can you tell me about this Strat?

[Jimbilly]

It says made in usa on the (non painted) headstock, ser # E 333xxx

what's up w/ that bridge?, it doesn't go through the back. It plays and sounds cool btw. I'm guessing there's a couple of strat experts hanging around here...

[anotherfreak2]

It's ugly

...and it's mother dresses it funny

that's all I got,

[Turdus]

'83 to '85... from the "Ultimate Guitar Book" .... transitional, issued at time of financial cut-backs for Fender, and lacking classic strat features. ... only 2 controls, socket flush to pickguard.... and restyled vibrato. Looks legit to me.

Edited to add: When Leo died, the Washington post did an article on him. They pictured a strat, and I seem to recall it being one of these.

[Jeff R]

That's legit. When me and bunch of friends were first starting to play guitar, the "rich" one of us (LOL) got one of those jack-on-the-pickguard strats in black while we were all pounding on import fodder.

I played one of those strats for the first time since back in the 80s not too long ago and the stock pickups sounded on the hot side and actually quite good.

The trem system held tune pretty well and felt good under the hand. Good luck finding a replacement bar, however, if the original one is missing. It was one made just for that bridge.

[tomteriffic]

I'm blanking on the name of the guy who worked for Fender at the time, but he headed up the employee group that bought Fender back from CBS. This Strat was his baby, a series of cutbacks to pull the company back from the brink of bankruptcy. That bridge was an abortion. I was in a band with a guy who had one of those when they were new. One night, the whole damn bridge pulled out of the guitar in mid-song.

I guess the cutbacks to save the company worked, and, to that end, so did the guitar, but my experience with it was less than inspiring.

[BCR Greg]

Smith Strat.

It's proper. They sound funny with that bidge and the pickguards crack from the output jack, but if it's cheap...

[serial]

Those things were stupid pricey just a few months back on eBay (like in the $1200-1600 range). I've always viewed them as the bastard stepchildren of the Fender Strat line, but I guess someone's into Smith Strats. Haven't seen pricing since November, but I hope like hell they've come down a bit. Price spikes on older guitars often make no sense to me at all.

[Jeff R]

Agreed, Steve. I love watching the prices on '70s strats on eBay now - you know, the POS CBS-era ones everyone ragged for ages. LOL

[pesocaster]

I remember those.... funky as hell..... not in a bad way though.... clean it up and flip it....

[silentman]

http://www.stratcollector.com/newsdesk/archives/000098.html

[cmatthes]

Right on - those are the "Smith" Strats - they put a few cost-cutting features in there, like the top load, a funky/smaller headstock, the pickguard input and a few other items (remember, THESE were the same great minds who thought putting one less neck bolt would save big bucks!).

Most of them are fairly inexpensive, and can be good players/giggers. The only ones that you should pay any kind of premium for out of this run are the "bowling ball" swirl Strats in Red, Blue and Yellow. These were the platforms they used for those...

BTW - check the pots, but that should be a 1983 model. That was towards the end of the "Smith" era.

[Jason01]

From the serial numbers E is eighties and the first 3 is the year. Its not precise, some of them could go in the surrounding years but thats the general idea. A friend of mine has one almost exactly like that, it was a decent strat but had a very pronounced V neck that I thought was pretty strange. I don't know why people knock the 3 bolt strats, I've got one and I think the micro tilt system is wonderful. I've never had any stability problems with the neck on my '77.

[hudpucker]

While it is a Smith era strat it is NOT the model commonly referred to as a 'Smith Strat'; instead, it is a Standard strat (made from 83 thru late 84).

Smith strats have the same old 70s crappy mazac trems instead of the Standard's cost-cutting 'Freeflyte' trem (you can't adjust the trem springs unless you remove the pickguard) and have the normal Vol-tone-tone knobs and input jack.

What sets these 'Standard strats' apart are the then-newly introduced bi-flex truss rod, medium frets and flatter radius (12") along with sealed die-cast tuners. The location of the trem springs and relocation of the input jack to where there used to be a tone control was designed so that only a single route to the body was necessary.

These strats do have their boosters as many love the flatter necks. Still, there's no denying that Fender was in full cost-cutting mode when these were in production.