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We are the '80s! (First Fender Reissues)

Ed Driscoll

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From left to right, my 1984 Fender '52 reissue Telecaster, 1983 Precision Bass, and 1984 '57 reissue Stratocaster. The Strat and Tele were featured in my November 2004 Vintage Guitar article on Fender's first reissues.

Got an '80s Fender? Show 'em off here!
 

MightyMouse

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Ed Driscoll

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I remember the Strat, with its painted headstock. I don't know if he played it on stage, but I believe Page had his at the London ARMS concert to benefit Ronnie Lane. Fender built that near the end of the CBS era, right?
 

MightyMouse

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They were made 1980, 1981, and 1982. The 1981-82 STRAT's feature much higher quality materials, and craftsmanship than the*mass-produced 1980 Fender STRAT model. The 1980 models were built before arrival of Bill Schultz who shut down mass production assembly lines and returned to quality instead of quantity methods and subsequently the 1980 models are far inferior to the later version 1981-82 STRAT models ! The later version of STRAT can be identified by the presence of the gold tuners and switch tip which the 1980 version is missing. The later models also feature a GO prefix serial number instead of the E0 (for Eighty) prefix from 1980.
 
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Xpensive Wino

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I remember the Strat, with its painted headstock. I don't know if he played it on stage, but I believe Page had his at the London ARMS concert to benefit Ronnie Lane. Fender built that near the end of the CBS era, right?

I don't recall seeing Page playing a Strat at the RAH on the ARMS show.



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Page's blue Strat was not a post-CBS guitar, if you're referring to the one he played at Knebworth:


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I believe it was a '64 in Lake Placid blue with an unpainted headstock. If memory serves, he got in in 1975 and used it in the studio on Presence.
 

Xpensive Wino

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Those look brand new, too shiny, put it back in the case, my eyes!!!!


I got one of the first "'52" Tele reissues.

After a relic job on the fingerboard and a body swap with a '68 plus Seymour Duncan's finest, it was much better. :teeth
 

Ed Driscoll

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I don't recall seeing Page playing a Strat at the RAH on the ARMS show.

Yeah, I just recall reading an article in Guitar World, Guitar Player, or Musician listing Page's guitars backstage at the ARMS show and mentioning the Strat, in addition to the Lake Placid Blue Stratocaster he used at Knebworth.
 

Ed Driscoll

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I got one of the first "'52" Tele reissues.

After a relic job on the fingerboard and a body swap with a '68 plus Seymour Duncan's finest, it was much better. :teeth

I replaced the neck pickup on my 52RI Tele with a Seymour Duncan Broadcaster pickup IIRC. The original was pretty microphonic.
 

Xpensive Wino

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I replaced the neck pickup on my 52RI Tele with a Seymour Duncan Broadcaster pickup IIRC. The original was pretty microphonic.


In hindsight, the Fender reissues were garbage. I discovered Japanese reissues and Bill Nash, and got rid of everything else.
 

Ed Driscoll

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In hindsight, the Fender reissues were garbage.

Hey, way to encourage a guy to post photos of his guitars! :hee

I quite liked the Strat reissue -- it was my first Strat, I played the hell out of it, and I thought the build quality was quite good. The Telecaster, I had some buyer's remorse after purchasing it: it's heavy and the original neck pickup was microphonic. Back in my band days, I relegated it to open-G Stones songs. In 2003, I had it refretted with bigger frets, and had the bridge replaced with an old three-saddle bridge, and it's much more playable. But it's obvious that the out of the box build quality of my '98 Nashville Tele was much better.
 

MightyMouse

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In hindsight, the Fender reissues were garbage. I discovered Japanese reissues and Bill Nash, and got rid of everything else.

Personally, I think a good guitar is a good guitar; regardless of when, where, or by whom it was made ! That said, most of the Japanese Fender reissues 'Ive encountered were far inferior to their American made counterparts ; and I find the relic jobs on most Nash guitars I've seen laughable (as is the whole concept) :rofl

One mans trash is another mans treasure.:salude
 

AXE752

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In hindsight, the Fender reissues were garbage. I discovered Japanese reissues and Bill Nash, and got rid of everything else.

I have kept my 1982 '57 Reissue. Very nice guitar all in all. I've played some pretty nice Japanese and Nashes as well. I try to judge each guitar on it's own merits.

(Actually by far the nicest Japanese "Strat" I have ever played was an ESP Series 400.):jim
 

MightyMouse

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Greetings El Gringo and sorry for the late response :) No thats not me in the video, and yes he does have some cool chops ! The tone is all "THE STRAT", I personally think they are the nicest sounding, most versatile Stratocaster of any era with the 1981 and 1982 versions much higher build quality than the mass produced 1980 STRAT model...
Cheers
 

The Shifter

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Bought my January 1983 '62 Reissue at the 1994 Arlington guitar show. It only had a tiny bit of wear on the upper bought when I got it. It quickly became my main guitar and I toured heavily with it for the next 8 years. Really pretty much all I played. I need to see if I can dig up a "before" pic. As you know, they made the neck pretty skinny on these. It's kinda hard for me to play these days, but I would probably get used to it again I guess. Here's it is today:
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fakejake

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Bought my January 1983 '62 Reissue at the 1994 Arlington guitar show. It only had a tiny bit of wear on the upper bought when I got it. It quickly became my main guitar and I toured heavily with it for the next 8 years. Really pretty much all I played. I need to see if I can dig up a "before" pic. As you know, they made the neck pretty skinny on these. It's kinda hard for me to play these days, but I would probably get used to it again I guess. Here's it is today:
01.jpg

03.jpg

05.jpg

06.jpg

07.jpg

08.jpg

10.jpg

Wow, did those have a nitro finish? The wear looks almost like on a 60ies Strat.
 
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