Beautiful guitar! Not a 79 though! Fender started using those pickups in Early 81. The S9 serial is very common to be found on 79s all the way to 81 strats.
@@PlayandTradeGuitars it's a pleasure , you are a passionate guy , it's nice to watch ! and you remind me a guy from the show i watched when i was kid : Sliders :D don't ask me why i wonder if anyone already told you such a thing haha
That strat pickup with the plastic bobbin part code measuring 7.5k with the yellow wire is probably an X-1. Fender would mostly save them for "The Strat" or Lead II guitars, but on occasion they found their way into other strats as well.
I've got one. Mine is the natural finish, blonde w/black pick guard. It is a tank and has a sweet, beautiful sound...balls/push when you want, bluesy chunk and crying melancholy cutting sound. Extremely responsive to the player though not necessarily a "fast" action. My only complaint - too strong - annoyance is the weight, play three nights a couple sets per and you'd think you had a bag of cement hanging around your neck. I love the guitar (and my Tele) I bi-amp two ('70s) Twin Reverbs (make your neighbors lawn die) or play through an old Marshall thrown in....ultimate orgasm. Thanks brother.
I say JAM .Love those headstocks.👍 Slick 79👍 sweet pick guard. Probably not just a smoker but back when you went in a bar and could cut the smokey air with a knife. Lol.. the good old days
I love that finish. It is my favorite color. It was introduced to Stratocasters in 1979 as part of the international colors. In 1981 I started getting interested in guitars, so late70's/early 80's Strats were all around in the shops. This one is a bit "janglier" than my 1993 LE Strat (has Texas Special pickups). I think the pickguard isn't original, they didn't offer pearloid pickguards for Strat until the early 90's. But it looks good on the guitar.
Yea I agree now that the pick guard is a replacement too, that explains why the spring was missed too! I was not a fan of the more hollow jangly sound of these pickups, agree. Thanks for the great info and for watching!
My 79 Strat has its serial number on the back of the pickguard as well (3 times: Neck, Body and back of Pickguard). It looks like it is missing on yours, so maybe the pickguard might not be original.
Oh good to know, it’s certainly possible! When I saw the perloid I wondered the same but it seemed to all check out. The fact that a spring was missed when rescrewing supports replacement too. Thanks for watching and for the great info
wow looks amazing! Do you prefer gloss necks or satin? I see some people make a big deal out of it, but honeslty to me they feel kinda the same (Maybe i'm not at the level to notice it that much)
I didn't mind the gloss necks of Fender guitars from the early 80's. Also I have some Hamer guitars that have gloss necks that feel nice to play. I have a Gibson RD Artist, that neck feels sticky after some time, I mean it really feels like the neck finish got dirty and sticky. My Acoustasonic Tele feels like the neck has no finish at all, feels very natural. Fender's satin finish necks are nice to play for me. I once played a bandmate's Rickenbacker 4003 Bass. The gloss neck didn't feel good, they even had a high gloss finish on the rosewood board.
The big clue is those pickups, they switched to the plastic bobbins in the 80s whereas in 79 they were still grey bobbins, this is most likely an 80/81, unfortunately the serial numbers are not reliable for dating 70s fenders. Best way to tell is by the pickups or pots (they have much more reliable date codes)
Also whoever modified the hardware on the guitar would have been responsible for the loose spring ;) obviously the pickguard/covers are not original as they would have been all black
You are reading the pot codes incorrectly. The whole pickguard assembly is later (pots are from 1984). CTS pot codes are 137YYWW, so this is from 1984, not 1978. Pickguard is not original (pickup in the bridge should be an X-1) and the body shouldn’t have black paint in the cavity for a 70s/early 80s. Cherry Sunburst was first introduced in late 1980 with the International Colors Series. Most 80-81 Strats all had “S9” serials (other than the 25th Ann Models). Also, the case candy paperwork is for a different guitar. Seventies Strats are criminally underrated-I’ve owned quite a few since 1981 or so.
