Bingo! It’s unfortunate that this one isn’t a “real” Stratocaster but no point in not enjoying a good playing guitar. A good guitar is a good guitar. Plug it in and play it.
Certainly worth more than $250 on reverb or ebay, its nicely reliced, has alinco PU, full size pots etc. Id buy it for $300 but 5 some time ago was too much to pay. If it plays well and sounds good then it is worth 5, to you but it wont resale for that. We make too much of what is from a Fender shop. There have been a lot of lousy guitars come out from Fender. I remember one that looked beautiful but the frets were actually flat, not rounded at all. Of course it sounded flat too. What Im wanting as a player is a guitar that plays and sounds great. If I was the OP's friend and was familiar with it and liked it, it would be worth $500 to me for what it is, a great instrument.
Custom shop or Custom wrecked it doesnt matter...if you payed not much for it and used it for 12 years its money well spent..
I don’t understand why fakes put the black pad/gasket on? It’s such a telltale sign and it’s more effort (and an additional cost, albeit minuscule) for them to put the thing on!
The pickups are ceramic. Neck and middle are MIM style ceramics (not as bright as alnicos but usually sound nice). Seems like someone start with a fake, liked the way it plays and had put some MIM components in the guitar to improve the performance. For the owner... Since you not try to sell it again as a real one, I think there is no problem to keep and use as it is. Sure it is a good conversation starter.
You could chase authentic CS Strats for the next five years, spend far more, and still never find what you have now -- a guitar that sounds great and that you love! The price only matters if you sell it. If you never sell it, it doesn't matter.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I absolutely love the curves on the deep contoured vintage body but only those of us who happen to have vintage contoured Strat bodies notice that sort of thing. My first Strat was an early 90’s Am Standard and it was a flat plank of wood compared to the deep contoured body. I didn’t have a clue and it didn’t matter. A good guitar is a good guitar. Too bad it’s not authentic but it’s wood and wires. If it’s scale is right, and it has a nice neck shape, and it’s put together right, it’s going to be a decent playing guitar. Now that you’ve uncovered a little bit about it, it’s a conversation starter for sure.
These things weren't common. I salvaged the neck plate and plastic plate gasket from an original Lead II that some kid physically destroyed.
The body shape/contour seems a bit reminiscent of something early from Charvel? Wayne did some pretty bare bones stuff, back in the early days. No mater what it is, if the OP likes it that's all that matters. I have an '04 Squier Affinity, purchased as a new, but "scratch n dent" for $49 at GC in '05. Even with the super narrow nut/neck, it's truly stellar, even with the stock pups! Just My $.02, Gene
The thing that gets me about the body is the control cavity and pickup routes are roughly correct for a pre-1960 body. AFAIK, Squier never did that. I'm not saying it is... it absolutely is not... there is no "worm" route under the bridge pickup, and the angles aren't right on the middle and neck pickups leading into the center channel. But the control cavity was cut for an 8-hole pickguard, which is extremely unusual for more recent knockoff bodies. It has had a couple of different pickguards on it, possibly an 8-hole. Where the wood is chipped out in the control cavity, it almost looks like particleboard, but impossible to tell, would need a clean paint-free cut or routed edge to be more clear. I would be tempted to say that it may be Japanese, but the edges of the body are simply too sharp for it to be an MiJ Fender body.
I keep going back to those body photos. I’m sure I’ve seen that look before but I can’t place it. It looks like it’s got less top/bottom height kind of like it’s squished and the upper bout is shorter than it should be. As has been suggested it almost has a telecaster rounding of the body instead of the sleek supersonic stratocaster look. Overall, I think it’s pretty cool. The neck looks like something I’d be happy playing.
Yes I was wrong, the are ceramic. Just a quick look and I saw the pole pieces on 1 and 2 but going back to it I now see the magnets on each side of the poles. Still, for some styles of music and some sounds, ceramic is better. I just prefer alinco.
This is incorrect information. Fender used a plastic gasket on numerous models beginning in 1979 with the 25th Anniversary Stratocaster. (the first to return to a 4-screw neckplate) Fender part # 011100000 "NECK PLATE GASKET" The gasket also shows up in the service manual under another part # on some of the Contemporary Series models from the mid-1980s.. Again, I urge caution with using "NEVER" or "100%" when referring to Fender due to there nearly always being exceptions. .
I don't recall the gasket being on my Anniversary. Granted, I only had it for a few weeks before trading it back for my '78
The part number I quoted was taken directly from my Fender factory supplied dealer service manual. I don't know that much about the Fender Japan products, but surely someone around here who is an expert (hint-hint) would certainly be able to verify that those also used the gasket in the 1980's. @John C , didn't the Lead series also use the gasket ? .
