Something been eating at me about my guitar. Its a lite ash stratocaster and i had bought it off ebay a while ago. I had someone tell me yesterday that the serial number was not a fender serial. also that the neck was not a fender neck. THe serial was 04043698 and it was made in korea.
THese are some pictures.
http://img705.imageshack.us/i/20110311180601743.jpg/
http://img856.imageshack.us/i/2011031118054425.jpg/
http://img842.imageshack.us/i/20110311180524630.jpg/
http://img857.imageshack.us/i/20110311180458352.jpg/
http://img862.imageshack.us/i/20110311180441587.jpg/
http://img864.imageshack.us/i/20110311180414544.jpg/
http://img859.imageshack.us/i/20110311180347207.jpg/


So is it a fake?
Thanks in advance.

Is this the one?
Headstocks are talkative, I am told



BTW, welcome to the forums!

Cheers

Nutter

Thanks Nutter

Being told that made me paranoid. Jet want to be sure.

Hi Zam Zul: no, it's not a fake. That guy just doesn't know the MIK Special Edition Lite Ash Strats and Teles.

Your guitar has a 22 fret birdseye maple neck with abalone dot markers, a black plastic trussrod nut insert and a logo that simply says Fender with no other writing on the front, serial number on the back? That is a kosher Lite Ash neck - and not exactly a set of features you find on fakes. Yours is legit.

I own a Lite Ash Tele, and I've had two different guys trying to tell me it's a fake because of the headstock decal. It's unusual to be sure - but well attested by pictures in Fender's own Frontline catalog, amongst many other places. Here's what most Lite Ash headstocks look like:



We notice from your photos that your logo script is different, but fret not, that is also well known. Here's another, with your type of lettering:



Apparently the story is that the logo in that second picture was found on the earlier Lite Ash models, but people didn't like it, feeling it didn't look "Fendery" enough. So the company listened and moved over to the skinnier script for later issues. However, they kept the distinctive Lite Ash feature of having no other lettering on the front of the headstock.

Now you know what to tell that fella if you see him again!

All together a nice guitar in my opinion, and well worth keeping stock if you are satisfied with it as is. There's few enough of them out there (though still plenty) and they are good enough that they tend to hold their value better than some other models, provided you don't mod them - from what I've seen watching them on Ebay.

Cheers - C

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BTW, Please change the strings on your guitar, It needs it, and they have a LOT of stories to tell viewtopic.php?f=2&t=52626

I believe these guitars were Special Edition models manufactured at the Cort factory in Korea between 2004 and 2006. Fender discontinued them a few years ago.

A friend of mine has a Lite Ash Strat, I've played the guitar through a Line 6 Spider Jam combo and was amazed how she sounded. These Seymour Duncan single-coils are very "Stratty" with lots of sparkle, chime and glass, retaining the familiar snap, quack and bite in positions 2 & 4.

Ceri is right about the headstock decals, the earlier Lite Ash guitars featured the early 50's spaghetti decal on their pegheads. Eventually Fender changed later the headstock logo to the gold transitional style after customers felt the spaghetti decal not "Fendery" enough in their taste.

Modded mine

I couldn't stand the bridge sound, since I play metal/thrash. I did go for tone, though. Voodoo's '57 humbucker does the trick

And, Dan Erlewine's guitar repair book told me an SRV secret, make the neck relief equal to the first string's gauge, wow! It did effectively make the action feel easier to me.

Did you also plan putting a Floyd Rose locking trem?

hello everybody , I'm new on this forum .
from a few days ago , I'm a proud owner a one Fender lite ash stratocaster . it is very nice guitar , specialy because of neck "birdseye" . for somebody , this edition dont "enough" fendery , but for mew it is really one of the most beautifull fender which I saw .

Happy new year for all "Fendermans"

It's legit, I own one and love it. Fender logo on the headstock, birdseye maple neck, black duncans and pickguard...good score...rock on!

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"Where would rock and roll be without feedback?"

Definitely no! It has 11-48s and 5 springs on it. I do need a FR type guitar, but this ain't the one. This one is the 60-70s Metal God that goes out to a Marshall stack, not the 80s shredder!


by the way.... Is lite ash, Northern 'baseball bat' type Ash wood, or is it something else? I am dying to know for sure, and any links to verify this or discuss relevant wood properties would be a 'cork-sniffers' bonus LOL

and yes, the Birdseye wood is Beautiful! I got a lot of flaming on my neck as well.

Thanks Fender for a great guitar!