This black Stratocaster has a maple neck and a crushed pearl pickguard. The pickups are Lace Sensors; red at the bridge, silver in the middle, and blue at the neck. The vibrato is the Fender Floyd Rose model, that clamps the strings to the saddles. This model also has a roller nut and locking tuning keys. Despite what might be implied by the serial number, this is a 1996 model, with a fiftieth anniversary sticker on the back of the headstock.

Leo Fender was born in a barn in 1909, before his young parents had completed their house. Later, when his parents didn't have enough money to send two children to college, they paid tuition for the one that they felt had shown more promise: his younger sister Wilda. Learn more about this fascinating man who did more to change modern music than any other, in Fender: The Inside Story by Forrest White.

This excellent biography of Leo Fender, and the companies that he founded, is written by his close friend, Forrest White, who was the head of Fender manufacturing throughout most of the 50s and 60s.