"Dan Smith Era" Fenders

Fuengi

Seen this on a few 1980's Fender guitars for sale recently, is it a new phrase or has it been used a while?

As an owner of one of the quintessential Dan Smith Era guitars - an Esprit - I'd like to think they are becoming more sought after, but I suspect it is just marketing guff. 

ICBM

It's been used since the late 80s at least. Marketing guff, basically.

It started because when he started at Fender, Dan Smith tried to return the Strat in particular to something more like the classic pre-CBS model - smaller headstock, four-bolt neck, better contouring. Unfortunately, although they did have these things, they got all of them wrong in detail, and the guitars still used late-CBS hardware and finishing so it was not much more than a cosmetic exercise.

But for a while, before more accurate vintage reissues became easily available, they were some of the most sought-after Strats and dealers began to push up prices as a result. Originally the term *only* applied to those Strats. But dealers being dealers, they started to apply it to other models from the same era as well, to try to raise prices by association.

The Esprit is a nice guitar, but I don't think it will ever be very sought-after because it's just not a classic Fender.