Does anyone know if Fender will provide manufacturing information about a Strat based on the serial number? I have looked up the serial number and it is a 2000 American Fender Deluxe but it has a lot of potentially custom features on it.

I am curious if the different pickups, nut, knobs, etc. where originally put on it or added later. The person I bought it from was not the original owner and didn't know the history of it.

Thanks.

Dave

Hi Dave, and welcome to the asylum here.
Unless you have a custom shop model, I highly doubt that Fender installed the custom parts you thing may have been added.
In an assembly line production it would cause havoc to stop the line to add different anything to a stock guitar. My new 2010 FSR guitar is a good example, it is a custom color and has thing added to it, but it had to be done is a Fender Special Run (FSR) and there had to be X amount of them made to make it cost effective to do.

Pictures of your guitar can help here, and lifting up the pick guard can help Identifies the pick ups.

E-mail Fender customer service and provide them with the serial number. You will receive in return all of the info pertaining to your specific guitar.

Thanks for the responses. I have e-mailed customer service with the serial number. In the meantime, a few pictures are below. Here are some details:

* Serial Number: DZ0064809
* Lace Sensor Chrome Dome Pickups
* Custom matching tone and volume knobs (and pickup switch)
* Custom chrome locking nut
* 2 tone knobs that are push/pull
* Chrome whammy bar

Any way, very nice and I am curious about the history of it.

Thanks.





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kurrykid - I can't see your photos from here (photo sites are blocked so I get a bunch of red Xs) but I can tell you that pretty much everything you list is aftermarket. I can't see the trem arm but American Deluxes did have chrome saddles and a chrome snap-in trem arm back then.

The standard pickups would have either been 3 Fender Vintage Noiseless single-coil sized pickups or 2 Vintage Noiseless with a Fender DH-1 humbucker in the bridge. The controls would have been volume/tone for the neck pickup/tone for the middle & bridge pickup. No push-pull pots.

All American Deluxes of that era had parchment pickguards except for the translucent white finish which had a tortoise shell pickguard (again, sorry I can't see your guitar to see the finish). If I'm not mistaken an American Deluxe HSS of that era should have the LSR roller nut; the SSS version has a regular nut. None of them had a locking nut, but all of them had chrome Schaller locking tuners.

I'll check back tonight when I can see the photos.

EDIT: I should add that Fender wasn't doing as many of the FSR runs back then as they have since; since the American Deluxes just came out in 1998 I wouldn't think they would do any kind of radical FSR based on it. A few years later they did do some FSRs that were a "mix" of the American Deluxe and the American Vintage series - basically American Deluxe electronics and neck shape done in nitro with vintage bridges and tuners. Fender was trying to cut ties with Lace by 2000 - Lace sensors were only on the Clapton, Beck and Guy Strats by then; they never used "Chrome Dome" Laces on Strats, just the Tele Plus of 1996/96 (plus every Lace that came standard on a Fender was identified as a "Fender-Lace Sensor").

That is one hellova beautiful guitar!

Looks like it doesn't get played much though.
The rough as-cast finish on those locking saddles gets dirty really quickly
and it's very difficult to clean up.

Also, I suspect by looking at it that the G-string's intonation might just possibly be a bit sharp. (if the other strings are properly intoned)

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Wonder if xhefri knows this one? Looks like something he might have built.

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"Another day in paradise!"

Nah, if he built it, the pickguard would be a better fit around the dually.

Nice looking guitar though.

Looks like a strat plus deluxe, if it was an earlier year.

Okay kurrykid - I'm and home and can see the photos. Here's what you have - a 2000 American Deluxe Fat Strat with a replaced pickguard/pickup assembly. Your guitar has the LSR roller nut and the Fender Locking Trem - the Locking Trem was an option on the American Deluxe Fat Strat - you could get it with either the "Deluxe Trem" which had chrome plated versions of the saddles found on an American Standard/American Series Strat. By 1999 all American Deluxe Fat Strats had the LSR nut regardless which bridge they came with; some 1998s with the non-locking Deluxe Trem had a regular nut.

The American Deluxe Fat Strats would have come (as I mentioned in my post above) with 2 Fender Noiseless single coils (technically they would be "hot Noisless" to match up with the bridge humbucker) and a Fender DH-1 humbucker. That transparent teal was a great color; it has an ash body instead of alder. The stock pickguard would have been parchment.

That is really a sharp looking guitar; the pearl pickguard is a nice addition. I hope you like the Laces; that looks like a cool pickup assembly. However, Fender never used that type of Lace Sensors on a Strat; that is all aftermarket installed by a previous owner some time over the past 10 years.

Thanks for all of the comments and information...I appreciate it very much.

[/quote]Though not exactly the same, some time in the early 90's I recall that Fender did an FSR for Sam Ash in NYC which was labelled the "Big Apple Strat. It carried Red Duallys in both the neck and bridge position. I clearly recall having had one in my hands in their Carle Place, NY store. It was likely the forunner of Strats which carried dual HB's. I seem to recall that when the term "Big Apple' became associated with a regular production line guitar, later guitars built for Sam Ash carried the name '48th Street Strat'. Those events, or something close, remain in my memory. Any additions or corrections would be welcome.

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"Another day in paradise!"

Though not exactly the same, some time in the early 90's I recall that Fender did an FSR for Sam Ash in NYC which was labelled the "Big Apple Strat. It carried Red Duallys in both the neck and bridge position. I clearly recall having had one in my hands in their Carle Place, NY store. It was likely the forunner of Strats which carried dual HB's. I seem to recall that when the term "Big Apple' became associated with a regular production line guitar, later guitars built for Sam Ash carried the name '48th Street Strat'. Those events, or something close, remain in my memory. Any additions or corrections would be welcome.[/quote]

ZZDoc - when I said "that type of Lace Sensor" I was referring to the Chrome Dome models on kurrykid's modded American Deluxe.

Not being from the NYC area I dont remember the Sam Ash guitars but it wouldn't surprise me; since they used the Lace Sensors it could have even been based on the Strat Plus/Plus Deluxe instead of an American Standard. Do you remember if these had roller nuts and locking tuners?

The production "Big Apple" Strat was definitely based on the American Standard (no roller nut or locking tuners) and had a Duncan '59 pickup in the neck position and a Pearly Gates Plus in the bridge position. I'm hazy as to when these came out - either late 1995 or early 1996. They were introduced along with the "Roadhouse" (with 3 Texas Special single coils) and the "Lone Star" (with 2 Texas Specials and the Pearly Gates Plus humbucker in the bridge) but it seems to me the Lone Star came first, followed by the Roadhouse and the Big Apple came a bit later during about a 4-month period.

At any rate, this version of the Big Apple was replaced by the in-elegantly name "American Series Double Fat Strat" in July 2000 when the American Series replaced the American Standards. Same Duncan pickups as the Big Apple, but with all the other American Series updates to body, neck and other hardware.

The American Series Double Fat Strat was replaced by the American Strat HH in July 2003; the Duncan pickups were replaced by Fender pickups and this version had the S1 switch for other coil-splitting options. These were dropped at the end of 2006; since then there hasn't been a USA-made double humbucker Strat.

John: Your detailed chronology of the HB equipped Stratocaster is greatly appreciated and quite what I was hoping for in that, although I witnessed these launchings, I could not retrieve that information of my own accord.
The guitar of which I spoke, preceded all of those, and carried nothing of the Plus Series guitars in terms of the specs you cited. Two Red Duallys, as previously describe, in pretty much a 'standard' Stratocaster of that period.
Doc

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"Another day in paradise!"

ZZDoc - glad to be of service. Thanks for filling in more details on those Sam Ash FSRs you mentioned as well.

I emailed Fender my serial number and they responded (in less than 24 hours) with the production details. As you all had noted, it was not manufactured in the way I received it. It definitely has a different pickguard, pickups, and knobs.

Thanks for all the help. It is greatly appreciated. Now if I could only spend less time on the forum and more time playing that beauty

Dave