I put my Strat neck up for sale on ebay last week. The neck came off of a Mexican Strat I bought brand new in 1996. You can check it out here.

The serial number is MN585494.

So this guy just sent me the following message claiming that this is not a Mexican neck but a Squire neck:

"Hi,You forgot to mention that its a Mexican Squire Series Neck and that someone sanded off the little squire series logo.The cheap Squire type tuners are the proof.Maybe you did not know,but now you do.Only the Squire series mexicans had everything silk screened in black on the headstock.Standard Mexican necks have the fender logo in silver with a black outline and they have the standard sealed tuners.Hope this clears things up."

Is this true? Did the place that sold it to me sand off the Squier logo?

Hi shiner_man, welcome to the Forum.

I'll set the ball rolling, though others will have to come in with more info. It is true that '90s Squier headstocks had the logo silk screened on in black like that - but then they say "Squier", not "Fender". Also, Squiers were being made in China at that time, not Mexico. Yours says Made in Mexico quite clearly on it.

To the best of my knowledge Squiers have never had the black plastic trussrod entry hole lining like yours has. As far as I'm aware that has only ever been on Fender branded necks from the Mexican and Korean factories. That's a useful bit of evidence.

The tuners are interesting. It is again true (as your emailer says) that '90s Squiers used those casings, which are called "diamond back" for obvious reasons. You can see some near the bottom of this page:

http://www.axesrus.com/axemachine.htm

However, on Squiers they had a more generic modern shaped tuner button that you see on that page: I've never seen them before with those vintage style buttons you've got.

My guess is that someone is going to post here to say that the screen printed logo and the diamond back tuners are legit for some '90s Made in Mexico Fender necks. But I'm not quite in a position to absolutely confirm that for you myself.

I think your neck is probably legit. We'll know for sure shortly!

Good luck with the sale - C

EDIT: though be clear, none of the above means that something hasn't been sanded off the top of the headstock. Again, someone else needs to comment on whether we should be seeing something there, and if so, what.

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It's not Squier, but a neck from a Fender Squier Series guitar.

The seller is misinformed, it's a Fender neck carved at Corona, fretted at Ensenada. Squier were long gone from Ensenada by 95.

I have exactly the same model, that came with exactly the same tuners on it.

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No no and no

I don't understand exactly what you're saying here. Are you saying the neck is not a Squier but it was modeled after one?

Do you think someone sanded off the Squier logo or not?

Sorted!

Nick, your tuners have the same buttons do they? Were those presented as some sort of "vintage" feature, or just how they happened to be doing them at that point?

Cheers - C

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The whole thing was a budget guitar from Mexico. Squier tuners, pickups and bridge on a Fender body and neck.
There's been a whole load of guessing about what was going on with the guitars. I think it was nothing more sinister than Fender not shipping parts originaly from the far east back to the far east. Better to throw em on a body and neck and sell a budget instrument.

Shiner Man, my explanation was clear. But for added emphasis here's mine. With Wilkinson/Gotoh tuners. I don't have a picture of the originals. But do have them in a toolbox somewhere.

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No no and no

So someone did in fact sand the Squier logo off my neck.

No not necessarily. Some had it, some didn't. You'll easily find examples of both headstocks now you know what to look for.
It's not a Squier neck, be certain of that. Whoever told you that is 100% wrong. Just look at the heel markings for proof. They are exactly the same as Fender Mexico neck heel markings and very different from Squier Mexico heel markings.

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No no and no