Hi all,
I just signed up, with the purpose of finding a guitar that was stolen years back. Well, not the same one, but same model, finish, ect. Hopefully there's a guru on here that can at least point me in the right direction.
So here's what i "know" to the best of my memory.
I purchased it between 1996-2000, probably 1998-2000
American Strat
HSS pickups
From what I see from color charts is was Olympic white, I always though of it as blonde.
THE FINISH WAS TRANSPARENT, YOU COULD SEE THE WOOD GRAIN.
I also remember being told the finish was discontinued because it was to expensive to sell for the price ( not sure if that's true)
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Matt

possibly Highway 1 series. im not sure what year they started. they dont make them anymore.

The Highway One series was introduced in 2002.

Slightly translucent white is called "white blonde" (Fender color code 01). Traditionally it's sprayed over ash because of ash's relatively light color and dramatic grain, but on the Eric Johnson signature it's sprayed over alder which gives it a much different look. Hwy1's offered satin translucent white over alder (a very very different look than traditional glossy white blonde -- I'm not sure if they called it white blonde on the HWY1's or simply trans white).

The American Standard Strat was replaced with the American Series Strat in 2000, and for the first year white blonde over ash was one of the available colors. (Several years ago they updated the American Series and went back to calling them American Standards.) White blonde is a little difficult to spray (too many coats and it becomes opaque) and ash is more expensive than alder, but Fender adds and drops colors frequently so it's impossible to say if they dropped it simply because of the expense.

It's not currently available on the American Standards. I don't remember if it was available on the pre-2000 American Standards, and other than the maple fretboard Eric Johnson (which doesn't really look like classic white blonde because of the alder body) I'm not sure which models (if any) are currently available in classic white blonde. (Sorry, with my dial-up connection it would take forever to check out all 88 Strat models.)

So I'm not much of a guru. All I can really say is your guitar that got away was probably a 2000 American Series HSS.