headstock has spaghetti "stratocaster", serial number S7 then 5 digits. Instead of the truss at the base of the headstock it has kind of a gibson bell piece. The neckplate is rectangle, four screws. No pictures to post yet but will soonest. I've looked at some 77 and 78 strats on ebay and the headstock looks the same except for that truss. Also, the 77s and 78s I saw have the three sided neck plate as opposed to what I have. I bought it at a thrift shop in Oregon. The owner of the thrift shop says it might be from the phillipines...I have not yet removed the neckplate to see what it says underneath. Thanks!

Serial number is S732327

Here's images...my digital camera's battery is dead again so these were taken with my blackberry.

Definitely a fake; I've not seen one quite like that so it could certainly be a fake from the Phillipines or some other Far Eastern local.

Hi fendermadness, welcome to the Forum.

In the mid to late '70s the Japanese were doing some very good copies of Fenders and Gibsons. At the low end of the market they were also doing some feeble copies - and I'm afraid that is what you have here.

Apart from anything else the tuner keys are a dead giveaway. Those ones are constantly found on bottom end Japanese fake-o-casters from that decade. Arias, for example.

There were too many come-and-go brand names to mention and there is no chance of ever finding out for sure what was written on your headstock when it came out the factory. However, just for comparison here is a black Lark Stratolike that features the same tuners and a similar though not identical trussrod cover, as well as having the string trees in the same strange placing:

http://vintaxe.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=341

Love that bass bridge cover - I wonder if that was on it when first built?

I'm not saying yours started life as a Lark, just hinting at the weird world of fake '70s Strats from Japan that are out there somewhere.

With the trussrod cover nobody would ever seriously mistake this particular guitar for a Fender - except in the mind of the loon who put the pirate decal on the headstock at some point in its life...

Cheers - C

Supplimentary to the previous post: here's a post law-suit Aria S-type. Not much in common with your guitar - except the same tuners. Do a bit of Googling: you'll find those tuners on endless Japanese imitations from the late '70s:

http://www.sundanceguitars.co.uk/produc ... ster_(Used)_EGAPIISJ#

Cheers - C

EDIT: rats, why can't I make the link work? Oh well, copy the whole line into a browser address bar and it will come up...

Sorry to threadjack, Ceri, but perhaps I can help. This problem always happens with URLs that contain nonstandard characters. In this case it's the parenthesis that is causing the problem. When you have a URL with a nonstandard character, simply convert it to a tiny url and post that instead.

http://tiny.cc/xwym7 and Bob's your uncle!

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I really like all them "Aster" guitars. You know, like the Stratoc, Telec and Jazzm.

Ha - neat! Thank you! I tried other solutions with the tags - couldn't make it happen.

I like your mind!

Cheers - C

I also thank you RRH! It's happened to me more times than I care to think about.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

You're welcome, gents. That's something I figured out a while back when I wanted to link to a Wikipedia article that contained Japanese writing. Use it in good health!

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I really like all them "Aster" guitars. You know, like the Stratoc, Telec and Jazzm.

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


facebook.com/313DBC

Also, very, very few strats have binding on the neck... Currently only the Eric Johnson Signature Rosewood has it...

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


facebook.com/313DBC

Memorex..............

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

Does it play well??? Do YOU like it?
If so Play on man!

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Hey, Boy Blue is back!

How much does the American Standard (arguably the direct lineage of A traditional Strat as far as marketing goes) resemble a real strat from back in the day?
Or a good Marshall amp, some say the last good one was 83?
Or a accurate Les Paul?

Don't let it worry you if you can create with it. Mate when I grew up you couldn't find a Fender anywhere. The guy down the road had one (a 52 tele) to play jazz on. It didn't stop me or six of my mates.

If it makes a noise, it makes music.

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No no and no

It's yet another guitar with THAT serial number!

Do a search of this forum to see quite a few of that guitar's "brothers."

A Google search will find even more.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

ok so we have a fake here.
if the guitar plays well, there is opportunity to make a parts-O-caster.