advice on possible trade

sunshinewelly

I have an ibanez jem 70sfg which i have for sale/trade here for around £685. Its not my cup of tea after all (despite my gas for a jem),

anyway i am looking for a nice strat and have been tempted by the custom shop ones on this site.  My jem is also on gumtree and out of the blue had a straight trade swap for an american 2010 stratocaster.

 http://m.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/fender-usa-strat-2010-fender-guitar-case-extras/1081197715

i assume the values are more or less the same (although there are cheaper strats out there). i also assume its genuine and not a copy

my thought is at least with a strat i am more likley to be able to trade it or sell it if for example i wanted to sell and get a custom shop later.

whats the specs/quality like on a 2010 strat - is it like gibson where fender had good years and bad years

Pyroman

  I have a 2011 (I think) Am Standard.  The following model year, Fender switched pickups to the Fat50s.  So they DO make tweaks like that.  The pickups that came with my Strat sound pretty damn good, imo  I have no idea what they ARE, but there you go.   Mine also came with the no load tone control for the bridge pickup, and I like that.

  Build quality-wise, I can't fault it.  Good fit and finish, stays in tune, frets were dressed very well, and I love the satin finish on the back of the neck.  It Feels great, plays great, and sounds great.   Someone else, however may have a different opinion...

Like any product built by hand from wood, there will be some variance.  I've tried several American Standards, though, from several years, and they all were pretty high quality.

sunshinewelly

can anyone tell me from photos whether its genuine

Alnico

I had a 2010 USA Std and it was a gorgeous guitar. Fabulous pickups and a really great maple neck that had a lovely tint to it.
One of my biggest regrets that I sold it.
If I could get one at a price I could afford I wouldn't hesitate to buy that model year again.
The one in the photo is exactly what I had, same colour, neck etc.
It looks genuine from those pics but you will only be able to tell when you pick it up.
Mine was incredibly well balanced and felt like a quality guitar as soon as you picked it up.

guitarmangler

Mate , sell the jem on eBay or gumtree or see if coda music will buy it .
Usa Strats are great, but there are soooo many out there. If your after a stop gap to a custom shop either sell the jem and go cheaper strat now or go full hog for the one you want . Otherwise you might loose on the jem now and loose on that strat later.

Fuzzdog

sunshinewelly said:

can anyone tell me from photos whether its genuine

Looks perfectly genuine to me - correct headstock decals, proper walnut truss plug, trem is correct, microtilt, etc, etc.

Seems like a perfectly reasonable trade to me, and you can't really go too far wrong with a recentish US Standard.  To me, they're 'vanilla' Strats - nothing that really stands out as being amazing, but also nothing which strikes me as being anything less than good.  Excellent bases for modding a bit, too.

guitarmangler

sunshinewelly;353474" said:

can anyone tell me from photos whether its genuine

Looks ok to me. Have you tried putting in the serial number in the fender site?
All the usa strats I've played always seem really good. Sound and feel. The newer they are the better, too. Not set your trousers on fire exciting like the jem, but great none the less .

sunshinewelly

guitarmangler said:

sunshinewelly;353474" said:

can anyone tell me from photos whether its genuine

Looks ok to me. Have you tried putting in the serial number in the fender site?
All the usa strats I've played always seem really good. Sound and feel. The newer they are the better, too. Not set your trousers on fire exciting like the jem, but great none the less 

do you have a link to the fender serial checker?

Fuzzdog

Serial number format is correct for a 2010 US Standard, at least - the online checker which is out there tends to not handle the  more recent US-prefixed numbers particularly well, for some reason, and reports pretty much all of them as being unrecognised.

Best way if you want to completely alleviate your concerns is to email Fender customer services, they're normally pretty good at things like that.

Looks completely genuine, though, I'd have no issues with taking that as a genuine US Standard from the pics.  If you want to be very picky, ask for a shot of the insides, that's usually a massive giveaway on fake Strats.

ICBM

Looks totally genuine to me. It's much harder to fake a USA Standard than a Vintage Reissue, actually - there are more distinctive parts which are rare or non-existent on copies or in aftermarket parts.

Fuzzdog

ICBM said: Looks totally genuine to me. It's much harder to fake a USA Standard than a Vintage Reissue, actually - there are more distinctive parts which are rare or non-existent on copies or in aftermarket parts.

Agreed - I don't actually recall ever seeing a fake US Standard, or at least one which looked even remotely close enough to pass for a real one.  It's not really worth anyone's effort to do a good fake of a Standard, as to do a convincing one, as they lose money like crazy as soon as they fall out of the showroom.

Always the chance of a body swap or the pickups being replaced with potato wedges, I suppose, but asking for a photo with the pickguard off should clear that up.

ICBM

I agree that the amount of effort needed to fake one becomes prohibitive.

Even a body swap is very unlikely because finding another one to fit that 2-post bridge and the neck tilt is not easy - you can see the finish goes into the adjuster hole for the tilt too, so it's not a mod unless it's also a refinish. The pickups look genuine too - they're certainly not cheapos with steel polepieces, and the stagger isn't the same as most aftermarket ones - it's not the same as a vintage stagger.

I'd be happy to take it at face value even without seeing inside, to be honest.