New owner of an 87 Sunburst HM
Serial #F026077
HSS
Volume, TBX, Coil splitter, all original
G Gotoh Tuners
Kahler Spyder
Neck marked ST-656HM
Body Marked ST-656, there is also a V and a J
Neck plate says made in USA
head stock does not say made anywhere
The single coils are marked 016370, and the Humbucker says Dimarzio

I opened it up and the pots, switches and everything looks original, there is some rusty corrosion on some of the connections, this thing was not played in ages, covered in dust and some bug had made a cocoon in the truss rod adjustment space.
She cleaned up pretty good, a couple of missing pieces, but it stays in tune perfectly through some hard bends, best of all she looks sweet and plays better.

That is a nice one. I don't know what these are really called; I've always assumed they were some kind of late 80s "Contemporary" - they have similar pickups to the HM Strats but have a more "traditional" body and neck (the HMs had down-sized bodies and very flat 24-fret necks).

I think these were only around for about a year, and even though that serial number tracks to 1987 I think they were made from say mid-1988 to mid-1989. They are one of the "grey area" models where most of the guitar just screams "MIJ" - the tuners, the markings on the body, etc. but they have some USA parts like the Kahler and the use of the micro-tilt mechanism on the neck. I've heard 2 stories on these:

(1) they were assembled here in the USA but used mostly MIJ parts or

(2) they were assembled in Japan and weren't supposed to be sold here in the USA so Fender did decide to import them they put on a "Made in Japan" sticker instead of having it on the headstock decal.

All Fenders with that beveled neck plate said "Fender USA" on them regardless of the country or origin - the HMs (which were both MIJ and assembled in the USA from MIJ parts depending on the year), the later HRR Strats, etc. It's kind of like the early MIJ Charvels had neck plates that said "Fort Worth, TX" and all Kramers had "Neptune, NJ" regardless of origin.

Yeah, there is some confusion out there about some of the models from that era.

But that sure looks like a Made in Japan guitar to me.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.