please help me,not so sure'bout my US Fender"Elite"E318658,all natural finish,gold hardwares,the thing is..has got"22 FRETS"??? is this rare in the '80s,i haven't seen one yet@ d net? ..i'm sure ain't fake,i've checkd d elctronics & all & specially got tilt neck adjust(w/logo)...so cool,my first ever US fender strat...i hope??? many thanks. pix#73... http://talk.philmusic.com/board/index.p ... 420.0.html

I was around back then; I have never seen a USA Elite Strat that didn't have 21 frets. According to that long post on Elite Strats the only 22-fret models were made by Fender Japan after Fender USA discontinued the model; but they were evidently only made with chrome hardware.

Well, acutally Fender was sold by CBS to the current owners, Fender Musical Instrument Company (FMIC), in February 1985. FMIC was only sold the name and other intellectual property; CBS completly shuttered the factory and sold it off to other buyers, so technically all USA Fenders were "discontinued" at that time. They didn't restart production in the USA until 1986.

Also, the headstock decal on yours does not look like the decals Fender was using at that time. Unless it is just your photo, the "Fender" looks like it is gold with a black outline. Fender used a silver logo with a black outline at that time. Here is a USA headstock from Stratcollector.com:



More 1983 USA Gold Elite photos on this link:

http://www.stratcollector.com/scn/base/83.html

Maybe yours is a hybrid with the MIJ neck? There were no USA Fenders with 22 frets until the American Standard and Plus guitars came out in late 1986.

thanks,john for this great info,a real eye-opener...you're right'bout the color logo,ahhh...javascript:emoticon(':cry:')so Loved the stratocaster that much,..just really,Not my luck to get a trully authentic piece here in the Philippines..really hard to come by & expensive indeed!sad, i guess,a"hybrid"will do,mate..still got that unique Fender & a touch o'Gibson tones...javascript:emoticon(':(') many thanks,again...

Logo looks fake on pic of the #73.

also that strat plus under that guitar with the big headstock, looks like someone switched necks on that one.

This logo was used on the MIA Standards and Pluses until 1994 and on the MIM Standards until 2009.

USA Fenders made after 1994 bear the '50s "Spaghetti"-style logo on their headstocks. The post-2009 Mexico Standards use a CBS-era logo without the bold serif lettering of that period.