Fender Srv Stratocaster Serial Numbers

FENDER CUSTOM SHOP 'NUMBER ONE' TRIBUTE GUITARS When I toured the Fender factory in California in 2001, there was discussion about a possible limited edition Custom Shop replica of Number One. At that time, it was suggested that there might be as few as four replicas made. In November 2003, Fender announced that 100 guitars would be made, priced at $10,000 each, all made by John Cruz. The guitar debuted at the winter NAMM show January 15-18, 2004. These guitars have serial numbers, but they are NOT serialized 1 through 100. Each guitar John Cruz makes, regardless what kind of guitar, gets the next serial number in line.

I believe the first Tribute Strat is JC044 and the last JC229. He mentioned to me that Jimmie was getting three of the guitars. Mine is JC063 which Mr. Cruz informed me was the 12th Tribute Strat. There is no shortage of criticism of the project. I do not see it as different from any other product - where there is a demand, someone is going to fill it. Stevie's guitar is one of the most easily identifiable, famous guitars in history, and folks other than Fender have made dozens of replicas of Number One at prices from several hundred to five thousand dollars.

I'm about to purchase a used SRV Strat from 2011. Looking at the serial it seems to be legit, it's US11120679 But when I type it into the fender serial number searches it tells me it doesn't exist.

Replicas of Stevie's Hamiltone have sold for up to $8000, I'm told. The Charley replicas sold for $2500, and are now selling for $3500 if you can find one. One owner has been asking $19,000 for his Charley. Fender's Custom Shop employs some of the best craftsman in the business, and it is not unusual for their guitars to sell for thousands of dollars due to the number of hours spent handcrafting each guitar. It is certainly not unusual for artwork to sell for $10,000, and that's one way to look at this guitar. The replicas of Clapton's Gibson 335 had an original price of $12,000.

The bottom line is that $10,000 is not unusual in the guitar market, particularly considering that some vintage electrics are listed at up to $250,000. It is my understanding that sales of the Number One guitars worked like this: Fender sold them to their top dealers (in this case by a lottery system due to the high demand) who can resell them to customers (or not). All 100 of the guitars were sold at the 2004 NAMM convention to Fender dealers. For the Clapton 335, my understanding is that orders were taken on a specific date from Fender dealers on a first-come first-served basis. In both cases, the customers who were successful in getting a guitar were those who paid for them in advance. The Tribute Strats come with a flight case stenciled 'SRV - Number One,' a red gig bag modeled after Stevie's, a replica of the black leather strap with white music notes, and a documentation folder containing the certificate signed by Cruz, a photo of Stevie with Number One, a copy of the El Mocambo DVD, a Fender Custom Shop DVD of the night they inspected Number One, and a tube of Rene Martinez' Graphit-all. (I do not make copies of the DVD for anyone, so please do not ask.) My initial impressions: excellent tone, love the fat neck, and it's lighter than I expected. It looks great, but there are some things about 25 years of wear that no one has accurately mimicked.