Pair of my favourite Strats, projects finished at last!

randella

On the left, my first and most beloved guitar. 1989 Japanese '68 reissue. Refretted and refinished fretboard in as near the colour of the original yellowed nitro as possible. The pickups have mellowed a bit and it sounds strattier than anything I've ever been near. 

On the right, a Fender HM Strat of indeterminate vintage, bought in 1994. Originally white, it had a body repair and was sprayed rattle-can blue. I've refretted it (been busy with the fret bender!) and sorted the imperfections in the body. Finally it's had a refinish in nitro - white primer, then gold, red tint over and a load of clearcoat. Candy Apple goodness from Rothko and Frost who were super helpful I must say.

Took them both to rehearsal last week and couldn't keep the grin off my face all night. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bcs7mijvm0tixnv/TwoGuitars.jpg?raw=1

fftc

Nice job.

IIRC they didn't do those HM Strats for very long. Any idea how many were made?

randella

@fftc thanks very much!

They didn't make many of the HMs at all - I had a thing for one at the time and put a wanted ad in Loot. A friendly metaller in Reading sold me the one in the pic.

At first they were made in Japan, and later in the US from imported Japanese parts. There's a website somewhere that places my serial number as a Japanese guitar. The US market ones had a Duncan Super Distortion in the bridge, but so such luck here in Europe. My dad put a Hotrails in the neck as a surprise for me, which works very well.

After the run of these guitars with the 'Strat' lettering on the peg head they reverted to a different font.  I haven't seen one like mine for years, and have never seen the later variant. I think they made them for about four years.