Got a '95.
Were they American strats just with different pups? Wondering what makes it Cali vs. American standard of the time period.
I have a black one with rosewood fboard and a beautifully darker than the usual maple satin stained neck.

Are you sure it is a 95? According to Wiki:

Manufactured from 1997 to 1998 by Fender, the California Series Stratocaster, Telecaster and bass models were a joint effort between the company's factories in Corona (California, USA) and Ensenada (Baja California, Mexico). The body and neck parts were made in the United States while the finishing and painting was done in Mexico before their final assembly and quality control in the US. (The neck is adjusted with 3/16" allen wrench rod suggesting that it was manufactured in Mexico.)

The Fender California Series Stratocaster guitars have USA vintage style tremolos and tuners and other hardware. The tremolo bridge spacing is the same as the Fender USA vintage bridge spacing of 2 3/16". The Fender California Series Stratocaster bodies are routed for a single neck/single middle/bridge humbucking pickup configuration and have a polyurathane paint finish. They do not have the infamous "swimming pool" rout. The single coil pickups used on this Stratocaster model are Fender Tex-Mex pickups, in the usual 3-single coil arrangement, or the 2-single coil and 1-humbucker in the bridge position ("Fat Strat") arrangement.

The California Series Telecaster model also features vintage hardware such as Kluson-style tuners and a vintage bridge with six individual steel saddles. Medium jumbo frets make string bending and playability by far easier in contrast to the usual thin vintage frets. All Telecaster bodies of this particular series were routed for a humbucker pickup in the neck position. There were two options of the pickup configuration: Either a "Fat Tele" pickup arrangement with a Fender USA humbucker neck pickup and a Tex Mex bridge pickup or a Stratocaster single coil pickup in the neck position combined with a Tex Mex single coil bridge pickup. The serial numbers are in an AMXN + 6 digits format while the first digit represents the year of production. AMXN7***** means the guitar was manufactured in 1997.

All Fender California Series have "Made in USA" on the headstock.

Are they considered cheap or nice quality?

The California series are a nice quality. Like the wiki description above implies by "joint effort between the company's factories in USA and Mexico": they are above the best that Mexican Fenders had to offer at the time, yet below the American Standards. BUT, what they really have going for them is Tex-Mex pickups and the same hardware that the American Vintage reissues used.

If given a choice between a 1997 American Standard or California Strat, I would choose the California in a heartbeat since I like the vintage/modern features of the California Strats. Vintage style bridge and tuners yet had modern appointments like 9.5" radius, Tex-Mex pickups, and medium-jumbo frets.

The Highway 1 series kind of replaced the role of California series (priced between MIM and MIA Fenders) a few years after they were discontinued.

Here is an interesting Vintage Guitar magazine article from 2005 about the California series: http://www.vintageguitar.com/features/b ... p?AID=2550

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Obligatory gear list: Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson, Gretsch, Vox, Martin, and more Fender.