Fender Strat

This listing is an auction style listing with a very reasonable reserve for what could be regarded as an up-and-coming collectable Fender Stratocaster, made in Japan and equipped with its original Kahler Spyder Floyd Rose tremolo.

IMPORTANT! : Please watch this video I have made using Vox Tonelab and Vox Valvetronix equipment before you bid!!!!!

First I am comparing the tonal qualities of the quitar on bypass mode(
no amp modelling ) then play a jam on ''Red House'' and finishing up
with Jimi's 1969 Star Spangled Banner. Please note: MORE HIGH RES.
PICTURES CAN BE SEEN IN THIS VIDEO around 9:00 mins.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbhs2eOZW5A

All the familiar Stratocaster tones are available in this instrument which is equipped with the 5-way pick-up selector switch. It's an easy playing and expertly crafted Strat.

This guitar comes with original Gotoh tuning machines, a three-ply pickguard, three spring tremolo, and a maple neck with rosewood fingerboard.  This is a very handsome guitar with very few finish defects, especially for a twenty-five year old guitar.  Next to no fret wear, few scratches (one on head just over the F letter of the Fender logo), minor buckle rash( please check further images in video).
The only alterations are the Schaller strap lock for added security and the replaced Floyd Rose style locking nut for the original Kahler tremolo locking neck system as original locking nut started losing thread.
A replacement set can be purchased here: http://www.fretsonthenet.com/new_page_2.htm 
 for pennies if you fancy the original look.
 
The guitar will arrive to the winning bidder in a hard case.

I am selling this BRILLIANT sounding guitar because I just prefer the comfort of a Gibson Les Paul and could never get fully used to playing this neck style and I was always having the volume pot accidentally turned down by my playing.

Please email me first to get a quote if you want item to be shipped overseas. For mainland uk buyers postage will be £25.

Guitar is equipped with Dean Markley Blue Steel reg10-46 strings and will be shipped with string tension lowered to preserve neck.Please seek a luthier to adjust bridge to suit to your choice of strings.

About:

The Fender Japan Story

The Fender Stratocaster is arguably the most
popular electric guitar design ever. Almost certainly it is the most
copied. The copies had always been considerably cheaper than the 'real
thing', but by the early 1980's they were also often of a high standard.
Bad news for Fender who, under CBS ownership, had let standards slip.
Fender's reputation and market share were waning. 

In 1981, a new management team largely
recruited from Yamaha's American operation, decided on a two pronged attack.
They would address quality control via a programme of reinvestment and staff training in the US, and
at the same time hit the copyists in their home market by
producing Fender guitars in Japan.

Following negotiations with two Japanese distribution
companies, Kanda Shokai and Yamano Music, Fender Japan was established in
March 1982. Fender held 38 percent of the stock, occupied three of the six
board seats and, of course, owned the all important product licenses. Fuji
Gen-Gakki, best known for building  Ibanez brand guitars, were
chosen  to build Fender Japan instruments.

Back in the USA, in an effort to rediscover
what had made Fender's reputation, the company went to vintage dealers and
took measurements from pre-CBS production instruments. They even spent $5600 on
buying a '57 Precision bass, '60 Jazz bass and a '61 Strat. Both the
US factory at Fullerton and Fender Japan set about producing vintage
reissues- in fact the Japanese were the first to succeed and the superb quality
of their instruments resulted in the famous quote by Dan Smith, Director of Marketing, Electric
Guitars at the time :"Everybody came
up to inspect them and the guys almost cried, because the Japanese
 product was so good - it was what we had been having a hell of
a time trying to do."

.

Originally the idea had been for Fender
Japan to produce guitars for their home market. However, when Fender's European
distributors called for budget Fenders to compete with the flood of
oriental imports effecting their sales, a range of lower price guitars was
launched under the Squier brand. Squier guitars are outside the
scope of this site- suffice it to say that they are a good buy for the
price, with early Japanese made instruments being of particularly good quality.

In 1984 CBS decided to get out of the
musical instrument business and sold Fender to an investment group led
by Bill Schultz, the incumbent President of Fender Musical Instruments.
The Fullerton factory was not part of the deal and US production ceased in
February 1985. Towards the end of that year a new factory was established
at nearby Corona, but for a while the 'new' Fender Musical Instruments
Corporation (FMIC)  pretty much relied upon Japanese production. In
fact it has been estimated that as many as 80% of the guitars sold in the
US between late 1984 and mid-86 were sourced from Fender Japan.

Although Fender Japan still exists, their guitars (aside from a very few
special models which do not conflict with the existing US/Mexican range) are no longer
officially exported to the US or Europe  Those markets are catered for by FMIC's US
and Mexican factories. However, because of their justly deserved
reputation for quality, the many Japanese instruments floating around on
the secondhand market, particularly the Stratocasters, are becoming sought
after. The point of this site (if it could be said to have one)  is
simply to look at the range of different Stratocasters produced in Japan
for export and, perhaps, answer some of the questions that may arise when confronted by a Strat bearing
a  'Made in Japan' or 'Crafted in Japan' label.'

Serials/Dates of Manufacture

Dating your Japanese made
Fender by its serial is an inexact science but the following table will
give you a reasonable idea of its date of manufacture. NOTE large scale
official export to the UK/USA/Europe stopped around 98/99 with the 'B'
serial. 

*Note: From mid -1997
serials are prefaced by 'Crafted in Japan'. Prior to that exported guitars bore
the phrase 'Made in Japan'. There is no intrinsic quality difference in
the guitars themselves as far as I can tell from the many I have owned.
Beware of Ebay vendors telling you the 'Made in...' is better then 'Crafted
in....', or vice versa. It is the specification that counts, not the
label.

This guitars serial number is:

E 803731

..By my guessing the year of manufacture is 1986 !!

Serial Number

Approx  Date of
Manufacture

"Made in Japan"
followed by:

JV + 5 digits
1982 - 1984

SQ
+    "
1983
- 1984

E + 6 digits
1984 - 1989

A
+     "
1985
- 1986

B
+     "
1985 - 1986

C
+     "
1985 - 1986

F
+     "
1986 - 1987

G
+     "
1987  - 1988

H
+     "
1988 - 1989

 I
+     "
1989 - 1990

J
+     "
1989 - 1990

K
+     "
1990 - 1991

L
+     "
1991 - 1992

M
+     "
1992 - 1993

N
+     "
1993 - 1994

O
+     "

1993 - 1994

P +    
"
1993 - 1994

Q +    
"
1993 - 1994

S +    
"

1994 - 1995

T +    
"

1994 - 1995

U +     "

1995 - 1996

V +     "

1996 - 1997

On 05-Oct-10 at 22:34:30 BST, seller added the following information:

 A little correction to the above stated manufacturing date:

I have just found out that
the first digit of the serial number indicates year, so in this case it
is 1988 instead of 1986 as I originally thought.
This information just
got to me, sorry I could not figure this before.
Regards: Andrew