I have a misprint American Deluxe Strat that just says Tratocaster under the finish. It is a solid Ash body with the blonde stain and noiseless pickups. I got it when I was fifteen...about 12 years ago and just never really thought about it. It came from the factory this way and I Bought it at Mars music in Nashville, TN.

Is this worth anything or does it mean anything?

Thanks,

Joe

We have a saying here..."pics or it didn't happen".

I will be home in about an hour and will take a picture. Why would they let it slip through the line like that?

Are we revisiting the infamous "STRATACASTER" debacle?



Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

What was that? I emailed Fender after I bought it, but they didn't really say anything back. The internet was way different 12 years ago though so I thought maybe I could find out some info on it now.

What's the serial number your Strat? It could be a bit older than 2000 - the guitar could have been in stock for a while at the Mars Music. Also I thought that Fender had dumped those black tolex cases like that by 2000 and was just using their molded case. Are you sure the chrome decal is under the clearcoat? Fender didn't start doing that until the American Deluxes had been out for a while.

serial: DN819631

It might have been before 2000...i was a sophomore in hs...so that would've been 1999. It is 100% for sure under the clear coat...not tampered with at all. it came off the assembly line as is.

you know what I just noticed...the inspection card from fender shows a different serial....look at the pics...do you think they simply put the wrong guitar in the case at the factory?

Aahhh, the famous "dropped foil letter" syndrome. Another forum member has a guitar with the 2nd S missing: Stratoca ter, IIRC.


In the old days, we just lost parts of the decals. Here's one of mine with some missing bits of logo/decals:

_________________
Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Claudia kept it, 10 to go and she has a STRATOCASTER
...or maybe the S is out of production

Cheers,
Robin

_________________
_________________________________
http://www.youtube.com/robinstrower
_________________________________

I must admit that it would annoy me.

On Hank Marvin's now legendary Strat, it says Stratocast.

_________________
2012 Fender American Standard Stratocaster
2013 Fender Pure Vintage 65 Stratocaster
2003 Gibson ES-355
2015 Gibson Les Paul Traditional
2002 Gretsch Duo Jet
1980 Rickenbacker 360/12 Fireglo
2014 Martin 000X1AE
2014 Fender Blues Junior III

Just a broken decals

they probably swapped cases at Mars....I used to go to the Nashville store,it was chaotic there at times.

I had an early 1998 that had the decal over the clear coat; unfortuantely I didn't get along with it and don't remember the serial number (other than the "DN8" part) but I believe it was a lower number than your guitar.

I do know that it was sometime during 1998 that Fender reacted to the decals rubbing off by putting them under the clearcoat going forward. This would really be a question for Rob Schwarz, but if I'm remembering correctly that once Fender started hearing about the decals coming off they took remedial action and oversprayed the headstocks on the necks they had already finished but were waiting for assembly. For your guitar (since that is a fairly early serial number for 1998) the "S" likely came off during the process of applying the extra clearcoat and it just slipped by the inpectors (or maybe they decided why trash a good American Deluxe Strat just because the decal is messed up).