Dave Murray signature Stratocaster at NAMM 09

[unit]

Dave's 57 strat did have a floyd rose. Check out some of the powerslave tour photos.

A little clarification on the Dave Murray 57 strat which is the basis for his signature model. For the first few months of the Powerslave tour (at least at the tour's start in Poland), his guitar was equiped with a Kramer Rockinger tremolo and locking nut. This was replaced with the guitar's original Fender Synchronized temolo at some point early in the tour. If you look at the Live After Death Video from that tour and most still photos from that tour, the guitar clearly has the original tremolo. This guitar never had a Floyd Rose design trem installed at any time.

After the Powerslave tour, he continued to use the guitar as one of his two primary instruments for the following two tours (Somewhere on Tour and Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour) before it was permanently retired. I have seen post retirement close up pictures of it which show the original vintage trem, two drill holes on the headstock where the locking nut had been placed (after the original bone nut), and the pickguard cut away for the Kramer trem.

Dave also had a black rosewood board 60's strat on which he had a Kahler trem installed. This was an entirely different guitar than the 57, and it appeared only on the Powerslave and Somewhere in Time Tours before it was replaced with an ESP for the Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour in 1988.

[toejam]

Is it me or the neck humbucker is too far off the neck butt? That's the reason why I don't like 24 fret necks, because the neck pickup does not sound right...

It's also got a 21-fret neck and not 22. If you put a 22-fret neck on it, it'll look normal.

[Eddie_van_trailerpark]

I picked up a MIJ Fender Iron Maiden Strat 5 years ago on a fluke deal for around $600. It was black with a floyd and was a nicely made guitar. I was selling a guitar on Ebay and one of the bidders saw it in the background of the picture. Dude offered me $1200...done; I thought he was crazy. Now that I think about it...it was worth the $1200! It's freakin impossible to get a Strat with a factory floyd nowdays and since Fender owns j/c I don't think I'll ever see another [reasonably priced] one.

[McD]

Up The Irons! I'm getting one of these too.

[Davey]

very pretty


but.. 2000$ for it? .. it just has a pickguard with different pickups in it and all of them have a swimming pool route anyway. a bit steep if you ask me.

as for the floyd. it would've been nice if it had it, but as far as i'm concerned for this gutiar, i dont care either way.

[rattojack]

Iron Maiden was the group that inspired me to pick up the guitar back in 1985. I'm a huge Maiden fan, but $2,000.00 is way too much. You can get a lot of guitar for two grand. A USA Stratocaster isn't a lot of guitar no matter what the pickup combo.

[John C]

very pretty


but.. 2000$ for it? .. it just has a pickguard with different pickups in it and all of them have a swimming pool route anyway. a bit steep if you ask me.

as for the floyd. it would've been nice if it had it, but as far as i'm concerned for this gutiar, i dont care either way.

No, they don't. Fender hasn't used a swimming pool route on anything since circa 1998/1999.

Reissue-style guitars (American Vintage, MIM Classic, etc.) have vintage s/s/s routing.

USA modern guitars (American Standard/Series/Standard, American Deluxe, etc.) use h/s/h routing. This started with the first American Deluxes in 1998, and they transitioned the original American Standards from the swimming pool route to h/s/h over the course of about a year. The American Series and the new American Standards have always been h/s/h

MIM Standards and Deluxes typically have h/s/s routing these days - exceptions being the older MIM Standard HH which had h/s/h routing.

Also don't forget Fender's upcoming price increase - which I've come to find out is both a large increase in list price and a reduction of MAP prices from 30% off list to 20% off list. Therefore American Vintage Strats (which the Murray is is based on) are going to jump from $1,500 MAP to either $1,800 or $1,900 MAP on February 1 - so you're only looking at a bump of $100 to $200 for the extra routing, pickups and flatter radius.

[axe_calibur]

here's the new shots of the non-floyd version. sorry if these were already posted!
http://www.dv247.com/news/Fender%20A...ackmore/131973

[GTarman68]

A little clarification on the Dave Murray 57 strat which is the basis for his signature model. For the first few months of the Powerslave tour (at least at the tour's start in Poland), his guitar was equiped with a Kramer Rockinger tremolo and locking nut. This was replaced with the guitar's original Fender Synchronized temolo at some point early in the tour. If you look at the Live After Death Video from that tour and most still photos from that tour, the guitar clearly has the original tremolo. This guitar never had a Floyd Rose design trem installed at any time.

After the Powerslave tour, he continued to use the guitar as one of his two primary instruments for the following two tours (Somewhere on Tour and Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour) before it was permanently retired. I have seen post retirement close up pictures of it which show the original vintage trem, two drill holes on the headstock where the locking nut had been placed (after the original bone nut), and the pickguard cut away for the Kramer trem.

Dave also had a black rosewood board 60's strat on which he had a Kahler trem installed. This was an entirely different guitar than the 57, and it appeared only on the Powerslave and Somewhere in Time Tours before it was replaced with an ESP for the Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour in 1988.