Early Fender Custom Shop Strats

[sjd44]

I have a Fender CS '1960' Relic Strat in Sunburst with a rosewood fingerboard that I bought in the summer of 1997. It was made in April '97 with serial number R1937 which, I presume, makes it the 1,937 CS guitar made. Wondering who else has early examples of CS Strats or Teles.

Back story on mine is that I didn't intend to buy a Relic as I wasn't in general favor of things made to look like they aren't. (I also own vintage guitars so I appreciate the genuine article). When I went to the shop looking for a custom shop strat, they had 5 or 6 to choose from. Most were as-new finishes and a couple were relics. I didn't want to exclude anything in my audition and I played all of them quite a bit over a few hours. Man, despite not wanting a relic, one guitar stood absolutely head and shoulders above the others; I just couldn't put it down. It was outstanding. So I bought the Relic and have never regretted it. I LOVE that guitar for its tone, balance, light weight and resonance, every bit as much as my 1953 Gibson Les Paul Standard, 1967 Telecaster, 1994 Parker Fly, 1966 Martin D-18 or 1980 Guild F-512.

Let's see those early Custom Shop strats from the late 80s, early 90s! Cheers.
~sjd

 

[guitarchaeologist]

Nice guitar. Love it.
1997 isn't really early for the CS. It had been around for nearly a decade at that point.

The history of the Fender Custom Shop

Over the last 30 years, the Fender Custom Shop has rewritten the rules of high-end guitars and blurred the line between big name brands and boutique instruments.

guitar.com

 

[=KARMA=]

Serial numbered neck plates were applied randomly to Strats, Tele’s and basses from a parts bin so it has absolutely no relevance to production numbers, or to the order in which they were issued.

 

[Mr Dunlop]

Alot of the early reissues had a prefix of V and later switched to CN. I have even seen some set neck models with N only as the prefix.
The serial numbers is not a way to identify the order in which CS were produced.

 

[Murdog]

Sweet CS! I'm not a fan of relicing in general, but your is very subtle and looks fantastic.

 

[bob l]

Here is my Nocaster that I purchased in 1998. It was a closet classic finish and only had a few dings here and there. All the wear marks are from me playing it.

 

[Intune]

I have a early 2001 Chris Fleming built broadcaster, if 2001 is constantly early? It too started out as a NOS finish. Looking closer it’s got all kinds of checking and grain sinking going on. For being 20 years old it actually feels and looks much older.

 

[sjd44]

Cool to see posts. Keep 'em coming. Would love to see earlier examples from the late 80s, early 90s.
(I realized while writing about the number of CS build relative to serial number, that didn't make much sense 8^P )

 

[Torren61]

I have a Fender CS '1960' Relic Strat in Sunburst with a rosewood fingerboard that I bought in the summer of 1997. It was made in April '97 with serial number R1937 which, I presume, makes it the 1,937 CS guitar made. Wondering who else has early examples of CS Strats or Teles.

Back story on mine is that I didn't intend to buy a Relic as I wasn't in general favor of things made to look like they aren't. (I also own vintage guitars so I appreciate the genuine article). When I went to the shop looking for a custom shop strat, they had 5 or 6 to choose from. Most were as-new finishes and a couple were relics. I didn't want to exclude anything in my audition and I played all of them quite a bit over a few hours. Man, despite not wanting a relic, one guitar stood absolutely head and shoulders above the others; I just couldn't put it down. It was outstanding. So I bought the Relic and have never regretted it. I LOVE that guitar for its tone, balance, light weight and resonance, every bit as much as my 1953 Gibson Les Paul Standard, 1967 Telecaster, 1994 Parker Fly, 1966 Martin D-18 or 1980 Guild F-512.

Let's see those early Custom Shop strats from the late 80s, early 90s! Cheers.
~sjd
View attachment 587578 View attachment 587579 View attachment 587580

Do you remember what you paid for it back then?

 

[artgtr]

Mine is a (I think) a 1992 Strat Ultra Set Neck Ebony fret board - bought it about 12 + years ago - not sure if original case, case is a tweed case. no COA, previous owner did switch out trem block, & non stock roller bearing nut. Awesome player. serial # CN2001XX, I paid like $2200. For it back then. I might have dated it wrong not sure by serial #?

 

[Torren61]

Mine is a (I think) a 1992 Strat Ultra Set Neck Ebony fret board - bought it about 12 + years ago - not sure if original case, case is a tweed case. no COA, previous owner did switch out trem block, & non stock roller bearing nut. Awesome player. serial # CN2001XX, I paid like $2200. For it back then. I might have dated it wrong not sure by serial #?

Beautiful!

 

[Frank Roberts]

Welcome!

Smart of you to try them all and what a discerning decision you made!

As far as I know, the 1st and only Relics Fender was making in 1997 were done by Vince Cunetto from 1995-1997. He was relic-ing them for Fender at his own shop and Fender was providing the best woods and vintage correct parts it had at the time, to to promote it's relic-ing experiment and make these special. They are special and universally revered by those who have owned them. I couldn't make it out from your photos but it should have a Custom Shop logo embossed (pressed into the wood with a dye, if that's the right word) on the back of the headstock.

Thanks for sharing the photos and back story of your "Keeper".