So, I originally hatched a plan to sell my '86 Fender Jaguar MIJ '66 reissue and buy a Road Worn '60s Strat. That was a few days ago.

Yesterday, I stepped into Blackrider Vintage Guitars in Lexington (awesome shop; they had a '70s Epi Wilshire that was modded to hell and back for $300 or so bucks and a weird old National Town & Country for $#1100) and the first thing I see when I walk in hanging up on the wall was this old sunburst Stratocaster.

To make a long story shorter, I traded my '86 Jag for an '87 Stratocaster '67 Reissue with a maple capped fretboard (the serial number had been removed by someone with a can of WD-40 I assume during its life; I removed the body and neck, though, and in the neck pocket and on the neck there were markings that read something like STB-67 and pencil date of ?-27-87). This guitar has been broken in and beat up through the years and it plays amazing. The neck has a very slim and thin profile and I don't think I've ever played on a guitar that has allowed me to fret notes and play lead riffs so fast. The pickups are the only thing not original; they're Custom Shop '69 Strat pickups which are very, very well suited to this the guitar. I love the tone; these pickups ring out with amazing clarity.

Apparently, these '67 Reissues with maple fretboards are about as rare here as an actual '67 Strat with a maple fretboard.

Anyway, this is my new main guitar. I really can't fault it for anything, except maybe the pickguard (I sort of don't care for 1-ply guards). I don't know why, but it seems that some of the other '67 MIJ Reissues I've seen have a 1-ply guard instead of the period correct 3-ply one.

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2006 Fender AVRI 70s Stratocaster: Natural Ash | Sovtek MIG 60 & A No Name Cabinet | Pedals & Junk

I didn't know the CBS era headstock exisited in '67

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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Yep, it did. The change to the CBS headstock was made in 1966. 1966 and 1967 are transitional years; In '66 and '67 you would see new Strats with the larger headstock but the bolder gold transitional logo with the name "Stratocaster" written in a smaller font. In mid to late '67, I believe, maple officially became an option to choose from and that dealers would stock again (although you could previously special order '59/'60 - '66 Strats with maple fretboards from Fender).

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2006 Fender AVRI 70s Stratocaster: Natural Ash | Sovtek MIG 60 & A No Name Cabinet | Pedals & Junk

I thought Fender only made two reissues in the 80's, the '57 and the '62?

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

You're thinking of the American Vintage series, which came out in '85 when the Corona plant first came online.

Fender Japan/Fuji-Gen turned out various reissues of various Fender guitars during the 1980s; '57 Strats, '62 Strats, '67 Strats, '69 Strats (I believe), '66 Jaguars, '66 Jazzmasters, and so on in addition to building Squier guitars.

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2006 Fender AVRI 70s Stratocaster: Natural Ash | Sovtek MIG 60 & A No Name Cabinet | Pedals & Junk

I also just spent a few minutes installing a more period correct 3-ply guard. The 8-ply, as it turns out, was not original meaning extra holes were tapped in the body.



Also, here is what is stamped in the neck pocket (which is also stamped on the neck's heel). I tried to get a picture of the pencil date, which is actually 8-26-87, but my flash and the lighting wouldn't cooperate.



This thing is a legit Fuji-Gen Fender Strat.

I don't know what happened to the picture of the CS '69 Strat pickups, but they're dated 2007.

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2006 Fender AVRI 70s Stratocaster: Natural Ash | Sovtek MIG 60 & A No Name Cabinet | Pedals & Junk

More '67 MIJ Reissues like mine:

http://www.guitarsandeffects.com/soldgallery5.htm (Scroll down; Firefox users hit CRTL+F and search 1967 and you'll see it.)

http://www.gbase.com/gear/fender-japan- ... 87-sunburs

Like I've been told, this guitar is as rare as an actual '67 Strat with a capped maple fretboard.

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2006 Fender AVRI 70s Stratocaster: Natural Ash | Sovtek MIG 60 & A No Name Cabinet | Pedals & Junk

Yeah, I missed the part where you said it was MIJ.

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

CBS buyout took place Jan 5th, 1965. One of the demarcations of the new Fenders was the enlarged headstock, which came out in December of the same year. Fender retained it all the way up to around 1981 on the Standard Strats...

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

Reminds of when I sold my first good guitar 10 years ago... sad times.

Ahh, that's the right touch for it. Real nice.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Congrats on the find and glad you are really enjoying it. Lots of licks.

The "CBS era headstock" descriptive is actually a non sequiter. While true that Fender -- as the newly-renamed "FMI" -- began shipping guitars with this feature in late December of '66, the big headstock was actually introduced on the production Mustang in 1964, pre-dating Fender's purchase by CBS by nearly a year. It's my opinion that the enlarged headstock for all Fender models was in the works all along as a marketing gimmick dreamed up by Don Randall.

Of course there is scant proof to support my hypothesis but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Arjay

I have a 67 lefty of course reissue - its had a hard life - no proper case for the first 10 years .... so I decided to invest some money in refinishing it in olympic white, refret, reprofile etc.Got some custom 69 pickups in there too - it almost plays itself and the tone is great, very Hendrix'y as the poles are reversed on the pickups... its nearly finished - its taken ages but reallly worth it..i'll post some pics if anyones interested?

Lefty Alex wrote



welcome to the forum Alex, most people here like pics, post away.

Nice find phoenix, classic burst colour.