I'm doing a little detective work. I found a srat at a friends house. It was in the back of a wardrobe needing some love. He shrugged it off and said he bought it in a pawn shop a few years ago. I cleaned it up and sorted the action. It plays quite nice, but I don't have enough experience with Strats to know the "Very good feel" from the "Good feel". Purely out of curiosity, I wondered if anyone could help me find out a little bit of it's history.

It has a serial number on the neck plate. The Serial number is 6XXXX according to the websites on serial numbers, this would make it 1962. If it is from 1962, then it has almost no wear and tear. It's definitely 10-20 years old, but it doesn't feel like 45 years.

-it has a "button" string guide for E & B strings. rather than the standard butterfly clip
-It has a maple neck but it is almost orange. The colour is the same on the headstock, so I'm not sure if it is a discoloration as a result of age
-the headstock doesn't have the "spaghetti writing, but the original writing, and there is a sticker saying "Original contour body" and it says with "with synchronised tremolo" below fender and stratocaster
-the saddle for each string says "FENDER FENDER" rather that "Fender Pat Pend"

Does anyone know from this how old this guitar is? What else should I look for to track down an age?

Butterfly tree's were used in the 50's. Not sure when they came out but it was very pre62. If possible can we see a photo of it?

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No no and no

I'll get some photos up in the next few days. I was wondering what I should be taking a photo of. Any specific areas I should be examining in detail?

Close ups of the headstock, logo side. Bridge, if possible the neck pocket and heel and under the pickguard would be a big help. Also a photo of the back of the neck and a photo of the whole guitar, please.

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No no and no

Here's some photos:


http://i35.tinypic.com/2woazcz.jpg
http://i38.tinypic.com/2hmd2kh.jpg
http://i36.tinypic.com/1231jkz.jpg
http://i35.tinypic.com/1f8fat.jpg
http://i34.tinypic.com/2aj6r12.jpg
http://i38.tinypic.com/34ypu3d.jpg
http://i33.tinypic.com/1zoivdx.jpg
http://i34.tinypic.com/k1ught.jpg
http://i36.tinypic.com/vr36a0.jpg
http://i37.tinypic.com/29xu3rk.jpg

I couldn't get a good photo of the bridge.

Hmm. May I take the liberty of making these pictures a little quicker and
easier to view, please? Unfortunately, they are enormous so that
introduces other problems, but...












So. Other people are more qualified to talk about the headstock decal and
the serial number. One suggestion I have: if you take the neck off
and find that the lacquer is the same dark color on the heel where the light
hasn't got at it then it suggests the lacquer was tinted to make it look
old, and so the guitar is a reissue. If the heel is significantly lighter then
that suggests (but doesn't confirm) that the neck really is quite old.

Have a look for that "sun tan" effect and tell us what you find.

Cheers - C

[A minute later] Ooo - just looked again and noticed the trussrod
entry hole. Well that rather changes matters, doesn't it? Whose going
to say it...?

I'll leave others to list the other "problematic" features.

- C

Oops - I hadn't realised the URL's would come out as full photos. I have just restrung it and I'm gigging with it this week, so I won't have time to take the neck off it for a week or so. But I will do when I get the time. What does the truss rod hole suggest?

Forget pulling the neck - that is superseded because the guitar ain't real.

The absence of a solid or hollow walnut insert in the trussrod hole means it
isn't a Fender. I can't list for you everyone who has made "nude" trussrod
holes like that, but there are some possibilities. In the '90s Chinese made
Squiers had that type of hole and today Affinity Strats come that way.

However. I don't recall either of those brands coming with honey tinted
lacquer. I also don't know whether either of them has ever been issued
with a skunk stripe and a seperate maple fingerboard - though
they might have. But that back plate with the middle screw holes evenly
spaced (not staggered) and the letterbox string access hole did not
come on the '90s Squier. You'd need to look at the back of an Affinity
to find out if they are making them that way at present.

That backplate could be a user mod, for the convenience of the string
access. For sure the tuners have been put on there by a previous owner:
I don't recall seeing even Far Eastern fakes with tuners as crookedly fitted
as that. That's the work of a beginner.

I'm not sure what but the pole pieces in the pickups have a non-Fender
story to tell as well.

All in all, the logo on the headstock is fake. Who put it there and what the
guitar was before they put it on is open to question. One thing is certain:
you have not found a genuine 1962 Strat, or a Fender from any other year
either.

Sorry...

Cheers - C

I think I'm coming to the conclusion that this guitar is a frankenstein. From a bit of googling:

- the headstock suggests 1954-1960(or reproductions of) http://www.pinrepair.com/vgi/fendinfo/dstrat.jpg

- the serial number suggests 1962(possibly the most confusing piece of evidence, cos it's printed on a neck plate that has no noticeable tarnishing or aging. (http://www.fender.com/support/usa_instruments.php)

- the peghead string guide or string tree suggests 1950-mid 1956(or reproductions of) http://www.provide.net/~cfh/fender.html. I don;t even think it's a reproduction of a 50's strat, but I can't find any other example of the "button" style string guide.

-The kulsons have nothing written on them, http://guitarhq.com/fenddiff/fender_tuners.jpg, so 52-56?

- the saddles are the middle ones in this pic - http://guitarhq.com/fenddiff/repro_strat_saddles3.jpg so 1990 onwards?

- it has a 5 way pickup selector switch - so 1977 onwards.

I'm stumped...

Ha ha! excellent. Thank You for taking the time to have a look. My interest was peaked by the serial number, and some parts of the guitar seeming old. It's not my guitar, so I don't really care. My main guitar is a 1970, and I knew the whole guitar wasn't older than that, you can just tell by some of the plastic parts. But well done - mystery solved. The irony is that I was never really a strat man, but I quite enjoyed playing this, so maybe I need to overcome my fear of the twang and go out and try a few again.

I'm afraid Ceri is correct. The decal and trussrod hole are not from a 62 strat. Sorry!

Hi again furbyx4: don't be stumped. There's nothing much to work out,
really. It's not a Fender. Either the maker or an owner before you has
put a fake logo on the headstock. A previous owner has done some
other mods too: at the very least the tuners and the bridge saddles.
Maybe the backplate.

It's not catagorical, but what I was hinting to you in my previous post is
that it probably isn't even a Squier or Affinity Strat. I don't think it has
anything to do with any part of the Fender empire.

Therefore it is one of the millions of Strat lookalikes out there which a
previous owner has modded a bit and added a decal to fool people into
thinking he owns a Fender.

Nuttin' more to it than that.

Harsh news to break to you, if you were hoping you'd stumbled on a
genuinely collectable guitar. So again: sorry.

Now. Play some music on it. What else matters?

Cheers - C

EDIT: Oops - our posts are all crossing in cyberspace...

You've saved me a moral dilemma I found it abandoned, and the owner would have accepted a few hundred for it. I've been wondering what I would do if it had been worth 4 figures, but fortunately/unfortunately my conscience will remain clear...

At least it taught me a bit more about strats, their history and the vintage market..

I just want to add a quick two cents worth here...

I agree with the consensus that this instrument is likely a fake but that said, it still could be worth a couple a hundred dollars. It's hard to say without actually seeing the guitar in person, but I have seen some "fakes" that were in fact very good instruments.

A lot of people seem to be of the impression that if the guitar doesn't have a major name brand logo on it such as Fender or Gibson, it's simply not worth owning. The truth however is that there are folks who can put together some really sweet instruments that are -VERY- playable. I wanted to bring this up because for a lot of folks when they see the word "fake" they automatically think "$50 piece of junk" that someone's trying to make a quick buck off of. Certainly that -can- be the case, but not always. I was recently at a local guitar show and I saw a fake Strat...the logo was most definitely fake...but it was actually a VERY nice instrument. Beautiful body, spectacular finish, top of the line hardware, absolutely luscious neck and the sound was just incredible...in fact the quality was quite comparable to a top shelf "real" Strat. It was well worth the $450 the guy was asking for it.

If you're actually in the market and the instrument plays well, it might be worth taking a closer look at. See if it's got a full size/steel trem block, maybe check out the pickups, see if the body is "real" wood (not some cheap ply), etc...if your friend is willing to let it go for $200 or so, it may still be a good deal. Just be aware that if you should ever try to sell if, this issue of authenticity could come up again...in other words, don't try to sell it as a genuine vintage Fender or anything.


Anyways, as always just my opinion here.
Peace,
Jim