I'm thinking a Chinese Affinity Squier that's been "gussied up."

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Heres the picture of the electronics. thanks for the information. please disregard the shield, i am the one that installed that.

That could be a possibility.. i've tried affinity squiers before, (made in china) but this one is far better in craftsmanship, feel & sound. thanks

Well, before i just based it on the serial number (J017795), just want to know more info about this guitar.... the bridge is not "fender stamped saddles". Thanks

those look like squier pups,pots, and switch to me

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Thanks... maybe its a squier from the 90's (i just base that from the scars and age of the neck & body) and they just placed a fender decal

Thanks for the information...i'm just confused about the guitar i got...
seems its not a fender... thanks for the comments.

i am beginning to think that its a squier (korea or japan) with a fake fender decal (or possibly a replaced neck). although its very confusing that the pickup routing is designed to fit S-S-S, H-S-S and H-H configuration.

Hi JVF13: I can't understand why there's even any doubt on the matter.

Let's clear this thing up once and for all. Here's a picture of the body route of my old Squier (now vastly modded):


Note: identical cavity route, right down to that distinctive sunken hole for the selector switch. You have a Squier body beyond doubt.

I have no idea why anyone thinks the neck didn't come with the body. Here's the neck (long since discarded) from that same Squier of mine:


Yours is the big headstock version, but details of trussrod holes are the same. Note that mine has a screen printed logo rather than a decal: whichever yours came with it has obviously been sanded off. You should search for signs of relacquering, such as join marks around the edge, to confirm that.

Here's the back of my headstock:


Identical tuners to yours. Incidentally, my Squier even came with that same green no-brand capacitor that I see in your harness. And the pickups look the same too. I must have the selector switch somewhere - but surely I don't need to search it out: the point has been made.

My Squier was bought new from an unimpeachable source. It's a genuine Squier (as if anyone would fake a Squier) and so is yours. Yours has had the logo taken off and a fake decal put on. Amongst the sources (which I won't name) for fake decals I can't recall seeing a "made in Japan" one, so presumably the previous owner of your guitar made his own. Perhaps he thought "made in Japan" would raise fewer doubts over the guitar's authenticity than if he'd written "made in USA" on it. He clearly didn't know his stuff on that. And since the "made in" decal is home made the serial number therefore tells us nothing and is not a clue to the date of the guitar.

As cvilleira said a long way back on this thread, you have a "waterslide Strat". It's a Squier with a fake decal. No mystery.

Incidentally, the folks who often like to argue that there's no harm in fake decals: this thread says otherwise.

Cheers - C

Now! That's the end of that mystery as far as I'm concerned. Thanks Det. Ceri!!

Thanks a lot... that answers all... they said my pickup routing is weird for a fender/squier. After seeing your squier now its clear. just want to ask where your squier was made, just want to know a little info where mine was possibly made..

Hi JVF13: actually, that's where my usefulness runs out, I'm afraid. I was given to understand that my Squier was Japanese when I bought it new. However, I don't know the history of Fenders from China and Korea (what dates they began in those places) so I can't disprove one of those origins for it.

The very fact that there is no "made in" mark on my old Squier neck suggests that perhaps batches at the bottom of the catalog were farmed around between different manufacturing locations as convenience dictated. To this day we hear about Korean models (such as the Special Editions) that occasionally turn out to have Chinese or Indonesian necks on them (though my Lite Ash Tele seems to be all Korean, far as I can tell).

I have a theory that when it wasn't making Fender branded guitars the Japanese factory turned out all kinds of other material - an argument based on those tuners, amongst other things. However, Forum user Orvilleowner didn't care for that idea on another recent thread. And I'd hesitate to contradict that gentleman, with his head for research...!

Unless someone who worked on the very line your guitar came down happens to look in (as if!) you are most unlikely to ever discover where it was made. Were it mine I'd just sand those silly decals off, refinish with a couple of coats of polyurethane and then enjoy that Strat. As someone said long ago on this thread, how it plays is the only thing that matters.

Enjoy! - C

Yes i'll just sand it off... i'm not comfortable with the "fender" decal. Thanks for all the info... all my doubts are answered... Thanks!

Thanks to those who viewed my post and gave their opinions and comments. i really appreciate it. Thanks

Thank you, ceri. I was beginning to calculate the odds that it was an early '70s strat that someone milled thinner, routed, and refinished.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

"When you've eliminated the impossible what remains is the truth, no matter how improbable."

Well, not always!!

- C