Hello Everyone,

I'm new here on this forum so hi! I came across this site when looking for information on my '83 Fullerton Reissue Strat.

In summary, I have a question about the guitar's neck (origins) and was wondering if any of the seasoned experts on the board could help out.

I bought the guitar second-hand and I have to say that the body is 100% Fullerton RI - contours, tooling holes, color, bridge, markings - everything is authentic. Case is 100% Fullerton RI too.

However when it comes to the neck I notice two very baffling anomalies: (a) headstock shape more vintage correct than normal Fullerton RI and (b) 12th fret dot markers wider than other RI's (again more in line with an actual 57). Originally I thought it might be JV.

But when I take the neck off, everything looks USA. It has that paper on the mounting area ("1_____2_____3___...") that from my experience only see on USA necks, it has the little offset USA pinhole tooling mark, and a USA type pencil neck date (JV usually written "9-23 '83" as how they do in Japan, not "9-23-83").

My question is, have any experts ever encountered these anomalies on an authentic USA Fullerton neck? Also, can I justifiably call it a USA reissue neck if I sell down the road?

Thanks for the help!
J

What gives me pause is the location of the string tree. It's correctly positioned as per the original instruments from the '50s. But the production re-issues from California never got this detail right whereas the Fuji-Gen guitars from Japan always have. The 12-fret dot spacing is also consistent with a Fender-Japan re-issue Strat.

I suspect a MIJ/CIJ neck.

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

The MIJ reissues had Made (or Crafted) in Japan on the heel.
I'm sure Fender didn't get these details right until the late 90s.
I'm not sure of this, but didn't the US reissues have the decal on top of the lacquer?

Could it be that in the early days of manufacture they fitted Japanese necks?

Thanks guys for your thoughts. Here's some extra details I didn't include:

Although you can't see it, a second string tree was at sometime filled in on the headstock (very nice, pro job), and I believe some overspray was applied to the headstock to cover up the repair. As a result, the decal is buried in a VERY light coat.

Also, was sure to examine very closely if a "Made in Japan" on the heel was sanded off at some point and found no evidence at all. Also could find no MIJ type stamps anywhere on the neck butt. Nothing really on the butt or heel of the neck says MIJ/CIJ at all (and there's usually some very distinctive markings, from what I've seen) so that's where I'm really at a loss.

If it wasn't the OP, somebody else recently posted on one of the forums the same question.
Again, there was no conclusion.

That sticker on the neck, looking at the Haynes manual on the Stratocaster, on page 74, it shows the same sticker for a 1996 '57 reissue.
That guitar has the correct headstock shape, but still has the dot spacing wrong.

The MIJs had a V shaped next, I think the US ones had a C shape.

To comment on your point, my neck is definitely a thin, rounded "C" shape. Do kinda wish it were a "V", though.

The headstock shape is certainly different from my Nov '82 '57 Vintage Reissue Strat. My serial number is in the low 40's. Don't have pictures of the date as I only took the neck off just once, and the decal is most definetly put on Over the finish (but the respray may have changed that) also the color of the decal looks silver (might be the lighting) on the "Fender" and it should be Gold spagetti logo. Also those position dots are not the same as production models like mine. See below, not the greatest picture, but verified as I am the original owner and brought it home the day it arrived in the music store I worked at...did the set up myself and after I did, I just had to bring it home.

If not for the neck date, I would think it could be a pre-production model, but by Sep '83 they were in production for almost a year.

In A.R. Duchossoir's book the Fender Stratocaster Special 40th Anniversay Edition on page 42 it shows one of the first ones made with serial number V0000001 and finshed in Fiesta Red, but this was after the sale by CBS and it was made in Corona...it shows your style headstock, but the dots are as they were on production models (narrower spacing).

It might be a Fender Japan made product built only for the Japanese Domestic Market...that would explain the lack of the "MIJ" label missing, and the correct dots and headstock shape? The ones made in 83 for the USA from Japan were Squires and they were more of seventies type strat with the large headstock and three bolt neck.

Seems to be a true mystery...might contact Fender and see what they know.
FWIW

T2

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Thanks Stratman for the insight based on your own original - much appreciated! To answer your comment, my decal IS gold the lighting in the picture (as you suspect) does distort it to a greyish looking color.

Maybe I will ask Fender, however from my experience they seem to know much more about post 1987 guitars and some of those finer details at the Fullerton site will probably be hard to track down (maybe I'm wrong about this?).

Perhaps I could just bill the neck as an original 1957 that was sent to the factory, refinished in 83 and slapped on a reissue body, just to play it safe?

Sweet lookin guitar by the way, bet it sounds great - Red bobbins?

Also, does anyone who owns an early JV guitar find some likeness to my neck?

Glad to offer info...that is what the forum is for and why we are here...let us know what response you get from Fender.

T2

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What time is it? It's Fender Time.

Thanks again, I just sent Fender a message and I'll let you know if I hear anything back.

This was Fender's response (Ed Treat got back to me very quickly):

"Sadly there is no way to 100% verify the neck. It looks US, and the dimensions will vary slightly this was the CBS era, so in some respects, anything is possible when it comes to CBS products.

I wish I had more info, but there is very limited resources from that era."

Well, I guess it's just going to remain a mystery! I guess this really could just be an actual authentic anomaly.

Either way, thanks everyone for your insight.

If that is from the CBS era, it shows that they were more accurate that post CBS.