I play bass, but I wanted a decent guitar to play around with at the house that wasn't going to cost an arm and a leg. So I started looking on the local crag's list and ebay. I know, I know.....but.

I found a '96 Fat Strat on ebay. 1½ days before the auction was up I put in a bid of $300. Locally camparable Strats and Teles are going for $350 and up. One local craigs list ad currently has a '98 Fat Strat asking $650 for it. Well I wasn't expecting to be the high bidder but I was. I emailed the seller quite a few times with questions and he always answered quickly, so I thought I would probably be alright with this deal.

I received the guitar today. The guitar looks like it's hardly been played. Excellent shape for a 16 year old guitar. A couple of hard to see smudges on the back. Other than that the finish is in great shape. Neck is straight, but the action is a little high. No big deal since I expected to add a new set of strings and do a set up on it any way.

So I plug it into my amp and.......OH NO!!!!! The volume and tone controls are scratchy as he!!. So they're going to need replaced. I have to admit though, it sounds great. Even though the action is high, the neck feels really good to me, but then I'm use to a 5 string Jazz bass neck.
Feels like I'm playing on half a neck. If I'm not careful I'll fret 2 strings at a time!

I emailed the seller to let him know my opinion of the guitar. Within 5 minutes I get a phone call. He gave me 3 choices.
1 - Send the guitar back and he'll refund my money in full.
2 - Discount the price of the guitar.
3 - Pay half of the bill to get it fixed!

I chose #3. I really like the guitar and I think after getting everything fixed up it will be a very good guitar. Should exceed my needs for sure. I've already ordered an aged pearl pickguard for it. I soon as I get that, I'll take it to my local guitar tech and have him do the repairs. (I aint so good at it myself) I think things are gonna work out alright.

I'll post some pics here in a minute.

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2012 American Standard Precision V - Candy Cola Red
2012 Squier Vintage Modified Jazz V - Surf Green
2011 FCS Custom Classic Special Jazz Bass V - Violin Burst
1996 MIM Stratocaster HSS - Black
1975 Precision Bass - 3 Tone Sunburst

Here's the pics.





What do yall think about changing the pickguard and back plate to an aged pearl?
I'm guessing it will look pretty good.

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2012 American Standard Precision V - Candy Cola Red
2012 Squier Vintage Modified Jazz V - Surf Green
2011 FCS Custom Classic Special Jazz Bass V - Violin Burst
1996 MIM Stratocaster HSS - Black
1975 Precision Bass - 3 Tone Sunburst

Hmmm... Those tuners look a bit funny to me and I'm pretty sure the 50th anniversaries were made in the US. And the Volume/Tone pots? Do you know for a fact that it is genuine?

It's not a 50th Anniversary model as in "Special" or "Limited" edition. It was Fender's 50th year (1946-1996) and as I understand it they placed those stickers on the backside of the headstocks on all guitars and basses made in 1996.

I also understand that the plant at Ensenada, Mexico wasn't completely up and running at that time so the body and neck were probably produced in the Corona plant. The electronics are possibly MIA, but the pickups are MIM. All hardware are of a slightly lesser quality than that of MIA models.

At least that's my understanding of these HSS models.

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2012 American Standard Precision V - Candy Cola Red
2012 Squier Vintage Modified Jazz V - Surf Green
2011 FCS Custom Classic Special Jazz Bass V - Violin Burst
1996 MIM Stratocaster HSS - Black
1975 Precision Bass - 3 Tone Sunburst

Ok... what about the tuners?

Can't really say. I did ask brotherdave to look at some pics, including the tuners, before I finailzed the deal. I got most of the info I know about this guitar from him.

That's good enough for me.

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2012 American Standard Precision V - Candy Cola Red
2012 Squier Vintage Modified Jazz V - Surf Green
2011 FCS Custom Classic Special Jazz Bass V - Violin Burst
1996 MIM Stratocaster HSS - Black
1975 Precision Bass - 3 Tone Sunburst

As long as your happy with the guitar! I just didn't want you to end up with a fake mate!

I appreciate fellow forum members looking out for each other. One of the reasons I like this forum. I'm certainly no expert and I can use all the help I can get. That's why I checked with brotherdave before I finalized the deal.

I'm confident this is a genuine Fender. It really is a nice guitar and it will be even better after I get the pots replaced and a good set up.

I've had a blast all afternoon playing it. I really suck at playing guitar, but I cranked it up, butchered some rock, plucked at a little country and totaly screwed up some blues. Couldn't have been more fun.

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2012 American Standard Precision V - Candy Cola Red
2012 Squier Vintage Modified Jazz V - Surf Green
2011 FCS Custom Classic Special Jazz Bass V - Violin Burst
1996 MIM Stratocaster HSS - Black
1975 Precision Bass - 3 Tone Sunburst

That's all it's about! We all have each other's back here . Have fun with your new Fat Strat!

I think I might be able to explain the tuners - I think that is one of those "Squier Series" that was made in Mexico briefly circa 1995-1996 (I believe Fender was changing suppliers in the far east and tried building these lower-cost models in the Ensenada plant for a while). I'm basing that on the tuners (typical for the Squier and other far east guitars) and the solid black Fender logo (most MIMs back then had the silver logo with the black outline). These just had a tiny headstock decal that said "Squier Series" that was up on the ball end of the headstock; those little decals were easily removed.

John has it bang on the money.

Though that series of guitars ran from 91-98. Basically until Ensenada got rid of the squier trems, pickups, tuners and electronic parts it had knocking around.
Some were also made in Japan, some in Korea too.
There is one for sale locally to me that I could pick up at a greatly reduced rate that I'm constantly tempted by. It looks identical to the one pictured.

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No no and no

It is genuine. More genuine than a modern MIM if people want to get pedantic about things. The neck and body were indeed carved in Corona. Ensenada didn't start carving wood till 1999.
I still use the neck from mine on my main gigging guitar. I've recently had to glue it in. It was swimming about the pocket a bit. Hopefully that'll sort it.
Very very powerful pickups on that guitar. I put a Dimarzio fast track 2 in mine about ten years ago. I can still remember how much more output the singlecoils had compared to the Dimarzio.
You find a good un, they are irreplaceable. I still prefer whats left of mine to anything else I own.

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No no and no

Very Interesting! I was crossing my fingers that it was genuine!

[quote="grho50"]It's not a 50th Anniversary model as in "Special" or "Limited" edition. It was Fender's 50th year (1946-1996) and as I understand it they placed those stickers on the backside of the headstocks on all guitars and basses made in 1996.

Absolutely true about the sticker.

Thanks for the info nikinija. The pickups are hot. Very clean and quiet. Only noise is when I turn the volume or tone controls. Love this HSS model. Great tone.

Like I said before, I'm certainly not an expert on these. Squier....Fender..... it doesn't matter at this point. If it's a Squier, well then I paid a little too much, if not then I got a decent deal. Either way I've learned some valuable info from you guys.

I do like the guitar. I talked with the owner of a local shop, who I've known for years, and he's going to fix her up the way I want. He has an excellent guitar tech working for him. He'll cut me a very good deal on everything. He did offer to put some USA pups in, but I told him no, I like the ones that are in it now.

Great info everyone. Keep posting so I can learn some more.

_________________
2012 American Standard Precision V - Candy Cola Red
2012 Squier Vintage Modified Jazz V - Surf Green
2011 FCS Custom Classic Special Jazz Bass V - Violin Burst
1996 MIM Stratocaster HSS - Black
1975 Precision Bass - 3 Tone Sunburst