All this talk of fakes lately has me worried. I bought a MIM from someone locally and it appears to be a little unique as compaired to many that I've seen. Some of the features I find unique are the dark/poly finished neck, the black truss rod hole and nut, the flamed top and something i found odd is the very small gap showing above the trem insert hole. It is very small but I drew an arrow on one of the pics to show it. Does my guitar appear to be a fake to any of the experts? Thanks guys!!

Hi sportrider24: I see absolutely nothing wrong with your MIM.

The black plastic trussrod entry is right, I believe a toned lacquer is currently the thing on MIM necks, and that little gap near the trem arm hole is to be found on many, many Fenders. No worries.

Two things fascinate me. I love the top of the guitar, because that very gentle flame is in fact much more to my taste than the strident sort you often see. Also, the dark edge of the 'burst is a very nice color to my eye. I don't know what that would be called: it is too brown for Sienna Sunburst, and yet it ain't a Tobacco Burst either. Or is it?

Presumably this is some sort of special edition MIM - what they call FSR. Perhaps you can tell us more about where you got it and we could figure something out about that?

Otherwise, if you email Customer Services and ask them about the serial number they should be able to confirm the details of that guitar for you. Contact them on: consumerrelations@fender.com .

Anyway. NICE looking guitar!

Cheers - C

PS Care to show us a picture of the back, please?

Looks to me like a GC special run of the flame tops they offered a couple years ago. Very nice. Wish I would have gotten one when thet where in our store.

All looks good to me. A very nice guitar!! The only things that I see as deviating from stock is the black nut(usually come in white) and the 2 adjusting screws on the bass side of the humbucker. I ususally only see one per side. I have been seeing more of the 3 adj. screws for the HSS models, so Fender must have made a change somewhere along the way. These are different from what I see on my MIM guitars.
No worries tho, as folks are probably not going to go to all the trouble to replicate a MIM Strat. It usually happens with MIA models.

No disrespect intended but why would anyone "fake" an MIM? THey are readily available and very reasonably priced.

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

I was sort of thinking the same thing.

Looks as if graphite was installed. Look how deep is been cut.

The Chinese fake MIM strats, too. $150 shipped still leaves room for profit. Nice looking strat!

All of Fender's current HSS guitars have the three adjusting screws.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

A very handsome guitar. Lovely top and great colour sunburst.

Relax and enjoy it

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

Thanks for the replies. I'd say that the reason I'm questioning a fake MIM is because I know there are allot of fake Epiphones out there and they run about the same price as a MIM.

Thanks for putting my mind at ease though. I'll take some pics of the back in a little bit and post them up.

Pic of the back as requested by Ceri!

Graphtech grafite nut. nice touch.

Hi again sportrider: thank you for the pic. Wow, a nice two piece body with good grain. No sign of a back veneer. They really did a nice job on this thing didn't they? I think you bagged a real deal. Congrats!

I'd love to know for definite what that finish is called. Tobacco Burst or something else - anyone know for sure?

Cheers - C

Thanks Ceri. I emailed customer service like you suggested and asked them the name of the body color and if it is a special edition of some sort. I'll fill you in when I hear something back.