Hi, newbee, first post .. When I was rich I bought a Custom Shop Strat. Now I'm poor I need to have an evaluation so I get a fair price for it. I dont have any paper work. I've got photos and stuff. Do you guys want to see it? Its about 15 years old and the serial number on the kneck plate is CN30317
Any advise,
Thanks

Do you have the CS certificate for the guitar? If you don't have that piece of paperwork the guitar is worth a few hundred less because it will be difficult to prove it isn't faked. This be particularly important for your guitar since it has a "CN" serial number - the problem with those numbers is Fender's Korean supplier also used "CN" as a serial number prefix and all of those on-line guitar dater sites will turn up your CS guitar as a low-priced Korean guitar. There are a few CS Fenders with those "CN" serial numbers, particularly some of the pre-Time Machine CS reissues, around but there are thousands of the Korean guitars with their "CN" serial numbers.

I would check both ebay and gbase to try to find similar guitars and see what they are going for - actually ebay would be better because you could search for completed auctions to see what a similar guitar actually sold for; a lot of those guitars listed on gBase have such high prices they hang around for years unsold. You could also get an appraisal from some retailers like Gruhn in Nashville, but they (a) specialize in vintage guitars and (b) will charge you for the appraisal.

yes! lets see some pic's....

Hope this links works for you guys:
https://picasaweb.google.com/1128843682 ... WX_fHY7AE#

Are you sure it is an authentic CS Strat? I am no expert, but it doesn't look right to me. The engraving on the neck plate, the Fender decal on the front of headstock, the CS decal on the back of the headstock, and even the grain on the neck all look wrong. It may just be that I'm a skeptic, but I think that you should post this on the "Ask Mike Eldred" part of the forum. (I really hope that I'm wrong)

http://www.fender.com/community/forums/viewforum.php?f=22

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Thanks for posting the photo. I think it might be a CS version of the American Standard (they had a couple of different names like "American Classic" during the run) but I'll echo shimmilou's post that it kind of looks odd. I thought that those "CN" serial number CS guitars used neck plate that had the Fender CS logo instead of the regular "Fender" logo but I could be wrong. The neck plate your Strat looks like the ones that were used on the American Standards (1986-mid 2000). I'll also agree with his suggestion to post the info in the "Ask Mike Eldred" forum and email your serial number to Fender's consumer relations.

Best this continues on the Eldred Forum where it is now. Might be better to lock this one.

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Yeah sure. Can I lock it? Or does admin do that for me?

Let it ride. If Brad picks up on it, perhaps he will.

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