Hi,

I bought this 1988 razzberry HM Strat brand new in a 'damaged' stock sale - I couldn't resist. The only thing was... I could not find any damage to the guitar - it appeared mint.

However, someone in the paint shop had sprayed a huge anarchy sign in the same colour pink (below the top lacquer coat) between the trem and the lower edge of the body!!! It only showed when the guitar caught the light (and was impossible to photograph). It obviously passed quality control at the factory but was picked up during inspection at Arbiters (the UK importer at the time).

Has anyone else had an "anarchy" Strat, or was it unique?



I sold this guitar many years ago - I wonder if the current owner has spotted the anarchy sign? If you've got a pink one like this, the serial number began E842xxx

I have heard of people stripping guitars and finding writing or patterns under the color coats. never heard of quite what you have found before though.

i can see someone getting bored and doing that kind of thing though.

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

HAHA!
This reminds me of some of the things we find inside the panels of cars we work on. The guys at the factory get pretty creative with the seam sealers in areas they expect will never see the light of day.

_________________
Don't worry, Be happy.

I own one of those HM Strats in the same color. Never seen an anarchy symbol. Too bad you sold the guitar, it is a nice one, if you like big hair and Ratt, BonJovi and Poison!!!

It's certainly possible that it could have been someone at the factory getting bored or goofy but I'd suspect it's more likely something like a "special order" (FSR?) that perhaps got canceled and instead of stripping the body, they just shot right over what was already there. Think of it this way, Fender receives an order from "Joe's Strat Emporium" for an order of special run finishes to help Joe's celebrate their 40th year in business. Then for whatever reason...maybe it was the economy, maybe they didn't have the money, maybe Joe's went out of business, etc...for whatever reason the order is canceled and Fender's left holding 20 special run guitars that were special ordered with a specific finish or design...some of them are near finished and maybe a few are complete guitars...what exactly does Fender do? Shoot a fresh finish over them and sell them as a Standard (or whatever).

I can't speak for how they do things today but I know I've read in places were in the old days Fender would start out by shooting all of their Sunbursts first and then the bursts that didn't come out well went on to be shot in a solid color and same thing, they just shot right over the first finish. In this case, maybe the guitar had originally been painted for a specific order or something and then for whatever reason, the order was canceled....they'd probably just re-shoot.

Of course if you prefer to think of it as a DiVinci with a doodle from the artist under the finish...hey...that's cool too. You could very well have a one of a kind there .

Peace,
Jim

Ha - on which: I was in The Louvre the other day looking at the Mona Lisa. And do you know, if you catch it in just the right glancing light there's things about that painting I'd never noticed before? Now I'm wondering if it was Leonardo da Vinci doing an FSR masterpiece...



Cheers - C

Ceri -

That Mona Lisa looks like a young Bob Dylan to me. Hmmm....

_________________
Custom Shop '59 Stratocaster
AV Hot Rod '52 Telecaster
AV '56 Stratocaster
'65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue

Ceri - that's really mest up!

In all seriousness, wasn't the Mona Lisa actually painted over something else. i seem to remember reading somewhere that under infrared light they revealed his starting doodles, and also some changes he made to her position and smile, and there was conjecture that the picture started out as a self portrait, and then he switched it to the female model that became the final work.

i am hoping someone has better info (Ceri!! ) this is all a vague recollection for me.

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Hi man: I dunno about any of that. But I did notice that if you moved to a slightly different angle the light shifted and you could see a different picture coming through from underneath:



- C

_________________

Here's the full restoration picture i saw before:

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Oh man, that's what they found underneath the paint? Well that's definitely a self portrait - case proven.

On a (very vaguely) similar theme (analysing ancient artifacts. OK, it's a stretch - but go with me on this). Did you hear the Turin Shroud is back on display to the public for a limited period?

Simultaneously the Catholic Church has finally permitted more extensive scientific analysis than ever before and it turns out that it is indeed 2000 years old after all. However, it is not the shroud of Christ. Very surprisingly, it turns out the be the shroud of Pontius Pilate.

Amazing coincidence, huh?

Go on, ask me how they can tell...

- C

_________________

i heard that the sample they looked at before was from a patch put n much later, and that was why the carbon dating showed it being new. I haven't heard that it was Pontius Pilate (his exercise regimen is sure popular, hey?) how would they tell that? DNA from known descendants?

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

The label said "handwash only".






... ... ...I'm here all week, folks.

G'night - C

_________________

that was AWESOME, I'm gonna steal that!!

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.