I'm a newbie and have found a 2005 Harley Edition Stratocaster guitar through craigslist I'm interested in but after hearing about all the fake Fenders out there wanted to first find out if it was real or not and how to determine what a "fair" price range for it is with the Fender deluxe hard-shell case? I noticed it has six digits after the MZ5 but read somewhere that they sometimes do have 6 not 5. Here are some pictures with the serial number blurred: http://s91.photobucket.com/albums/k319/newhampshirefarms/zzzz/fr/ Does it look like a real Fender Stratocaster?

Any tips on what I should look for on it? I'd be trading another guitar for this one, my other guitar is worth around $1500. I can't seem to find much online about this 2005 Harley Edition Fender, is it a rare model? If anyone has any good websites or price guide data that would help me research this, that would be super. Thanks so much.

I'm NO expert here compared to the amount of knowledge many of the other regulars have. But, IMO, if you are thinking of trading a $1500 guitar for THAT, you should think twice.

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"I like the way he puts Yngwie J. Malmsteen on his album covers. You know,....so you don't confuse him with all the other Yngwie Malmsteens in the business"


2008 Fender MIM Stratocaster
2010 Epiphone Masterbilt
2009 Fender Super Champ XD

DON"T DO IT!!!!!!!!!



Glad you asked about it. That is just a plain old 2005 MIM Standard Strat in midnight wine that someone has put an aftermarket pickguard, pickup, control knob, and string trees on. It's not worth anywhere near the $1500 that you are trading for! I wouldn't pay more than $225 because who knows what brand of pickup the seller put in it or what kind of soldering job he did and it might sound horrible.

This guitar started life looking like this:


What makes you think this is some "Harley" special edition? Did the seller tell you this? He's lying. In your search on the web for this guitar you probably ran into hits only for a Fender Custom Shop Harley Strat because there was only a Custom Shop one, not MIM. And it looks very different from what this seller is trying to pass of as a Harley edition. check these out: http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=fe ... a=N&tab=wi

When Fender does limited editions or FSR (Fender Special Runs) for MIM's they usually put a little decal on the back of the headstock that says "Special Edition". There is no such decal on the guitar in question which is another clue it's just a modified stock MIM Standard.

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Obligatory gear list: Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson, Gretsch, Vox, Martin, and more Fender.

I wouldn't give more than a couple hundred bucks for it.....and to be honest, I wouldn't buy it just because I don't like how they set it up with nothing but a bridge humbucker. This is totally a home job. If you're looking to trade in a $1500 guitar, look into the Made in the USA Fenders.

Now, THAT'S what I was thinking !

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"I like the way he puts Yngwie J. Malmsteen on his album covers. You know,....so you don't confuse him with all the other Yngwie Malmsteens in the business"


2008 Fender MIM Stratocaster
2010 Epiphone Masterbilt
2009 Fender Super Champ XD

Man... I take back what I said about the diamond plate being ugly.

_________________
You're only as strong as
the drinks you pour,
the tables you dance on,
and the friends you roll with.

Wow. You guys are very helpful. So basically, the guitar is a fake I take it and they didn't really make a special edition "Harley" MIM in 2005? I guess that's why I couldn't find anything when I searched google about it. I'm going to email the seller now for more information and will post his reply as I was told by the seller it was a valuable one-off mint collectible Fender worth $1800 with the case, but have never owned a Fender and thought this might be a chance to finally own and play a nice one (I assumed it must be nice to be worth $1800). I'm a hobby player, not a musician by any means and was looking for something of decent quality and a little more tame then my current electric guitar which I now have on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/HMR-Custom-Electric-Guitar-1-1-Handcrafted-USA-/150434146884?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Guitar&hash=item230692ea44#ht_1487wt_1166 and thought a trade would work out well if I found one. My current guitar is a custom American made HMR guitar and was hoping to trade it for something else (either electric or acoustic) worth somewhere near what mine is. My current guitar is unique, but I'd rather have something more tame. Here's a picture of what I currently own:




Matt

Dp - sorry

With that pickguard and a some kind of premium pickup, then (assuming perfect condition and a HSC) I could see that guitar going for 300-400.
And that is a top-dollar price. But the fact he is already mis-representing it is a good sign to:

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

Still waiting for his reply, here was his original email. I took the pictures and uploaded them to my personal photobucket account (which I shared the link to earlier).

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Hi,

I have a nice Fender Stratocaster 6 string electric guitar, Harley Edition, one of a kind. MINT.

I’ve been playing guitar for about 45 years now and I have over 20 high end guitars in my home studio. I’m looking to add another “wild” guitar to my collection.

The worth on my Fender guitar without a case is around $1,500 and with the Fender deluxe hard-shell case its value is about $1,800. I’ll throw in a Mint Peavey amplifier 15W practice amp with the deal.

Being that it’s a 1 of a kind guitar and has the Harley neck plate on it, you might get a lot more for it on the open market such as Ebay if you decided to sell it down the road…….

I’d be willing to trade you even for the “Green Machine”.

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Thanks for the good laugh That seller is is full of crap. "1 of a kind" hahaha Yeah right...
"has the Harley neck plate on it". hahaha His pic even shows the stock blank MIM Standard neck plate.

Nothing more than a modded MIM Standard trying to be passed of as something else. Email a link of this thread to the seller and flag the ad on craigslist.

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Obligatory gear list: Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson, Gretsch, Vox, Martin, and more Fender.

The fall of the heel of the neck into the curve looks wrong to me but thats about it.

Also the Harley Davidson strats were customshop guitars from 94. Very very different to that one.


Dont expect to pay less than £8000 for one.

BTW I really like that Green Goblin guitar.

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No no and no

Fender custom shop built a Strat with a pickguard exactly the same
i forgot for who
but is an established guitar player

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http://www.youtube.com/user/eddytanhh

oh, i just saw that you looking for a Harley Strat
nikininja is correct
the guitar for sale that you found
is not a Harley Strat

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http://www.youtube.com/user/eddytanhh

Grab your popcorn, here's the email response I just received from the seller after I mentioned that it looked a lot like aftermarket components where just thrown on a MIM stock Fender and why I couldn't find any history online about a 2005 Harley guitar ever being built... (I'm going to put ***'s in place of the vulgar words he used)

START OF EMAIL
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I'll send you more photos later this evening (after I get home) of the
Harley plate, close up of the head, etc....

The guy I bought this from worked for Fender and designed it himself. He
only did one because it was to labor intensive, bla, bla, bla... You know
that story I'm sure....

It's a very beautiful guitar for the right person... That "Southern Fried" -
"Harley" kind of guy (or gal) that wants to have a guitar to go with his/her
bike that no one else has... bla, bal, bla... again.

I bought it because I had never seen one before. I look for 1 of a kind
type of collectable guitars. When I saw your "Green Goblin" I figured I
would just keep that on the wall in my studio as more of a conversation
piece if I was able to score it.

I've never tried to sell my Fender Harley to see what I could get for it,
but many knowledgeable guitar players and collectors have offered me at
least $1,500 for it without the case. Not a lot of money, but what the
hell, who wants to pay $40k for a fu*** guitar, right?

I don't have any Fender USA's in my collection. I had my share of them
earlier in my life and I've found the Fender MIJ's and MIM's are just so
much better and nicer sounding, so I have a few of them in my collection in
different configurations. None that I want to part with though. This is
the only Fender that I'll part with at this time because of its limited
audience level. Similar to your "Green Goblin" I guess. I think I would
only trade this Fender for something that sparked me like your "Green
Goblin". Other than that, I'd just keep it and hand it down to one of my
grandkids.......

I'll get back to you later when I get home and maybe we can make a deal (or
not) at the beginning of next week?

Take care Matt and thanks for getting back to me so soon! Most guy's drag
their feet on things like this and then kick themselves in the a** after
they find out it's gone....... I usually jump on things that I want right
away, but guitars are like women..... sometimes you just get sick of looking
at them day after day so you trade them in for a different look. By all
means, that's not really me because I've been married for 35 years to the
same wonderful woman, (I got lucky), but I kind of treat my guitars that
come and go that way! LOL.

I guess you could call me an old Hippie..... I'm from the Woodstock (#1)
generation. I'm 57, played in a few different bands for 40 years, opened
for Aerosmith (before anyone knew who they were in Sunapee, NH!). I'm a
country boy raised on S**, Drugs & RockNRoll. Went to college, got the high
end computer jobs over the years. Now I'm able to go and get all the guitars
that I could never afford when I was young! Lol

I said f*** it all this past year and retired........

Talk with you soon Matt!

Cheers!
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END OF EMAIL

I'll post more pictures when he sends me some of the "Harley" neck piece that appears to be blank in the first batch of pictures. I have a photobucket account and he must too as his original pictures are here with the complete serial number: http://s978.photobucket.com/albums/ae261/ready2rocknroll/Fender%20Stratocaster%20Harley%20Davidson%20Edition-Rare/ which I sent to Fender with a request for more information on the guitar. Then I typed his photobucket name "ready2rocknroll" in google and there is an ebay account linked to that handle. When I viewed the ebay profile, there was a picture of a guy standing with a bunch of guitars in a sound room that looks a lot like the one in the pictures of the "Harley Fender", so I'm guessing it has to be the same guy, has anyone bought anything from him before? His ebay profile and photo is here: http://myworld.ebay.com/ready2rocknroll/


I appreciate all your help in helping me avoid this purchase, I'll keep you posted. What I really wish I knew was whether this guy knows it's a fake or if he (mistakenly) really thinks it is a valuable custom guitar (maybe someone scammed him and he still doesn't know it)? I like to think people are generally honest, but I agree that it could be he knows it's a fake and is just trying to dump it...