Hello everyone i'm a newbie here, my strat was a gift when i was 16 or 17. It came with the locking tuners, roller nut, gold lace pick-ups, and the pearloid pick guard from the factory. Its an American Strat, but not sure what model and year it is. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks

It appears pretty much to be a Strat Plus, a damn good fender. But please post some detailed pictures of it so we can say for sure what you got there.

ok, let me see if I can figure out how to post some pictures of it. it was brand new when i got it so i'm thinkin its either a 96 or 97.

Photos would be nice; you have to have them on a hosting site like Photobucket, which is what I use. I have found that you have to use the "Img" button (it's in that row of buttons right above the message field) and delete Photobucket's "IMG" (in all caps) tags.

You can get a fairly close estimate of the year by looking at the first two characters of the serial number. For example, a 1996 Strat would start with "N6" (N for the decade "Nineties" and "6" for the year) and a 1997 would start with an "N7". These are never exact; Fender doesn't necessarily switch over on January 2.

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serial num. is N7219630

Nice guitar. To get the most accurate date you would have to remove the neck and check the date stamps or email the serial number to Fender. However, based on the photos and serial number it's a 1997 Strat Plus with a very nice natural finish body - should be an ash body on that one as well.

thanks, it actually used to be kinda a metallic gray until my dad hand sanded the paint off down to the sealer to have it repainted a different color, when he got it down to the sealer he kinda liked the way it looked so he plugged it in and played it and the sustain was unreal. so needless to say it has stayed unpainted. i didn't know that Fender built their guitar bodies with more than one piece of wood. kinda interested in why? i mean it actually looks really nice like that. i just figured they made them all out of one piece. i'll post more pics of the different views to show the different pieces of wood. i really like it and it sounds amazing. a couple weeks from now i'm gonna have a Tele to go with it!!!!

is it a Plus or a Deluxe? i compared it to some of the Deluxes from them years and i think it fits the bill. but i don't know i could be wrong. what are the differences in the two?

Send your serial number to consumerrelations@fender.com, and you will get all information on your guitar. They are very helpful.

Okay, then the body is alder since it was the grey color. From the photos it looked like a gloss finish - but now that I think about it I don't think you could have gotten the natural finish on a Plus in 1997; I think natural was just available on the Plus Deluxe that year. I could be wrong about that. Very cool that it sounds better; I would also have left it unpainted in that case.

Actually Fenders very rarely use 1-piece bodies; they were 2 or 3 piece even back in Leo's day. Ash and alder trees are grown for harvesting these days and just don't often grow large enough to get an entire body out of it. Every once in a while they would put out a 1-piece body. Of course, now you can order a 1-piece body on a Custom Shop guitar at an upcharge.