Common Misconceptions and some crazy factoids

Additions to be made over time

 

 

I am going to use this page to address some very common misconceptions that tend to never go away. Some even involve fairly recent history. 

Serial number Prefix for dating

Serial number decals used for dating: It is all too common that someone attempts to use serial numbers applied to the headstocks to date Fender guitars. While in most cases it is useable to get you in a ballpark, there are several exceptions where they are totally unreliable. Two examples to note are:

S9 serial numbers. Commonly referred to as being "1979" only, this decal actually is used well in 1981. Most would like to believe it was a case of using up excessive decals, but this theory is false. Here is the proof.

When Meyercord manufactured decals, the logos were batch and date stamped. This was so if there was a recall due to a manufacturing issue, all of the bad logos could identified and discarded. Here we see a S9 Fender serial number decal batch 108 manufactured March 1981 (I am not going to put the decal photo online due to the bogus decal makers using my pictures for their templates). 

 

So this decal demonstrates that the prefix deal was not a case of leftovers, but something never changed until Fender told the manufacturer to change. 

Another prefix that lasts a long time is the 80's E4 prefix logos. These serials last well into the summer of 1988. Most often these are seen on the 1986-8 American Standard Strat and Strat Plus guitars. E9 serials are used for a while too. To get a zeroed in date, check your neck stamp. 

1980's "Fullerton era" 

There has been growing interest in the last years of the CBS era. However, there is a ton of misinformation about this era that has been growing due to increasing interest by buyers, and sellers wanting more money. 

MYTH: Fullerton era Reissues are hand built in small numbers

This misconception is rooted in the writings in a popular Strat themed book. The writings refer to post CBS FMIC starting up in their Corona facility. The first year of operations (l986) the factory was working with a skeleton crew and between 5 and 6 guitars were being built a day, mostly reissues. This is POST Fullerton. 1982-4 reissue production was going full tilt. Remember, they were making the standard series, reissues, and Elites. There was absolutely nothing small about the 1982-4 production era. 1986 however is a different story. Look for a real 1986 reissue and you will see what I mean. You can find 5 1982's  to 1 1986.

Interesting factoids pertaining to Fender outsourcing items:

Fender outsourced their reissue Strat bridges from Gotoh until FMIC bought the company and fired up the old machinery to make them. These in-house made bridges appear in 1987.

All brass hardware was outsourced to APM, which is also known as Kahler. They made all of the Brassmaster series hardware and all of the parts for the "The Strat". They also manufactured "Elite" bridges. This has been the root for a huge misconception. It is believed that APM made the import fine tuner tremolos. They did not as those were actually made by Gotoh.

Also of note, because Fender stopped making 2 piece tremolos in 1971, to keep blocks available in their replacement parts list, they used steel blocks made by APM that are extremely close in appearance to vintage blocks. APM blocks look nearly identical to the original Fender blocks with the gray paint and shallow string wells. The quick identifier is how the block is shaped. APM knocked the 4 corners off the block and Fender ground each end rounded. It is common to see late 70's APM blocks sold through Fender with a Fender white serial number sticker like seen on the bottoms of pickguards and on bodies attached to the block with an old Stratocaster tremolo block part number handwritten on it. 

apm block.jpg (130311 bytes)apmblock1.jpg (10436 bytes)

Click to enlarge

Old APM block shown above on a 1955 bridge assembly. Back then when an arm broke, most shops simply changed the whole block. 

MYTH: Fender used up old Kluson tuner stock on the Bullet guitars

This is totally false. The fact is Fender started buying tuners from Kluson direct for these guitars. Shortly after this Kluson went out of business. Kluson supplied a few other parts to Fender and when they closed you see a change in a few items, like Strat knobs.

MYTH: 3 bolt necks were designed to save money by deleting 1 screw

This one totally baffles me. It is a myth that is old as the hills, but makes absolutely NO sense. Lets take a look at a 3 bolt assembly.

You have two (2) plates. One for the body, one for the neck:

There are four (4) mounting screws for these plates

One (1) tilt adjuster screw

A special Machine screw for the tilt plate

So the total parts for each of the neck styles you have

4 bolt "More Expensive" setup

"Cheaper" 3 bolt setup

Plus you had added labor to machine each the body and neck for the tilt plates. So as you can see, the 3 bolt system done for economy is a big old myth that makes absolutely no sense.

Tremolo arms and tips

 

I have seen in recent times fraudulent arms from the 90's being sold as vintage pieces. There are several giveaways that denote Pre-CBS, 1964-1975, 80's and 90's to current bars. The first thing to look at is the tip. The originals NEVER had a sharp lip on the bar side of the tip. It had a smooth, graceful transition. In the 90's they changed manufacturers and now they have a sharp lip on the transition from the bar to the tip. Everything from Custom Shop down to Mexican has the same tip.

Another item of note is the metal bars construction. The originals were made of stock cut to length on a lathe. This created little nipples (end pieces had 1 nipple, the others had them on each end). Modern bars are die cast. .