Identifying Authentic '95 Strat?

Outland · **Joined:** Mon Jan 30, 2012 6:46 am **Posts:** 9

Hey there,

I'm new here. Wonderful site, I've been lurking for quite a while.

I was hoping to find out methods with which I can identify whether a 1995 Fender American Stratocaster in a local shop is authentic or not.

From the top: I've been looking around for a '95 USA Strat for a while. Last week, I got lucky when I heard that a local shop had recently bought one. I came in, played it, and loved it.

However, I'd like to verify that it's an all-original, authentic, American Strat before fully buying. I put down a small hold amount on it, but haven't purchased it yet. From what I understand, I need to look at the following factors for authenticity:

-Flat pole-pieces to indicate original pickups.
-Bottom tone control is TBX to indicate original electronics.
-Serial # is on the back of the headstock, and reads N5XX... for neck authenticity

Are there any others? Next time I'm in the shop, I'll check it for the conditions. I'd especially like to know if the body is original, as I don't have any conditions for it.

What I remember specifically are the boxy saddles on the bridge, the two string trees on the headstock, and that one of the tones was stiffer to turn than the other knobs. I don't remember much else that pertains to authenticity.

As for pricing, the shop agreed to $730 flat with a new Fender hard case. Is this a fair price? I haven't actually paid anything yet, so it's still in flux.

I don't buy instruments often, and this is my first Fender purchase, so I don't really have any common instinct in the matter. I would appreciate it if you could help me. I tried to find a similar thread but didn't find any.

Thanks all,
John

paris · **Posted:** Mon Jan 30, 2012 8:08 am

Outland wrote:

Hey there,

I'm new here. Wonderful site, I've been lurking for quite a while.

I was hoping to find out methods with which I can identify whether a 1995 Fender American Stratocaster in a local shop is authentic or not.

From the top: I've been looking around for a '95 USA Strat for a while. Last week, I got lucky when I heard that a local shop had recently bought one. I came in, played it, and loved it.

However, I'd like to verify that it's an all-original, authentic, American Strat before fully buying. I put down a small hold amount on it, but haven't purchased it yet. From what I understand, I need to look at the following factors for authenticity:

-Flat pole-pieces to indicate original pickups.
-Bottom tone control is TBX to indicate original electronics.
-Serial # is on the back of the headstock, and reads N5XX... for neck authenticity

Are there any others? Next time I'm in the shop, I'll check it for the conditions. I'd especially like to know if the body is original, as I don't have any conditions for it.

What I remember specifically are the boxy saddles on the bridge, the two string trees on the headstock, and that one of the tones was stiffer to turn than the other knobs. I don't remember much else that pertains to authenticity.

As for pricing, the shop agreed to $730 flat with a new Fender hard case. Is this a fair price? I haven't actually paid anything yet, so it's still in flux.

I don't buy instruments often, and this is my first Fender purchase, so I don't really have any common instinct in the matter. I would appreciate it if you could help me. I tried to find a similar thread but didn't find any.

Thanks all,
John

So far the guitar sounds ligit.

A few other things to look for:
Look under the pickguard. The cavity where the pickups go should be a big open area commonly called, "the swimming pool." When you look inside you'll know why.

The Fender logo should be spegetti and the end of the truss rod adjustment (on the head- stock) should be walnut (just like the skunk stripe on the back of the neck). If the headstock is painted then it will be covered by paint.

The neck plate should have the word, "Fender" stamped diaganally on the plate.

The bridge should be a two pint bridge.

The price sounds fine by me. I'd pay that much. In fact I fell like that's a pretty good price for those guitars.

Outland · **Joined:** Mon Jan 30, 2012 6:46 am **Posts:** 9

paris wrote:

So far the guitar sounds ligit.

Excellent!

Quote:

A few other things to look for:
Look under the pickguard. The cavity where the pickups go should be a big open area commonly called, "the swimming pool." When you look inside you'll know why.

Do you think I could do this in the shop? I'd have to take off the strings as well, I don't know what the understanding is on looking inside a guitar before you buy it.

Quote:

The Fender logo should be spegetti and the end of the truss rod adjustment (on the head- stock) should be walnut (just like the skunk stripe on the back of the neck). If the headstock is painted then it will be covered by paint.

Spaghetti? I don't think I understand. Also, what do you mean by "covered by paint"? The fretboard was rosewood, and the neck/headstock looked like maple to me.

The truss rod coloring is a good catch. I'll add it to the list.

Quote:

The neck plate should have the word, "Fender" stamped diaganally on the plate.

I'll check this as well.

Quote:

The bridge should be a two pint bridge.

I'm not sure what that is. Does that mean it should have 2 screws on the bridge assembly?

Quote:

The price sounds fine by me. I'd pay that much. In fact I fell like that's a pretty good price for those guitars.

Sounds good.

Thank you for your help.

alanssaab · **Posted:** Mon Jan 30, 2012 10:51 am

hi outland , so far it sounds fine , i have a 94 model and what you say about the one you are looking at sounds spot on the logo should look like this

and along with a wee check for the swimming pool route you should be sorted , hth , cheers
Alan

Outland · **Joined:** Mon Jan 30, 2012 6:46 am **Posts:** 9

alanssaab wrote:

hi outland , so far it sounds fine , i have a 94 model and what you say about the one you are looking at sounds spot on the logo should look like this.
and along with a wee check for the swimming pool route you should be sorted , hth , cheers
Alan

Hmm, how come your serial number is on the front of the headstock? I thought it was supposed to be on the back. Is that a 94/95 difference?

I don't think I trust myself to disassemble it in the store. Isn't there a risk of me harming something?

Glad to hear this though guys, It's a weight off my shoulders.

John C · **Posted:** Mon Jan 30, 2012 12:04 pm

Outland wrote:

alanssaab wrote:

hi outland , so far it sounds fine , i have a 94 model and what you say about the one you are looking at sounds spot on the logo should look like this.
and along with a wee check for the swimming pool route you should be sorted , hth , cheers
Alan

Hmm, how come your serial number is on the front of the headstock? I thought it was supposed to be on the back. Is that a 94/95 difference?

I don't think I trust myself to disassemble it in the store. Isn't there a risk of me harming something?

Glad to hear this though guys, It's a weight off my shoulders.

Yes there was a cosmetic change for USA Fenders between 1994 and 1995. Alan's 1994 has the the "modern" logo with the serial number on the front. At some point in 1995 (not sure when as I could have sworn I've seen early 1995s with the modern logo and serial number on the front of the headstock but I could be mistaken) Fender switched to using the vintage-style logo (called the "spaghetti" logo) and moved the serial number to the back of the headstock. A current American Standard would have that same "spaghetti" logo as a 1995 American Standard.

Paris is describing some limited run Strats that came out in 1995/96 that had painted headstocks - Fender issued them is some specific vintage custom colors like candy apple red, ocean turquoise, burgany mist and 3 other colors that I'm not remembering. There were 6 colors; 2 colors would run for 6 months and there were 3 sets of colors.

RRR · **Joined:** Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:13 pm **Posts:** 282

Wasn't there a stretch in the 90's when the American mades came stock with strap-lock pegs?

alanssaab · **Posted:** Mon Jan 30, 2012 1:05 pm

hi , i might have led you astray , my 94 , is , well the neck is from march ,1st , i cant remember the body date , it was quite faded but if a 95 is any different , logo wise i do apologise , cheers
Alan

John C · **Posted:** Mon Jan 30, 2012 3:18 pm

RRR wrote:

Wasn't there a stretch in the 90's when the American mades came stock with strap-lock pegs?

Yes - American Standards came with the strap lock buttons (but not the clip part that went on the strap; you had to buy those separately) from the time they were introduced until sometime around the time the American Series models replaced them. I'm trying to remember if the first year or so of American Series guitars/basses had the strap lock buttons as well or if those larger buttons were part of the American Series updates.

paris · **Posted:** Mon Jan 30, 2012 5:18 pm

Outland wrote:

paris wrote:

So far the guitar sounds ligit.

Excellent!

Quote:

A few other things to look for:
Look under the pickguard. The cavity where the pickups go should be a big open area commonly called, "the swimming pool." When you look inside you'll know why.

Do you think I could do this in the shop? I'd have to take off the strings as well, I don't know what the understanding is on looking inside a guitar before you buy it.

Quote:

The Fender logo should be spegetti and the end of the truss rod adjustment (on the head- stock) should be walnut (just like the skunk stripe on the back of the neck). If the headstock is painted then it will be covered by paint.

Spaghetti? I don't think I understand. Also, what do you mean by "covered by paint"? The fretboard was rosewood, and the neck/headstock looked like maple to me.

The truss rod coloring is a good catch. I'll add it to the list.

Quote:

The neck plate should have the word, "Fender" stamped diaganally on the plate.

I'll check this as well.

Quote:

The bridge should be a two pint bridge.

I'm not sure what that is. Does that mean it should have 2 screws on the bridge assembly?

Quote:

The price sounds fine by me. I'd pay that much. In fact I fell like that's a pretty good price for those guitars.

Sounds good.

Thank you for your help.

I don't have time to go into right now, but I'll get back to you tomorrow and answer all your questions.

paris · **Posted:** Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:00 pm

Outland wrote:

paris wrote:

So far the guitar sounds ligit.

Excellent!

Quote:

A few other things to look for:
Look under the pickguard. The cavity where the pickups go should be a big open area commonly called, "the swimming pool." When you look inside you'll know why.

Do you think I could do this in the shop? I'd have to take off the strings as well, I don't know what the understanding is on looking inside a guitar before you buy it.

Anyone who sells Fender guitars will understand that you want to look under the pickguard. All you have to do is, detune the guitar, put a capo on the first fret, and remove the neck. Then you remove the pickgaurd. This doesn't do any damage to the guitar and is worth the effort.

I just purchased a 1979 Strat that looked like SRV played every night, but sounded great. So before I bought the guitar I wanted to make sure that 1. the body and neck was ligit, 2. to see if all the electronics were correct. I'm glad I did. It turned out that the pickups were not the original and some other minor modifications were done. With this new knowledge the seller took some money off of the guitar. Some people get real crazy about having all-original parts, but I bought this guitar because it spoke to me. It plays and sounds great. In the end the pickups in it are better than the originals and I don't plan on selling it any time soon.

Quote:
The Fender logo should be spegetti and the end of the truss rod adjustment (on the head- stock) should be walnut (just like the skunk stripe on the back of the neck). If the headstock is painted then it will be covered by paint.

Spaghetti? I don't think I understand. Also, what do you mean by "covered by paint"? The fretboard was rosewood, and the neck/headstock looked like maple to me.

Ok, so the headstock is not painted. Every now and then (right around '95 and '96) Fender will paint the top of the headstock to match the color of the body. It actually looks pretty cool. It sounds like the one your looking at isn't painted.

"Spaghetti" logo means that the Fender name looks vintage Fender from the '50s and early '60s. It should look thin and curvy. Look on the Fender website at any of the '50s reissue or a Clapton Strat. You'll see what I'm talking about.
The truss rod coloring is a good catch. I'll add it to the list.

Quote:

The neck plate should have the word, "Fender" stamped diaganally on the plate.

I'll check this as well.

Quote:

The bridge should be a two pint bridge.

I'm not sure what that is. Does that mean it should have 2 screws on the bridge assembly?

Quote:

Yes. Vintage Fender bridges use six screws to hold down the bridge. In the '80s Fender went to a two point style. It will look like two studs at the ends of the front of the bridge.

The price sounds fine by me. I'd pay that much. In fact I fell like that's a pretty good price for those guitars.

Sounds good.

Thank you for your help.

So far, from everything you've told me, it sounds ligit. You can also look at photos on-line. Just type in "1995 American Standard Stratocaster" into the Google image search engine.

Outland · **Joined:** Mon Jan 30, 2012 6:46 am **Posts:** 9

Ah, I found a picture of the spaghetti logo on the internet. I know what you're talking about now.

I could take off the pickguard, but what would I be looking for under there? Won't the flat pole-pieces be indicative of the original pickups? Do you have a picture of a swimming pool route shown against a normal one?

I would prefer to have all-original parts, all things being equal.

All things sounding good so far.

paris · **Posted:** Mon Jan 30, 2012 9:02 pm

Outland wrote:

Ah, I found a picture of the spaghetti logo on the internet. I know what you're talking about now.

I could take off the pickguard, but what would I be looking for under there? Won't the flat pole-pieces be indicative of the original pickups? Do you have a picture of a swimming pool route shown against a normal one?

I would prefer to have all-original parts, all things being equal.

All things sounding good so far.

Yes about the pickups.

What you are looking for under the pickguard is the cavity where the pickups rest inside the guitar.

Am. Std. Strat '87-'99: A big rectangular open area. This allowed for Frender to put any type of pickups they wanted in the body. 1 Body could be used for several different Strat models.

Go to this link and scroll down. You'll see the swimming pool and the current version.

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/sho ... g-question

Go to this link and scroll down. You'll see some examples of painted headstocks.

http://www.rickresource.com/forum/viewt ... 5&t=389337

Outland · **Joined:** Mon Jan 30, 2012 6:46 am **Posts:** 9

Ah, I understand now. I'll check for all these things when I'm in the shop next.

Thank you for your explanations. They were very helpful.

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