i've a 1994 40th anniversary standard strat and it has the number "48 700." written in marker in the cavity housing the bridge spring tension equipment anyone know what it means? don't know if it was written by fender or not!

pros........ forgive me if the terminology is not right!

It's definitely a Fender mark because I have a 2001 USA standard strat with the number 12 written with white marker (black finish) in the same spot. I bought it new, so it must be from the factory. Always wondered what it meant, but I've got no idea!

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"...Compared to the flowers and the birds and the trees, I am an Apeman."

Good to know thats its a Fender mark. Mine is in black marker on sunburst.

Could it be the number of the guitar made that year as it came off the production line? in your case the 12th guitar made?

just curious! anyone else know what it could mean?

Hmm, I wondered if that was a possible, but there's probably a better chance it's a body number, just for that part. I know my Gibson serial number tells me which day the guitar was made, and whether it was the 12th made that day or the 700th - but as far as I know Fender have never had a system that logical. They have put part numbers or dates on necks and body's for a long time though.
Could be that, but I wonder if they would make 48,700 strat bodies in a day? Doesn't sound right. Confused...

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"...Compared to the flowers and the birds and the trees, I am an Apeman."

I was only guessing that they might have made 48,700 strat bodies in a year, but I really don't have a clue if they would make that may guitars in a year!!!

But there must be some reason for it! I'm confused too.......

before i posted the topic...i tried to search previous topics on it but couldn't find anything...I'm sure someone on this forum knows about it...they might take pitty and take us out of our courious state!!!

Woops, I meant 'year', not day. Obviously they're not pumping out 50K strats a day... but in a year, well i guess that's possible. Which raises the interesting question - how many strats are there in the world? How many do they actually make a year, how many since 1954? I think I read on here somewhere that Fender wont release production figures publicly, because it's comercially sensitive info or something (I really do not understand how business works) so I guess we'll never know.... can't help wondering tho.

Meanwhile, we're no closer to knowing what our mystery cavity numbers mean! But while we're here, do you leave the plastic cover on the back of your strat, over the cavity, or not? Someone told me years and years ago to take it off because it makes changing strings easier, when I was like 16 and had a cheap strat copy, and I've never had the cover on since. Also I sometimes like to 'play' the springs during heavy distortion feedback bits...
hmmm, this could be a new topic, might put it up.

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"...Compared to the flowers and the birds and the trees, I am an Apeman."

I was curious about this as well...haven't found any info about it yet. For those that don't know what we're referring to here it is:

2005 American Deluxe