American Vintage 56, 59 and 65 Stratocaster Colors

[Rufustelestrat]

Checked my photos and I had the tele and the 65 strat on Sept 1, 2012.

 

[uncle daddy]

Two comments. The 58 Tele was available from the launch it just was limited release. I had every release in the 1 of 46 neckplate. Sold most but still have the Tele. It was released at the launch with the strats as well.

In regards to the sonic blue, this is what they looked like at launch.
View attachment 605103 View attachment 605104 View attachment 605105
These were taken Feb 28, 2013

Faded sonic blue is hard to find these days. Even the FCS had dropped it, unless you order the guitar to your own specs. There's a few MIM 50s versions, but not much with a RW board.

 

[Baelzebub]

Wow! This totally answers my question. Thank you. I was wondering since I rarely see any '56 sunburst strats for sale and I own a 2013.

You have it by year and you can go through them by model here. Also lists the some, if not all FSR models which often have colors not otherwise available for a specific year or model.

Stratocaster Database

A full archive of Stratocasters, listed by series and years of production, accompanied by specs and images.

www.fuzzfaced.net

 

[John C]

There is no better way to answer your question than showing the changes by year...

Although the AV series started in 2012, they didn't make the 2012 Pricelist, but show up in the 2013 version:

Just to give the reason for this - the 2012 pricelist/catalog was printed in late 2011 so it had the models available as of January 2012 - so it listed the prior AVRI series. The revised AV series wasn't released until August 2012, so they show up for the first time in the 2013 pricelist/catalog.

 

[Fenderaficionado]

Taken from Fender's 2014 illustrated pricelist.

 

[stratospherical]

Has anyone ever actually seen the Sherwood green metallic 65 listed on fuzzfaced?

American Vintage '65 Stratocaster

The 1965 Stratocaster saw the return to a thick C shaped maple neck, this time with a round-laminated dark rosewood fingerboard and larger pearl dot inlays.

www.fuzzfaced.net

 

[robbocaster]

Has anyone ever actually seen the Sherwood green metallic 65 listed on fuzzfaced?

American Vintage '65 Stratocaster

The 1965 Stratocaster saw the return to a thick C shaped maple neck, this time with a round-laminated dark rosewood fingerboard and larger pearl dot inlays.

www.fuzzfaced.net

No mate it's not a 65 finish. The 59 came in Sherwood green. The only truly limited finishes on the 65 are burgundy mist metallic and shoreline gold with matching headstock.

Other colours on the 65 were 3TSB, Olympic white and dakota red.

 

[Martins Strat]

Does anybody know how the serial numbers work on these? I always thought the first two digits after the ‘V’ indicated the year, but I saw one on reverb the other day that began with V20…as they were replaced in 2017 I didn’t think that was possible?

 

[John C]

Does anybody know how the serial numbers work on these? I always thought the first two digits after the ‘V’ indicated the year, but I saw one on reverb the other day that began with V20…as they were replaced in 2017 I didn’t think that was possible?

Starting with this series of AVs the first 2 digits are supposed to be the year, and you are correct that they were replaced as of January 2018. With Fender's production cycles the last of them should have been made in the fall of 2017 so the last serial numbers should be V17xxxxx. Can you link to the one with the V20 number?

 

[Rufustelestrat]

This were the two I had:

 

[Martins Strat]

Starting with this series of AVs the first 2 digits are supposed to be the year, and you are correct that they were replaced as of January 2018. With Fender's production cycles the last of them should have been made in the fall of 2017 so the last serial numbers should be V17xxxxx. Can you link to the one with the V20 number?

This is the guitar I’m referring to, now I look again at it, that case isn’t right for an AV ‘56 either.

Fender American Vintage '56 Stratocaster | Reverb UK

The American Vintage Series was originally developed in 1982 during the last years of CBS management with the '57 and '62 Reissues. In 1985, production moved to the new post-CBS Corona, CA plant, making them the only Strats made in the US during 1985 and the first ones to come out of Corona.&nbsp...

reverb.com

 

[Sinner1980]

I have an AV 59 strat maple in 3 color sunburst from 2016 and absolutely love it.

It was also available in aztec gold in a limited run.

 

[Fenderaficionado]

The AV 59 were available in 3-Color Sunburst, Sherwood Greenn Metallic and Black. I am personnaly looking to get one of these with a rosewood neck but very few show up on any of the reselling sites.

 

[stratman323]

The AV 59 were available in 3-Color Sunburst, Sherwood Greenn Metallic and Black. I am personnaly looking to get one of these with a rosewood neck but very few show up on any of the reselling sites.

And Faded Sonic Blue.

 

[John C]

This is the guitar I’m referring to, now I look again at it, that case isn’t right for an AV ‘56 either.

Fender American Vintage '56 Stratocaster | Reverb UK

The American Vintage Series was originally developed in 1982 during the last years of CBS management with the '57 and '62 Reissues. In 1985, production moved to the new post-CBS Corona, CA plant, making them the only Strats made in the US during 1985 and the first ones to come out of Corona.&nbsp...

reverb.com

I ran the serial number in Fender's lookup function - it does come back as an American Vintage '56 Strat with a date of 8/2012. The case looks more like the AVRI '57 case. I'm not sure about the documents either; I just don't remember what the AV '56 package looked like.

I would guess that since it's from pretty early in the production run for some reason it wound up with the neck plate and case from the outgoing AVRI series but was still shipped out - either someone in QC didn't know these were supposed to get different neck plates and cases or simply decided to ship it out as is instead of swapping the neck plate.

 

[Rufustelestrat]

And Faded Sonic Blue.

 

[Rufustelestrat]

not this one:

 

[Martins Strat]

I ran the serial number in Fender's lookup function - it does come back as an American Vintage '56 Strat with a date of 8/2012. The case looks more like the AVRI '57 case. I'm not sure about the documents either; I just don't remember what the AV '56 package looked like.

I would guess that since it's from pretty early in the production run for some reason it wound up with the neck plate and case from the outgoing AVRI series but was still shipped out - either someone in QC didn't know these were supposed to get different neck plates and cases or simply decided to ship it out as is instead of swapping the neck plate.

Yeah it does seem to be a bit of an anomaly. I have the same AV '56, the guitar looks like that but the case has the red lining and the case candy came in a brown envelope stamped with '56 Strat. My serial also starts V12.

Maybe an early crossover production model as you suggested.