I emailed fender with my problem as it was bugging me still and they have offered to replace the body of the guitar. So happy ending....The body is in manufacture and is to be shipped to my local importer who will organize picking up my guitar and swapping the bodies over.

Thanks for everyones help and opinions.

Many thanks,

Rhys

"All's well that ends well."

Congrats to you and I'm glad you didn't settle for less than perfect!

Good luck with your soon to be, proper guitar!!

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You dig?

That's great but I'd still return it and get another one.

My Deluxe, doesn't have those, but I do have a Squire that I bought for $35 with those cracks. I would say that if this happens over a few years and doesn't affect playability, okay. If it happens in the first few months, not acceptable.

This is why I don't buy anything with cracked paintwork. I had a photo of another one somewhere but can't find it. It had cracks coming from the pocket and you could see it all the way through the wood appearing in the pickup cavity.

I have seen this many times.
The Deluxe has a poly coat if i remember correctly. Sometimes when the neck is screwed in too tightly, a fracture will occur of the poly coat. If you can run your nail accross it and dont feel it, dont wory about it. If you have a huge canyon type crack, get your money back.

Purly cosmetic IMHO - if anything it would suggest a very tight neck pocket!

This is certailly more serious!

One of my Strats developed finish cracks at the neck pocket. I've seen it on a fair number of other Strats too (not a lot, but enough so that it's not surprising). It doesn't affect playabilty so I don't know if Fender will do anything for you or not. Can't hurt to try though.

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

I had a MIM Strat with a hair line crack at the neck pocket but it didn`t affect the sound or playability.