the guitar is to me the most liked and the one who wanted to keep, all my guitars, including jem, rg, soloist,n2, n4, Tele, DC400, and one airline65 unfortunately I was robbed and could not find one in mexico , is one of the best guitars and more for the money, I would buy it without thinking

Well, first let me introduce myself!

I'm from Sao Paulo / Brazil, 27 years old and I started playing guitar when I was 13, back in 1996. I started accidentally, when my older sister (who was already a guitar player, but "retired" some years ago) bought a new guitar and gave me her older one. It was a Giannini, a 110 years old brazilian brand mostly known for their acoustic guitars. In the short period when Made In Brazil Fenders existed (called Southern Cross), they were manufactured by Giannini.

What made me register here to join this thread was what follows this introduction I know the thread is old, but finding good information about MIJ/CIJ Fenders is so hard that anything can help who's searching.

Then in '98 my parents gave me a new guitar, because that old Giannini was crap. And it was a CIJ Fender Fotoflame, almost exactly identical to this blue/purple Fotoflame on the picture someone has posted.

They say it belongs to one of the last "batches" of Japanese Fenders ever imported to Brazil, before they stopped. The company which imported these guitars to Brazil was Musical Izzo.

What calls my attention is that, here in Brazil, this same model as the picture was not sold under the Squire badge. They are simply Fender. As far as I know, they have basswood body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, Gotoh pots and unknown hardware. I have no idea about the pickups (HSS) also, but they sound pretty good for a stock. They go from heavy metal to blues or classic rock. Very, very versatile! You can play any kind of music with them and you won't be ashamed. Build quality is very good too. A lot better than MIM or Squire models and comparable to MIUSA (I don't like the "MIA" term, because Mexico and Brazil also belongs to America ).

Mine has the Fender traditional logo followed by STRATOCASTER and bellow, in very small letters (almost invisible), it's written "with synchronized tremolo". There's nothing else written in the headstock. The back of the neck has no film. Just veneer over the wood, with a rosewood stripe covering the truss rod cavity. When you take the neck off, there's a mark that says it was manufactured in march-'97 (s/n A00xxxx...).

I modified some things to fit my personal preferences: added a 3rd control knob for tone (1 master vol, 1 tone for the bridge, 1 tone for the neck, no tone for the middle), changed a little piece of cardboard that came under the locking nut to a brass-made one, to improve sustain, and finally changed the neck PU to a Seymour Duncan Cool Rails + push/pull for coil split (wich I kinda regret, because I loved the stock neck single coil).

I've spent the last decade or so searching for the complete specs of this guitar, but I can't find it anywhere. What's the hardware? The pickup models? Neck radius? I still don't know.

I also own a Gibson Explorer (faded worn brown) and I love both guitars. They're great, but completely different from each other. If someone ask me, I will certainly recommend this CIJ Fender as well as the Gibson Explorer. When you find it for sale, buy before someone else do. It's a great deal!

Hope this helps someone, because it's almost impossible to find information about this specific model on the web! If someone knows anything more about it, please share!

Sorry for my english and for the (very) long text...