Vintage Guitar Scene: 1963 White Fender Stratocaster

Fender Stratocaster 1963 white (cream) (serial number L21304)

I bought this guitar in Perth in 1984/85 from Dom Mariani who played this guitar with his band The Stems.

When I got this guitar the frets were worn down so I got it refretted at Eric’s Music in North Perth, an older style repair shop run by Eric & his son Eric Jnr. The body looks today pretty much how it looked back in the 80s with that worn ‘relic’ look.

In the 80s I had it strung up with heavy gauge strings and tuned it down a step. This enabled me to play songs in the original position on the fingerboard when the singer wanted the key lowered.

It’s now tuned and set up back to normal pitch.

About Martin Cilia 84 Articles
Martin is an Australian guitarist and vintage guitar collector. Apart from his solo work he is a member of The Atlantics, Dave Warner’s From the Suburbs and is currently guitarist in Mental As Anything.