1974 fender strat (Ebay ) is it genuine?

finest1

yeah, it past the £2k mark already. there must be a lot of people banking on faith that it is a 1974 strat. it probably is a 1970's strat, whether a 74 is yet to be determined

ICBM

finest1 said:

yeah, it past the £2k mark already. there must be a lot of people banking on faith that it is a 1974 strat. it probably is a 1970's strat, whether a 74 is yet to be determined

It makes no difference. The serial number is in the right range for a '74, and there's no difference in value between a '73, '74 or '75 of the same spec. It certainly is an early-70s Strat, and from the combination of features - in particular the alloy bridge, flat-pole pickups and white pickguard - it's pretty much got to be one of those.

I don't really understand the modern obsession over exact-year dating to be honest. Near the start or the end of any given year it's quite possible to have components dated in both years, and the guitar to be 100% factory original. A guitar with any components dated later than about week 48 is almost certain to have been outshopped in the next year anyway.

Bridgehouse

ICBM said:

finest1 said:

yeah, it past the £2k mark already. there must be a lot of people banking on faith that it is a 1974 strat. it probably is a 1970's strat, whether a 74 is yet to be determined

It makes no difference. The serial number is in the right range for a '74, and there's no difference in value between a '73, '74 or '75 of the same spec. It certainly is an early-70s Strat, and from the combination of features - in particular the alloy bridge, flat-pole pickups and white pickguard - it's pretty much got to be one of those.

I don't really understand the modern obsession over exact-year dating to be honest. Near the start or the end of any given year it's quite possible to have components dated in both years, and the guitar to be 100% factory original. A guitar with any components dated later than about week 48 is almost certain to have been outshopped in the next year anyway.

And in the case of my 64P, it's exact year is quite a difficult call.

Neck is Oct 64.
Body is Sept 64
Pickups are Jul 64
Pots are week 46
Serial suggests end of 64 start of 65.

Given every component is 64, even if shipped in 65, the exact date is almost immaterial.

ICBM

Bridgehouse said:

And in the case of my 64P, it's exact year is quite a difficult call.

Neck is Oct 64.
Body is Sept 64
Pickups are Jul 64
Pots are week 46
Serial suggests end of 64 start of 65.

Given every component is 64, even if shipped in 65, the exact date is almost immaterial.

Exactly. I would say that's probably a very late '64, because all the components are consistent with that, with the pots being the latest, and from a buyer/seller/collector's point of view it would certainly be called a '64 even if it can't be categorically proven. But of course if it was made after January 5th 1965, by the strictest definition it's no longer "pre-CBS" . (Of course it is though, since no changes were made immediately anyway, and early '65 instruments are identical to late '64 ones.)

For what it's worth, I know of a Strat which was definitely made in very early 1970 - because the one remaining original tone pot was labelled 7002. But since every other dated part was from late '69, and two pots had already been changed for crappy far-east ones, the owner asked me to simply replace all three pots with new CTS ones. Hey presto, it's now a '69 Strat… worth a few hundred pounds more probably, and any expert examining it would say it was a '69.

Bridgehouse

@ICBM - typically most bassist types into their pre-cbs precisions will count it as pre cbs if it's 65 and it has both an L serial and a transition logo, and clay markers. 

But that's getting very cork sniffy. Chances are there are some incredibly good 65's and some terrible 64's out there...!

ICBM

Bridgehouse said:

@ICBM - typically most bassist types into their pre-cbs precisions will count it as pre cbs if it's 65 and it has both an L serial and a transition logo, and clay markers.

Yes, definitely - same with guitarists. Except for dealers, when buying them . Even '65s with pearl dots (the first obvious change) and all other '64 features are usually called pre-CBS by most sensible people.

ICBM

Sold at £2200. This is very useful, since it's now a known real-world price for one, which is something that's often difficult to tell with dealers hyping prices as hard as they can.

Sassafras

ICBM said:

I don't really understand the modern obsession over exact-year dating to be honest. Near the start or the end of any given year it's quite possible to have components dated in both years, and the guitar to be 100% factory original. A guitar with any components dated later than about week 48 is almost certain to have been outshopped in the next year anyway.

Me neither.
They seem to want to know the exact time of day it rolled off the conveyor belt.
I'm happy to know to the nearest decade.

SteveRobinson

ICBM said:

Sold at £2200. This is very useful, since it's now a known real-world price for one, which is something that's often difficult to tell with dealers hyping prices as hard as they can.

I expect we'll see it again before long, on a dealer's site with a healthy mark-up

Bridgehouse

SteveRobinson said:

ICBM said:

Sold at £2200. This is very useful, since it's now a known real-world price for one, which is something that's often difficult to tell with dealers hyping prices as hard as they can.

I expect we'll see it again before long, on a dealer's site with a healthy mark-up

Sadly, I agree...