Any Strat experts around?

[busta_bird]

I bought this strat at a pawn shop a few years ago before I knew anything about guitars. I recently realized that this guitar is far from stock. It has a completely different bridge/pickups than the standards, and I've never seen this paint job before. I only paid $150 for it, as I knew that was cheap even for a MIM. Can anyone give me any information on it besides the dates based off of the serial?

http://img98.imageshack.us/i/img0208sj.jpg/
http://img203.imageshack.us/i/img0209zm.jpg/
http://img6.imageshack.us/i/img0210se.jpg/
http://img35.imageshack.us/i/img0211sx.jpg/

[tplyons]

It's a Splattercaster... IIRC just a Mexican Strat with a spin-art paint job.

[busta_bird]

Cool. So the non-stock pups/bridge, do you think that came standard from the Fender Custom Shop or do you think someone else installed them? I'm not sure if the FCS does things like that or not.

[iamlowsound]

The pickups/bridge looks standard to me.

lowsound

[JTE]

Not at all from the Custom Shop. That "Special Edition" stamp only means it was a limited production run, not that there's any special care taken. Could be a limited run of that paint pattern and pickguard combination, or a special run for a specific dealer (or dealer group). It looks like a typical MIM Standard Strat with the goofy paint job. Pickups and bridge look exactly like the regular production hardware on a MIM Standard too.

John