Hi guys,

I was just looking through some of my old pics and came across this one that I took of my Strat wiring before installing the S1 system.



Something caught my attention which I never took too much notice of at the time. As you can see, there is a small circular routing below the neck pickup routing which I haven't really noticed before on other guitars?

I did a google image search of various Strat bodies and none of them seemed to have this routing either?

The guitar is a 1999 USA Standard.

So, any ideas what this might be intended for?

Thanks for any info guys

Russ

I've wondered that aswell. My American deluxe has it too, I hope somebody can answer lol.

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Hi TC: the half inch round hole below the pickup cavities? If you search the very first few pages of this Stratocaster Forum you will find a reply from one of the Fender fellas confirming what many of us have presumed; that it is there for indexing the body to the CNC routing machine.

On that post (which I am just too lazy to look for right now) he also says that the circular holes help distinguish between different models. Which is odd, because I've seen identical holes on many different models and from the US, Mexican and Korean factories. Not the Japanese one, as far as I recall.

Perhaps he just meant that the holes are not there on Reissue models?

Here's a pic of a 2005 American Series Strat of mine. Not only can you see one of the holes peeping out from beneath the pickguard you will also notice another one in the neck pocket. Many, many Strats have that one too, these days:



On the other hand, one of my favorite theories heard here on the Forum was from a fella who said: "It's where the tonez live. ".

I like that much better.

Cheers - C

Thanks for the info Ceri,

I knew there must be some sort of explanation for it.

I'm not sure about the neck pocket routing on mine as I have never had to remove it, but I would guess it would have one there too!

Russ

Stash hole