so... just took the pickguard off my CAR classic 60s strat and saw something i've never seen before.... what's the little circular indention for? anyone know? coke stash? that's my best guess. maybe just an oops with the router before paint? hmmm....

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~Dan

I believe it has something to do with a machine holding the body, perhaps during painting.

that sounds more likely. do a lot of fenders have that now? i'd never seen it before.

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~Dan

My 2010 FSR American Standard has it. My 2012 AmDeluxe does not.

HTH

Cheers!
BM

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This is the Blues. Are you listening?

I use a milling machine and sometimes there is a call for something like that in the gcode that just happens depending on the machine pattern used. It could also have something to do with the way Fender does 4 axis milling. They may have a few older machines that require a manual flip for the back cut. In that case that could be a hole used for alignment. My 2004 mim has three of them. I'm sure they have 100,000+ machines with auto 4 axis and tool change with all the bells and whistles as well. That would be very cool to have in the garage.

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My ability to spell is in direct proportion to the amount of coffee I've had.

CNC indexing hole is what I have always been told. Usually the MIM's have 3 of these holes and the MIA have 1.

cool, thanks guys....This is MIM and it's only got one.

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~Dan

Yah, I'm not convinced it's a location index unless there's something shady going on. Fender has been using CNC for a lot of years now and this is the first one of these I've ever even heard of let alone seen. There was a time when FMIC would actually show off their state-of-the-art CNC milling equipment on tours and in Frontline, etc. It makes no sense to me that now, after almost two decades of machining bodies and necks without locator holes that they would start to show up. This is a step backwards. It cannot be percieved in any other way. It's not an upgraded machine doing this. Nobody in their right mind would consider the act of leaving a hole in a guitar body that serves no purpose to the guitar but only serves the machining equipment to be an upgrade or improvement. I am at a loss to come up with a reasonable explanation except that perhaps its possible that some MIM and MIA bodies are actually machined in China or some other country where maybe they use dinosour milling equipment. If this is the case I would cry foul to using the words "Made In USA" or "Made In Mexico."

I'd like to see Brad or someone from Fender chime in on this. I would hope there is a better explanation.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

While never having seen the 'holes' in the flesh, I have seen them lots of times in pictures. Router location hole has always been the explanation.

Dan, I haven't ever seen a spot llike that before. "hey, what's that for?" In the words of jeff spicoli "I don't know"

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

Mike Eldred has addressed this elsewhere and times back. It is related to the routing procedures on the bodies and we have seen photos of these in the past.

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"Another day in paradise!"

This Deluxe Players Strat has the same hole.



Goodonya ...Mark.

I like the stash idea myself. Here, let me open up a can o' worms: IT'S A TONE HOLE

Do you know if anyone sells replacement tones to fill that hole?
You know like Eric Clapton Rock Tones or B.B. King Blues Tones, etc....

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2012 American Standard Precision V - Candy Cola Red
2012 Squier Vintage Modified Jazz V - Surf Green
2011 FCS Custom Classic Special Jazz Bass V - Violin Burst
1996 MIM Stratocaster HSS - Black
1975 Precision Bass - 3 Tone Sunburst

What's that say about my playing? I've got nothing in my tone hole!

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~Dan