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Post subject: Can someone help me figuring out this Stratocaster?
Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 1:45 pm
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I got this guitar about 5 years ago from a very reputable guitar shop here in the area. It's a "Squier Stratocaster by Fender." It's what I'd call lipstick red with a white 3 ply pickguard and white control knobs. It has the standard 3 single coil pickups and 5 way selector switch and a maple fretboard. On the headstock it has "Made in U.S.A." printed on the headstock just above the serial number. Speaking of which, the S.N. is E905884.
Is this guitar really made in the U.S.A.? I've had someone tell me that this coudn't be true. But I've read elsewhere that Squiers were made in America at the time period (1989?) due to a problem at the regular plant in Korea or Japan or wherever.
I'm wanting to sell this guitar and I could really use a subjective and HONEST answer from someone. Thanks for any help you can provide. :)

Sincerely,
John


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Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 2:19 pm
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Hi John,

Have you looked at the wiki entry on Squiers? See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squier#USA_Squiers

Another site that might help is:

http://www.guitardaterproject.org/fender.aspx

It reports that your gat was made at the Corona Plant (Fender), USA, in the Year(s): 1989 - 1990 but I don't know how accurate that site is.

Also you can email Fender customer service and give them the serial number.


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 2:21 pm
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Welcome to the Forum.

According to the serial number:

Your guitar was made at the
Corona Plant (Fender), USA
in the Year(s): 1989 - 1990

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.


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Post subject: Re: Can someone help me figuring out this Stratocaster?
Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 2:36 pm
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John Winston wrote:
I got this guitar about 5 years ago from a very reputable guitar shop here in the area. It's a "Squier Stratocaster by Fender." It's what I'd call lipstick red with a white 3 ply pickguard and white control knobs. It has the standard 3 single coil pickups and 5 way selector switch and a maple fretboard. On the headstock it has "Made in U.S.A." printed on the headstock just above the serial number. Speaking of which, the S.N. is E905884.
Is this guitar really made in the U.S.A.? I've had someone tell me that this coudn't be true. But I've read elsewhere that Squiers were made in America at the time period (1989?) due to a problem at the regular plant in Korea or Japan or wherever.
I'm wanting to sell this guitar and I could really use a subjective and HONEST answer from someone. Thanks for any help you can provide. :)

Sincerely,
John


Ok...I'm no expert here and hopefully someone else with more knowledge will come around but from a quick Google search, I am seeing that the E900000 serial number is consistent with 89-90 American built instruments....but...I can't determine if that applies to only Fender or Fender and Squier. During the Japan years the serial numbers were consistent either way but I really don't know about later.

Now that said, it does certainly seem possible that your guitar could have been made in the USA. From what I've read, it was around this time that Fender started switching the Squier line from the Japan company over to Korean facilities. It's certainly possible that Fender USA may have made a few during this time if there were any issues during the change over.

If it were me...being the paranoid snitz that I am, the first thing I would is take a really close look at the headstock logo there and make sure that the "Made in USA" and the serial number looks original. Remember...it's VERY easy to fake these sort of things these days. I'm not sure why anyone would really go to that kind of trouble for a Squier (especially if they're not going to change the name logo too) but let's face it...people are nuts. If the logo all appears to be original, I would likely accept it at face value with a lack of any other opinions. Either way, it's still a Squier...I'm not crackin' on Squiers at all here (I proudly own 3 myself) but it's not really going to be worth a lot of money even with "Made in the USA" on it. If you're looking to sell it, it's not like it's really going to be worth much more than a Japan, Korea or China made Squier of the same style. If anything, when it comes to Squier the mid-80's MIJ's seem to be about the most valuable...and those are still usually under $350.

Okies...probably not what you wanted to hear and again hopefully someone with more knowledge will come along, but I hope it helps!
Jim


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Post subject: Wow, that was fast!
Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 4:37 pm
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Thanks so much to all of you for your help. It seems that yes, this is indeed an American made guitar, for whatever that's worth in the final analysis. I was just curious because in the past, I hadn't had too good of luck with foreign guitars. Had another Squire (Korean, I think) back around '93 that was just junk and wouldn't stay in tune for anything.
Thanks again, it's much appreciated.

Sincerely,
John :D


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Post subject: Re: Wow, that was fast!
Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 12:33 pm
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John Winston wrote:
Thanks so much to all of you for your help. It seems that yes, this is indeed an American made guitar, for whatever that's worth in the final analysis. I was just curious because in the past, I hadn't had too good of luck with foreign guitars. Had another Squire (Korean, I think) back around '93 that was just junk and wouldn't stay in tune for anything.
Thanks again, it's much appreciated.

Sincerely,
John :D


Personally I can't really say anything bad about foreign made guitars. The truth of the matter is that a $100 guitar is going to play like a $100 guitar regardless of where in the world it was made. That said, it's been my experience that most tuning problems with Strats are simply due to a poor setup more than any other single factor (with the possible exception of cheap tuning keys). I have both an '85 Made in Japan Squier Strat along with a newer '08 Crafted in China Strat and...short of doing radical dive bombs, I've never any tuning issues with either. Granted, I do my own setups and that was one of the first things I did on the CIC...the MIJ had a good setup from the store where I bought it at.

The thing with "cheap" guitars is that most folks who own one don't really know anything about setups of often that a guitar needs to be setup properly from time to time. Most folks with an entry level instrument such as this typically are still learning how to play and don't really know much about proper guitar maintenance at all. I've known a great many people who are just learning and will get their first pro setup then be completely amazed at how much better their guitar plays and sounds. This seems to be particularly true with Stratocasters in general...very simply even a $1000 Am Std will NOT stay in tune properly if it's got a wonkey setup. There's no real magic in that regards.

As far as your Korean Strat goes...yes, it's been my experience that the Korean Squiers were really kind of hit or miss. The one I had, while it had a pretty sweet neck, the body really was (and still is) a piece of crap. On the other hand I've spoken with some folks who had MIK's that really just loved them the way most of us MIJ owners love ours. Either way though, again my Korean, as bad as it was, didn't have any problems with tuning after I did a setup on it. The guy I got it from could barely play and he had the setup all screwed up. Once I took a couple of days and got her all tweaked out, she actually played pretty well.

Now obviously I've never seen, let alone played the Korean Strat you had and as such it's kind of hard to be objective but if you really were having that bad of a problem with tuning issues, I would suspect the problem had something to do with the setup more so than where it was actually made. The expressions "just junk", "won't stay in tune" and "import" aren't specifically synonymous with each other. Yes, some imports are in fact really cheap guitars but there are just as many out there that are very serious instruments.

Anyways, just my $.02 worth...good luck with your sale!
Jim


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Post subject: Re: Wow, that was fast!
Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 12:39 pm
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John Winston wrote:
Thanks so much to all of you for your help. It seems that yes, this is indeed an American made guitar, for whatever that's worth in the final analysis. I was just curious because in the past, I hadn't had too good of luck with foreign guitars. Had another Squire (Korean, I think) back around '93 that was just junk and wouldn't stay in tune for anything.
Thanks again, it's much appreciated.

Sincerely,
John :D


Personally I can't really say anything bad about foreign made guitars. The truth of the matter is that a $100 guitar is going to play like a $100 guitar regardless of where in the world it was made. That said, it's been my experience that most tuning problems with Strats are simply due to a poor setup more than any other single factor (with the possible exception of cheap tuning keys). I have both an '85 Made in Japan Squier Strat along with a newer '08 Crafted in China Strat and...short of doing radical dive bombs, I've never any tuning issues with either. Granted, I do my own setups and that was one of the first things I did on the CIC...the MIJ had a good setup from the store where I bought it at.

The thing with "cheap" guitars is that most folks who own one don't really know anything about setups of often that a guitar needs to be setup properly from time to time. Most folks with an entry level instrument such as this typically are still learning how to play and don't really know much about proper guitar maintenance at all. I've known a great many people who are just learning and will get their first pro setup then be completely amazed at how much better their guitar plays and sounds. This seems to be particularly true with Stratocasters in general...very simply even a $1000 Am Std will NOT stay in tune properly if it's got a wonkey setup. There's no real magic in that regards.

As far as your Korean Strat goes...yes, it's been my experience that the Korean Squiers were really kind of hit or miss. The one I had, while it had a pretty sweet neck, the body really was (and still is) a piece of crap. On the other hand I've spoken with some folks who had MIK's that really just loved them the way most of us MIJ owners love ours. Either way though, again my Korean, as bad as it was, didn't have any problems with tuning after I did a setup on it. The guy I got it from could barely play and he had the setup all screwed up. Once I took a couple of days and got her all tweaked out, she actually played pretty well.

Now obviously I've never seen, let alone played the Korean Strat you had and as such it's kind of hard to be objective but if you really were having that bad of a problem with tuning issues, I would suspect the problem had something to do with the setup more so than where it was actually made. The expressions "just junk", "won't stay in tune" and "import" aren't specifically synonymous with each other. Yes, some imports are in fact really cheap guitars but there are just as many out there that are very serious instruments.

Anyways, just my $.02 worth...good luck with your sale!
Jim


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 3:12 pm
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Dude come back to this website and go to Support button. MOve down to Product Dating and click on the Wierd Serial Nubers and type it in. That should do it.


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