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Supposedly original, a 61 with a maple neck, its at £7600 with 2 plus hours to go. ebay No 170677329378

Something funny,it went for £7600 from a bid from yesterday ?

Definitely a case of let the buyer beware and be VERY afraid! Yet another of the so-called all-original wrong 'uns that are so rife on eBay, complete with the usual sob story of being a hand-me-down from a dear departed relative and the seller knowing nothing about the instrument. Sadly, it seems to have worked and some poor sucker has been seduced into shelling out £7,600, which means he's going to be sorely disappointed!

Odd how all the shots are just that bit out of focus, but 3 ply scratchplate with maple neck?

That oversize neckplate with plastic backing?

A digital delay with a guitar not played for years?

And the colour? looks like the Fiesta Red we see today (which may or may not be the colour Hank had at the time), but when I saw them in Charing Cross road in 60/1 they were much pinker, and I don't think in 50 years they would fade to a brighter colour

The only hope being that as it's cash on collection only, hopefully, whoever won it will satisfy themselves it's the real deal.

Geoff

On a strat site i found it said some 61's had a laminated maple neck ie maple f/b on maple neck with no skunk stripe or dark spot on headstock, i did request more photos from seller, back h/stock- heel/end neck-under pickgaurd-saddles but seller did not return my request , it all looked too phoney if it had been an original 61 i think it would have gone for a lot more than £7600

I seem to recall reading that some Strats probably in the 60's had slab maple or rosewood boards, the neck was routed from the front then the board glued on so no skunk stripe.

Unless you really know your Strat history buying a vintage modell is a minefield, alright for an investment I suppose, but for playing, a new one does the job pretty well in my view.

Strats that featured a maple fingerboard in the early '60s are as rare as the proverbial hen's teeth and almost equally so even after the option became official in 1967. This sorry specimen certainly isn't such an oddity, as in a couple of photos the headstock fillet and skunk stripe that confirm one-piece construction are clearly visible, but in another shot the stripe has magically vanished, while the surrounding wear pattern on the heel block also varies. Such 'minor' discrepancies suggest pics of different guitars - all very suspicious! Just to further compound the errors already noted elsewhere, even the scratchplate is incorrect for 1961, as the screwhole positions point to 1963 onwards. All in all, a real dog's dinner.