Fender Museum of Music & The Arts director John Page cradles Buddy Holly's 1958 Fender Stratocaster after completing restoration work on the stunning icon of rock history.
John Page gingerly lifts the vintage Stratocaster from its case as if he’s handling an extremely delicate and priceless work of art. Page is no stranger to rare Strats, having handled thousands of them during his tenure as head of the Fender Custom Shop and as current executive director of the Fender Museum of Music & The Arts. But this is no ordinary Stratocaster. This is Buddy Holly’s Strat-one of rock’s holy relics. Page was entrusted with restoring the Strat for permanent display at the new Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, Texas.
Holly last played this Strat less than an hour before being killed in the 1959 plane crash that also took the lives of Ritchie Valens & The Big Bopper. And yet, 40 years after his untimely death at age 22, Holly remains not only an icon of rock & roll’s pioneer days, but also a lasting influence on rock guitar. He was one of the first rockers to elevate rhythm guitar from a supporting role to a major stylistic form. Following Bo Diddley’s direction, Holly expanded the chord-lead style with it’s hard-driving open chords and emphasis on the treble strings during lead breaks.
He was also one of the first - and best known - of the early rockers to use a Stratocaster. (Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and George Harrison all point to Holly as the guitarist that initially exposed them to the Strat.) But most importantly, Holly & The Crickets were the model for the self-contained rock & roll band that wrote, arranged, performed, and recorded its own material.
”What I wanted to do was conserve the guitar for display, rather than restore,” says Page, who carefully measured and documented every dimension of Holly’s guitar - including the rocker’s last setup preferences. “I was amazed at what great shape the guitar was in considering it’s over 40 years old. I’m sure a vintage dealer would classify it as mint. It’s all original too, with the exception of a #5 sheet metal screw on the end strap button.
With the pickguard removed to clean the body, a small shielding plate over the tone and volume pots was revealed.
The design is typical of '50s era Strats-larger designs came later.
The historic Strat, serial #028228, is a ‘58 three-tone sunburst with an alder body and “slim C” profile neck. The neck measures .840” at the first fret, .992” at the 12th fret, and has a slightly larger-than-standard 1.665” nut. The peghead thickness is .570”. It’s the last of three (or possibly four) Stratocasters that Holly owned during his short career. In July 1958, Manny’s in New York City shipped the Strat to him while he was on the road. This instrument replaced a Strat stolen from the group’s station wagon while the band stopped for lunch in east St. Louis, Missouri.
The body cavity had never been opened before Page began his restoration.
All wires and solder points were original and fully intact.
According to Tommy Allsup, who played lead guitar on several of Holly’s later records and tours, Fender shipped two free Stratocasters and two Twins to the band just before the July tour (one pair for Holly and one for Allsup), and it was Holly’s “free” Strat that was stolen and replaced by Manny’s. Some fans speculate that #028228 was sent to Holly in mid-April from Adair Music in Lubbock to replace another Strat (most likely his original ‘55 model) stolen on one of the DJ Alan Freed’s rock & roll “package” tours. This theory is doubtful, however, because #028228 is dated “4/58” on its neck and body cavity, and was probably still under construction (or being shipped to a dealer) in mid April. What we do know is #028228 was Holly’s last Stratocaster, and it was returned to his parents after that final tour.
Both the neck and body cavity were dated "4/58" which is unusual because
components were made separately and rarely assembled at the same time.
Although Page found the Strat in fine shape, it had accumulated a thick layer of grime over the years-a condition attributed to the fact that the Holly family would always welcome fans into their home, and allowed anyone to play Holly’s guitars in their music room. The guitar was also loaned to the Dallas Hard Rock Cafe for a couple of years, where it picked up additional residue. A proper cleaning would require some disassembly, which Page was initially hesitant to do.
”When I learned the neck had already been removed to date the guitar for the 1991 Sotheby’s auction of the Strat and other Holly belongings, I decided to go ahead and do a limited disassembly, “ says Page. “But I made sure everything went back precisely the way I found it.”
The cleaning of the body was done entirely by hand, using naphtha swabs, small dental tools, glass microscope slides (for scraping grime), extremely mild red and white jeweler’s rouge (for removing dirt), and German stick wax and a mild liquid polish (to buff up the finish). Strap buttons and small portions of the neck were lightly buffed with an electric Dremel wheel. The bridge was completely disassembled, and each saddle soaked in naphtha. Finally, the pickguard assembly was polished with Novus plastic polish. The entire procedure took over 12 hours.
”All I did was let the guitar show itself, and re-emerge from the dirt and grime,” says Page. “There was very little impact on the instrument itself.”
Page made a couple of interesting discoveries during the process. When he attempted to lift the pickguard assembly, it wouldn’t budge. After gently slipping a shim-like tool under each screw position, the pickguard gradually lifted to reveal a white Gibson medium pick wedged under the guard. Photographs of Holly in concert show that he would stick a spare pick under the bottom edge of the pickguard, and this is undoubtedly the origin of this hidden treasure - quite possibly the last pick used by Holly on the night of his death.
Undiscovered for 40 years, what is possibly the last pick used by Holly...
a Gibson medium, was hidden beneath the pickguard.
In addition, popping the tremolo cover revealed five springs - a fact Page feels gives the guitar a better tone due to the plate lying flat against the body. “It would be fun to think that Buddy did this purposely because I understand he rarely used the tremolo arm, but it’s more likely that was the way the guitar came from Fender.” In the 50’s, the tremolo plate was often set up to lie flat - floating the tremolo was a practice that came later.
Holly's Strat was most likely shipped with 5 springs and the tremelo plate flat on the body to produce better tone.
"Floating" tremelos were introduced in the '60s.
”This was one of the most meaningful experiences of my career. They call Elvis the King Of Rock & Roll, but I feel that Buddy Holly was the father of rock & roll because his approach to the guitar had such an effect on rock music. To prepare his guitar for the world to see was an honor - it was definitely a very cool vibe.”
Holly's Strat exhibits the small headstock and gold-script
"spaghetti" logo typical of models from 1954-'59.
