Interesting John Birch Stratocaster 80s! Never seen another

jamesoliver1234

Interesting John Birch Stratocaster made in the 80s Never seen another... Anyone have any info on this guitar? 

blueskunk

Very nice. 

TonyR

It looks as though it still has the polythene film on the scratch plate!

sweepy

Very odd body shape, almost 10% smaller all round 

lustycourtier

Scratchplate looks too big for the body. 

littlegreenman

Who the f*ck restrung that????

sweepy

lustycourtier said:

Scratchplate looks too big for the body. 

It's the right size,it's the body that's too small

jamesoliver1234

scratch plate isn't original i have the original the guitar is a bit of a mystery

dindude

Looks bloody horrible, colour horrible, condition (although could obviously be cleaned) horrible, bridge saddles horrible, logo horrible, body shape horrible.

not for me then

Sassafras

That bottom E would bug the hell out of me.

WezV

With JBs you get fairly decent "factory" guitars, totally random one offs which vary in quality depending if he liked you or not (I assume)... And the modded gibsons and fenders, which always seem like bodge jobs by today's standards. They clearly show he did not think much of them. 

who knows where this falls,  but it wouldn't be unheard of to be a modded version of something else.

jamesoliver1234

its a mystery i sent pictures to john birch they couldn't tell me anything about it either.

WezV

do you have pics of the rest of it, and under the plate... should be able to tell fairly quickly if its all made by JB

jamesoliver1234

the black guard ain't original it come with this white guard which was original the bridge pickup was missing when bought.

jamesoliver1234

WezV

Apologies, I meant the woodwork under the plate

drwiddly

I've owned a couple of JB's - if the old scratch plate has 11 knobs and 4 switches, it's probably original! ;-)

Sesh

Surely an anti-communist guitar shouldn't be red?

HarrySeven

WezV said:

With JBs you get fairly decent "factory" guitars, totally random one offs which vary in quality depending if he liked you or not (I assume)... And the modded gibsons and fenders, which always seem like bodge jobs by today's standards. They clearly show he did not think much of them. 

who knows where this falls,  but it wouldn't be unheard of to be a modded version of something else.

^This. 110%.

Also, I've seen any number of Birch-modded Strats and Teles with this blobby Fender logo:

HarrySeven

Incidentally, I've got an old Jap Tele copy sporting the same logo and I recently saw another in for repair at my local music shop (although this one was - as is usual for John Birch 'upgrades') - sporting an additional plate, bristling with added switches and knobs.

wbba

Hi James

I have a JB customised Stratocaster....In fact that's my guitar in the last picture.
Still trying to get to the bottom of it's history. The serial number on the back plate dates it as 1960..still trying to suss which bits are original. Will upload some better pictures if you're interested.