Metropoulos Forum

I had found this out a couple of yrs ago, but thought it cool to bring up to those who might not be aware.
Fender went with rosewood slab by 1958 or 1959 I think. By '63 Leo came up with the 'round lam' fretboard to get MORE fretboards out of the imported rosewood. Thus, 2 'laminated boards' could be gotten from what one 'slab' board consisted of. Anyways, Fender still made Maple boards for custom order. These used the same 'laminated' fretboard design. Hendrix's two '68's (woodstock & Black Beauty) were of this 'custom order' (sales rep aquired) type. Fender was retooling for thier upcoming 'Bullet Rod/micro tilt' necks by late 1970. They continued to use the 'round lam' rosewood board necks, BUT made ONE PIECE (walnut stripe) maple necks that were basically like the '54 to '58 maple necks EXCEPT they had the big headstock.These few necks (I'm thinking early '71 to late spring '71 ?) had the walnut plug at the headstock like the '50's era as well. By the Summer or Fall of '71 the one piece bullet rod necks were shipped. 1971 strats are rare 'oddities' in the Fender Strat line.
I thought this was some cool info.

Kool info's TS.
Of course after late '72 I personally would "Yngwie" all my Strat's to 4-bolters...Wouldn't care
a rats ass on value, but that's just me.
I'm keeping in mind that both Gibson & Fender were barely keeping afloat then...
I still like Fender's V-neck story. marketing genius, Leo was...

Whats the V neck story ?

I always thought Yngwie used the stock three-bolt...I'm super happy with my '68 4-bolt and I just can't get with the 3-bolt or the bullet or the walnut plug for that matter.

Yngwie did/does use the 3 bolt strats. He initially had a few of the '71-'81 type 3 bolt/bullet rod era that he used as a teen on up to coming here, via Mike Varney. He discovered that the necks werent real stable (Yngwie is VERY active on a stage), so he had most of them converted to the 4 bolt variety.
As far as strat specs go, I like them all. I have a affinity for the large headstock variety (It was the Scorpions 'In Trance' album cover with Uli Roth's '74 Strat that 'hooked' me to the large headstock). The bullet rod though sorta gets in the way of behind the nut bends. Still, that rod end looks cool (Blackmore, Uli Roth, Malmsteen). Had Hendrix lived, he probably would have used the 3 bolt models. He rarely used ANYTHING too long. Think about it, the 2 '68's he used were ONLY 2 yrs old at his passing. The white 'Axis/ElectricLadyLand' rosewood board strat that he used so much ended up with a tele neck, and then was just disregarded, with no sentimentality whatsoever. If anything, THAT guitar tracked his most amazing stuff ('Electric Ladyland'). Hendrix actually gave the white 'Woodstock' strat to Mitch Mitchell, upon Mitch's first child being born. He continued to use it though, since they were touring. The Black strat would have probably been 'released' from duty in the same manner had he lived. Maybe not though. I guess we all have at least ONE guitar that is sentimental/sacred to us.