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NGD: Hardtail Strat


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Late 70's or Early 80's hardtail Strat.

 

Mr. Post Man came today, and I got my Strat.

 

This thing is pretty clean. It weighs a good bit, but it plays really nice. The action is really low, and the neck has a nice c shape. Great sustain too. It appears to be pretty original and not knackered/modded much at all. The neck is supposed to be late 70's. and the body is dated '81. I haven't taken it apart to verify yet though. It even came with the bridge cover, and OG black pickup covers, pickguard, and knobs. I think it's a keeper. I've heard these are pretty hit and miss, but this appears to be a hit!

 

When I started looking at Strats, I decided mine needed to be an Olympic White Strat with a maple neck/ fretboard. For some reason I just like the hardtail look. Does anyone know if the production totals of hardtails is that much less when compared to "normal" ones? I think this is exactly what I was looking for. I played it for a while today. It's gonna fit in well with the rest of the brood. :)

 

Here's some pics!

 

Hardtail%20Strat%201.jpg

Hardtail%20Strat%202.jpg

Hardtail%20Strat%203.jpg

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Late 70's or Early 80's hardtail Strat.


Mr. Post Man came today, and I got my Strat.


This thing is pretty clean. It weighs a good bit, but it plays really nice. The action is really low, and the neck has a nice c shape. Great sustain too. It appears to be pretty original and not knackered/modded much at all. The neck is supposed to be late 70's. and the body is dated '81. I haven't taken it apart to verify yet though. It even came with the bridge cover, and OG black pickup covers, pickguard, and knobs. I think it's a keeper. I've heard these are pretty hit and miss, but this appears to be a hit!


When I started looking at Strats, I decided mine needed to be an Olympic White Strat with a maple neck/ fretboard. For some reason I just like the hardtail look. Does anyone know if the production totals of hardtails is that much less when compared to "normal" ones? I think this is exactly what I was looking for. I played it for a while today. It's gonna fit in well with the rest of the brood.
:)

 

I love my '79 hardtail.

 

The hardtails are generally considered more stable than the trem models of the 3-bolt neck era.

 

As for production numbers, I don't have any, but I would say they made a LOT of hardtails at that time, it seems like a good half I run into from that period are hardtails. It was a relatively new concept to Fender at the time they went hogwild with hardtails after introducing the Tele Deluxe and the revamped Tele Thinline in '72.

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That's great - wondering why Fender doesn't offer a hard tail now - or do they?

 

 

On the downswing. They offered several in the mid '00's; many models had hardtail equivalents. Not I believe its just the Cray sig and maybe oone or two others.

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Thanks for the reply, how can you tell it's a '79?

 

 

Typically you would take the letter and the next number. The 'S' denotes Seventies with the next number '9' being the second half of the year. What I read though is that this guitar could be between a '78 and a '81. You might have better luck dating the pots but then again they could have purchased so many at once that this could still make the date vary a bit.

This gives some good info, http://www.themusiczoo.com/blog/2010/fender-instruments-serial-number-dating-guide/ .

 

Whatever year it's a great looking guitar. Love the yellowed finish. HNGD

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I wonder if it might be from the "International Colors" series, that came out in '81. Those came with black pickup covers and black knobs, and one of the shades was Monaco Yellow. Fender used S9 serial number stickers into at least 1981. They must have printed a lot of them.

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Fully hot. YJM colors with a hardtail. I'd have bought that, oh yes.

 

Bridge saddles look a bit suspish. And by golly, that's a lot of spare neck pocket. But I'd still have bought it. Lovely. If you don't want to broadcast its price, I'd appreciate a PM, because I think you might just have GASsed me.

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Not a chance I'll refinish it.

 

It's definitely not Monaco Yellow. You can see the original Olympic White color around the replacement pickguard.

 

Yeah, the neck pocket could probably be tighter, but I haven't noticed any issues with neck movement yet. I'm not good enough of a guitarist to get up the fretboard to the meedly bits anyway. :)

 

About new hardtails, the only one I'm aware of atm is the Billy Corgan Signature.

 

Thanks for all of the responses! I'll hit you up with a PM Mr. Zombies.

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I wonder if it might be from the "International Colors" series, that came out in '81. Those came with black pickup covers and black knobs, and one of the shades was Monaco Yellow. Fender used S9 serial number stickers into at least 1981. They must have printed a lot of them.

 

 

Monaco yellow was very bright yellow.

 

It could be yellowed Arctic White, which IS an International color.

 

But it was probably just "White," Fender just called it "White," which officially was a different color than Olympic White, but looked the same to me (the difference is probably a matter of paint source).

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