Can anyone tell me if this strat was made in the US or Mexico, or if it's even a real Fender? Serial number:10029548

http://www.guitardaterproject.org/fender.aspx I tried it with your serial # and it says that it doesn't recognize it so I think it's not fender

Guitar Dater Project is not up to date with the serial numbers after 2009! There's some serial numbers which are not listed.

But there's one thing for sure: there should be letters in front of the number.
Your serial number starts with 10, so it might be a 2010 model but there should be Letters like US 10xxxx or Z 10xxxx or ZD 10xxxx

Also your serial number is one digit too long, but I'm not sure about it.

Posting pictures of your guitar might help as well.

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

Some photos would be helpful to verify things, but "10029548" sounds like a legit early 2010 serial number used on USA production-line Fenders. It could be found on an American Standard, American Deluxe, American Special, Highway 1, or most of the USA-built Artist Signatures.

Here is the serial number progression - Fender used up the 2009 decals with the "Z9XXXXXX" format (and used "DZ9" for American Deluxes and "SZ9" for the USA Artist Signatures) sometime in early 2010. They then started using these numbers that just began with a "10" on all the USA non-reissues and also stopped using the "D" for "Deluxe" and "S" for "Signature" extra lettering. The "10" was a very similar font to the other 6 digits, but if you look very closely at your guitar you should see that the first "10" is a little different.

I assume Fender got complaints, plus needed to figure out what to do when they finished up the "MZ9" numbers for MIM production (MIM numbers change over about the middle of the year) so about March/April of 2010 Fender changed from the plain "10XXXXXX" numbers to "US10XXXXXX" numbers - and they made the "US10" part in a slightly different more bolded font. So these numbers that start with a plain "10" only lasted for 3-4 months of production.

For the record, in say July 2010 or so Fender switched the MIMs to "MX10XXXXXX" serial numbers.

Hope that helps; it's been over 2 years since Fender started this serial number system and none of the guitar dater sites have caught up.

Cool!! Thank you very much, John!!

_________________
Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

Thanks for all the comments everyone. Some more details: I contacted the seller he said it's supposedly a Fender FSR American Standard Stratocaster Electric Guitar with TBX and Active Mid Boost. The FSR is supposedly from musician's friend. Does that seem plausible??

I vaguely remember that - although for some reason I thought that was available at multiple dealers, not just Musican's Friend. Seemed like a cool idea - an American Standard with Clapton electronics (but not the VN pickups).