1972 Fender Montego II electric archtop guitar, made in USA;...

Estimate

£5,000 - £7,000

1972 Fender Montego II electric archtop guitar, made in USA; Body: sunburst finish figured maple back and sides, lacquer checking and dings; Top: sunburst finish spruce, light checking, dings to edges; Neck: maple with walnut centre; Fretboard: ebony with pearl block position markers; Frets: good; Electrics: working; Hardware: good; Case: original hard case (missing handle); Weight: 3.68kg; Overall condition: good

*Formerly owned by J. Willgoose, Esq. of Public Service Broadcasting, and used on the album Every Valley, notably on the tracks “They Gave Me a Lamp” and “Mother of the Village,” as well as in other recording projects.

**The Fender Montego is among the rarest models ever produced by Fender, with only around one hundred believed to have been made between 1968 and 1972. Commissioned by CBS as a high-end hollow-body experiment, the Montego was designed by Roger Rossmeisl and built by Rossmeisl and Phil Kubicki in Fender’s R&D department. The idea of both the Montego I and II models was to compete and exhibit styling and tonal characteristics more commonly associated with makers such as D’Angelico or Gibson’s archtop range. Though featured in the 1969 Fender catalogue, the Montego was effectively a custom-order instrument. This particular example is the only known Montego to feature factory-fitted CuNiFe wide-range humbuckers and is believed to be a factory prototype built to this unique specification.