Hello all
Now for my few cents worth
1954 to 1964 were the fender GOLDEN YEARS 1965 TO 1974 before
staggered
pole piece pickups became flatpole
you could gamble on what was going to be ok it was pretty hit and miss but from 74 to 77 in my opionion it seems many many
B I G companies lost the plot an manufactured pretty average instruments78 to 80 some ok instruments again there was also a short time in the early to mid 80,s were alot of junk came out as well the begining of the custom shop and fender making guitars in japan was one of their high points in my opionion but customshop guitars come at a price
And fender stopped making guitars in japan i wonder why ??
Seems the japanese Fenders were better then alot of the us fenders around the same period dont believe me just ask the shops who know the facts they will tell you heres a site you might want to do some reading at
http://www.edromanguitars.com/vintage.htm
The best value for money fenders in my opionion were the japanese built stratocasters the ones you want are the ones with made in japan printed under the clear coat finish this is located at the end of the skunk tail rear of the neck just above four bolt neck plate wear the neck joins the body
Play it safe want a decent fender if you got the dollars 54 to 64 are the years one wants
Custom shop guitars purchased on ebay as long as they check out should be a good deal also considering all that cash you save not buying it new.
The early Tokai and Fernandes guitars are the real bargins some were alder basswood and some even ash the ones you want are the guitars they got taken to court for when they were replicating Fenders guitars it would seem way to close
One of the cheapest guitars i own is a Fernandes ST7 it is a dakota red 58 stratocaster copy with correct eary headstock basswood body with yes a birdeye maple neck all i changed was as follows i fitted fender 54 custom shop pickups clothwired the guitar fitted a gotoh steel bridge and block replaced the cast one that was in it. changed the 5 way switch to a genuine
crl 5 way both tone and volume pot are the genuine us item the jack plug is switchcraft i run ghs nickle rocker strings on the guitar 9/46 and the bridge floats i tell you this guitar gives any fender ive owned a run for its money it cost me 90usd for the guitar add on the mods and your still under 500usd show me any other new guitar as good as this for the price.
the guitar is also rare to drop out of tune as well
Another consideration is 60,s epiphone solid body guitars original
olympics,coronets,wilshires, crestwood customs or if your real lucky a three pickup large
batwing headstock crestwood deluxe way cool but hard to find i own one of these and it took me many years to track this guitar down it has patent applied for mini humbuckers and it screams
1961 to 1969 for these beauties look on ebay or guitarbase just enter in the model and brand into guitar base and in ebay just type in epiphone then search
heres the tip on these epiphones Kalamazoo made them same people who made those expensive early les pauls the same attention to detail went in all you got to do with early epiphones is have them set up right and please leave them all original dont butcher original factory instruments by what you think is improving them believe me on this they are worth more left alone. with the right guitar tech setting the guitar up you will be more then happy second hand epiphones early us ones can set you back from anything from 200 to 1650 plus but 300 to 600 should get you a nice one a good starter might be a coronet with a p 90 onboard run through a little ampeg jet or reverb rocket these lil amps rock very underrated.
Final word on fender want a good one ditch korea mexico china or any of those countries early japanese models as described above are the go usa stratocasters well as long as they are customshop or are from fenders earlier years you should be ok though i hear recently fender are lifting their game again
)
OHHH FORGOT my country Australia has some dam fine guitar makers and with the state of our currency you are set to get a real bargin i can even assist you with good sound contacts here if anyone is intrested
o well thats what i think i rushed this a bit and probably made a few gramatic and spelling errors along the way im sure you all will forgive me
have fun
kind regards wayne
Melbourne Australia
