Hey all! I am going to make a long story short. I have what I believe to be a 1969 custom shop stratocaster but the certificate was lost in a music store mix up, it has the custom shop logo on the back of the headstock, it has custom shop 69 strat pickups hand wound, dated and initialed by Abigail Ybarra and it says RELIC on the back of the body behind the bridge springs.
Recently it has been brought to my attention that the guitar has a 2004-2005 Japanese Fender serial number, the number is R08625. I believe my guitar was made in 2007 and I have never seen nor heard of Japanese Custom Shop Stratocaster before so needless to say, I am quite confused by all of this, if anyone knows how I can definitively confirm the origin of my guitar, that would be awesome.
thanks

Does the Custom Shop decal on the back of the headstock look like you can scratch it off with your fingernail? It may be that someone added a waterslide decal. You can try to see how the decal is cut. I'm not sure how most Custom Shop decals are put on. Mine are under the clear laquer or poly.

I am sure someone may know whether your's would have had a top decal where you can see the edges. The decals on my SRV are like that.

Id post this in the Mike Eldred forum, he will want pics too

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