Hi,

I'm looking at buying a Stratocaster with serial number- E215467

From what I understand this dates it to 1982.

However it has a large headstock design and a bullet trussrod.]

The Fender logo has a gold outline, and the Strtocaster is in a thick curved black font.

Also it has a 4 bolt neck.

Does this guitar sound correct, as I can only find smaller headstock/no bullet 1982 starts on the net.

Photos-

By ian850 at 2011-08-31


By ian850 at 2011-08-31


By ian850 at 2011-08-31


By ian850 at 2011-08-31


Thanks as ever, Ian.

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Fender USA Stratocaster 1976
Fender USA Stratocaster 1998
Fender USA Stratocaster 2007
Fender USA Telecaster 2007
Fender Mustang 1966
Fender Musicmaster 1978
Fender Bronco 1978

Fender US Jazz Bass 2005
Rickenbacker 4003 Bass 2003

Fender Bassman 50 1971

This is an interesting piece - it seems like I've seen a photo of a sahara taupe Strat with both the large headstock, bullet truss rod, and a 4-bolt neck somewhere on the net. Remember Fender never throws anything away, and some of the last of the large headstock Strats did have "E2" serial numbers.

This guitar could be one of three things:

1. It's one of the last Strats out of the factory before the smaller headstock "Smith Strat" necks were used - so it has the 4-bolt attachment of a "Smith Strat" but an old large headstock neck. It looks like it might have been that odd blue shade that was part of the "International Colours" series; they were among the last of the large headstock Strats. Also it has mixed plastic hardware (white pickguard, knobs, and covers but black trem cover), which also makes me think they were just using up some parts.

2. It could be that it originally had a 3-bolt attachment that someone changed to a 4-bolt attachment.

3. It could be a parts guitar assembled from all Fender parts.

I'm inclined to think it was just one of those oddities that gets assembled by Fender during a transition period at the factory and this was the way it shipped out back in 1982.

EDIT: Okay, it wasn't a sahara taupe Strat, it was a natural finish Strat - it is on the Stratcollector.com site (I'm glad the original owner's family decided to restore the site; he had put in so much time and it's a great resource of Strat info). Here's the link to the 1981 Stratocaster page:

http://www.stratcollector.com/scn/base/81.html

And the photos:

The guitar looks ligit.

Nice guitar.

_________________
1975 Sunburst Stratocaster rosewood finger board
1979 Stratocaster with roseowood finder board
2001 Candy Green Clapton Stratocaster
2007 Andy Summers Inspired Telecaster
2007 '51 P-Bass
2012 Taylor 110
2015 Mystic Ice Blue Deluxe Stratocaster Plus

What about the bridge with the Fender logo stamped by the tremelo arm hole? I havent seen that before.


Cheers guys!

_________________
Fender USA Stratocaster 1976
Fender USA Stratocaster 1998
Fender USA Stratocaster 2007
Fender USA Telecaster 2007
Fender Mustang 1966
Fender Musicmaster 1978
Fender Bronco 1978

Fender US Jazz Bass 2005
Rickenbacker 4003 Bass 2003

Fender Bassman 50 1971

Wasn't that stamp on some of the MIJ bridges of the era? I also think the guitar is legit. I guess it could be made of original Fender parts but either way it's a nice guitar. How does she feel and sound? That's the main thing. Enjoy!

It looks legit. The last of the big headstock strats rolled out around 83 as CBS Fender used up the rest of the parts. As others have stated it has a bit of unusual Features, but Fender has always been known to used leftover parts to build guitars

Wow, one of the last big headstocks, very nice guitar, awesome color(fading).

Cheers,
Robin

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http://www.youtube.com/robinstrower
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Yes, the bridge saddles don't look to be original to me.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

According to stratcentral.com and iirc Tom Wheeler's strat book, the Sahara Taupe version of the International Colors series had a 4 bolt neck, while the rest had the 3 bolt.

I find this very strange that one color in a series gets a very different neck construction, but hey, this guitar could be original and stock.

I was thinking about the sahara taupe and the 4-bolts as well until I found that photo of the natural one on stratcollector.com. If I'm recalling the story on the sahara taupe ones correctly they were using up some leftover parts from the 1979 25th Anniversary Strats (which did have a 4-bolt neck, truss rod adjuster on the heel, and the big headstock) after that run was completed - just paint the bodies a different color to use up some extra bodies and necks. However, the sahara taupe ones didn't have the Sperzel non-locking tuners like the 25th Anniversary models had.