I was cruising the interwebs today, and I saw something that made me laugh out loud. Some person, somewhere, was talking about their 2007 Fender Standard Stratocaster. They were wanting to sell it, and they were asking how much folks thought they could get for it. Thing is, right there in their first line, it said that it was a 2007 Standard Strat that they had replaced the body on about 5 years ago.
Now they didn’t say anything about why they had replaced the body. Maybe it was damaged. Maybe they tried to mod it and screwed it up. Maybe they didn’t like the color and got another body, painted, for cheaper than they could’ve painted it themselves. But the fact remains that they body had been replaced.
Those that were answering were completely overlooking that line about “replaced the body,” and they were trying to ballpark a price for what the guitar would cost. But, especially with a guitar, how much can you change out and replace and swap around before it is no longer the guitar that you bought?
I bit my tongue because I would’ve been the jackwagon that told the person that, contrary to what they thought, they do not have a 2007 Standard Strat. They have a 2007 Standard Strat neck. And that neck is attached to some other body.
Kind of reminds me of my 2012 American Design Experience Strat. Got it when I visited the Fender factory out in Corona. They had this room over to the side where you got to pick out the components to the guitar you wanted. So I did that. I got to talk to the guy that was going to build it. He gave me a couple ideas on what I could do to it.Then I watched him put all the pieces I selected in a box along with notes on the pieces that weren’t in the room (like the CS ’69 pickups I wanted in it), and 2 months later, my new Strat showed up at my door. It’s as close to a custom shop Strat as I’m sure I’ll ever get.
To me, it’s my almost-Custom Shop guitar. It was somewhere between an American Standard and an American Deluxe back when they were making those models. It’s definitely my nicest Strat. Problem is, there’s no serial number on it anywhere. Nothing really that shows it was actually made in Corona except for the heel plate they put on it that says something about “Made in Corona especially for me” or something along those lines. To anyone else, it’s just a partscaster. So, if I ever decided to sell it, I wouldn’t get nearly what I paid for it. No where close.
And that’s what that person has. They no longer have a Standard Strat. They have a partscaster. Swapping out the body, in my mind, makes it less than original. Not that it has to be all original. But you can’t take a Ford, stick a Chevy body on it, and still call it a Ford. Somewhere it ceases to be what it was, and it becomes an assembly of parts.
I feel bad for the person if they try to sell it and the buyer finds out that the body is a parts body. They’ll never get what they’re asking for it. I, also, feel bad for the buyer if they find out after they buy it what it is. They’ll never be able to sell it. Either way, the guitar isn’t what they think it is.