I just bought this Strat from my local pawn shop. When I bought it I was sure that it was the Classic 50's Strat, but now I'm not so sure. It has the 50's Surf Green color on the body, but the plastic parts aren't aged and the neck isn't the soft V, it's the C. The frets appear to be smaller than regular, and it has a one-ply pickguard, which plays to the 50's favor. Also on the stock it says it's MIM from '99 with serial number MN 9338948, but it doesn't have the contour body stamp on it or the vintage tuners on top. I think maybe the person who had it before me had the classic 50's neck but didn't like the V so they put a C neck on it. It could also be an American Vintage model with a C neck, but not sure. Did Fender make the Classic 50's in '99 different than they do today? Just curious as to for sure what this guitar is.

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Here are pics of it. Shoulda posted those earlier. Thanks for any help, these are my first posts.

I'm not quite sure what you have there - I think it's either a modded guitar or a parts guitar but it could be some type of FSR MIM Standard. The neck is a Fender MIM Standard neck - any of the Classic or Classic Player necks would have a vintage-style decal. That neck has the decal used on the Standards up until the latest version of the Standard came out a few years ago (late 2008 if I'm remembering correctly), plus it would be a C-shaped neck. The pickups look like they could be MIM pickups from that era - the polepieces are slightly raised but they not staggered-height like on the Classics.

I think the bridge has replacement saddles, but it could be a complete replacement bridge - I'm 99% positive that the MIM Standards used bent saddles, not the solid saddles like your guitar. Of course an MIM Strat wouldn't normally have a single-ply pickguard. The guitar is very well done, but I think it's a parts guitar unless there was a run of FSR MIM Standards in the surf green with a single-ply pickguard; then it would only have changed saddles.

I would suggest sending the serial number to Fender's Consumer Relations (consumerrelations@fender.com) to see what they say.

Not even close to a classic series 50's......it looks like someone took a $99 Squier Bullet Strat and replaced the neck with a Fender MIM Standard Stratocaster neck. If you didn't pay much for it, and like the feel and tone, great. The neck would sell well on eBay at least, if you want to recoup some loss and get rid of the thing. The body won't bring much due to it being a Squier Bullet body. If you end up not liking the axe, part it out and see if you can make more money than you spent. Or, you can modify the axe like crazy, and experiment with all sorts of things!!!!!

+1

Wrong neck, wrong bridge, wrong pickguard (no telling what lies beneath).

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Thanks for your help guys. After looking up the Bullet Strats I see the resemblance. They have the same saddles, pickguard, plastics, and even color. The guy would have had to have bought the Squier body from 2007-2009 and then put a new neck on it, as I called Fender and they said with my serial number the neck belongs to Standard Strat (midnight wine color, not surf green) made in January of 2000. The guy from Fender said that if I took off the pickguard and neck I might find some kind of insignia or marking that would tell me, so I have that if I get obsessive about it in the future- but for now the tone is great.




I think I will modify the axe My friend is a luthier/tech and can get me a deal on some dimarzio 404's....and who knows, I might trade the pickguard and plastics anyways.