An Old Stratocaster Comes Home

When I was 17 years old, I went with my friend Wes to an annual guitar sale at Veneman's Music Store, up in Rockville Maryland. The deals were always so great at the annual "May Day Sale" that we camped out over night in his Subaru Brat to get in line before they opened.

Early the next morning, we were in line as store employees passed around a flyer stating what they had on sale, and at what prices. I was there to buy my first 'real guitar' - I wanted a name-brand, quality guitar. I had been playing a budget knockoff guitar for two years and wanted something nice. I looked through what they had, and picked out a "Fender Contemporary Stratocaster" that was on sale for $400, down from $750. This was to be my first professional-grade guitar. In 1987, you could get pretty nice stuff for that kind of money, and this was a really nice stratocaster. Although it was 1987, this particular guitar was made in 1985, and had probably been sitting on Veneman's shelf for two years. 1985 was the first run of guitars made by Fender in Japan (see below for details on this run of guitars).

Fast forward 7 years ...

In 1994, I needed an acoustic guitar to play at church, something practical that could plug into the soundboard. I went to this big guitar fair that they used to hold every year here in Florida. I traded away that Fender, a Yamaha 12 string acoustic guitar and a Kramer bass guitar for a Gibson electric-acoustic that I could plug in and play on stage at church.

The store that I did the trade with was Ed's Music, from Miami.

I have always wondered what happened to that Fender. Who did Ed's sell it to? Did they take care of it, or trash it? Was it being played and loved, or was someone who knew nothing about it just leaving it to sit in a closet somewhere? I had no way of knowing, until last week.

Someone reported a thread for some problem or other at the guitar website at which I'm a moderator. I went to the thread in question, fixed whatever was the problem, and then on a whim, I read through the rest of the thread.

I saw several guitars that this guy in Orlando has listed for sale, and one of them was a dead ringer for my old Fender.

At this point, I was about 50% sure it was my old guitar.

It was a unique combination of features and colors for a guitar. A humbucker pickup in the bridge with a toggle switch to split it into a single coil. That funky locking nut Fender used to use.

It had the same combination of pickguard color, paint job, bridge type, nut type, pickup combination, was located geographically in a spot in the country close to where I let it go, and the serial number has the same "E" prefix that mine had- E540593.

It had the same knocks on the paint on the headstock that I caused as a teenager. I think it is a common blemish that a lot of guitars get -- but it's just one more thing pointing to 'same guitar'. Having the same configuration, the same serial prefix and geographically close (Orlando) all led me to be pretty sure this is my old guitar.

Side diversion:

Fender guitars have serial numbers that tell you the year made ... the first letter represents the decade. "E" means "Eighty" .. "N" means "Ninety" and "Z" means "Two-thousand-and..."

So an E7xxxx guitar was made in 1987. A N9xxxx would be made in 1999. A Z3xxxx was made in 2003.

But Made-In-Japan Fender guitars are a little different. Normally, the 'MIJ' serial numbers do not follow the standard prefix format.

Fender started manufacturing guitars in Japan around 1982. Mid-decade Fender Japan E series serial numbers from 1984-1987 follow the American Fender serial number format of E = eighties and the first digit of the serial number representing the year. For example E6XXXXX = 1986.

Like was said previously, made-In-Japan Fender guitars are a little different. Normally, the 'MIJ' serial numbers do not follow the standard prefix format. However, the Fender USA serial format was used on the Fender Japan E series (1984 - 1987), possibly because Fender was undergoing a transitional period within their corporate structure - a consortium of Fender employees was buying their company back from CBS, who had bought it from Leo Fender twenty years before.

However, it is generally accepted that E4 guitars through E7 guitars could be made anywhere between 1984 and 1987. You cannot rely on an E7 Japanese guitar being 1987; it could be anywhere in the 1984-1987 range.

Back to this particular guitar:

The seller of this guitar, Shane, was asking $425. I made contact and started asking questions, and let him know that I am pretty sure it is the guitar I let go 14 years ago.

After some back and forth discussion he made it known that if I decided I wanted it, he could be flexible with the price, maybe hoping to get some good karma for getting her back to her original owner. "If this was yours, it is pretty amazing that it has showed up," Shane wrote.

I think it's a pretty cool story - to find my old guitar, still in good condition, 14 years later. I looked all over for some photos of me with the guitar before I let it go, hoping to find the serial number, but no luck, no photos.

Finding Meaning

Let's look at this as if this were somehow something the Lord was trying to communicate through. Let's think about what the interpretation is? What might God be saying/indicating?

Restoration of something lost?

A return of things that were once given up? Traded away? Swapped for convenience and practicality?

I traded away a guitar I really, really liked in order to get a practical guitar for ministry 'work'. 14 years later, that guitar 'just happened' to show up in a for-sale ad that I responded to a report on, at a time when I can pick it up while returning from a conference in Fort Mill where the speakers kept reiterating that God is restoring all things? That does not sound like a coincidence to me.

(Re-)Acquisition

Last night on my drive back from Fort Mill, I stopped at the exit to FL Highway 50 and met up with Shane and paid for the guitar on the front porch of the Cracker Barrel restaurant.

Holding the guitar I became positive this is in fact my old guitar. It's got the same dings I put in the bottom shoulder near the output jack. The only difference in the guitar is the result of age - the pewter metallic paint has started to oxidize and turn a slightly greenish hue, similar to the way some of the old Les Paul goldtops did but with silver instead of gold. I think it's a really cool color now, like metallic-corroded silver or something.

And now it's back home.



The guitar as it appeared in Shane's ad. Click to enlarge.

Update: post-purchase modifications

I took the guitar to Mitchell's Musical Magic in Sunrise last week, and Mitch and I spent some time talking about what we wanted to do with this guitar. My requirements were simple: I wanted it to be a guitar that fit my style of playing (clean- to mildly-overdriven bluesy) and be a little different from stuff I already have.

The mid-80s Made in Japan guitars are heavy, solid, heavy, (did I mention heavy?) and have been getting a pretty good reputation lately. These are the guitars that were made during Fender's transition from CBS-owned to employee-owned, when they did not have a US factory for production. During this time, ALL Fender Stratocasters were made in the Japan factory.

It took some thinking before we stumbled on the idea of putting P90 pickups in. I have never had a P90 guitar before, so I got pretty excited about it, and I left with the agreement that Mitch would put a pair of old P90s he had in his drawer into the guitar. It required a commitment, in that once the pickguard was cut for P90s, there was no going back to stock. (The body was already routed with pickup cavities that would hold the soapbars).

Mitch did some other work as well, a lot of it things that non-guitarists would never notice. He replaced the caps. He tossed the (broken) original nut and installed a roller nut, shimmed with a piece of old Bakelite.

Mitch wired the toggle switch to activate the bridge pickup no matter where the 5-position switch is. (The factory-original toggle originally split the bridge humbucker into a single-coil). This is neat because now I can enable both P90s at once with the middle single-coil off if I want, or can have all three pickups on, or just one at at time. Actually, every possible combination of pickups is now available. The single tone knob (I know, weird right?) affects all pickups.

He rolled the edges of the fingerboard, something that a lot of people don't think about and that really makes a difference once you do it. It makes the guitar feel more worn-in and familiar.

Mitch balanced the floating bridge so that it hovers parallel to the body, just enough float for me to do very slight vibrato.

I picked the guitar up from Mitch on the way home from work last night and left right away to go to the Mark Knopfler concert, so I have really not had much time to play the guitar and get to know the pickups. That will take time. One thing I can say about them is that they do clean up very nicely when the volume is rolled down to 9 or 8. Is this typical of P90s? They stay fairly bright, they just lose a little bite, which is very sweet.

I'm looking forward to getting to know the guitar over the next few days, playing it through all of my amps, and generally reacquainting myself with it. I will be going to the shop today to pick up a set of strap buttons for it - it had a worn-out pair of Schallers that needed replacing.

Here are a few pictures I took this morning:





















Thanks for reading & looking.

Some history on the Fender Contemporary MIJ Stratocaster (wikipedia):

The Fender Contemporary models were the first Fender Japan models to be named Fender Stratocasters or Telecasters. The previous Fender Japan models were all Fender Squier models.

The Fender Contemporary models were manufactured from 1984 to 1987 by FujiGen Gakki and these Stratocasters were designed to be Superstrats (Super Strat) with a Floyd Rose-like bridge designed by Schaller (and Gotoh) and humbucking pickups. There was a lower priced Fender Contemporary Squier model produced as well. The Fender Contemporary Stratocaster and Telecaster models were part of the Fender Japan E series model range.

When CBS sold Fender to its current owners in 1984 there was a transitional period from 1984 to 1987 with limited Fender USA production resulting in mostly Fender Japan and leftover stock being sold. There are also Fender Contemporary Telecaster models with HSS (Humbucker-Single-Single) or HH pickup configurations and switches for selecting pickup options. The Fender Contemporary Telecaster models used the same tremolo systems as the Fender Contemporary Stratocaster models.

These MIJ Contemporary Stratocasters and Telecasters are not to be confused with a run of USA-made Contemporary Stratocasters, which were totally different than the original Japanese models in terms of features and construction. These shortlived American-made models were made by the Fender Custom Shop in the mid-1990s.

The MIJ Contemporary Stratocaster came with several bridge types.

The System II tremolo system was designed by John Page, Chip Todd and Charlie Gressett. The System III tremolo system was designed by John Page, Dan Smith, Charlie Gressett and John Carruthers. Both bridges were manufactured in Germany by Schaller.

All of the pickups used on the Contemporary models are Alnico and not ceramic pickups. The humbucking pickups used in the Contemporary models have a DC resistance which is approximately 7.6 kilo-ohms. The single coil pickups used in the Contemporary models have a DC resistance which is approximately 5.6 kilo-ohms. The Contemporary models that use a TBX tone control use 500 kO volume pots and use 0.022 µF tone capacitors.

Fender Japan used five different types of body woods on their guitars: Alder, Basswood, Ash, with 3 different variations of the latter: Light Weight Ash, Northern Hard Ash and Sen. The guitar I bought is either Basswood (likely) or Northern Hard Ash (possible).

Side Note 2:

The vast, and I mean vast, majority of these will have a basswood bodies. By the way, some vendors have, oddly, started to describe basswood as Japanese alder. It isn't. Basswood and Japanese alder are two distinctly different types of wood as a quick search on Google will reveal. There is nothing wrong with basswood but it certainly isn't Japanese alder.

Anyway, although most export Strats were basswood there are a very few exceptions: the Hank Marvin Signature and natural finish '68 Strats for instance. But, JV serials excluded, I have never yet come across an imported 54/57 or 62 Strat with anything other than a basswood body. They might exist, I have just never come across one except in the dreams of hopeful Ebay vendors. I have also never come across one of these imported guitars with a body finished in anything other than poly.

Again, with the exception of JV serial guitars, I have never come across an official import Strat or Tele with anything other than Japanese pickups. There seem to be two basic types. The 'vintage' style alnico magnet type which can be identified by have staggered poles, and the lower spec ceramic magnet type which do not have staggered poles.

I frequently see on Ebay what are, I am sure, ordinary import guitars with basswood bodies, Japanese pups and poly finishes, described as being either alder bodied, or US pickup loaded - or both! Giving the vendors the benefit of the doubt (if I really must), it is probable that they looked up the specification of current non-export models and thought their guitar must be same. [1]

Northern Hard Ash, which Fender Japan refers to as "White Ash", is open-grained, porous in areas and is the heaviest/most dense of the five woods used in Japan. It is common for hard Ash bodied guitars to weight 9 lbs and sometimes over 10 lbs. Has a nice grain pattern for non-opaque paint finishes, and is used for Fender Japan's '67 Reissue Telecaster among others.

According to Warmoth, maker of guitar bodies and necks, Northern Hard Ash is very hard, heavy and dense. An empty Northern Ash Strat body will normally weigh 5 lbs. and up. Its density contributes to a bright tone and a long sustain which makes it very popular.

Also: Read this history of Fender's relationship with Japanese manufacturing.