One of the guys here at work just showed me his Strat, can you help me identify it? He says it's a Fat Strat. It's red with tiger flame body, HSS configuration, Kahler trem, One volume knob, one tone knob, where the the middle knob usually is is a two way switch (coil tapping?). Has the standard 5 way switch. Black pickguard, knobs & covers. Rosewood board. Skunk stripe. Microtilt. Cut away heel. Groth tuners. Truss rod nut at headstock and it has the black plastic insert. Did not say Made in USA. The fender logo was silver inside with black outline. Serial number is G02XXXX.

What do you think?

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

Maybe its a Japanese photo-flame strat? These came out in the mid-late 90s, though not sure if they ever had Kahlers.

Pics would help.

From the serial number it might be a MIJ from the late 80's

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Sounds like it, 87-88 Fuji Strat. Kahler, maybe contemporary strat that was modified. Need pics.

I was wondering what year this strat was made here s the serial number 22051317 and it says made in usa on front along with custom baby. Pete Peteola58@yahoo.com

That sounds like that oddball "Contemporary" model from about 1988 or 1989 - it was a one-year only model that came after the original runs of Contemporaries from 1985/86. I've seen 2 of this model in person (a blue one and a red one) - they had a figured veneer top, beveled neck heel, chrome Kahler Spyder trem (same trem used on the HM Strats); it seems like the pickups were the same as on the HM Strats. I remember the Volume/Master Tone/coil split switch. Wish I could find a photo; please post one of your guitar.

This guitar was a one-year model; they were gone and replaced by the HRR Strats within a year.

EDIT: I'm reposting a photo of the model guitar that I'm trying to describe that was posted by Xhefri a while back:

That's it!!!!!

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

This model is a real enigma; they have all the earmarks of an MIJ Strat but they do not say "Made in Japan" on them anywhere. In fact they don't say where they were made at all. I believe the wood parts are definitely MIJ; some of the other hardware like pickups, Kahler trem, and the TBX tone control were USA items (if I'm remembering correctly these do have a TBX as the master tone).

Cool pieces; a local dealer had a blue one and a red one similar to that photo back in the day (call it Fall 1989). It appeared that the maple veneer top was real wood, not a photo flame; however the flame wasn't as nice as the veneers used a couple of years later on the USA-made Strat Ultras.