hi, i am about to purchase a fender 83 but need some opinions if its real.

Here are the pics
http://realfenderstratornot.blogspot.co ... strat.html

The decal looks legit, but there is only one tone knob and one volume knob? So is the era of these strats built in these manner?

Aaron

In 1983, the Fender Stratocaster was made with 1 volume and 1 tone knob, and the input jack plate was removed and the jack was located on the pickguard where the 2nd tone knob would normally be. Also, there is no back plates on the back side of the body, because the tremolo springs were mounted UNDERNEATH the pickguard! This was a short lived design around 1983-84.

I agree with Steve-oh-no; looks like a legit 1983/83 "Standard Stratocaster" (as CBS/Fender called them). However, the volume and tone knobs have been swapped from the standard white to black; not a big deal.

These were only made in 1983-1984 (and I would assume that perhaps a final few were assembled in January 1985 before CBS shut down operations; possibly a few more assembled from parts obtained by FMIC after they bought the company in February 1985).

While these were made in both 1983 and 1984 they will likely all have "E3XXXXX" serial numbers as these were not really hot sellers and Fender always uses up decals before moving to the next set. However, I have seen a photo of one of these with an "E4XXXXX" serial number so there are probably a few out there. Frankly there are probably more FMIC-era American Standards and Strat Pluses out there with "E3XXXXX" decals then there are these 2-knob versions with "E4XXXXX" decals.

Thank you all for the confirmation!

These guitars were better known as "bare-bones". Fender Japan made a 22-fret version with a flat 9.5" radius and jumbo fretwire which lasted until 1986.