This is a 1954 Fender Stratocaster and it’s the earliest Strat build that I’ve ever seen. It’s a very special guitar. It does not have a serial number on the vibrato cover [as standard on early 1954 Stratocasters]; it has a regular neckplate serial number.
However, we know Stratocasters were not built in a special order, and we also know many of the earliest ones were sent back to Fender for some reworking. If you read books and talk to people, you’ll hear that a lot of the early Strats have the serial number on the back cover, not on the neckplate. But this guitar is a great example that proves the theory that serial numbers were random.
