Hi All,

First post.. I picked this guitar up this weekend, and no one can tell me what it is. A friend called it a "weirdo strat from weirdo land". It has a weird headstock on it and a string tree, which Guitar Center promptly mis-routed E through.. Even GC didn't know what it was. Neither he nor I can find any markings on it. Any input would be greatly appreciated, and I look forward to spending countless hours reading through these forums..

Thanks!

I bet I can tell you what it is not.
It is not a Fender.

Sorry.

_________________
Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

apencraig - I agree that it's not a Fender. I think it might be an Aria Pro II - some of them had a headstock like that - with a fake Fender decal.

Congratulations Geckochameleon, a really nice example. It's the cleanest one we've seen.
Goodonya ...Mark.

Wow, thanks guys.. Disappointing, thought I found a gem. And you are right, looking at Aria's- that is totally the headstock. Damn nice fake decal, though. Oh well, looks good, plays better than I do. Even an Aria is worth what I paid for it at a garage sale. I'll hang onto it, hopefully my bride comes through with the Tele I asked for, for Christmas...

Thanks for the input! Appreciate the expert advice...

I had one of these Strats back in the late 1980's, which I got brand new from Allen's music here in Melbourne.

It was sold to me as a Japanese model - but I don't recall there being any indication on the guitar as to where it was from.

It had the Kahler locking trem, a humbucker in the bridge, and instead of the volume and tone knobs having anything written on them it had a raised Fender 'F' logo on each knob. It had a rosewood board, and the pickguard, knobs and pickup covers were black. It was a red wine colour.

I'd never seen another one like it until I saw this thread! I've described it to people in the past who (I'm certain) thought I was talking BS to them, since they assumed I meant the one with 'Strat' written on the painted headstock and was mis-remembering.

I know this doesn't really shed any light on the mystery of where these were built, but I know they were at least being marketed as 'Japanese' models.

Hello everyone!
I.ve just seen the pictures of gekochameleon's strat.
I own exactly the same (mine is E820508).
I've wondered where it was coming from.
Apparently, the mistery is still there, even if some points have been discovered.
I'll try to send some pics.

Cheers ! (And sorry for my bad english...)

Hello rchautard!

I am making it my job to figure out what these Strats really are...

Pictures would be most welcome.

Personally, I love this breed of Strat. I feel that the extremely heavy Kahler helps to add sustain and depth to the notes that isn't really present on some of the "normal" Strat variations. I have two of these Kahler Strats and one gorgeous American Deluxe, and I like these every bit as much as the Deluxe.

Here are some pics :

Some more :

I gave it to my "luthier" (i don't know the english word, sorry) to make him paint it red.
I'll have it back in one week.
I asked him what he thought it was.
He told me the neck was japanese, but he was sure the coponents were from US.
The kahler spyder trem was original.
He showed me a fender stratocaster "wizzard" book, with every single strat ever made on it, he showed me the one he thought i have.
According to him, this guitar can be considered as a US, due to american coponents (mics, ...)
But of course, he was not definitly sure about everything he told me!!
I'm glad to see i'm not alone trying to figure out what this "ovni" strat is!
After reading many forums, it appears that noone can surely say if it´s MIA or MIJ.
To my opinion, no such thing can be said, because it's a bit both of MIJ and MIA!

Whatever it is, this guitar has a tremendous sound, and i love it!

I found on this forum someone having almost the same guitard as me and geckochameleon (serial number is very close, E820591) here :
http://www.strat-talk.com/forum/stratoc ... lease.html

I assume that same guitars must have very close serial numbers. In this case, i can ilagine that mine E820508 has been assemled just before the one just mentionned E820591 (83 ranks before!) and this one just before the geckochameleon's one (59 ranks before!)

I bet those 3 guitars are exactly the same model, and have been produced in the same serie...

G'day rchautard,
Candy Apple Red is one of the color options available for this model.
I'll be interested to see pictures of the painted guitar.
I'm not sure that the serial numbers would run exactly in order, more likely it was a case of taking a neck from a bin containing a batch. Mine is E819948 and identical.
Hopefully Geckochameleon will find out some more.



Goodonya ...Mark.

I've emailed FugiGen for information, including all specifics on this series, and am awaiting a reply.

...fingers crossed that their records are more complete than Fender USA. May be issues as they had some kind of corporate shakeup in 1989.