Must be around 1994, I bought a Red Strat (metallic) with a pearl pickguard. The hardware was gold and really was a gorgeous player. I bought it new from a store where the next most expensive guitar was a 'gold on gold' strat. It may have cost around £1000 new.

It had a fancy mark on the plate but I just cant remember.

I'm really trying to find this model again for sentimental reasons, I appreciate there maybe better things out there for the money.

Any ideas chaps?

In the 90s Fender made a 60 Strat that was a Custom Shop model available with gold hardware maybe the neckplate you're talking about is the custom shop plate.The gold hardware was $100 more and from 92-99 they had Texas Special pups.The 56 and 60s came out in 96 with the 60s Relic being discontinued in 99 as with the 60 gold hardware was $100 more.The American Classic from 92-99 also was a Custom Shop with gold hardware but standard pups it came with a rosewood fretboard.As you can see there a few possibilities as to what model it can be if we had a bit more info we might narrow it down a bit.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

This is all going from memory: Certainly American Made and it had RW neck, bone nut and the traditional PU's rather than Lace Sensors. I certainly don't recall it being a CS model, but I could be wrong (seems nonsense not to remember now, I know every detail of every guitar I've bought from 2000 onwards!). It definately wasn't a relic or NOS....could it have been an anniversary model?

I got it from A1 in Manchester and sold it to Johnny Roadhouse about a year later - it must of been good quality cause it was displayed smack in the middle of their window! Again, thanks for any help here.

The 94 Custom 1960 had a pearloid guard however it had a matching headstock.then there was the 92-99 American Classic with gold and a rosewood fretboard but I don't know if it had special badging of any kind.The 94 50th also had gold but that too had a matching headstock.In 95 they made a Strat with a commerative coin but I don't have any info on that model.In 94 there was also a run of 20 Custom ordered 1960 Strats with the pearloid guard but again with the matching headstock.That's all I can Find for now however I'll keep digging and see what I can find.With any luck Nikininja,Ceri or Martian will be able to help as these guys could write a Fender encyclopedia.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Thank you for the compliment, but I'm just gazing in awe and wonderment at your detailed knowledge. Have you got a shelf full of past catalogs in front of you or something? Very impressive!

I have nothing worth offering by comparison...

Carry on!

Cheers - C

I have a backlog of Guitar Player from mid 70s to present and Guitar World from it's inception as well as Vintage Guitar guides and a pile of other guitar related stuff.Believe me I don't store any of this in my head,I just keep digging here and there.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I wish I could remember more about this...it's really hacking me off...I have a feeling it was really quite a special instrument. Thanks for all your help chaps, only sorry I cant remember more about it! I can't even remember the case shape......

The gold on gold they had was from the similar range but was a few quid more, I remember not buying that cause I thought it looked awful....

I'm sure it was real gold hardware, gold plate of course......

good luck. hope you find a similar or better yet, that guitar. I have a couple I wish I could get back.

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2012 American Vintage Telecaster 1958
09 Fender american deluxe strat.
97 Gibson les paul special P90's double-cut
65 Princeton reverb re-issue
2010 Guild Gad-F40e