Today, I got an OFFICIAL VERDICT on my Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster. It's BAD. · 5:36pm Mar 10th, 2020
Okay, so following the previous blog about what was happening, I went in today on my way home from work to see what was going on with my guitar. The owner of the shop was going to have a look at it, and he's very thorough, so I know he wouldn't bullshit me or anything.
Here's what he said to me: my guitar is completely fake. Not just the branding, but literally everything.
The body, neck, logo, Custom Shop decal, pickups, everything, is NOT Fender. My guitar is 110% fake. It's a bloody good fake, but it's all wrong. It's definitely not a Fender in any way, shape or form. Somebody has indeed forged it, made it out of mix-and-match parts, as suspected. I'm absolutely gutted, and I will admit I was quite sad the day I took it in to get looked at and I was told that the CS logo was slapped on by somebody, meaning it was worth less than it could have been. Not only that, but the body contour is all wrong.
That being said, I'm pretty upset to learn that a guitar I've owned for almost a year, since last April, is not genuinely a true Fender Stratocaster. I've always wanted to play an authentic one, and I always believed that I was playing one, but I guess that isn't the case. I have always wanted to own one because I love them, but I've hardly know what they play / feel like because I was under the false assumption the one I owned was real.
There's two upsides to this - 1) The owner of the guitar shop was nice enough to allow me to play a genuine Fender Stratocaster once I said I wished I knew what a real one felt and played like, so I had a bit of fun doing that. 2) My guitar is apparently appraised at £400, a bit more than what I originally paid, which isn't all bad.
So, yeah...that's what happened. I'm still pretty sad, but at least I have some closure on the mystery guitar that I've owned since April 19th last year. I'm having it sent off with the guitar shop to get fixed up, to give me an estimated price on how much it'll cost to get the selection switch fixed and to get the electrical systems checked over. After that, I don't know if I'll keep it or not. I'd love to hang onto it for a bit, but I might end up selling it for a genuine Fender.
Still, all I have to say right now is, ''Well, fuck me.''
oh man, sorry to hear it was fake.