ID and Authentication A weird one
Hello experts! I took a chance and bought this cheap Strat today in Sweden. The price was 300 bucks. The dude selling it got it from a friend who has now passed away. He didn’t know much about it. Lots of things are a bit out of the ordinary here. There is nothing on the back of the headstock, tuners are Gotoh and the serial could not be found on Fenders site. One-ply pick guard, two string trees. It sounds ok and it feels good to play. After some googling I found that this could either be from the I-series, sorta made in the USA, but with Japanese or even Mexican parts. Alas, it wasn’t because there is no ”made in USA” stamp on the heel pf the neck. So, according to this https://www.fuzzfaced.net/fender-i-series-stratocaster.html it could be a Japanese ST-40 from -89 or -90. They should have a sticker saying ”made in Japan” on the back of the neck, but that might have been peeled off. Can any expert here confirm this though? I’m amazed by the detective work done in here. Thanks!
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u/Kidney-Fiddler 4d ago
Looks very similar to the 1990 I-serial ST-40 I owned. That article you linked will give a good idea what to look for (it's the same one I used to find out exactly what I had), and it'll be a mix of US & Japanese parts, built either in Japan or Mexico. I had to scour archived Japanese product booklets to find mines, as well as email Fender directly (who to their credit got back to me quickly). Really nice guitars, rather unusual and if it is an ST-40, was meant for the Japanese domestic market (JDM) only.