Hey, I have had a 1989 Japanese Stratocaster for a few years now, I check the numbers, the dates etc. Its a 1989, I researched to see if it was standard or not, and I found our the neck plates were square, I've known for a while mine was different, but I finally decided to ask.

Mine is square, but it has an smoothed edge. Top left.

Anyone else know anything about it?
Its also says;
Fender
Made in USA.

Doesn't add up. Shouldn't be after market, my grandfather owned it forever.. so.

Any ideas?
It seems as though the plate was put there intentionally as the body is rounded towards the neck...
Thanks.

Marshal P.

ALSO, it does not have two saddles (wrong use?) on the head stock.

Only one and it's shaped totally different than others i've seen. Posting pictures later.

Any thoughts?

Pics would definitely be a big help.

All MIJ/CIJ Strats that I'm aware of use a traditionally-shaped Fender neck plate like this......



BTW, those "saddles" on the headstock are actually string trees.

HTH

Arjay

_________________
"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

You are talking about string trees. There are models with 2, 1, and none. So that is not an issue.

Pics of the guitar would really help.

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Chet Feathers

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

Sounds like he's saying it has a contoured heel. Is it shaped like this?

Do any of the Fender/Japan Strats have the contoured heel?

Arjay

_________________
"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

I think the Aerodyne strat had a contoured heel. I don't know about any others.

Quite a few had them had the contoured heel: the HM Strats, a "1988 Contemporary" model made in 1988/89 that basically had the pickups of the HM on a full-sized Strat body (with the Kahler Spyder and a figured top), then the HRR Strats.

The odd thing is that all of these had a contoured neck plate that read "Fender USA" - which except for the HRR models that were clearly marked "Made in Japan" leads to confusion about the country of origin on the other models. Some HMs were all MIJ, some were assembled here with MIJ bodies/necks. That model I called the "1988 Contemporary" has no "Made in Japan" or "Made in USA" but has all the MIJ components like Gotoh tuners. I've always figured that Fender used plates that read "Fender USA" just like Charvel was using neck plates that read "Fort Worth, TX" and Kramer used plates with "Neptune NJ" on just about every guitar regardless of where it was made during that time period.