Hi Guys,

I have now got the 1982 Stratocaster as mentioned in a previous thread.

I have some serious concerns about it, not sure if it is a genuine Strat, some adivce would be appreciated!

Overview-

By ian850 at 2011-08-31
Headstock-

By ian850 at 2011-08-31

By ian850 at 2011-09-02
Bridge, which is actually gold with normal coloured saddles-

By ian850 at 2011-08-31

By ian850 at 2011-09-02
Back of neck-

By ian850 at 2011-08-31
Neck pocket- No stamps/dates stickers, just the W painted in it-

By ian850 at 2011-09-02
Heel of Neck- Where the microtilt should be there was a piece of Balsa wood?-

By ian850 at 2011-09-02
Profile of neck- Stamped 10 April 1985 (I think)

Body Routes- The trem claw earth cable look bizare going through the body underneath the bridge pickup-

By ian850 at 2011-09-02
Pickups- Neck and Bridge are plastic bottomed (seem genuine) middle is a fibre bottom cant see a serial number-

By ian850 at 2011-09-02

By ian850 at 2011-09-02

By ian850 at 2011-09-02


Trem Claw-

By ian850 at 2011-09-02
Any help with this guitar would be appreciated. Many Thanks, Ian.

_________________
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

A "W" is a stamp from Warmouth Licensed Fender Replacement parts!

_________________
"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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[quote]A "W" is a stamp from Warmouth Licensed Fender Replacement parts![quote]

Since When? As far as I know Warmoth is stamped like so

Older ones....

_________________
"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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Wow - that is wild. I would laid money that this was a transition model. The neck looks legit - if it isn't then it is the absolute best forgery I've ever seen.

The date stamp is really odd; that would be right about the time that all USA production ceased - which makes me wonder if this was a neck that was sitting in the Fender warehouse that maybe someone took home and built into a guitar and they just stamped it on the day they took it home. I have read that FMIC tried to build out as many complete guitars from all the parts that were included in the assets they purchased from CBS; of course I assumed that was referring to assembling the last of the Elites, Standards (2-knob Strats, top-loader Teles, and basses of that era), and reissues. If this was hanging around from 1982 and someone snagged it for a project, then they certainly could have pulled the micro-tilt and filled that cavity with some kind of wood.

The body does appear to be a replacement of some kind; a Fender should have something in the pocket. That gold trem plate also looks odd; the gold/brass ones I remember had a thicker back portion (like the ones used on "The Strat" models).

John C...your explanation certainly seems the most plausible. The neck is genuine, but the extra date at the heel would seem to go with what you said about being built and then assembled at a later date is certainly possible. The body does look to be a replacement, the contours don't look very smooth, but could be the photo. As for the bridge, looks real but certainly an odd touch. The electronics all look right...maybe someone else will come along with some more info.

FWIW

T2

_________________
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What time is it? It's Fender Time.

it's a fake, so if you would care to pack it carefully up and send it too me and I will give you the postage back.. lol. Well you don't want a fake guitar do you?
TBH, I wouldn't know a copy from a real one if you stood them there in front of me.
I remember seeing this Gibson LP Studio and was convinced it was a copy because of the build quality of it, it was terrible, real bad paint job though it did sound good. Only the serial no. proved it was real. OTOH, there are some fakes that would pass muster at factory itself.
Keith

That's a tough one, because a 70s reissue strat has the
Large headstock and bullet truss rod, 3 bolt neck plate.
I don't know if the early E series came with large hs and 4bolt

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

After both thinking back on that era and also doing some research on it to fill in my college student memories I have to say "anything is possible" for that era. There are some pretty solid "rules of thumb" on Fenders from say 1979-1983, and as soon as you believe that a "rule of thumb" is an absolute you'll find something that is legtitimate that refutes it.

I can say this - I have never seen a large headstock Strat in person from that time period that did not have an S9XXXXX serial number. I have seen photos of legit large headstock Strats with E2XXXXX serial numbers. I have never even seen a photo of a large headstock Strat with either an E0 or an E1 serial number on it.

I can also say this - 1982 was clearly a transition era; the small headstock "Smith Strats" came out in early 1982 and they all had E2 serial numbers. However, Fender did build out and ship as many large headstock/3-bolt Strats as they had parts to complete at the same time; some of them (but not many, and they are the last of their kind) received the E2 serial numbers.

I have only seen photos of Sahara Taupe and the one set of photos of the natural Strat that I posted that have both the large headstock/bullet truss rod and the 4-bolt neck attachement; most of these "last of their kind" large headstock Strats still have the 3-bolt attachment.

The '79 Anniversary Strat doesn't count - it had the large headstock and the 4-bolt attachment but it did not have the bullet truss rod adjuster.

Anything is possible. I have a 1980 and it has small headstock and block saddles.
Look at these two on the link.

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

Just to add to the "anything is possible" files I turned up a nice parts strat back in 1985 that a local shop had assembled. The hardware was Schecter (pickups, tremolo system and string lock, tuners on the neck), the body was supposed to also be a Schecter but it could have been a Mighty Mite, and it had a Fender replacement neck complete with that "Official Fender Replacement" oval logo on the back of the headstock. Jere is the odd part - the headstock was the small "Smith Strat" shape and it had a bullet truss rod adjuster. It hadn't been cut down and refinished; it appeared to be completely as it was shipped out by Fender. Over all these years I never saw another neck like that until someone posted a photo of one here on this forum about a year ago.