hi, i bought this guitar a few days ago, i just wanna make sure if this guitar is a genuine fender japan, i bought this guitar from someone, he said this is a classic series 50 (from the guy who i bought this from) this guitar has a store certificate from japanese, and it said ST50- 3TS/M, for the serial number is R 031277, i read about the japanese fender they said R is a CIJ but mine is MIJ, there is no written about CIJ on this guitar at all, it confusing me anyway, so please help me, is this a real japanese fender or a fake one?
sorry for my language

here are the photos






can solve this problem for me?

update

My personal opinion is that this guitar is a fake. The first things I noticed was the pickguard is a '60s style and the tuners are modern and not vintage.

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Chet Feathers

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

the tuners are gotoh anyway, i dont know, its so japan anyway,

OK. Let me word it this way:

It is not a Classic Series '50s, The pickguard and tuners are not correct for that model. If I am remembering correctly the Classic Series '50s were MADE IN MEXICO. The Serial Number comes up as 2004 -2005 CRAFTED IN JAPAN.

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Chet Feathers

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

its okay if its aint a CS '50s , at least i bought the genuine fender, i mean, is this a real japanese fender? sorry i didnt get your point hehehe

I have my doubts.

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Chet Feathers

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

I tend to agree with Chet.
The guitar is a mish-mash of styles.

It is a 50's style maple neck, but is the truss rod adjustment at the body end or the headstock? It appears to be at the headstock, even though there's the typical "cut" on the pickguard. The material by the headstock appears to be plastic.

It has the mid-60's Fender logo.
It has an early 60's style pickguard.

I'd like to see pictures showing the back of the guitar and the 12-th fret dot spacing.

Some pictures of the thing taken apart would help confirm or dismiss the Japanese origin.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

i already upload the things that you might wanna see then

honestly it looks pieced together. pictures of the heel of the neck and the inside of the body would help. also the underside of the pick guard.

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dang my kind of strat... the 60's pickguard mixed with the 50's neck style very mim standardish

+1

The '50s MIJ/CIJ Strats all use the ST54 or ST57 at the beginning of the model designation and they're nearly perfect clones for a real Fender from the '50s. I've worked on five or six of these instruments and know them intimately. This one looks like a haphazardly-assembled parts-o-caster.

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

I'm now thinking it is MIJ, however, what model (Standard?) I don't know, it's not any sort of reissue model. Perhaps it's been modified (like there might be an extra pickguard hole hiding underneath) or a mix-and-match job (like some other posters suggest).

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

so what you are gonna say is, it a japanese fender and its not related to any american/mexican series?

hi all, i thinks i found a hope about the problem of my guitar,
in this link, try to translate by yourself
i thinks this website has a same guitar as mine

http://www.shimokura-guitar.com/st50.html

The guitar featured on the website seems to have a rosewood fretboard.

The other details seem consistent with yours though.

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