Hello guys,
I'm new in the forum. Recently I bought a Strat from a friend of mine which looks like a Stratocaster Contemporary standard 22 MIJ, E73 serial number placed in the headstock.
It's a 3 tone sunburst, 22 frets, equipped with Kahler fulcrum 2520 Traditional (brass roller saddles), 3 single coils which look Alnico - not ceramic, micro tilt adjustment on back of the neck.

I try to post some pictures:







What is annoying me is that marking from the neck pocket are not matching with marking on the neck :





The guy who sold it told that it was completely original (you can see the aged pick-ups colour), what do you think about it?
It could be that someone replaced the neck during this 20+years of life, or it could be that in Japan factory they were used to mix-up components as I read somewhere on the net....this question is giving me up!!!
Could you give me your experienced suggestions? Anyone who owns a similar Strat?

Anyway, the feeling with this guitar is great to me, terrific neck!

I'm not really up on those model number stamps that were used on MIJ Fenders, but your Strat looks like a Contemporary Standard to me. It would appear to be one of the "middle era" for this model as it has the Fender System 1 behind the nut string clamp (that was made by Schaller) and it has the Kahler Fulcrum trem. It appears to be the appropriate trem for the body as I don't see signs of a trem swap (back in the day some people replaced their System 1 trems with these Kahlers when the supply of parts for the System 1 dried up).

That might be why the neck and body numbers don't match up - the Kahler trem was designed to be a "drop in" replacement for vintage trems, not necessarily the System 1. It could be that the original bodies that had the matching part number were routed for System 1 trems, so possibly they used a body that would also be used on the regular MIJ Standard Strat of the same era that would have been routed for a vintage trem. Of course there aren't 6 holes drilled in this body for the vintage trem, so if that is the case then they changed the drill pattern to fit the 2-post Kahler.

By the way for some reason your photos aren't showing up; I had to cut-and-past the link into another browser tab to look at them.

This site is loaded with information that could help you. Scan through it and you will find what you seek. Hope it helps. Good luck!
http://home.provide.net/~cfh/fender.html

Thanks for replying,

for sure what's popping-up from the net is that they were installing at least 3 different trems in the contemporary models (System 1, 2, 3 for sure, Kahler traditional and Spider are also shown is some Fender Japan catalogues of that era).
It seems I have got a sort of oddball...

What is not fully clear to me is the meaning of markings placed on the neck-pocket and neck, in addition there is no manufacturing date in the neck or somewhere else ( I read that Japanese instruments by Fender-Squier were used to have date marked with a pencil).

Let's try again here with only the link (how do you do to post pictures?):
http://s1069.photobucket.com/albums/u46 ... rato_1.jpg





Thanks a lot,
but I suppose this guitar is dated around '84-'87, do you know sourse of information from that years

I'll look around and see if I can find some more info for you my friend.

From what I remember and what I can find on the web (hey, it's been over 27 years since I first saw one of these) the type of trem used was dependent on the year of manufacture. The Contemporary Strats and Teles that had the System 1, 2 or 3 didn't last all that long - somewhere between 1-2 years (1985 and 1986). However, the Contemporary Standard had a longer life than the other models, lasting until around 1990 or maybe even 1991, so Fender had to come up with other trem solutions once they stopped using the System 1, 2, or 3 units.

The systems used on the Contemporary Standard (in order by date) were:

1. System 1 - these were on the guitar when they were introduced in 1985
2. Kahler Traditional (but with the System 1 string lock instead of the regular Kahler string lock)
3. Kahler Spyder - these were not used until around the time the HM Strats came out, which I believe was in 1988

What I don't know is when the System 1s were finally dropped and when they started using the Kahler Traditional instead - it might have been only for 1987 but it might have continued into 1988 - I'm thinking that these didn't get the Spyder trem until after the HM Strats had been out for a little while.

Also I've found that for some reason this model continued to use those serial numbers that start with an "E" for their entire run, which didn't end until at least sometime in 1990 at the earliest - so they are oddballs because the other "E" serial number models were supposed to end in 1987.

Regarding your photos in the original post - it appears they are linked properly with IMG tags, but for some reason instead of just getting the photo you're getting the entire Photobucket page.

EDIT: This thread is mostly about the final version of these guitars with the Kahler Spyder trems but there is some info on the earlier versions as well:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50058

G'day pretto84

I've got one of the Kahler Spyder equipped models. Great guitar. E8 s/n.





Mine is one of the ones with no MIJ decal. I started this thread to solve the mystery. Some of the information may be relevant to you.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50058&hilit=MIJ+strat+with+Kahler+tremolo

Goodonya ...Mark.

Hi guys,
first of all thanks for your replies! Knowledge about my Strat is increasing!!!

John, from what you remember about trems type, I could say that my E73xxxx serial number equipped with Kahler traditional could be manufactured circa 1986-1987.
I can find few other strat with E7 serial number in the net so it was difficult for me to find out manufacturing year.

John and Mark - nice thread and nice strat!

Tomorrow I will post you some pictures more that could explain better my guitar's history...I found the original Fender inspection and shipping tag which points out model number and some other stuffs...I think there's a piece of history on it, maybe you already saw some in the past or you have got them as well.

hi , you'r strat looks legit to me (i have 3 mij strats) and i wouldn't worry about the markings on the neck and pocket not being the same , HTH , cheers
Alan

_________________

Hello,

nice to hear from you that the guitar looks original!
here are also pictures of the original inspection and shipping tag from which some information can be retrieved:



Any idea about the meaning of the two different codes, one for U.S.A. and the other for EXPORT?
Alberto

I suspect that back then Fender had two different product numbers for their inventory control system - one for guitars staying in the USA and one for guitars going to other countries. The hang tag just appears to have both stamps.

To answer your posting pictures question. You left click the IMG code on your photo bucket image (mouse over picture, bottom button IMG), then right click in your forum post, and paste.