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Bridge state/height
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Welche Gitarre und Amp fuer Anfaenger und Knopfler-Sound?
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How to identify an original pre-CBS Fender Stratocaster body
Posted in: Vintage guitars by Ingo on March 01, 2010
I often read threads in forums about how to check if a certain part on a Fender vintage guitar is original or not. Of course there are countless books and websites which show many details that help to do so. However, there is one particular detail which is only rarely mentioned: the ‘dowel holes‘ on those old Fender bodies (I am not talking about ‘nail holes’ here!)
Dowel holes
If I understand it right, Fender used some clamps to hold the wood plank when sawing out the body. These clamps left two holes in the body which were filled with wooden dowels. These dowel holes are at exactly the same location on all old Stratocaster bodies – in fact all other models seem to have them as well, however, at completely different places than the Strat.
Dowel holes (in red circles) on a '63 Stratocaster
So if you happen to see an old stripped Fender body, you can easily spot these. New Fender and all the reissue bodies don’t have them. Thus this seems to be a reliable detail to tell an old body from a fake.
..and here on a '58 Strat at exactly the same two places
And on a '66 Stratocaster
Unfortunately, you normally can’t see them on a painted body, at least not easily. However, if you know exactly where they are and observe carefully the way the body reflects light at these places, you might see them through the finish. This is because old nitro finish is often really thin and the dowel holes leave a tiny inaccuracy in the body surface. And of course there are all those Stevie Ray Vaughn or Rory Gallagher-like looking battered Strats which are partly bare of any finish and allow to see those dowel holes directly.
If you know where to search you can often even see them through the finish, like here on a '64 Strat
I am not sure in which year these disappappeared, I guess somewhere in the 70ies, when Fender switched to a different method of cutting out the bodies.
Theoretically it is possible to fake these holes, too, but I think this is rarely done – yet …
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Ingo. my custom shop ’56 fiesta red strat has these 2 holes too.
Comment by Jeff - Anthony — 2. March 2010 @ 17:39
Really? At the same positions? In this case it seems the Fender CS uses the same tools as Fender did back then. Maybe they even had the original machine somewhere? Would be interesting to know which models have these. I know that Fender stopped using this method, and I doubt that any other manufacturer has them.
Comment by Ingo — 2. March 2010 @ 19:07
Why did Fender stop using this method to begin with?
Comment by National Guitar Dude — 2. March 2010 @ 21:00
Not sure, I guess they switched to a more modern machine.
Comment by Ingo — 2. March 2010 @ 21:48
Yes at the same potisions exactly. It is a time machine 1956 strat nos. It says it’s made with the same tools and techniques as the original.
Comment by Jeff - Anthony — 3. March 2010 @ 14:28
Ans I can see the hole on the back and in front of the the body at the opposite side too.
Comment by Jeff - Anthony — 3. March 2010 @ 14:32
Astonishing! Time machine is from the Custom Shop, right? Possibly they really had the original machine somewhere. And right, you can see them on both sides of the body.
Comment by Ingo — 3. March 2010 @ 14:38
Yes it’s a Fender custom shop. They say it’s ”built (from original tooling) as if bought new in its respective model year and just found today”.
Comment by Jeff - Anthony — 3. March 2010 @ 14:47
There are dowel holes on the front AND back if the guitar has a factory fitted tremelo.
If it was a hardtail/non trem it has the holes on the BACK only. These holes were the clamping holes for the templates used with the overhead pin router. These holes were certainly still there until at least 1974. There will be dowel holes on all fender models because they were all routed on the same type of machine and therefore needed a template screwed onto the body for this process.
Comment by Jon — 17. March 2010 @ 10:56
Right, the holes are also on the front, I should have stated this more clearly in the article. I did not know however that they were only on the back on non tremolo Strats, so thanks you for the info.
And you are right, they disappeared in the 70ies so it is not really a feature exclusively for pre-CBS Strats. The idea was that a ’74 Strat and e.g. a ’64 Strat have different features anyway (kind of wood, contour body shaping, nitro laquer, …) so the dowel holes (together with the right wood and shaping) are a good indicator for an old Fender body.
Comment by Ingo — 17. March 2010 @ 13:32
Very cool bit of information! I guess there are a lot of people claiming they have a pre CBS fender out there.
Comment by Fender Stratocaster — 20. September 2010 @ 03:44
Fender Custom shop is not vintage spec at all. WHy people get fooled by this I dont know. The guys int he Customs shop are not very talented. If they were they’d be out on their own instead of pumping out THOUSANDS of gutiars for Fender. How hand made are the 50,000 custom shop guitar each year? Think it over. Take the tuners off your custom shop – they say made in Japan. So is the Trem, strap buttons, neckplate. B HEfner is one of the outsource places for necks. He gets paid about $100 each for them.
Comment by Tim — 8. November 2011 @ 17:46