by JimN » 21 May 2011, 12:02
I know there are a few people here who have Fenders from that era and love them to bits, but in general, those guitars have not been well-regarded and they were definitely seen as second-best (if quite as good as that) even at the time.
I had one just like the one in your "headstock" photo - a sunburst Stratocaster with the maple neck and large headstock, with three-ply scratchplate, bought new in 1975 for £225.
I soon grew to hate it. It had very little of the original Fender aesthetic about it. It was a parody of Leo's original, with all sorts of cost-cutting changes and "improvements" like the infamous bullet truss-rod adjuster and a soft-metal Mazak one-piece bridge and block (in which the only steel parts were the intonation screws and springs - and the arm).
The trouble was, apart from buying secondhand, in the 1970s, it was all you could get. You couldn't even get a decently-made copy of the Strat unless you went to the expense of a hand-made guitar.
As soon as Japanese makers like Aria and Tokai started to produce accurate replicas of the originals (Aria did a beautiful version as early as 1976, but it was rare), the game was up for Fender. They must have been getting sackfuls of critical mail at the factory. I certainly wrote to them at least twice recommending that they reintroduce the Fender Stratocaster in the place of the CBS version. I can't believe that I was the only one.
A really good American Vintage Reissue (the model introduced in 1982) can be bought here for well under £1,000 secondhand. I have two, each of which cost me under £700*. They're much better value and quality than the bullet-neck Strats, which are now inexplicably changing hands for up to £2,000.
There's nowt queerer than folk.
JN
[* Putting £700 in perspective, you could easily pay that nowadays for a good condition Hofner solid from the 1960s.]