Guitarist

rogue STraT

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After enjoying your ‘Evolution of The Stratocast­er’ [Classic Gear] in issue 419, which also coincided with my reading of Tony Bacon’s excellent book on the Fender Squier, I felt compelled to contact you with a Strat-related conundrum. In 1985 I purchased a 1957 reissue Strat from a friend for the princely sum of £200. He had bought the guitar secondhand and it was Candy Apple Red, having been sprayed over what appeared to be Arctic White. I had the paint removed, intending to restore the original colour, but when I saw the underlying wood I decided to leave it natural and only applied a beeswax polish. The fact that the guitar was Japanese in origin only became apparent to me at a later date when I was told that serial number JV56842 meant that it was Japanese Vintage.

I have since discovered that when Fender began to manufactur­e guitars in Japan for export to Europe, there were only about 500 guitars initially exported with the full-size Fender logo on the headstock (the later guitars had the large Squier logo) and that these early exports had ‘Squire’ in small lettering on the end of the headstock and ‘Made in Japan’ under the main logo – plus they were all Sunburst with rosewood ’boards. My guitar is not like this at all – there is no Squier or Japan reference on the headstock. It just looks like a US Strat and it has a maple ’board. However, I also discovered that, initially, Fender licensed Strats to be made in Japan, but only for the Japanese market.

My questions are: what exactly is the origin of my Strat and how did it get to Europe? Did the original owner buy it in Japan or did a home-market Japanese Vintage reissue somehow get inadverten­tly mixed in with a batch of original Squiers destined for Europe? I have contacted several online Fender experts and forums, sent photograph­s and asked these questions, but I have never received a reply. I always read Feedback with great interest and I’m usually gobsmacked by the extent of your knowledge. As a result, I am hoping that the sum total of your expertise can shed some light on this problem. Barrie Anderson, via email Without the full hands-on experience, we can’t be sure of the origins of your Strat, Barrie. It does sound to us like you might be right in thinking that a Vintage Reissue was somehow mixed in with a batch of Squiers. Has anyone out there had a similar experience? Let us know!

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