fake decal?

[erock]

New here..but just bought a guitar, and I am really second guessing this...



Whats up with the outline? Is that normal?

[shunter]

I have a korean "fender" like that with the same decal - also sightly wonky and the same string trees/rollers. I think its a rebranded squire but I'm certainly no expert.

Thats said my guitar is excellent although clearly a bit more budget end if you look at the scratch plate and pickups.

What does the rest of the guitar look like?

[gliderider22]

Looks good to me.

[gitterfidder]

that serial number does not match up to what the rest of the headstock claims to be!

[Dice]

I know little about MIJ Strats - but in the Les Paul world, "F" designates Fujigen Japan...??

[Boris Bubbanov]

Those trees are aftermarket.

Pull the neck off and give us some images of the inside of the neck pocket and the bottom of the heel.

That nut looks horrible. I've never seen a MIJ with a nut so bad.

[gliderider22]

Why would you say that?

Originally Posted by gitterfidder

that serial number does not match up to what the rest of the headstock claims to be!

[gliderider22]

Those string trees are stock, I have seen them on MIJ Fenders made after the E series.

That nut (obviously a replacement) is pretty horrible.

Originally Posted by Boris Bubbanov

Those trees are aftermarket.

Pull the neck off and give us some images of the inside of the neck pocket and the bottom of the heel.

That nut looks horrible. I've never seen a MIJ with a nut so bad.

[shunter]

Originally Posted by Boris Bubbanov

Those trees are aftermarket.
.

No - they're standard for some MIJ - thats the part of the headstock that suggests its genuine.

[gliderider22]

I have a MIJ "H" series Fender Strat with the exact same headstock decals. FYI.

[jonnys]

Originally Posted by erock

I am really second guessing this...

Are you asking us if you have done a good enough job of faking it?

According to the Fender site Japanese Instruments an E+6 number serial number on a Japanese strat was made 1984 - 1987.

I have a Fender strat that was assembled in Korea around that time or maybe a year or two later and it had the same string trees on it when it was new. I have seen plenty of Squiers with the same string trees. The decal on mine is the same layout as yours (apart from the country of origin).

Those string trees on your guitar are closer to the nut than on mine but on most MIJ Fenders I have seen they are in the same place as yours.

It would be helpful to see more pictures if you want a better opinion of its authenticity.

[erock]

thanks for the input..Im a dumbass and should have asked questions before I got all bid happy on ebay..

[gliderider22]

That's a sweet looking guitar and totally legit in my opinion. I don't see any issues with the headstock. Take the neck off ad check it out.

Originally Posted by erock

thanks for the input..Im a dumbass and should have asked questions before I got all bid happy on ebay..

[Falstaff48]

Nice vintage white color. Are the pickups stock, as far as you know?

[sevycat]

Are you happy with the sound and feel of the guitar. To me, those are really the only issues to concern yourself with. I don't think too much on the sticker thing anymore.

I am a happy owner of a CV 50's strat. Probably the greatest bang for the buck I have ever got out of an instrument.

[motoman45]

ive never seen a fake decal with serial numbers...

[peskypesky]

Originally Posted by erock

thanks for the input..Im a dumbass and should have asked questions before I got all bid happy on ebay..

that's a gorgeous guitar. if it plays well, then you got a deal. what more can you ask for then a guitar that looks good, plays well and sounds good?

[erock]

Originally Posted by Falstaff48

Nice vintage white color. Are the pickups stock, as far as you know?

as far as I know..

the thing I was wondering about was how it looks like a discolor border around the decals..

I haven't received it yet.. I will update you guys on how it actually plays.

[Falstaff48]

If your talking about the black outline, thats seems to be the norm on most import strats.

[peskypesky]

just noticed that the truss rod adjusts at the heel....

[peskypesky]

this looks similar (but more screws in the pickguard)



www.whitstableguitars.co.uk - Gone no... forgotten....

[Wideglide]

Originally Posted by gliderider22

Those string trees are stock, I have seen them on MIJ Fenders made after the E series.

I have an E series Squier here (mid-eighties) that has those same trees.

[Yogi]

Originally Posted by motoman45

ive never seen a fake decal with serial numbers...

plenty of them do, it is so easy to fake a serial number it isn't even funny. Most of them follow a certain format say S7 plus so many numbers. All you have to do is know the format and randomly throw together digits.

[Outlier73]

Originally Posted by Falstaff48

Nice vintage white color. Are the pickups stock, as far as you know?

Looks like Artic White which was the official white colors in the early 80's.

[gliderider22]

Come to think of it, I do too.

Originally Posted by Wideglide

I have an E series Squier here (mid-eighties) that has those same trees.

[erock]

Originally Posted by Falstaff48

If your talking about the black outline, thats seems to be the norm on most import strats.

no the color variation on the wood around the decals

[tonyw]

MIJ F + 6 Digits = 1986 to 1987

thats if its a real one

[gliderider22]

The best way to tell is to take the neck off. That would end this discussion.

[07 road house]

that is a sweet strat

[Diocletian]

It looks fake to me, but I've never owned a Fender. It's very obviously a decal - the question is whether Fender ever applied decals as poorly as that.

The "Fender" part doesn't even seem to be in line with the "stratocaster" part.

And that nut...wow.

[OldFartRocker]

Not that this matters, but I can duplicate any Fender decal ever made. Right down to the "vintage tint" if I want to. I have seen many on eBay, some good, some awful. Just some FYI, there are tons of fakes out there. Rock On!

[Diocletian]

Originally Posted by peskypesky

that's a gorgeous guitar. if it plays well, then you got a deal. what more can you ask for then a guitar that looks good, plays well and sounds good?

That's ridiculous. You're the guy that was all for hanging people putting Fender decals on Squiers, yet here you are telling this guy not to worry!

If he paid hundreds of dollars for a guitar he thought was a Fender, only to find it's a Squier, I think it's irrelevant how well the guitar plays! He was ripped off (assuming it IS a fake). If I paid £3000 for a Fender only to find its real market value was £300 because it's actually a Squier, I'd be pretty pissed.

Sheesh, I can't believe some of the stuff people on here post. One day you want to castrate anyone putting decals on Squiers, the next you're telling people who bought them to shut up because the guitar they bought LOOKS nice?

[peskypesky]

Originally Posted by Diocletian

That's ridiculous. You're the guy that was all for hanging people putting Fender decals on Squiers, yet here you are telling this guy not to worry!

If he paid hundreds of dollars for a guitar he thought was a Fender, only to find it's a Squier, I think it's irrelevant how well the guitar plays! He was ripped off (assuming it IS a fake). If I paid £3000 for a Fender only to find its real market value was £300 because it's actually a Squier, I'd be pretty pissed.

Sheesh, I can't believe some of the stuff people on here post. One day you want to castrate anyone putting decals on Squiers, the next you're telling people who bought them to shut up because the guitar they bought LOOKS nice?

lol. you're the one that can't seem to decide what side of the issue you're on. one day you're arguing that there's nothing wrong with swapping decals, the next you're saying it is wrong. i have always said it's wrong to do it. still do.

what i'm telling the OP is that if he's already bought the guitar and can't get his money back, not to sweat the details too much. meaning, if someone rips me off by selling me a guitar with a swapped decal, that sucks, BUT why let it ruin my appreciation of the guitar that i did get? if it plays well, looks good and sounds good, then it's a good guitar.

now, if the OP determines the guitar is a forgery and he can still get his money back, well then, by all means he should do it. but if he can't, learn a lesson and enjoy the guitar.

[Diocletian]

Originally Posted by peskypesky

lol. you're the one that can't seem to decide what side of the issue you're on. one day you're arguing that there's nothing wrong with swapping decals, the next you're saying it is wrong. i have always said it's wrong to do it. still do.

what i'm telling the OP is that if he's already bought the guitar and can't get his money back, not to sweat the details too much. meaning, if someone rips me off by selling me a guitar with a swapped decal, that sucks, BUT why let it ruin my appreciation of the guitar that i did get? if it plays well, looks good and sounds good, then it's a good guitar.

now, if the OP determines the guitar is a forgery and he can still get his money back, well then, by all means he should do it. but if he can't, learn a lesson and enjoy the guitar.

I know exactly which side of the issue I'm on. I put a Fender decal on a Squier, because it was for my OWN enjoyment, to make a guitar look more like the guitar I was modelling it on. I had, and have, no intention of ever selling it as a genuine Fender, which is why I left the Squier branded neckplate on it. And for that, you got tore into me about how evil it all was and how the world would implode as a result of my deviance.

Yet here you are telling this guy to stop moaning because he got a nice guitar.

Swapping decals for one's own personal pleasure is fine - but you wanted all of the people who do that to burn in hell. Fine.

Stick to your beliefs. If this is a fake, then, based on your posts in that previous thread in which you took the "moral high ground", you should be telling the guy to hunt down whoever sold him a fake and destroy his entire life.

[peskypesky]

Originally Posted by Diocletian

Stick to your beliefs. If this is a fake, then, based on your posts in that previous thread in which you took the "moral high ground", you should be telling the guy to hunt down whoever sold him a fake and destroy his entire life.

I do stick to my beliefs. I think it's morally wrong to swap decals. But the OP is not the one who swapped the decals. He might be the victim of decal-swappers like you. Ironic that you now paint yourself as the protector of the innocent. Or is that hypocritical?

And I never advocated violence against decal-swappers. I just think they should be reported to the authorities if they knowingly sell forgeries.

[peskypesky]

Originally Posted by Diocletian

I know exactly which side of the issue I'm on. I put a Fender decal on a Squier, because it was for my OWN enjoyment, to make a guitar look more like the guitar I was modelling it on. I had, and have, no intention of ever selling it as a genuine Fender, which is why I left the Squier branded neckplate on it. And for that, you got tore into me about how evil it all was and how the world would implode as a result of my deviance.
.

you are the king of hyperbole and of putting words in other people's mouths (or keyboards.) i never said the "world would implode" from swapping decals. i said it would inevitably lead to people buying Squiers that were being passed off (knowingly or un-knowingly) as Fenders.

and as for your first point, unless you're planning to take your guitars to the grave with you, you won't be around to protect the potential buyer of your forged guitars after you're gone.

[jonnys]

Originally Posted by erock

the thing I was wondering about was how it looks like a discolor border around the decals..

I see what you mean but my, you need to look closely to see that. I think you will have to wait until you get it and take the neck off to have a look at what that tells you.

For comparison, I have attached a picture of the headstock from my first strat. I bought it new in the late 1980s so if the serial number on yours is genuine then yours predates mine by only a year or two.

Mine originally had the same string trees as yours but I took them off.

The main difference was that mine was made in Korea not Japan. Some people think that Japanese made Fender parts were sent to the Squier factory in Korea to make those guitars but noone seems to be 100% sure about that.

[erock]

well I told the seller if he has any doubts to refund me, and he reassured me, and has 100% feedback and has sold a lot of guitars..come monday I will have it.

and I've looked at a few other MIJ's on ebay from the same period and mine does match, and I have seen a few strats where the decal has that color around them..

[Kyri]

I have one of these (maple neck, though) from 1990 with the same logo and style of serial number, and the decal has a slight outline, depending on the age and how much light exposure the neck has had, you will see some sinking of the lacquer around the decal or different ageing of the decal area versus the surrounding area. I think yours is fine, and I suspect it will have something like ST362 stamped on the heel but there is only one way to find out...

[Diocletian]

Originally Posted by peskypesky

you are the king of hyperbole

I think that's one of the nicest things anyone ever said to me.
Thanks.