i believe i bought a '86 american vintage reissue of a '62 strat, but after doing some research i noticed my pickguard was single ply and had 8 holes, which the 62's were supposed to have 3 ply 11 hole, and the 57 had 8 hole single ply but a maple neck, and my guitar has a rosewood.
the pots in the body are dated 82 and i believe the neck said 86. i havent checked any body dates because of a foil lining i havent taken out, but will after my next show when i have time. the serial number is v016556





Thank you very much

Were there any extra (unused) holes beneath the pickguard that might indicate it'd been swapped for the 8-screw single-ply type?

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

nope it was definitely not just covered with an 8 hole

Since there are no extra holes I'm thinking it was likely a slip-up at the factory where the assembler grabbed the pickguard for a '57 and installed it on this particular '62.

1986 was pretty early for FMIC production so it might have been overlooked in the final inspection - they didn't really get up and have any production at all until late in the fall of 1985.

+1

We've seen this before on occasion.

Thus, another Fender enigma is uncovered.

I wouldn't worry -- just play the hell out of it and enjoy it.

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

Could be a replacement 62 neck put in place of the original maple neck. You said the neck date was 1986 but the SN on plate suggests an earlier release (more of a 1982 SN), which is in some way corroborated by the pots code. Can't be sure of anything of course (it is quite common to have pots that are older than neck date) but to me it sounds more plausible than an error in assembly because the production was very low in 1986.

Thank you guys all very much!