Who wants to see my 1973 Hardtail Strat...?

What's Hot
57Deluxe57Deluxe Frets: 7329
This is a genuine 1973 Hardtail Fender Strat... cost £195 in a winter sale (was £235 rrp then). Couldn't afford the Trem model as was £265. This was left unwanted as was a) Hardtail, b) no trem c)  natural finish.

I saved up my paper round and Sat job money and sold my first guitar (AVON SG) for £40  - oh and my Gran died and left me 50 sovs...

Anyway... didn't even come with a gig bag! but I still have the cardboard box... and strap... and grey fender lead... and booklet...

image




<Vintage BOSS Upgrades>
__________________________________
0reaction image LOL 7reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom

Comments

  • xHymnalxHymnal Frets: 255
    Nice! I'll get a pic up of my '73 SG!
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • DannyPDannyP Frets: 1667
    Happy 40th. My Tele is 40 next year, so I may post a pic come January. I didn't get it new though, as that would have been a few years before I was born.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • martinwmartinw Frets: 2149
    tFB Trader
    Lovely! :)
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • TimmyOTimmyO Frets: 7349
    Nice :-) 
    Red ones are better. 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71956
    edited December 2013
    Nice!

    Naughty of them not to sell you the case which Fenders all came with in those days :). Probably why they reduced the price. A well-known shop was still pulling that trick much more recently…

    Is the tortoise guard original?

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • NeilNeil Frets: 3594
    edited December 2013
    I love that.

    I used to look in music shop windows at the early '70's  Strats in natural finish like yours (that was all the rage then) but could never afford one.

    I'll bet that body has darkened down over the years as I remember them quite a lot lighter.

    BTW is the scratchplate original?
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • ICBM said:
    Nice!

    Naughty of them not to sell you the case which Fenders all came with in those days :)

    Nice Strat, one of my passions which bring back many good memories.

    Many of the dealers around my way held onto the case's and sold them separately  if you were a teenager or had come into the shop with your parents (to sign the finance agreement). They wouldn't tell you there was no case until they either had your money or had the signed agreement. 

    In the mid 70s when I was 14, I worked every morning at weekends to buy my Strat. I remember just accepting the sales guys lies and walked home with a new strat in my hand with no case, not even a bin liner.

    That's how we did things back then, all meek and mild. Today I would give him a weird look followed by the middle finger on my way out.


    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • BucketBucket Frets: 7751
    I LOVE that.
    - "I'm going to write a very stiff letter. A VERY stiff letter. On cardboard."
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • 57Deluxe57Deluxe Frets: 7329
    edited December 2013
    Yes the headstock face, neck rear and body were all slightly different tones of light wood in its day (although not as bad as they are today! see below). It originally had the white guard, I swapped it five years ago for a celluloid when I had it overhauled and fret dressed/new nut. It became a NEW guitar all over again to me! Now has all mellowed to the same tone and real aged creamy knobs!

    For those who are curious - the hardtail does have a different character to a standard trem model. Is darker, much more jangly and very much a rhythm guitar - can sound like a Rickenbacker 365 with a nice big airy amp... But surprisingly, good for blues - Robert Cray only ever plays  Hardtails...

    Funny how fashions change: In the 80s I wanted to change all the plastics to black so that it looked more 'modern' - like John Oates'!  (Hall and Oates for you youngsters...)

    image
    <Vintage BOSS Upgrades>
    __________________________________
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71956
    57Deluxe said:
    Yes the headstock face, neck rear and body were all slightly different tones of light wood in its day (although not as bad as they are today! see below).
    The headstock face being a different colour from the back of the neck is because they used nitro lacquer on the front of the head - the decals reacted with the polyester lacquer. The nitro always darkens much more. They often weren't too careful and partly oversprayed the sides of the head too - it didn't show much when they were new because the nitro was clear as well, but now they're often very obviously patchy. The lacquer on the body is much thicker and usually seems to darken more than the back of the neck as well.

    I know what you mean about the sound of the hardtails - very vibrant and powerful compared to the trem models. You can't get a trem one to sound like that even with the bridge tight down, either - the spring cavity and the springs change the fundamental tone of the guitar.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Have a wow, it certainly gave me a hard tail.
    2reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • My mate has a sunburst one from the same period ( can't recall the exact year but there or there abouts). I have only played it once (few years ago, he normally only takes out his 70's lester or his PRS) and the thing that struck me was what big frets it had, at least bigger than the vintage style ones I had been expecting. Never been re-fretted to his memory (sure I asked). 
    Nice.
    :)
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71956
    My mate has a sunburst one from the same period ( can't recall the exact year but there or there abouts). I have only played it once (few years ago, he normally only takes out his 70's lester or his PRS) and the thing that struck me was what big frets it had, at least bigger than the vintage style ones I had been expecting.
    In that case it's been refretted... even if he can't remember :). Or maybe didn't buy it new? Even if the frets weren't worn out, refretting with bigger frets was quite popular in the 70s and especially the 80s.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • I'd love one of these one day. The year of my birth.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • ICBM;101391" said:
    EricTheWeary said:

    My mate has a sunburst one from the same period ( can't recall the exact year but there or there abouts). I have only played it once (few years ago, he normally only takes out his 70's lester or his PRS) and the thing that struck me was what big frets it had, at least bigger than the vintage style ones I had been expecting.





    In that case it's been refretted... even if he can't remember :). Or maybe didn't buy it new? Even if the frets weren't worn out, refretting with bigger frets was quite popular in the 70s and especially the 80s.
    can't remember the full story of that strat. Every bit of gear he ever had has a story so hard for me to keep track. For example, he bought his wah pedal off James Honeyman Scott and still has it and the reciept.
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • DeadmanDeadman Frets: 3851
    Lovely old strat. Cracking nick too.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • That's a beautiful guitar. £195 was a lot of money back then, too.
    If you must have sex with a frog, wear a condom. If you want the frog to have fun, rib it.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • 57Deluxe57Deluxe Frets: 7329
    edited December 2013
    You might enjoy playing with this app - it works out what things would cost today allowing for inflation. It seems that the RRP of mine back then would be same as a custom shop model today! It wasn't 'cheap' but was £40 cheaper than list and nearly £80 cheaper than a new Gibson Les Paul. I paid £45 a year before for a new AVON SG copy and that wasn't dear for a guitar then either. We are spoilt today!


    When I took it in the Joe White (Ronnie Woods' guitar Tech) he told me he had people that would offer me £3500 for it as was such a good and rare-ish example... I take that with a pinch of salt, but I do think time has been kind to it in the scheme of things...

    If was yours - what AMP would you like to pair it up with out of curiosity...??
    <Vintage BOSS Upgrades>
    __________________________________
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71956
    57Deluxe said:
    You might enjoy playing with this app - it works out what things would cost today allowing for inflation. It seems that the RRP of mine back then would be same as a custom shop model today! It wasn't 'cheap' but was £40 cheaper than list and nearly £80 cheaper than a new Gibson Les Paul. I paid £45 a year before for a new AVON SG copy and that wasn't dear for a guitar then either. We are spoilt today!
    Exactly. What you were buying then from Fender and Gibson was the equivalent of their Custom Shop pricing today, and in terms of the labour input as well. But modern Custom Shop guitars are actually better made, due to better machining mainly. (*Not* because they're hand made!)

    The really big difference is that today's cheap guitars are proportionately much cheaper than they were then, and mid-priced guitars (which were then the cheap guitars, like your Avon) are *much* better than they were then. Even the cheap guitars are better, usually! You can buy an Epiphone SG copy for only about one-fifth, in real terms, of the £500 the Avon would have cost at today's prices, and it's probably a better guitar. £500 now buys you a pretty serious instrument.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
Sign In or Register to comment.