QR Code Link to This Post r "Smith Era" 2 Knob stratocaster
Categories: Fender, In Stock, Limited Edition, Stratocaster
Availability: In Stock-$925.00
Description:
An all original two-knob 1983 Fender Stratocaster, one of the last ones made in the Fullerton, California plant.
This guitar has the traditional sunburst finish with a less common maple neck that has nice figuring in the grain. Most 1983 Fullerton Stratocasters have a rosewood fingerboard.
Included is the original whammy bar and hard shell case.
Below from web reasearch:
As many guitar aficionados know, the early 80s were a transitional time for Fender. Coming out of the CBS era, there was a new spirit of innovation as well as a back to basics attitude. Fender went from the big headstock, bullet truss rod guitars into the sleeker "Smith" Strats of the early 80s. A few years in the future was the modern American Standard. In between the Smith Strat and the modern American Standards came the 1983 revised Standard Strats. These came with a pickguard mounted jack and trem springs under the guard. The body is alder for great tone. The 25.5 inch scale maple neck features a maple fingerboard with 21 frets. American Standard tuners and the Freeflyte Trem (Including arm)
Much has been written about this era stratocaster. Without going into volumes about the Dan Smith Era instruments, the basics are that Dan Smith was hired from Yamaha to handle marketing and improve quality. The radical plan began by reducing the number of guitars produced at the Fullerton plant from 250-300 per day -- to a 'handful'. As Dan Smith says, they "basically shut the plant down" in order to improve the quality. The Dan Smith and Dan Smith era strats break down into what has been referred to as Version I and Version II.
Version I returned to the 4-bolt neck plate, small peghead, and large logo.
Version II was 4-bolt neck plate, small peghead, large logo, 1-volume control and 1-tone control, (2-knobs instead of 3), the top loaded "Free Flyte" tremolo system, and a pickguard mounted input jack. In fact the "Version II" was made in the same factory, with the same tooling and machinery, by the same people, during the same era, and under the supervision of Dan Smith. It should be noted that Fender did not force this design on Dan Smith against his will. As director of Marketing at that time Dan himself was directly responsible for the changes and the guitar was indeed his brain child. We would contend that any guitar that fits the above criteria can rightfully be called a "Dan Smith Era" guitar. Do not forget, any reference to Dan Smith is unofficial, just a "street name" for these guitars as Fender never endorsed that moniker.
These strats are notable for being the very first incarnation of today's USA Standard Stratocaster and a concerted effort by Fender to improve upon the quality of the late CBS era strats. Well balanced, resonant and keeping with the spirit of the strats from Fenders golden era, this guitar has great spank and twang, with the clear bell-like top end and tight bass response that makes the tone iconic.
Weighing in at 7.8lbs, with a 25.5″ scale length, a 1 11/16″ nut width, profile at the first fret is .80″ and at the twelfth is .85″ and the fingerboard utilizes a 10″ radius.
Own this significant piece of stratocaster evolution, this is a beautiful playing, sweet sounding guitar that is both very playable and very!
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