I appreciate your responses. I'll ask the dealer and come back here as soon as I have further news...
Thanks !!

Looks like I am going to be lucky and I'll get my guitar exchanged, but I'll tell you all the details when I have the guitar in my hands. Don't think I've forgotten.
Greetings,
JJ.

You pay more for some decent grade wood (bookmatched) and the finish.
If you didn't get what everyone else has I'd be asking were that extra few hundred dollars went.

It looks like green mineral streaking to me.

Those markings are not unusual, I have some on my MIM strat.
I believe that the body on your particular strat had (at the time of fill in and finish application) a very low moisture content, all wood has a certain and variable moisture content depending on which time of the season, the less moisture, wood contracts, moisture increases and the wood will expend.

Those marks are very shallow separations on the exterior of the wood and the fill in stain highlights these features. They are strictly cosmetic, will never affect the body in any way.
Personally I like them, they give your guitar its own unique character and for me would be a plus.
Trading the guitar for that reason is pointless, alder or ash wood is always going to differ from one piece to another.
We are actually in a phase where select wood is becoming scarce, therefore what was yesterday's average pieces are today's premium and now demand a higher price for the quality of grain.

If the guitar plays great and sounds great, I would keep it, you just have a personal signature from nature.

Right. I look for such markings to tell the difference between alder and ash (alder has 'em). Usually they are shorter, but long is cool.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

¡Recepción! I can assure you that if your talking about the dark vertical lines? Those are part of the grain in the wood. I have owned several Ash Strats that had those types of lines and I think they give the guitar a unique look. You can see some of the same kind of grain on the back and lower front of this guitar. In fact when you look at the top on the left there is a big grain spot right on the curve.

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Xhefri's Guitars
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I agree, gives it an organic ( it is a piece of tree after all) character that is appealing to me. I would have kept it

Hi all,

There's already a resolution for this issue... A "sweet-and-sour" flavored end...

I have another brand new maple fretboard sunburst American Standard Stratocaster at home, and this one also has some cracks/marks in the upper part of the body. Not as many as the last one, but there they are...

The Serial number is very recent, it is already US10XXXXXX while the last one was 10XXXXXX scheme. The fact that this instrument also has the cracks may mean that a significant percentage of sunburst guitars are coming out from the Corona factory with these marks nowadays. Or it may mean I am terribly unlucky which I refuse to think...

So a sensible piece of advice for those as picky (obsessive about the look of the instrument) as me, would be not to buy sunburst finishes at least not in these days, or not without inspecting it carefully. All in all, the guitar sounds and feels perfect (IMHO), so that's why I decided not to have it replaced again. It is also true that another guitar in stock in the display of the shop has no cracks AT ALL.

In the shop they told me the wood in a Custom Shop for instance wouldn't have these marks as they choose better chunks of wood for the best guitars (obviously on the other hand). I infer, nowadays, there's not enough quantity of "good" wood to get to the level of the Standard...

From now on, I don't want to keep on thinking about this issue. It is really a minor thing, and as such, I'll concentrate on playing it well...














Thanks for reading and commenting.

Regards,
JJ (Valencia )

You know...the first thing I thought of were the myriad finish issues with the Black 1 and, were it not for that, I probably would concur with you, but now I'm beginning to wonder whether QC just let a piece of bad stock get into and through the pipeline, or they are falling down on the job, in general. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this '57 Vintage Hotrod I'm waiting more than six months for.
Doc

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"Another day in paradise!"

Very nice reasoning (the best I've seen) but the question would be why some other guitar with similar finishes don't have those cracks.
Don't worry I've given up on the issue, it is just curiosity...

I like the wood marks. I think they like cool..

It is a matter of taste, I personally don't like them but I can accept some of them after all...

What it seems is that they're not the graining, but a little and shallow groove probably a consequence of drying too much or too quick...

juaollla - that guitar is STUNNING!!! I would seek out a guitar with such unique markings - just like flame maple on a neck - they're all different and beautiful IMO. No two pieces/axes the same. In any event, for what it's worth - I think the majority of members on this forum would LOVE to have that beautiful axe!! I know I would!! Enjoy it!

That looks like wood filler under the finish to me.

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You dig?

I have strats and other guitars with these mineral stains and I love the effect. You usually do not get that effect. I consider them beauty marks. More importantly, how does the strat sound and play?

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Robert Moog - "Hey... where do all these patch cables go?"