I have a 1994 40th Strat (purchased new in early 1995) and was a gift from my father. N3* serial number, Black with a rosewood fret board, 22 fret.

However, it also includes an internal Piezoelectric pickup and TRS jack. There is a small 3-way toggle just above the pickup selector in between volume and first tone knobs. It toggles single coil pickups, pickups+piezo, piezo.

I haven't been able to find any info about if this was something Fender sold as a feature for this model that included the piezo or if it was a custom job done by the shop we purchased it. So far any searches have brought up nothing about any Strats at the time having a Piezoelectric included.

So, I guess my questions: Was this a feature that was sold by Fender?
What would it be worth? (not that I would sell it. It's my baby. But kind of curious)

Did I mention it is an American Strat?

Don't think it was offered as an option on American Standards but Pete Townshend has the piezo intalled on all of his Strats.

It's surely a custom job. American Strats from that period never came with a piezoed bridge.

Someone has installed an L.R. Baggs X-Bridge piezo system on that Strat.



Did the guitar had a battery compartment on the back for a 9V power supply to drive the Ctrl-X?

Actually, no there isn't. All I know is that when they sold it to my old man (that's who gave it to me and he knows nothing about guitars), they told him there was an internal pickup that made it sound similar to an acoustic. So it may be a passive pickup.

I never really thought about the mechanics of it until I started restoring an old Peavey Patriot. Then between going over my home owners insurance renewal and someone randomly asking how much it might be worth. Just kind of guessed somewhere between $800-1000.

Next time I restring it, I might open her up and take a look. Might do that today. She is due for a string change anyhow.

Posting a couple of photos might help a lot.

Just an easy after sale "upgrading"

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That is the thing, it wasn't an after sale thing. It was purchased like it is now from a very reputable dealer. So therefore the reason for my question as if Fender would have produced them in a such a way. Now, I'm beginning to think that someone probably ordered a custom job and never ended up purchasing it, so they sold to my old man as new with a custom fitting. Which is cool and all good.

Don't know if that would add to or diminish the value of the instrument though.

I'll try and get some pics. I didn't have time to restring it yesterday. Dang life and responsibilities getting in the way of my music.

Your guitar would be more versatile with the fishman powerbridge; you'll benefit from the best of both worlds: acoustic, electric or both.

Take all the good advantages of an acoustic/electric guitar without the need to switch instruments between songs.

Use the powerbridge for the unplugged repertoire and keep the magnetic pickups for the heavier blues/rock stuff.

Of course you can mix both magnetic and piezo pickups for country/jazz/rockabilly.

Finally got around to doing this. I had to use my phone and the pics didn't come out that well because of the glare.

Looks like it's some variation of Graphtech's Ghost system or another one of their products.

Kind of, but with out the midi