Hi.. I was wondering if you guys could help me ID this strat.. It has a E serial number but has the "contour body" logo and a different style of tuners than I've seen.. It has 3 ply pick guard and back plate..

I can't seem to find others to compare it to.

If you need other pics, let me know..

Thx a bunch!





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Well it's dated to '89-90. I'll let the vets pick what it is exactly.

Those Tuners are just vintage style/ Kluson style tuners that came on vintage strats and reissues. The body looks to be from a MIA standard but that logo and headstock look a bit funny. Also should have two string trees instead of one. the Truss rod plug looks a little weird too. Is it black? should be a walnut colored insert. IIRC it shouldn't have the Original Contour body decal either.



http://cgi.ebay.com/1989-American-Fende ... 2ead7fad2a

American made Standard Strat. Corona Calif born in 1989. Welcome to the forum............. Mike

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So it all looks legit? If I end up selling this, I can post this an American Standard without worries?

Hi CharlieBucket, welcome to the Forum.

Well whadayaknow? Here's another Fender Strat... with the same serial number. What does that tell us?

http://www.zimbio.com/Fender+Stratocast ... RIC+GUITAR

Uh-oh. Some other clues. Are we seeing wood grain through the gold in the middle of the lettering in the logo? That's odd. Do the bottom E and A tuners not seem to line up? They don't come like that from the factory. Black plastic trussrod entry like on a MIM? Hmmm.

Sorry...

Cheers - C

Sorry Charlie!! Welcome to the forum!!!

You should know by now that serials are insanely easy to fake, and something like Guitar dater is no way to verify if something is legit or not.

I agree that the bridge and pickguard could be real. The upper horn looks a little funny, but might just be the picture. The logo looks really fake. Also an american standard wouldn't have those tuners, not stock anyway.

Can't really tell if the body and pickguard are fender unless it's taken apart.

So, that's a Faker Boguscaster.

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Thanks you guys! Not what I wanted to hear, but it's great to have this forum with so much knowledge!

Well said..my bad............... Mike

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Ok, I just checked all my 87-93 Strats and all of them had SILVER lettering on the Fender logo. Also this Strat has the wrong type of font on the serial number. All the Strats I have use the same font for all the serial numbers of this vintage. If you examine the picture below you will also see how the lettering on the words "serial number" is warped. None of the the Strats I have of this vintage have the "Contour Body" sticker, unless it is a vintage reissue.... and as pointed out the truss rod hole is shaped different. The whole thing looks really suspicious too me..... Anyone else have any insights???

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This one looks strange - the neck is definitely not a Fender American Standard neck from the 80s. I agree with Xhefri - everything is wrong on it (decal, string tree, truss rod hole, and tuners - plus these look like the only tuners that have ever been on that neck).

However, from the one photo the body could be a Fender American Standard - it definitely has an American Standard/American Series bridge. Without a close inspection it could be the proper body for an 80s-90s American Standard. If it is a "real" body, it will have a swimming pool route and possibly some stickers in the neck pocket. If it is a later Fender USA body it will have an HSH route under the pickguard. In terms of pickups/wiring harness I just don't remember what American Standard pickups look like on the back. Does it have a TBX tone control (with a detent at about "5")? That is what should be on American Standards from 1986-1996 or so when they switched to the Delta Tone (which would have a detent just past "10").

Best case - maybe it's an American Standard body, trem, pickups, etc. with a replacement neck (with the bogus decal) which the seller should have clearly informed you about. Worst case - complete parts caster or forgery outside of the trem. That neck is very troubling to me.

FAKE.

Look at the wide spacing of the 12th fret markers.

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