Has anyone ever seen one of these early HM-type Strat? It looks totally stock. The clamp for the strings on the headstock is missing, but one can see the holes. The wiring looks untouched. It has a push-pull tone pot. Brass Bridge block. Really the oddest looking this ever. ANY IDEAS???

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If you took the pickguard off I think it would look like strats I've seen. And I'm guessing since you access the pots from the back of the guitar that the pickguard probably wasn't on it originally?

Have you taken the pickguard off? I'm curious of the routing since it doesn't have a middle pickup.

How Odd!!

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I'm thinking something like this, but yours has a Floyd Rose it looks like.

I was pretty stumped, but I found in my Fender Book, by Tony Bacon & Paul Day, a version made in Japan from '85-'87 called "the Contemporary Stratocaster." There weren't any photos in the book, so I'm going only on the written dicription.

All but the pickguard matches the description in the book. The model came with a locking nut, and judging from the photo of the headstock, it looks like it has been removed and wholes plugged.


the model also came with a "coil tap" ability. Looking at your photo it looks like it's a push/pull pot in the middle knob.

Also it has a side mounted jack.

The S/N matches Fender Japan guitars of that time period.

The only other thing that doesn't seem to match is the pickup setup. The "Contemporary Strat" Came in one of 3 formats.
1. 1 HB
2. 2 HB
3. 2 SC and 1 HB.

Look under the pickguard and see if the pickup cavety was made for a HB pickup.

Bottom line: I think what you have here is a modified MIJ Contemporary Stratocaster.

I hope this helps.

I agree, looks like a modded contemporary Strat. I like the way the pickguard looks. The Floyd Rose trem makes it look like a partscaster though, because it doesn't have a matching locking nut to go with it.

I do not own this Strat. I am asking the person who has it to investigate under the pickguard. When I first saw it I thought this was a MIj Contemporary Strat, as it had many of the features. Hope to have some picks and questions answered about the pickguard soon. Weird beast!

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I hope to have some pictures from under the hood. The owner told me he did have the pickguard off a while back and that the routing to the 3-way switch on the top of the body looks factory. Also if you look at the solder joints and the wire coatings in the pot housing, they all look factory too. More picts to come!

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my guess would be that someone put a MIJ neck on another body.
all floyd rose trems come with the locking nut which replaces the nut,
this had the clamp on after the nut which is how MIJ's were.

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1986 Kramer Baretta
1989 Samick "The Samick" Les Paul
2007 Fender Strat MIM Deluxe / 1985 MIJ neck
1990 Epiphone Strat
Marshall JCM 2000 DLS 50 watt / Marshall 1960a 4x12

https://soundcloud.com/jim-slimjim-cassi

If you look at the first post's pictures you will see matching stamps on both the neck and body. For sure this came with a string clamp on the neck, which someone removed as you can see the holes there for it. Hope to have some more picts soon.

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This one has me stumped as well - and I though I had turned up most of Fender's oddballs from the 1980s over the years. My best guess is it was a really professionally modded and refinished body - wasn't there an H/S MIJ Contemporary without a pickguard back then? Maybe the modder moved the toggle switch up to the horn so they could add the second volume, and the Floyd license was added at the same time (and the System I string lock removed)? Just a guess.

That is pretty cool.

I looks like someone modded it to look like Uli Jon Roth's "Sky Guitars."

(At least I doubt that it was stock that way.)

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My other guitar is a Strat.

That rosewood looks beautiful. Get him to take some pics of the whole neck. That guitar looks real cool.

While waiting for picts of under the hood of this Strat, I did find this one (below). It is called a Fender Japan ST551 Stratocaster. So the one in question is either a modded version of one of these, or a odd duck based on the same guitar. What gets me is that the solder joints and wiring look stock. One tone control and separate volume controls for the neck and bridge, with the bridge having a coil-splitter on it.



Here is the guitar on a work bench. The finish is sure nice for a refinish job and I do not see holes for the Strat type pickguard, which would be in the upper area around the bridge and down onto the lower horn.

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