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Post subject: Fender Strat HM Country Of Origin
Posted: Sat May 29, 2010 12:15 pm
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I am confused as to where it is from can you please help
I was on the fender dating and it said
E8 + 5 5 digits what does 5 5 digits mean which is USA but I was led to believe it was japensese
Please help


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Post subject: Re: Fender Strat HM Country Of Origin
Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 10:31 am
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pinkrulz wrote:
I am confused as to where it is from can you please help
I was on the fender dating and it said
E8 + 5 5 digits what does 5 5 digits mean which is USA but I was led to believe it was japensese
Please help


The 80s were a confusing time for Fender; CBS sold the intellectual property to FMIC in early 1985 but they didn't sell the factory. The assumption is that no wooden parts changed hands (bodies or necks) but some electronic parts (TBX tone controls, Schaller tuners, etc.) did - or at least if any bodies/necks went to FMIC they assembled them quickly and shipped them out. FMIC was originally just going to import guitars from Japan made by Fuji-Gen-Gakki (also often abbreviated FujiGen).

At the end of the CBS days (1983 until say February 1985) on the "modern" Fenders (Standard series and Elite series) CBS/Fender was using serial number decals that began with "E3" followed by a 5-digit number - and "E3" would translate to 1983. Evidently CBS/Fender didn't use up all the E3 serial numbers in 1983 and continued to use them in 1984 (although they did use a few of the "E4" (1984) decals on these models). FMIC obtained the stacks of headstock decals with "E4" serial numbers from CBS in the intellectual property sale and just stored them.

As fate would have it the FujiGen guitars that FMIC began importing in 1985 often had serial numbers that started with an "E" - particularly the Contemporary series Strats, Teles, and Basses. And as fate would further have it a lot of these had a random first digit of "5", "6", "7", or "8". However, neither the "E" nor the first digit had any siginificance regarding the date of manufacture - unlike the USA-made models. You could have a 1985 Contemporary Strat with an "E7XXXXXX" serial number, or the 1985 could have by blind luck had an "E5XXXXXX" serial number. That's why the dater returns all these years for the MIJ models. There were no USA made Fenders with "E5", "E6" or "E7" serial numbers.

FMIC had a change of heart about only importing guitars and built their own factory; it was up and running by mid-1986. Fender started producing the vintage reissues (then called "U.S. Vintage Reissues" as a series) and by the fall of 1986 they started producing their new "modern" models they named American Standards (to differentiate them from the Japanese-made models). Fender actually used those headstock decals they got from CBS with the "E4" serial numbers on these guitars made from late 1986 until early 1988; when they ran out of the "E4" decals they moved to "E8" decals - getting the "numbering system" back on track.

Now lets talk about the HM Strats - these are perhaps the most confusing models to come out of this entire mid-80s period. These have a neck plate that says "USA" but they have all the markings of a 1988 or later FujiGen guitar - except for the "Made in Japan" part of the sticker. A lot of folks (and count me with them) believe these were never 100% made in the USA; they were assembled in the USA using bodies and necks made by FujiGen in Japan. There was never any evidence that Fender tooled up to cut the bodies and necks in Corona, but these do use a lot of USA-made hardware and were likely finished up here. Here's a good link on these guitars:

EDIT: New link: http://www.heavymetalstrat.com/

Some of this information has become outdated; there have been a lot of discussions about the sale of Fender and what went on with this. Rob Schwartz of Fender has provided a lot of details that I didn't have when I wrote this post in 2010.

Here are some updates:

1. CBS "officially" shut down production of instruments at Fender in the summer of 1984 - they laid people off by seniority; even the most senior were "officially" laid off by September/October 1984.

2. I say "officially" because CBS/Fender brought back some employees as "off the books" temps during this time frame - call it October 1984 through part of January 1985. Some of these temps did assembly, some did continue making bodies and necks for a while. They basically built out just about everything they could during this time frame.

3. FMIC purchased the company at the start of February 1985 - the sale did include some machinery, the hardware parts, and evidently some bodies and necks for the USA Reissue models (the '52 Tele, '57 and '62 Strats, and the 3 bass models).

4. FMIC leased the Fullerton factory as their base of operations until they could find new facilities. There was no body/neck/pickup production at that time, limited final build-out of remaining parts, and eventually the inspection/set-up of the MIJ Fenders built by FujiGen. FMIC hired a skeleton crew of temps to do this inspection/set up work; these temps also packed up workbenches, tools and parts for the eventual move once FMIC found permanent locations.

5. FMIC found 2 locations and moved into them in July 1985. They set up their production in Corona and their offices/QC in Brea. They rehired the inspection/set-up temps as permanent employees of the new company, and set out to rehire production personnel.

6. FMIC did always intend to put the USA Reissue models into production. They never intended to continue with the Standard (i.e. the 2-knob Strat and top-loader Tele) and Elite models (by this time the Bullets had already been moved to Japanese production, and FMIC would move them to Korean production under the Squier name). Their intention was to keep USA Fender small, only building the reissues and some kind of upscale guitar (to compete with Van Nuys-era Schecters, Valley Arts, Pensa/Suhr, etc.). The bulk of the line was to be MIJ imports.

7. FMIC finally got production of the USA Reissue models up around October 1985, but at a rate of say 7-10 instruments per day (they can do 300+ per day now). Whatever leftover Fullerton bodies and necks were quickly used up, gone by very early 1986. Only small production of the USA Reissues was done at Corona during 1986; all other 1986 models were MIJs.

8. FMIC's "change of heart" was to build a "workhorse" model in the USA; that was the American Standard series. They were designed in the first half of 1986, prototypes shown at the summer 1986 NAMM show, and officially launched at the January 1987 NAMM show. There could have been some part runs for American Standards in the last month or two of 1986, but true American Standard production starts in 1987.

Specific updates on FM Strats:

If you take an FM apart you can see that the bodies and necks look like all other bodies and necks built by were built by FujiGen - they have FujiGen tooling marks and part code stamps - and they don't look like the tooling found on American Standards. It seems more clear that they were assembled in the USA with FujiGen bodies and necks (complete with Gotoh tuners); all other parts/hardware on them were USA.


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