I have no vested interest in this sale, but it's too cool not to post about here.

Posted on Facebook today from Davidson's Well Strung Guitars
in Farmingdale, New York:

We cannot impress upon you enough how special today’s guitar is, or how awestruck and lucky we feel to hold it in our hands. This is Eddie Bertrand’s 1963 Stratocaster in a Sparkle “Burst” finish. Eddie was a pioneer of surf music, playing in multiple groups - Eddie and The Showmen, The Bel-Airs, and most notably: The Challengers. There is a great Facebook page for The Challengers Band, and on it they recount many stories from different performances. They played with Chuck Berry, Debbie Reynolds, and The Queen of Surf, Kathy Marshall. Lots of great pictures too, go check it out if you're interested!
When it comes to this Stratocaster, there is great provenance that comes with it. In the spirit of surf music, Bertrand ordered this Strat because he was inspired by the look of the “Surfburst” offsets popular at the time. He still wanted the look of a Sunburst Strat, but with sparkle. To create this finish, the body was essentially painted silver, topped with a metallic flake and sparse copper glitter, then bursted with black. Over time this piece has aged from years of being played, really affecting the look of the sparkle. You can see it looks pretty green in the center, a color that Silver turns when the clear yellows. The pearlescent silver that once shined under stage lights has almost gone flat, but you can mostly see in areas of wear around the body that the silver is still present underneath. The copper glitter is so fine, you can really see it in person with the naked eye but it is a sight to behold in the right lighting. We can see why all the photos of the guitar under stage lighting look so good! The guitar exhibits quite a bit of wear and tear, as most great playing guitars should. It has a wonderfully thick neck for 1963, and a nicely balanced trio of original single coils. This guitar is a thrill to play, and on top of that an incredible piece of history.
This Strat is for sale now, so contact us for more info. 516-221-0563

THE HYDRONAUTS…Surf Music from the shores of old Cape Cod.
CLICK HERE to check out our first album, Interstellar Clambake!

Last edited: May 20, 2022 15:35:23

Wow, who wants to pony up for some real surf history?

Patrick

This is really funny. For years, this guitar was being presented as Larry Robbins, the sax player for The surf band The Blazers custom built guitar. I think it was Ivan, and me (me, Chris Fesker) who sort of deduced that the guitar was, in fact Eddie Bertrands.

Heres the conversation.
https://surfguitar101.com/forums/topic/28936/?page=2

I contacted that article writer, Rick King and sort of told him what we thought. He said he had sold the guitar.

Now, they are presenting it as Eddie B's, with provanence.

I 100% believe Ivan and I are correct. This is Eddie Bertands Sparkle Burst Strat. You're welcome, Well strung Guitars.

"You can't tell where you're going if you don't know where you've been"

I messaged well strung guitars, and got a nice note back. He was the curator of the Songbird museum, and currently has all the guitars from the museum in his store.

He said he bought it in 2014, after the Rick King article claiming it was Larry Robbin's guitar. He showed the guitar to Randy Nauert, of the Challengers, and Randy confirmed it was Eddie Bertrand's. Thats good enough for me.

I followed up with a price query, so far no response.

"You can't tell where you're going if you don't know where you've been"

Funny. I'm here to tell you all. That guitar was never Eddie B's. That guitar was my father's, Larry Robbins, from day one until he gave it to me in. 1984. I put every single mark on that guitar! Not Eddie, not my dad! That guitar was perfect when my dad gave it to me. I sold the guitar back in 2014 in Seattle. Since I sold the guitar, the neck and serial has been changed. It doesn't even live in the original guitar case!!! It truly breaks my heart!! I had to sell the guitar during a divorce. I planned to purchase it back. I found it. And now it's not even the same guitar. Different neck, different serial number. Again, I have pictures and paperwork. This was never Eddie's guitar!!

Jer_120db wrote:

Funny. I'm here to tell you all. That guitar was never Eddie B's. That guitar was my father's, Larry Robbins, from day one until he gave it to me in. 1984. I put every single mark on that guitar! Not Eddie, not my dad! That guitar was perfect when my dad gave it to me. I sold the guitar back in 2014 in Seattle. Since I sold the guitar, the neck and serial has been changed. It doesn't even live in the original guitar case!!! It truly breaks my heart!! I had to sell the guitar during a divorce. I planned to purchase it back. I found it. And now it's not even the same guitar. Different neck, different serial number. Again, I have pictures and paperwork. This was never Eddie's guitar!!

Cool story!!!! I'd love to see the pictures and paperwork!

"You can't tell where you're going if you don't know where you've been"

That's him!!

Well, here we are - and I have to admit - I could not have been more wrong about this guitar.

Jerry Robbins and I have emailed back and forth quite a bit - and he has, in my mind, told me the real story of this guitar. He has also sent me photos and paperwork that back up his claims.

The real story of this guitar is pretty cool - Jerry's dad Larry ordered a custom metal flake guitar from Fender in late '64. (remember that date) and he and Larry's father picked it up directly from Fender at the end of 1964. Shortly after, he moved to Pennsylvania, where he used the guitar in a band called The Impalas. See pic below.

Fast forward to 1984, and Larry gives the guitar to Jerry - who proceeds to play the hell out of it - And who does the majority of the wear on the guitar we see today -

In early 2000, he takes the guitar in to have it re-fretted. The shop takes great notes of not only the serial number, but also of the neck stamp and some other interesting date codes -

Note the serial number and date stamp - as well as the pickups dates.
Neck date April 64
Neck stamp L41161 (square the the middle of a 1964 manufacture)
Pickup dates 12-64
This guitar in the shop is definitely a late 1964 guitar - just as Jerry's story said.

Jerry decided to sell the guitar in August of 2014, and took lots of pictures. Included in these pictures is a pic of the neck plate with L41161 ( same as the shop note) and clearly the same guitar. Note the missing headstock logo.

The last photo shows what Jerry says is the original case - a black tolex case that would have been correct for a late '64 Strat.

This is the guitar that Jerry sold in 2014.

So lets take a look at the guitar that Well Strung Guitars is promoting as the Eddie Bertrand Stratocaster.

So - Even though this is clearly the same guitar, there 3 things that are different about this guitar:

1. Different neck - presumably with a '63 neck stamp. The grain of the two necks doesn't match, nor the wear. And it's got a headstock logo.
2. Different neck plate - the new one is an L1**** which would be correct for 1963. The original neck plate was L41161 - a 1964 number.
3. for good measure, a blonde case, which would have been correct for a guitar sold in 1963, presumably the year Eddie Bertrand got his guitar.

So, in my mind, this guitar was never Eddie Bertrands. It was Larry Robbins, and later Jerry Robbins. Somewhere after Jerry sold it, and after the Rick King magazine article about it, it was changed to be the Eddie Bertrand Strat. And I feel guilty for promoting that idea nearly a decade ago. I always assumed that it was in fact Eddies, and that Larry Robbins had ended up with it at some point, and the story got lost. But the truth is, this guitar was bought well after Eddie's, and I think all this proves it
Someone, at some point, has altered this guitar to fit my and a few other SG101's narrative of it belonging to Eddie Bertrand.

So my apologies to Jerry Robbins and his family for originally doubting his story. And my apologies to SG101 for being such a hard ass about this guitar's identity. I hope this clears it all up -

And Eddie B's metal flake Strat may still be out there!!!!

"You can't tell where you're going if you don't know where you've been"

Last edited: May 21, 2025 20:53:17

It seems somebody went to great effort to change the guitar to pass as Eddie Bertrand's - it seems they even added a bridge cover to complete things. And it wasn't cheap to do, either - a '63 neck and '63 neck plate would have cost quite a bit (if they are genuine).

Sonichris - thanks for sharing the details and kudos to you for be willing to change your mind given the new evidence.

This has been a great read! Could be a chapter in Deke’s “Strat in the Attic” books. Thanks Chris!

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