Seventy years in the past, Leo Fender launched the Stratocaster as an evolutionary step ahead from his first solidbody electrical guitar. Sleeker and smoother, he wished it to create sounds extra helpful to any type of music and musician.

Basically unchanged immediately, the Strat stays one of many most-popular guitars on the planet (see sidebar), and early fashions are among the many most collectible. Unlikely because it appears in 2024, from time to time, one emerges in near-pristine situation.

This ’54 was purchased used two years later at Henry’s Music and Jewellery, in Akron, Ohio, so 15-year-old Jackie Diethrich may use it whereas taking classes. The youthful of John and Virginia Diethrich’s two daughters, she briefly adopted in sister Joanne’s footsteps by taking part in piano, however what she actually wished was a guitar – a need influenced by the occasional sound of a pedal-steel wafting by way of the neighborhood on summer season evenings, performed by a person who lived a number of blocks away. To plug in, she was additionally given a spankin’ new Tremolux amp.

After shifting from Pennsylvania to the economic hub of north-central Ohio, the Diethrichs joined the American center class. John’s first job in Akron was promoting sneakers, however his plan was at all times to rent on at Goodyear Tire and Rubber, which he quickly did. Virginia, in the meantime, cared for the women and tended to their house.

“They had been very frugal,” recalled Royace Butler, the couple’s grandson and, for the previous few years, caretaker of the Strat and an allotment of different household heirlooms. “They’d one automotive. Grandma would drive my grandfather to work each morning, then decide him up each afternoon after his shift. However they inspired their daughters to discover cultural issues, and music was certainly one of them.”

“I used to be taking music classes from a person named John Martin, at his home,” Jackie Butler recalled. “And in the future he stated, ‘I’ve a pal who actually wants cash badly and is promoting his Fender – it’s a beautiful guitar.’ So my mother and pop jumped on the probability. On the time, Dad solely labored a six-hour shift at Goodyear, however he scraped up sufficient cash to purchase it and the amplifier for $600, which was a lot of cash.”

For the following few years, Jackie performed the guitar at classes and on her personal, and it wasn’t lengthy earlier than she was spending time with a younger man named Jimmie, who additionally performed guitar. They’d typically strum collectively, and he later grew to become her husband (and Royace’s father).

As Jackie and Jimmie had been rising up, Akron and surrounding cities had been changing into a musical hotbed. Dan Shinn, who started repairing and refinishing guitars alongside Virgil Lay in 1979 and acquired Lay’s Guitar Store in 1988, says this guitar is the consummate instance of town’s vibrant previous.

“The automotive trade handled this space very well, economically, for a few years, and folks right here, together with musicians, purchased good things,” he stated. “Royace’s guitar is an ideal instance of how the realm was as soon as a haven for music and funky guitars. They had been all over the place, and lots of in all probability nonetheless are. It is a excellent instance of 1 that hasn’t left the household, and I’m positive there are others on the market.”

After Jackie set it apart, the guitar spent the following 25 years principally in its case, wrapped in a blanket beneath the mattress, introduced out solely sometimes to point out to a curious pal or member of the family. Consequently, immediately it reveals nearly no marks save for a ding on one edge, which Jackie confesses to creating when she was placing it away in the future. In 2005, it was appraised at $40,000. Royace took it to Lay’s for its first time final March, the place it bought its first setup since earlier than “Go away It To Beaver” started to air.

“Dan was fairly comfortable to work on her,” Butler recalled. “His companion, Steve Givens, wasn’t in that day, and Dan later referred to as to inform me he was disenchanted as a result of he didn’t get to see it. So that they invited me again with it and the Tremolux for a demo of their venue, The Loft.”

Butler returned in April, and Lay’s worker Nick Killa performed the guitar by way of the Tremolux whereas the shop shot video for social media. Having lengthy thought the guitar must take pleasure in life outdoors of his gun secure, he was comfortable to oblige, and the day’s occasions impressed him to do extra with the Strat.

“I’m no Youtuber – or a reliable musician,” he chuckled. “So I employed a number of guys and hosted a recording session at Allen Lind’s Over The Hill studios.”

Audio and video, he says, are practically completed.

Butler used the Strat to take classes as a child, and once more later as an grownup, however parenting and different grownup duties stored him from changing into the participant he dreamed of being. However none of that diminished his affection for the guitar and music made with it.

“I fostered my different abilities,” he stated. “I’m among the best plumbers on the town, and I really like listening to a guitar when anyone else is taking part in. To my thoughts, musical devices are paintings in addition to instruments… Some extra so than others (laughs).”

“I’ll inform you what, it’s a actually cool guitar,” stated Shinn. “What’s particularly fascinating is the additional screws in its pickguard – two between the bridge and center pickups, canted such as you’d see on a Tele – and the one behind the bridge pickup. They’re slightly smaller in diameter than on most Strats, and so they look very mapped-out. Additionally, early-’54s have Bakelite knobs, which appear to be they had been hand-numbered. They weren’t constant.

“If somebody requested whether or not I believe the guitar is totally unique or not, I’m going to say it’s.”

Whereas he has by no means significantly contemplated promoting the guitar, on a whim in 2008, Butler contacted Eric Johnson by way of social media.

“A lot to my shock, he was ,” Butler stated. “And I very nicely keep in mind when he referred to as again; I used to be choosing up stuff at Lowes (laughs). He instructed me that he had just lately damaged his beloved ’54 Strat, ‘Virginia.’ He made a beneficiant provide, however in the end, my mom wasn’t in a position to half with it.”

Has he since contemplated the destiny of his ’54?

“I do know the fact is in some unspecified time in the future I’m going to promote it,” he stated. “Hopefully, it’ll find yourself with anyone who can play it with out worrying about giving it a ding. Or possibly it’ll be displayed in a museum.”

This text initially appeared in VG’s August 2024 challenge. All copyrights are by the writer and Classic Guitar journal. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.