Got a new Relic Strat today!

**ShawnRT** · 08-13-2002, 08:17 PM

Well after hearing Black Bear and Tim C rave about theirs, I finally pulled the trigger and bought a relic strat. Here is the thing though, it's a 1958 Relic! Thats right, not a 54 or a 56, it's a 58. It says so right on the Custom Shop Certificate. Anyone know anything about these? I can't find any reference to one in the frontline catalog, but I saw it in the shop and fell in love with this one. The body is checked with a few dings, but the neck is amazing! It's worn in all of the right places and sounds so great! It's a 3 tone sunburst with an amazing amount of birdseye on the neck. The guitar is very acoustically resonant! Check out the pictures below. If anyone out there has any info on the 58 reissues please share. Are they rare? Is it a one-off? It was made in 2001.

**Gazza** · 08-13-2002, 09:10 PM

Shawn that is a beatiful guitar, I would be proud to own that bad boy!

**XOSKELETAL** · 08-13-2002, 09:22 PM

A Beaut!!!! Play her like the wind!!!!

**Normhart** · 08-13-2002, 09:38 PM

Congratulations! That's a beaut. Looks almost identical to my '56 Relic (except for the gold hw on mine) but the wood grain looks almost exactly like mine. Is it a one-piece? My '56 has the same resonance in it as well -unlike any Strat I've ever played and I've had a few but this one had such a gorgeous tone -real airy and 'organic' sounding -much like you'd expect from an actual vintage guitar.

**Guildx700~** · 08-13-2002, 09:52 PM

yummy!!!! very cool:nelson

**jokerjkny** · 08-13-2002, 10:04 PM

ash or alder? and is it light?

**60Strat** · 08-13-2002, 11:38 PM

Great guitar!!!!

Never heard of a `58 before.
:nelson

**OLYENGINEER** · 08-13-2002, 11:41 PM

Very nice axe! Congrats!

**OLIE J** · 08-14-2002, 12:03 AM

I don't have any info but I do have a comment, NICE GUITAR!!!! Congratulations.

**Black Bear** · 08-14-2002, 06:23 AM

It's nice to be the source of GAS (don't ask my wife about )...rather than the victim. Great guitar! I'm still looking to borrow a digital camera so I can post pics of mine...

**hank** · 08-14-2002, 06:38 AM

Beautiful Shawn!

hank

**ShawnRT** · 08-14-2002, 07:23 AM

Hey guys,
I'll be taking more pics of the guitar tonight as well as of the Certificate so maybe somebody out there can give me some info as to what a 58RI is. The body is not super relic'd, no armwear spot to speak of. There are a few big dings and quite a bit of finish checking. The thing that I really love about this one is the neck. There is soooo much birdseye figuring, which doesnt really show up in the photos and the neck is just perfectly worn. It is so comfortable to play. The guitar is very mellow sounding with great sustain and is definitely light weight for a strat. Did I mention that it came with jumbo frets stock? All of these things make me wonder about the history of this guitar. Anyone know if I can call Fender and ask them about it. The guys at the store really didnt have any info for me.

Thanks for all of the kind words. You guys and your nice guitars are going to drive me into the poorhouse :)

**ShawnRT** · 08-14-2002, 07:30 AM

I know what you mean Spose. I think I'll bring the certificate into the office with me tomorrow and give Fender a call. About 7 years ago I used to live in Scottsdale AZ, just blocks from their corporate office, but I can't imagine that they would store any info there Anyone have a good number over there to get in touch with the Custom Shop records dept?

**ShawnRT** · 08-14-2002, 08:02 AM

Gazza,
It was that relic of yours that you sold a few months back that really made me want this one. I loved that one you had! This one is very similar to that one from what I can remember. Why oh why did you ever let that one go? :tw59

**Ed Rafalko** · 08-14-2002, 08:58 AM

Shawn did yopu get it at a store or from an individual?

**ShawnRT** · 08-14-2002, 09:02 AM

Ed,
I got it from Larry Morgan Music in Garland. They didn't seem to know much about it, but if my individual serach for info fails, I'll see if they can call the Custom Shop for me and get the scoop. They had a nice strat in Shell Pink that was made for you

**ShawnRT** · 08-14-2002, 09:07 AM

I just called the store and they said that they were going to pull the original invoice and see if they could find any more info. Marcus, the guy I bought it from, said he thought they just cherry picked it off of a Custom Shop in stock inventory list and it was the only 58RI he had ever seen. Very interesting stuff so far, I'll keep you posted!

**Gazza** · 08-14-2002, 09:22 AM

Shawn the Fender custom shop is known to send out odd reissue years from time to time,and they will do any year you want if you custom order.I almost bought a '61 custom shop early this year.I looked under the user reviews on Harmony Central last night and there were 2 user reviews under '58 CS strat. :tw59

**Gazza** · 08-14-2002, 09:23 AM

Originally posted by ShawnRT
. Why oh why did you ever let that one go? :tw59

Because I is a moron.

**ShawnRT** · 08-14-2002, 10:25 AM

Gazza,
You are absolutely right (about the custom years thing, not the moron part

) I went over to the guitar shop at lunch and we checked the original invoice the store had for the guitar and all it said was Relic Stratocaster: Custom Guitar. So then we called Fender and they said it was part of a Custom Order Placed by Fender Japan to the US Custom Shop. It was a one time run of 50 1958 Relic Strats in 3 Tone Burst with highly figured maple necks. They said they built 3 extras in case of mishap and shipped the rest off to Japan. After everything went well with the 50, they were free to sell the extras to US distributors. So I guess two more people out there in the US have one of these. Kind of a cool background to this guitar. Anyway, I'll try and post some more pics tonight!

**Gazza** · 08-14-2002, 10:31 AM

Very Cool!

**Black Bear** · 08-14-2002, 10:44 AM

Aren't the necks amazing?

The only thing I'd change about mine would be wider frets and a bone nut. Both will be corrected in a couple of years when a refret is due.

**ShawnRT** · 08-14-2002, 11:10 AM

I really am pleased with this guitar coming with the medium jumbo frets. I havent had a chance to inspect the nut yet, but I'm guessing that it's a stock nut. Mine also came with the 5 Way switch setup stock instead of the 3 Way(they put the 3 way in a little bag with the case candy). Beg borrow or steal a camera Black Bear, your strat was one of the reasons I got this one yesterday. What is the relicing like on yours? Lots of body and neck wear or minimal?

**Black Bear** · 08-14-2002, 11:25 AM

The wear is on the heavy side on both the body and the neck, compared with some I've seen. It doesn't have a bare neck the entire lenghth, like some of the early relics, but it's got a nice band along both shoulders, where your thumb and fingers come in contact with the neck while playing. Really comfy...

I hope to have some pictures up within a week. A coworker is bringing in a camera tomorrow...

**Tim C.** · 08-14-2002, 04:44 PM

Looks like a beauty Shawn.

Tim C. :)

**Nickster** · 08-14-2002, 06:01 PM

Very Cool, reminds me of Brownie abit.

**Jim barth** · 08-14-2002, 06:13 PM

I don't think they are that rare....

I have seen at least 3-4 myself.

Relic 58' Strats.

I would be surprised if it was that limited of a run.

**ShawnRT** · 08-14-2002, 06:33 PM

Jim,
That's interesting stuff, do you know what year the other ones were? I'm just going off of info I got from someone named Star @ Fender. Who knows how good their record keeping is. Maybe it was just the type of 58 I have with the super birdseye and jumbo frets, maybe they've made millions of them, I really have no idea. It really plays and sounds great which is all I'm after, everything else is just icing on the cake :tw59

**ShawnRT** · 08-14-2002, 06:42 PM

Here are some new pics I took:

Thanks again to everyone for the congratulations, getting a new guitar is so much more fun when you get to share cool pics with people who share your passion

**Gazza** · 08-14-2002, 06:52 PM

If you don't like it come October I will take her home with me.:nelson

**Dennis Meredith** · 08-14-2002, 07:34 PM

While I'm not an expert on the subject, I have been a carpenter for 30 yrs.
It looks like alder rather than ash to me. Hence alder plus maple neck = "58.
Post ash maple strat era- pre alder rosewood strat era. What do you think?

**Marcondo** · 08-14-2002, 08:40 PM

Looks like Alder to me too. Very light relic job. Be glad its got the med jumbo frets its way easier to play than the Vintage frets.

I'll dig out some pics of my 54 and 56 Relic so you can see them Shawn.

**jokerjkny** · 08-14-2002, 11:11 PM

yea, definitely Alder.

i'm not an ash fan, except for my ash strat, but doesnt really float my boat like alder usually does, but...

[Jerry Seinfeld On]

not that there's anything wrong with that...

[Jerry Off]

great find... now stop posting up pics or i'll go insane!!! :o

**ShawnRT** · 08-15-2002, 06:51 AM

Sorry about that, I thought I mentioned that in one of my posts, but it definitely looks like Alder to me. The body relicing job is very light, a few big dings and a lot of finish checking which is very hard to photograph on a sunburst guitar.

Gazza, I feel the same way about your Lentz strat :tw59

**ShawnRT** · 08-15-2002, 06:53 AM

Marcondo,
I'd love to see those pics! My 60RI has the vintage fretwire and I do prefer the medium jumbo frets to be honest. Of your different year relics, which is your favorite and why?

**Gazza** · 08-15-2002, 08:08 AM

Originally posted by ShawnRT
Gazza, I feel the same way about your Lentz strat :tw59

I know you do!

**Marcondo** · 08-15-2002, 11:47 AM

Shawn here are some pics of my 54 Relic. I sold this last year to one of my best friends. I owned it for 2 years rarely played it cause it sounded crappy with the stock pickups put Fralin Vintage hots in it and then it sounded really good soon afterwards my friend played it and heard it and fell in love so there it went.

This was the lightest Strat I have ever owned swamp ash 6.75 lbs total guitar weight.

http://www.kramtech.com/marcondo/54/index.html

**ShawnRT** · 08-15-2002, 12:02 PM

Wow that is a beautiful guitar, interesting figuring on the neck at around the 14th fret and beyond.

**Ashcaster** · 08-16-2002, 08:49 AM

When i first saw that picture I thought "that looks like a '58!" They got the burst right. Heck, everything looks right. Put some Buddy Holly glasses on and rock out with that thing.

**MK.II** · 08-16-2002, 02:13 PM

Hey, ShawnRT, glad too see that you found some info on your guitar. It`s a beauty!! Relics are cool, I have a `56 from `01, and a `60`s from `97. I thought that maybe yours was a one off like Gazza was talking about. I also know of a new (2001 I think) NOS CS `61 Strat sitting in a store waiting for a home. Probably like the one Gazza almost bought, but not a relic. It`s a three color sunburst with the glued on maple fret board. I know that your`s is a 2001, but for what it`s worth, in 1997, I believe it was, the Custom Shop did have a `58 Strat (pre-Time Machine Series, obviuosly) that wasn`t a special order model. They were alder bodies with Fat `50`s pickups and there were no relics that I know of. There would be no mistaking yours for that pre-TMS model. Enjoy your new guitar!!

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