog architecture, Dark Cloud unlocks a new frontier in delay technology which was once deemed unobtainable by standard BBD circuit.
Powered by an embedded system, the Dark Cloud seamlessly blends input and output signals, crafting Tape, Harmonic, and Reverse delays with the organic warmth of analog companding and the meticulous precision of digital control.
Where analog warmth meets digital precision, the Dark Cloud redefines delay effects to create a pedal like no other
But by gosh, if delay—and its sister effect, reverb—haven’t always been perfect for the music I like to write and play. Which brings us to the Fishman EchoBack Mini Delay. The EchoBack, along with the standard delay controls of level, time, and repeats—as well as a tap tempo—has a toggle to alternate between analog, tape, and digital-delay voices.
I hooked up my Washburn Bella Tono Elegante to my Blues Junior to give the EchoBack a test run. We love a medium delay—my usual preference for delay settings is to have both level and repeats at 1 o’clock, and time at 11 o’clock. With the analog voice switched on, I heard some pillowy warmth in the processed signal, as well as a familiar degradation with each repeat—until their wake gave way to a gentle, distant, crinkly ticking. Staying on analog and adjusting delay time down to 8 o’clock and repeats to about 11:30, some cozy slapback enveloped my rendition of Johnny Marr’s part to “Back to the Old House,” conjuring up thoughts of Elvis trapped in a small chamber, but in a good way. It sounded indubitably authentic. The one drawback of analog delay for me, generally, is that its roundness can feel a bit under water at times.
Switching over to tape, that pillowy warmth evaporated, and in its place came a very clear replication of my tone—but with just a bit of the highs shaved off the top. With the settings at the medium-length mode listed above, I could see the empty, glass hall the pedal sent my sound bouncing down. I heard several pronounced pings of repeats before the signal fully faded out. On slapback settings (time at 8 o’clock, repeats at 11:30), rather than Elvis, I heard something more along the lines of a honky-tonk mic in a glass bottle. Still relatively crystalline, which actually was not my favorite. I like a bit more crinkle—so maybe analog is my bag....“That pillowy warmth evaporated, and in its place came a very clear, pristine replication of my tone—but with just a bit of the highs shaved off the top.”
Next up, digital. Here we have the brightest voice, and as expected, the most faithful repeats. They ping just a few times before shifting to a smooth, single undulating wave. When putting its slapback hat on, I found that the effect was a bit less alluring than I’d observed for the analog and tape voices. This is where the digital delay felt a little too sterile, with the cleanly preserved signal feeling a bit unnatural.
All in all, I dig the EchoBack for its replications of analog and tape voices, and ultimately, lean towards tape. While it’s nice having the digital delay there as an option, it feels a bit too clean when meddling with time of any given length. Nonetheless, this is surely a handy stomp for any acoustic player looking to venture into the land of live effects, or for those who are already there.
