Fender American Vintage 65 Stratocaster Olympic White

General

1965 was the year that the Fender Stratocaster got its thicker neck back. This time however, it featured a thin, bent, rosewood fretboard with large mother-of-pearl position markers. It was also the first year that Fender used enamel-coated copper wire for its pickups, providing the guitars with more clarity and a fuller, deep sound. These are just a few of the authentic features that the 2012 American Vintage '65 Stratocaster has been equipped with. What is more, its thin, Olympic White nitrocellulose lacquer is an exact copy of the original. This guitar comes with a period-correct black case with replica case candy: accessories and paperwork from 1965.

Faithful detailing of the American Vintage '65 Stratocaster

The Fender American Vintage '65 Strat has a lightweight alder body and a bolt-on maple neck with comfortable C-profile. Both have been modified and shaped exactly after the dimensions and radii of the original. In addition to the laminated rosewood fretboard, the distinctive features of the 1965 Stratocaster include steel bridge saddles with 'Pat. Pend.' stamps and a three-layer white pickguard with eleventh screw hole to counter warping. The American Vintage '65 Stratocaster is equipped with Grey Bottom single-coil pickups and a set of vintage-accurate Fender Deluxe 'single-line' tuners and a bone string nut. Exactly like it was and should be!

American Vintage series: more accurate than ever before

Along with the American Standard series, Fender decided to give the 2012 American Vintage series a massive update. It has been expanded with new, iconic '50s and '60s models that have a minute vintage accuracy. To get to this point, the guitar giant tracked down and studied specs and details of numerous original vintage guitars. Fender even brushed off the tools of the period to make the result as authentic as possible. Every model has been fitted with new pickups, especially wound after the specifications and sound of the vintage reference models. There's a good reason that these new models represent Fender's famed, 60-year long history in music.

• this guitar is also available in Dakota Red and 3-Colour Sunburst
• this guitar is also available as a left-handed 3-Colour Sunburst edition
• Please note: pictures 5 to 7 show the Dakota Red version and are for illustration purposes only. This is, of course, the Olympic White version.