Is this really a 1983 Fullerton Strat?

WezV

Yeah, I wasn't being negative about the guitar, just the issues with selling a factory oddity.

I seem to be attracted to them. I have a resonator which I listed as late 30's and got harrassed by messages telling me it couldn't possibly be made before '42, or after '41.??? Also had a special order Yamato 335 that a group of internet experts decreed as definitely too risky

richardhomer

modellista;1023481" said:

Thank you Richard, I would wholeheartedly endorse that point. I'm very grateful to all those that helped, particularly yourself and @ICBM. As can be seen in the thread I went from thinking it might be a fake, to understanding it, to buying it.

I might even stop wondering about its provenance and play it later...

Whatever it's true history, it's definitely 'of the period' - and compared to what people pay for some late '70s dogs - very cheap.

Fender was battling Tokai and their own Japanese built Squiers at this point - USA manufacturing was fighting for survival - and your guitar embodies a variety of attempts to keep going.

Though the eventual solution was to go off-shore, until Corona was up and running, the period represents the genesis of Fender USA's rebirth - hence is historically significant.

Just get on with enjoying the guitar now!

ICBM

WezV said:

Yeah, I wasn't being negative about the guitar, just the issues with selling a factory oddity.

I seem to be attracted to them. I have a resonator which I listed as late 30's and got harrassed by messages telling me it couldn't possibly be made before '42, or after '41.??? Also had a special order Yamato 335 that a group of internet experts decreed as definitely too risky

Some time ago there was a 70s Les Paul for sale on Ebay not far from me that, although really hacked about, was definitely genuine. I was trying to buy it - it was only about £500 - but the auction got pulled, not once but three times, after self-appointed 'Ebay Police' types reported it as fake.

By the time it did eventually get allowed to run to the end, it had generated enough interest on various forums that there were more people after it, and it sold for more than I probably could have got it for in the first place...

modellista said:

I might even stop wondering about its provenance and play it later...

(I still can't help thinking the lack of truss rod scratchplate dimple means it's factory though...)

I think at this point, that and the lack of a neck-tilt screw mark put it in the "probably original but impossible to conclusively prove" category. It's definitely not *not* original, if you see what I mean… there's no definite evidence I can see that either part has been attached to another one, and they certainly both could have been at Fender in 1983.

Hopefully you like the guitar enough that it will never matter again!

richardhomer

Actually @modellista - I may be about to admit something which I've never done before; I could be wrong....

I've just Googled images of '83 Strats and having looked at 'a lot' - the only ones with the modern string trees, appear to be the Elite version - all the standards I found had the traditional style ones fitted.

I also found at least two that had black, gold edged, CBS style Fender logos but with the word 'Stratocaster' in the same font as on yours - again, I presume some kind of transitional variation. Judging by the rest of the identifiable features, they were unmodified '2 knob' Strats. I also found a natural finished 'Smith era' with all black plastics, as I had remembered - all of which leads me to believe yours was probably put together by Fender.

Modellista

Wow, what a man to admit wrongness....

Just so we're clear, we're talking about three different guitars here, I think, all released in a very short time-frame.  Correct me if I'm wrong here:

"Dan Smith" / 1st version Standard Strat - 1982-1983 - conventional pressed-steel bridge and trem, body end truss rod, large bold curvy STRATOCASTER on headstock, butterfly string trees, X1 bridge pickup (mine has this body except with no truss cutout on pickguard)

"Standard" strat (2nd version) - 1983 - two knobs, Freeflyte trem, no rear trem rout, truss rod at headstock, small STRATOCASTER, some have butterfly string trees and some have modern ones (mine has this neck with butterflies)

"Elite" Strat - 1983-1984 - push-button pickup selectors, active circuitry, modern string trees (mine is not related to this)

The "unique" features of mine are: black-on-black cosmetics, and no truss rod cutout on the pickguard of a Dan Smith / 1st version Standard.

richardhomer

^ Yes - but don't forget, black plastics on '70s Strats didn't have a cut out for the truss rod, as they had bullet adjusters on the headstock,

It may well be that Fender simply modded their existing scratch plates for the 'Smith' Strats - which wasn't necessary on yours, as the adjustment is at the other end.

ICBM

modellista said:

"Dan Smith" / 1st version Standard Strat - 1982-1983 - conventional pressed-steel bridge and trem

No - 70s-type alloy block and saddles, which yours looks like it has in the pics.

Dan Smith was very clever - by using only parts that were currently available at Fender (even the four-bolt neck plates and body-end truss rods were, from the 'lower' models) and only re-tooling the woodwork, he was able to create something much more like a classic Strat with virtually no cost input.

Then they went and totally ballsed it up with the Freeflyte trem, the purpose of which was to eliminate the dual machining process, by having all the routing done from the front - and the pickguard-mounted jack which eliminated needing to run the wire through the body, so the electronics could be fully assembled separately. All that work and investment to create something no-one wanted…

clemo

Hi guys I have a 83 strat and have had it from New. I can remember the guy in shop telling me that this model would be the last to be made in the state's he told me that they had made the neck wider and shallower to compete with Gibson.The tremalo arm clicks in the bridge from the front where the strings are fed.The strings do not feed from the back of the guitar.I have a Gibson lespaul delux and I can honesly say that the strat is very close to the Gibson playing action. I VERY MUCH LIKE THIS GUITAR.