Hello Strat fans!, I´d like 2 show you my 1979 yellow strat, bought it 15 years ago for less than 300$. I know it´s worth much more today.
I have never known for sure what kind of yellow is my guitar, Monaco Yellow or Graffiti Yellow?

link: http://www.gorilarex.com/vb-strats.htm

Also, building a custom strat, 100% original, from the nicest block of ash you can imagine, shaped exactly as a 62 vintage reissue. My luthier is still assembling it, the work is astonishing, gonna have it for xmas. I´ll upload the pics soon, I really want to share with u all.

cheers

V.B.[/img]

That guitar is probably a 1981 in Monaco Yellow.
Many guitars built in the early '80s had S9 serial numbers.
That color was introduced in 1981 as part of the International Color series.

What codes are on the neck, pots, and pickups?

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Looks like its #63 Graffiti Yellow

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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

so which one is it? monaco or grafitti?

the link has now the pics of the ash body and components of my new dream strat. check it out.

haven´t disassembled it yet!

Those couple years are kind of difficult in there serial numbers because because you are posting that its a 1979 which when you go to some place like guitar dater if gives you that wide range of years. That guitar could very well be a 1981. The serial number catalog breaks it down to S810000-S870000 as 1979, S880000-S980000 as 1980, and S950000-S990000 as 1981, E000000-E100000 as 1979 to 1981 so you notice how mixed the serial numbering was those years. The S for 70's and first number just don't give you a accurate date. That being said the Monaco Yellow was around in 1981.

The two, Graffiti and Monaco look very much alike.

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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

The color "Graffiti Yellow" wasn't used until 1987, on the Strat Plus.

While the actual colors could very well be the same, the names were used at different points in time. Monaco Yellow (and the other International colors) lost their place in Fender's color chart (it was # 82 IIRC).

See

www.late70sstrats.welshviolin.com

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

what orvilleowner said...

I was looking into buying a Monaco Yellow ICS Strat not so long ago (outbid at the last second, as is usual for that type of thing... grr..), and when I was doing the research it appeared that the 1981 International Colour Series (and indeed most of Fender/CBS' '81 offerings) were made using the stockpile of '79 bodies and parts (even serial numbers that they'd had printed on the decals) that the company was trying to use up before the handover. Most bodies of this period were heavy ash as they had a lot of those "natural" '70s bodies to get through! Also plenty of black knobs and pickup covers, though I don't know what happened to all the pickguards..

Which is correct most likely his guitar is a 1980-81 by looking it up in serial number catalog which breaks them down. Because of that there is a chance it could be either one since both colors appear to have been used in this time frame.
Looking at pics they look very much alike where as in person there may be a more noticeable difference but we all no what lighting an camera angle to can do.

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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

It's a Monaco Yellow 1981 Stratocaster... I have the exact same guitar...

Nice guitar. Thanks for posting the pic.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Great yellow color

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10-4 good buddy, over and out!