Can you please help me ID my Strat? Bought new in the late 80s through Fender Australia. The peghead serial number is E819948. There is no Country of manufacture in the usual place under the Stratocaster decal. It has a cream/white body with white pickguard and knobs. The neck is 22 fret maple with rosewood fingerboard. Factory fitted with (Floyd Rose Lic) Kahler 'SPYDER' Tremelo and locking nut, also Gotoh machine heads. There is no date at the end of the neck, but on the flat underside surface is the number ST-562F stamped in black. Also a larger E stamped diagonally in red. This number is repeated in the body cavity where the neck sits 562. I have been told it's a $@! with American hardware. Serial number searches tell me Corona. A lot of confusion in those days I believe, with parts going to and fro. Hey. maybe its one of the first from the newly set-up custom shop. It definitely got some extra work done at whatever factory it was. What do you think?

Your guitar was made at the
Corona Plant (Fender), USA
in the Year(s): 1988 - 1989

Your guitar was made at the
Fuji-gen Plant (for Fender Japan), Japan
in the Year(s): 1984 - 1987

Ok thats bizarre.. your guitar could be either japanese or american..... look at the neck pocket do you see anywhere "crafted in japan" or anything like that? if you dont it is probably american but on the other hand it has a kahler tremolo spyder mmm so I remember reading about japanese strats with those feeatures... I am thinking its japanese now......mmmmm yah its probably japanese

Thanks Synk, I was tending towards Japanese (better not abrieviate that word again, censors, it's an inanimate object for #@%$ sake). There are no marks at all in the neck cavity apart from the number. I think it is unusual that this matches the number stamped on the neck. I've heard of JAPANESE Contempory strats with Floyd Rose type trems, but the Kahler is clearly stamped 'Made in USA'. Does anyone else have a theory? Was this hardware sent by Fender to Japan to hurry up production while the USA plant fell apart in the mid 80s? Or were early Corona Strats not marked USA on the headstock (still hoping)? Everything about this guitar is high quality ie workmanship,finish,hardware.

May one assume you're abbreviating American Standard Stratocaster? The automatic bowdlerizer doesn't seem to care for that particular acronym!

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I really like all them "Aster" guitars. You know, like the Stratoc, Telec and Jazzm.

Hi RussianRaceHorse: I think he's using the first three letters of the word "Japanese".

Interestingly, in other situations the "family friendly" software objects to offending sequences of letters even if they are contained within or across other words. For example, one guy wrote the word "that" followed by "its" and was amazed to find that the last letter of the first word along with the whole of the second were deleted...

BTW: you win the prize for the first use of the verb "to bowdlerise" in 2009. My respects to you!

Cheers - C

That's a Japanese marking, so I think it is a Japanese product.

Hi Ceri!

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Hi Orville!

- C

Ah, that makes more sense. Even so, the unintended hilarity of automatic censorship is always a delight. This makes me think of the Google News headlines when Tyson !@$ was winning races last summer:

Even more shocking (or perhaps not) is that even the Fender website won't allow me to enter this athlete's name, which is spelled with a G, then an A, and finally a Y.

More on this at http://revealingerrors.com/tyson_homosexual

And thank you for the nod on the word "bowdlerize." I like to keep things interesting by throwing in a fifty-cent word every once in a while, but only when it is le mot juste!

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I really like all them "Aster" guitars. You know, like the Stratoc, Telec and Jazzm.

B52 Superfortress the Enola !@$... No, the software objects to that moment in history, doesn't it?

Mind you, your cleverly inserted Olympics examples remind me of recent occasions when editing systems let things through that perhaps they should have thought twice about. My part of the world the noun "medal" seems to have suddenly become a verb. As in "Usain Bolt medals in the hundred meters".

Beijing Olympics we got all kinds of remarks from commentators along the lines of "this experienced coach has medalled with several of his young gymnasts"; and "the women's relay team have medalled together"; and "the swimmer has medalled in the pool". And so forth.

Hours of happy fun...

Cheers - C

PS What was this thread about...?

I would say that it was made in Japan the St-???? numbers sound like the parts numbers used by Fuji Gen. Here is a page that shows a Fuji neck stamped with it part number as ST-557F and another stamped ST-556HMM
just look in the photos in the middle of the page. I have seen these necks a few times and these are the best pics I can find at this time.

http://jimshine.com/Misconceptions/comm ... ptions.htm

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Now if i had been that athelete i'd of gone crazy and sued everyone who's censorship utilities called me a by that name. Its just more proof that censorship doesn't work.

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No no and no

Thanks CV. Those neck photos were some help. Mine looks more like the HMM USA in the second pic, even has the purple ink spot (not red) but not the numbered transfer. Still, it looks nothing like other Contemporys, Just looks like a traditional strat (except for the 'Big-Block" Spyder dropped in) I will post photos soon, she's in bits right now, pearly pickguard in the post, the original is plain white. Thanks again for the help......BB