E-mail your serial number to Fender customer service.

E3 + 5 digits would indicate a build date of 1982 to 1984 or 85.

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Bill

definately an early to mid 80s strat. Those strange bridges were designed as a competitive alternative to the new and popular Floyd Rose bridges that were just coming out at the time. The Jack mounted on the pickguard is a good indication that it's made between 80 and 85, I think these might have been called a Stratocaster Elite. I had a Stratocaster Elite that was made of Walnut from 1983 that was much like your guitar.

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Gear:
1972 Stratocaster heavily modified
1950s classic player Strat, heavily modified
1989 Fender Strat Plus
2011 FSR Strat HH
2 Fender Hot Rod Deville 2x12s w/ Celestions and Jensens
& some pedals

I can tell you exactly what it is - it is a modded 2-knob "Standard Strat" from 1983 or 1984 - since Fender used the "E3XXXXX" serial numbers for both years you would have to remove the neck to get the exact date.

Now for the mods - the pickguard has been changed to a mirrored one, and it has a Washburn "Wonderbar" trem unit on it. The Wonderbars were Washburn's answer to the Kahler cam-operated trem, but required no routing under the bridge. Since those FreeFlyte trems on the 2-knob Strats weren't very good at keeping the guitar in tune a lot of people put on Kahler flat-mounts or the Wonderbar trems. The FreeFlyte trems didn't have the traditional trem cavity in the back of the guitar; the springs were installed under the pickguard so you couldn't put on a fulcrum bridge (like a Floyd Rose) without really routing out the body. I don't believe there were any Standard Strats with hard-tail bridges (although you could get an Elite Strat with a hard-tail bridge) but I could just not be remembering them. The one thing I'm not sure of is the locking mechanism behind the nut since the photos aren't clear. I'm 90% sure it is the Wonderbar's locking mechanism, but it could be the locking mechanism that Fender made and sold as an accessory for the Standard and Elite models.

Interesting piece of early-80s history!

It looks like an early Kahler design.

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Marriage is like playing cards...

At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.

Definitely Washburn. This now ended Ebay listing has a good clear picture of the logo. Some also had SHIFT2001 written in the same place.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&hash=item4cf3d49cff&item=330508311807&nma=true&pt=Guitar_Accessories&rt=nc&si=Zj3ZazwILqibSCkK8ZncW6VfikE%253D

I'd offer around £6/700 for the guitar, it's a unpopular model, far from original.

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No no and no

The Washburn was kind of a variation of the Kahler design. The primary difference (and the reason why the Kahler worked better) is the Washburn is completely flat on the bottom; all the mechanism is above the base plate. With a Kahler you still had to route out under the bridge for the cam mechanism.